Dec. 20 - A late book order from Bolen Books gave me a excuse to stop in at Swan lake to look for American Tree Sparrows. I was surprised to be surrounded by Yellow-rumped warblers as I stepped on the boardwalk.
The sun had just appeared from behind some large black clouds and the warblers were busy hawking insects from the boardwalk, willows, and bullrushes.
The birds must have been accustomed to human traffic as they had no aversion to our presence.
The guardrail on the boardwalk was the perfect perching spot for many of the warblers.
If you kept still, one would land within a few feet of you.
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My real purpose was to find the Tree Sparrows. Three had been reported in the past two weeks, and Ted's photo was a tantalizing invitation.
We finally located the sparrows exactly where Ann and Ted had indicated. However, finding and photographing were two entirely different matters. Despite being very close, none of them were very open. I was lucky to catch the previous bird on a branch for a moment, while the second bird was agonizingly close, but totally obscured by the tall grass. The blurry view through my lens told me that grass was in the way. I clicked anyways and was surprised to discover that one of the photos was useable with the soft-focus effect.
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It was difficult to ignore the Double-crested Cormorants as they were drying their wings in the sun.
You could tell that we were uncomfortably close to the cormorants - not for us, but for them. They nervously looked sideways at us, but weren't willing to give up the sunshine.
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The CHRISTMAS WARBLER
Dec. 24 - The Cross Road residents in Nanoose were surprised to see a vaguely familiar blue bird flitting around their suet feeders three days before Christmas. When it finally settled on one of their lawn ornaments, they recognized the black throat immediately. It was a warbler that they had often seen during their Pt. Pelee days - a Black-throated Blue Warbler.
The warbler was in the company of juncos and chickadees and returned regularly to the feeders. In between it would fly off and forage for insects in the arbutus and other trees. At times it also probed the bark of the fir tree where the suet feeder was hanging and on the ground under the salal.
It was an easy twitch for all of us including Brian (Vancouver), Brent (Victoria), Chris and Dad (Parksville), Ralph (Lantzville), and Sandi and sister (Port Alberni). Brent had to wait all of 30 seconds to see the bird. For me, it was another pleasant time of twitching and meeting fellow birders in the field.
I would like to take this opportunity to thank the Freeman's for identifying and reporting the warbler and kindly sharing their property and the Warbler with me and my fellow birders. A new bird is always an educational opportunity to learn more about avifauna and nature. *As of Dec. 27, the bird was still present.
While the warbler was elsewhere, there was a regular parade of Downy Woodpeckers and other birds to observe.
