Sunday 9 October 2016

Birds of Vernon and the North Okanagan - Birds Around Feeders.


Birds of Vernon and the North Okanagan - Birds around Feeders by Chris Siddle (8 October 2016).


Male breeding plumaged American Goldfinch




Mallard – The quintessential park duck may drop in, especially if you have a swimming pool and scatter feed around, or if you live next to a lake.

California Quail – A charming addition to any backyard unless you’re worried about your flowerbeds, for quail do like to dig dusting holes. Try putting plastic or cloth on the exposed earth around your favourite plants.

Ring-necked Pheasant – If you live near orchards, fields with a brushy edge or a marsh pheasants may visit especially in harsh winter weather. Originally imported from England and China, the first pheasants, native to Asia, were introduced to Osoyoos in 1911 and by 1942 had become common in the North Okanagan. Presently numbers are much restricted by human development.

Great Blue Heron – Only if you have a pond with fish. Since the mid 1980’s Vernon’s herons have been locally well known for nesting in a tiny stand of cottonwoods along 24 Street north of 48 Avenue. As adult birds fly over the city heading to fishing grounds at Swan, Goose, Okanagan and Kalamalka lakes, they are quick to notice ponds along their routes. Netting over the pond will keep them away.



Turkey Vulture – If you’re partial to sun-bathing for long periods of time, a Turkey Vulture may fly over but not to worry, the Turkey Vulture depends upon its keen sense of smell to detect carrion worth investigating closely, so unless you have a serious personal hygiene problem you’re probably safe. Doesn’t take living prey.



Sharp-shinned Hawk – There are three accipiters – “bird hawks” – in North America that have evolved to ambush other birds by picking them off even around thick brush. The Sharp-shin is the smallest of the three and specializes in hunting sparrow-sized birds not only around open edges but even in thickets and woodlands. When they are immature, Sharp-shins, like their two relatives, the crow-sized Cooper’s Hawk and the even larger Northern Goshawk, have yellow eyes that seem to pierce right through the observer. As they mature , accipiters eyes turn ruby red, appropriate for a born killer. Frequent in Vernon backyards.

Sharp-shinned Hawk


Cooper’s Hawk – The medium-sized accipiter (see above) that can catch birds are large as California Quail. Frequent in Vernon backyards.

A Cooper's Hawk carefully watches the yard. 


Red-tailed Hawk – This is the large, bulky hawk seen around fields and on fence and utility poles around the North Okanagan. Although it is much more common that either the Sharp-shinned or the Cooper’s hawk, the Red-tailed Hawk is shy of people on foot and rarely visits normal sized backyards. It will take other birds but most of its diet consists of voles and mice.

Red-tailed Hawk


Rock Pigeon – This is the common street pigeon of big cities. Feral, the Rock Pigeon (formerly Rock Dove) may drop into urban feeders.

Eurasian Collared Dove – This native of the Old World was introduced to Bermuda in the 1970s and has since explosively expanded its range across the United States and southern Canada. It is currently increasing by leaps and bounds across the North Okanagan and is liable to turn up anywhere.

Eurasian Collared Dove - the latest alien avian invader. 




Mourning Dove – Our native dove most common in summer but small numbers winter locally. Note the long, pointed tail which easily distinguishes the Mourning Dove from the slightly bigger Eurasian Collared Doves. Named for the sad quality of its "song".



Northern Pygmy-Owl – This tiny owl can be recognized by its round shape and long, stiff tail jutting out from its body at a 45 degree angle. Most common in small numbers in winter, the diurnal Northern Pygmy-Owl will prey upon birds as well as rodents attracted to feeders.

Northern Pygmy Owl with prey (House Sparrow)


Black-chinned Hummingbird – In good light the male show a narrow electric blue band at the base of his black throat. Breeding summer visitor from mid May to mid August.

Anna’s Hummingbird – Every now and then one hears of a hummingbird frequenting a feeder during fall or winter. This is the Anna’s Hummingbird, a year-round resident in Vancouver and Victoria that is currently trying to establish populations in the Okanagan. When one shows up at a feeder, it becomes dependent upon humans to keep the sugar water solution above freezing.

Rufous Hummingbird – This, and the next species, are the two most common hummingbird. Males are light brown with throats that can show orange, red or even black under certain light conditions. Males will vigourously defend all feeders within its line of sight against other hummingbirds. Late April to early September.

Calliope Hummingbird – The smallest bird in Canada, the male Calliope has a gorget (showy throat feathers) of purple lines.

A male Calliope Hummingbird guards his territory near Goose Lake.


Red-naped Sapsucker – This woodpecker pecks tiny circular holes in the bark of trees, often birches, and laps the leaking sap with a specially adapted brushy tongue. Most trees survive a sapsucker’s visits. Summer resident from mid April – mid Sept.



Downy Woodpecker – A common visitor to suet feeders, though most people seldom get more than one or two visiting at any one time.

Downy Woodpecker


Hairy Woodpecker – A larger version of the Downy Woodpecker, the Hairy is found in heavily wooded areas but in severe weather will visit feeders in open locations.

Hairy Woodpecker


Northern (Red-shafted) Flicker – One of the most common birds in the Okanagan, the flicker sometimes taps on your siding and if you’re really unlucky, will drill a hole through the outer wall. Fortunately it much prefers to nest in snags. Woodpeckers don’t sing to advertise their territory; they peck out a rapid series of beats against any resonating surface. This is called drumming.



Merlin – A small falcon that often eats songbirds, the Merlin has adapted to using old crow nests in suburban areas like cemeteries. If a tiny bird zooms through your yard like a miniature jet fighter after the birds at your feeder, you’ve probably just been visited by a Merlin.



Steller’s Jay – Our provincial bird, often mislabeled the Blue Jay, the Steller’s Jay is deep blue with a black head and white eyebrows. It’s call is a loud shucka-shucka-shunka. Resident in small numbers. Quite local: occurs in some areas but not others.

Steller's Jay


Black-billed Magpie – A very familiar resident.

Black-billed Magpie


Black-capped Chickadee – A very popular bird. the chickadee is a common feeder bird, preferring sunflower seeds and suet.

The familiar Black-capped Chickadee. 


Mountain Chickadee – Very much like the Black-capped, but has a narrow white eyebrow and a rougher voice. Prefers Ponderosa Pine and Douglas-fir dominated woodlands compared to the Black-caps preference for deciduous and mixed woods.

Red-breasted Nuthatch – A common feeder bird, the nuthatch habitually hides sunflower seeds wherever it can find a crack or crevice in bark or even in conifer cones.

Red-breasted Nuthatch


White-breasted Nuthatch – If you live among Ponderosa Pines, you might find this larger nuthatch though it is the least common of the North Okanagan’s three nuthatches.



Pygmy Nuthatch – The smallest of the nuthatches, the Pygmy has a brown crown instead of black, and is strongly associated with Ponderosa Pines and adjacent cottonwoods.

European Starling – If you put out suet in winter it won’t be long before a starling samples it. However, unless the weather is particularly harsh, starlings prefer to find their own food.

European Starling feeds its chicks.


Bohemian Waxwing – These are the sleek brown-gray crested birds that seek out Mt. Ash trees for their berries in winter and are a common sight in dense flocks around Vernon.

A Bohemian Waxwing feeding on Mountain Ash berries.


Spotted Towhee – The male is a rather showy large sparrow with black upperparts, rufous sides and a white belly. Most frequent at feeders in April-May and Sept.-Oct. with a few overwintering around the valley bottom.

Male Spotted Towhee


Chipping Sparrow – a slim and delicate sparrow with a chestnut cap and a dark line through the eye, the Chipping Sparrow likes to nest in coniferous trees and bushes in our yards.

Adult Chipping Sparrow looks a little worn after raising 4-5 nesting. 


Song Sparrow – A dark brown or rusty brown sparrow common in singles or doubles at many a North Okanagan feeder. Has a characteristic hollow sounding call note and in flight appears to pump its tail. Resident, increasing in numbers in numbers in winter.

Song Sparrow 




Lincoln’s Sparrow – A slightly smaller, more delicate relative of the Song Sparrow, Lincoln’s Sparrows appear on migration most frequently during September.

Lincoln's Sparrow


White-throated Sparrow – Formerly quite a rare transient and winter resident, the White-throat has become quite a frequent visitor from late September through early October. Occasionally one overwinters.



Harris’s Sparrow – A rare transient or winter visitor usually seen in immature plumage. Do not confuse the adult with the much more common male House Sparrow.



White-crowned Sparrow – in late April and earliest May White-crowned Sparrows with their characteristics black and white striped crowns can be abundant. Re-appearing in September, the black and white crowned adult are not as common as brown and white crowned immatures. A few overwinter in favoured locations.



Golden-crowned Sparrow – A rare spring and autumn transient, usually found among White-crowned Sparrows.

Dark-eyed Junco – Once known as the Oregon Junco, most adult male Dark-eyed Juncos wear a black hood , have a brown back and the flashing white outer tail feathers. A few males are dark gray instead of black-hooded. These belong to a slightly different subspecies, and in the past were called Slate-coloured Juncos. Juncos start to appear in the valley bottom in late September and overwinter commonly. As spring advances, our local Oregons head into the surrounding  mountain forests to nest.

Female Dark-eyed Junco - males have black hoods


Red-winged Blackbird – Liable to visit as individuals at any time of year, Red-winged Blackbirds most often visit in force during harsh winter weather. Female, which are smaller and much more sparrow-like in plumage pattern, are east to spot among the black or blackish males.
 
Yellow-headed Blackbird – Sometimes in unusually bad weather during early spring the occasional Yellow-headed Blackbird may show up among the Red-winged Blackbirds.

Brewer’s Blackbird – The male is the shiny blackbird with the white eye. The female is brown with a dark eye. These blackbirds favour certain sites, like roadside cedar hedges, and if a feeder happens to be in the neighbourhood, they will be regular customers throughout the breeding season. Winters but only locally at feedlots.

Pine Grosbeak – A quiet fairly drab plump winter visitor. Usually found in small flocks and often favours berries and fruit over seed.

A Pine Grosbeak feeds on minerals in de-icing mix on a Silver Star Mountain driveway. 


House Finch – The common light brown and white finch with the red on the face and breast. Some variants can be orange-fronted. Females and immatures lack the colour. Resident. In winter, occurs in flocks.



Cassin’s Finch – A local, erratically occurring and uncommon summer resident and sometimes winter resident of the Ponderosa Pines, Douglas-firs and mountain forests below the subalpine region.

Red Crossbill – Usually, but not always, a rare visitor to feeders, preferring seeds of spruce, pine and other conifer species which it extracts, clambering about the tree like a little parrot, using its crossed mandible to draw the seed from between the scales of the cone.

Common Redpoll – A winter visitor, rare some years and common others.

A Common Redpoll feeds on seedheads in our garden. 

 
Pine Siskin – Another common finch that travels in flocks and can visit any feeder at any time. Golden flashes in the wings identify the males from the rather plain brown stripy females.



American Goldfinch – During spring and summer this is the familiar “wild canary”, the male a bright yellow with jaunty little black cap on his forehead and black and white wings. The female is a soft gray-green and white with similarly patterned wings. From mid August until next spring the males resemble the females, losing their yellow feathers except around the face. Goldfinches love water. They may be one of the first birds to investigate a bird bath and will drink there several times a day.

Evening Grosbeak – During the 1970s and 1980s this yellow and black finch with the big pale conical bill was quite common but has since declined significantly. Only a few bird feeders will be visited by the Evening Grosbeak in its hunt for sunflower seeds. However, once a flock establishes itself at a feeder, it may become resident for months at a time.

Male Evening Grosbeak.


House (English) Sparrow – Introduced into the United States in the mid 1800s, this member of the Old World Weaver Finch family took about 50 years to spread from New York City reaching Vernon in 1909. It was much more abundant in the days of horse and wagon and the family farm. Since then, the House Sparrow makes its home in urban settings and around farm yards.



References -

Campbell, R. Wayne, Neil K. Dawe, Ian McTaggart-Cowan, John M. Cooper, Gary W. Kaiser, Michael C.E. McNall. 1990. The Birds of British Columbia - Volume Two: Nonpasserines - Diurnal Birds of Prey through Woodpecker. Canadian Wildlife Service, Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, B.C.  

Cannings, Robert A., Richard J. Cannings,  and Sydney G. Cannings. 1987. Birds of the Okanagan Valley, British Columbia. Royal British Columbia Museum, Victoria, B.C.

Terres, John K. Songbirds in Your Garden, 5th edition. 1994. Algonquin Books of Chapel Hill, P.O. Box 225, Chapel Hill, North Carolina.  



Sunday 6 March 2016

Kakadu - The Top End - Part Two



1 May 2015 -

White-bellied Sea-eagle, easy to see at Yellow Water, Kakadu National Park - 3 May 2015


After our peaceful encounter with the Freshwater Croc (I have now made up my mind about its ID), we drove across a flat landscape into Kakadu National Park, Australia's largest national park (most Australian national parks are wee things). We stopped for the night inside the park at a mostly empty rv park (Aurora Kakado Hotel and Caravan Camping) which I remember for three reasons:

1. Gone were the well tended lawns, paved streets, swimming pools and complimentary drinks tickets of the Free Spirit RV Park of Darwin. In their places was a washroom block with taps leaking away the aquifer, pretty Green Tree-frogs clinging to the rounded contours of the sinks and toilets, and a large snag in the centre of the dusty, gravelly area where we were to park for the night. From the snag a Whistling Kite called noisily and frequently until darkness put an end to his bit of drama. However, at the first hint of dawn he started up again, this time with an equally vociferous partner.

2. When I took a short walk back toward the highway, I found an unpaved road from which a dingo promptly vanished into the bush. About 4 hours later several dingos close in gave us a lovely loud chorus under the almost full moon.  I am a canid fan so this was a real treat for me. Nothing caps a day in the field better than wolves howling, coyotes yipping, or dingos crying in the bush.

3. A Channel-billed Cuckoo flopped from treetop to treetop along the unpaved road, one of few seen this trip. I had become familiar with these huge from New South Wales' Blue Mountains especially in the Austral late spring and summer, October-December, when, as so many cuckoos do, the Channel-bills parasitize other birds, laying their eggs in the nests of Pied Currawongs, Australian Magpies and Torresian Crows (Pizzey and Knight, 9th ed. 2012). Its Latin name is Scythrops novaehollandiae, "angry-faced New Holland bird". Latham, the taxonomist responsible for naming it, may have been justified in appying such a name since a captive Channel-bill he tried to tame kept biting him (Fraser and Gray 2013).

Other birds around the rv park included White-throated, White-gaped, Rufous-banded, and Dusky honeyeaters, Pied Imperial Pigeon, Grey Whistler, Arafura Fantail, Little Corella, Sulphur-crested Cockatoo, Galah, Varied Triller, and Broad-billed Flycatcher.


2 May 2015

Our first stop was Mamukala Wetland Lookout, which was underwhelming, given its dryness. However, in addition to two Horsfield's Bronze-Cuckoos, a Little Bronze-Cuckoo popped up close in front of me, so close I was able to see its red eyering, lack of mask and shiny green upperparts. In general when it came to differentiating the three species of bronze-cuckoos, I was a slow learner. I couldn't keep their names straight for one thing, which makes ID impossible. Now (March 2016) I don't know what the problem could have been. Differentiating the three species seems straight forward. All of the major field guides even agree as to the common names, which is not always the case with Aussie birds.

One of the joys of Territorial birding is the presence of Red-tailed Black Cockatoos, huge black parrots with red panels in their long black tails.  Two flew over with slow wingbeats as we were about to leave Mamukala Lookout. Long, powerful wings sweep up and down in what Pizzey and Knight term "majestic" beats; how true!

Red-tailed Black Cockatoos over the Northern Territory - April, 2015


As we drove along the Arnhem Highway between Mamukala and Jabiru, the familiar birder's dilemma asserted itself, the need to make actual progress down the road VS the very strong desire to stop and beat the bushes (not literally) for all those birds and mammals you just know you're missing as you pass one possible pull-off after another. I was heartened to glimpse two Blue-winged Kookaburras, the pale-eyed cousin of the nationally symbolic Laughing Kookaburra. (Notice how I avoided the use of a certain word starting with i that has become so overused that is now meaningless. Why just the other day I saw a magazine article entitled "Unknown Icons". Wait a minute. If it's unknown, it can't be bloody iconic, can it, mate?)

At Bowali Visitors Centre out walked the easiest life bird of the trip. Two of them: a pair of Partridge Pigeons, in the words of Pizzey and Knight (2012) "squat, dull-brown ...with distinctive head pattern" in our case, the bare red skin in a sort of arcing mask around the pale, clueless eye. These birds, perhaps a male and a female, were obviously looking for handouts, the way Rock Pigeons do the world over. Given the harsh uncertainty, the drought and flood, the boom and bust of the climate of the Northern Territory, begging from tourists may be a wise investment of time, especially when you look as harmless as a pale-eyed turnip.

The Partridge Pigeon's Latin, bestowed upon it by a Mr. G.R. Gray in 1840, is Geophaps smithii. Geo is Greek for "earth" and phaps is Greek for "wild pigeon", perhaps an onomatopoetic rendering of the sound of pigeons' wings. I'm guessing.

The generic Geophaps is plain but at least it's not insulting. The maligned cuckoo-doves of the shadowy forests of the east coast of Australia have to put up with "Macropygia" for a first name, Greek for "big bum". While admittedly worth a giggle if you're as immature as I am, not only is "big bum" politely incorrect, its also inaccurate since the lovely coppery brown feathers of the Brown Cuckoo-Dove do NOT make the bird's ass look big.   Pizzey and Knight (2012) seem to agree with me, calling the cuckoo-dove a "graceful, long-tailed pigeon".

The Partridge Pigeon, pale-eyed beggar at Bowali Visitors Centre, 2 May 2015. 


"Does my pygia look macro like this?" ponders a Brown Cuckoo-Dove at Mapleton, Queensland, April, 2015
We stopped briefly at a wetland just off the highway next to the Malabanjbandjdju Caravan Camping pull-off and had a taste of the birding to come the next day at Yellow Water: Comb-crested Jacanas stalked over the lily pads, egrets stood around the edges while a Whistling Kite competed with three Wandering Whistling Duck in whistling. A Brown Falcon flew past as did three Red-collared Lorikeets and a flock of 40 Little Corellas. Just off the side of the highway I discovered the only nightjar I was to see during the entire 2015 trip, a flat and sun-dried, and very deceased Spotted Nightjar.

We camped at Cooindra, a resort next to the permanent billabong, Yellow Water, where the next dawn we boarded a tourist boat with bench seat and an cheerful, casual Australian guide who kept a running monologue of information about the billabong and its abundant birds. Check any book that lists the best birding spots in the world, such as Dominic Couzens' Top 100 Birding Sites of the World and you will find Yellow Water, possibly listed as "Kakadu" or some variation thereof. This long, marshy water hole is home to "heaps and heaps", to use the Aussie expression, of tropical birdlife. Depending upon the timing of the two seasons of the NT, the wet and the dry, you may see hundreds if not thousands of water birds including the species that we saw this day: Great, Intermediate (up to 90,000 some years), Cattle and Little egrets, Pied Herons, Rufous Night Herons, and if you are luckier than we were, the rare Black Bittern. Alongside them are wheezing throngs of Plumed Whistling Ducks, Pacific Black Ducks, Green Pygmy Geese (among the tiniest waterfowl in the world), and thousands of the huge, primitive looking Magpie Goose. The Black-necked Stork a satiny-black and white giant standing 1.4 m tall, wields a sharply pointed sturdy glossy black bill, and has a long glossy neck, black and white body, short black tail and long bright red legs. A huge stick inverted mound in a snag is a stork's nest  visible from the boat. Also huge are the White-bellied Sea-eagles that have become quite habituated to the tourist boat and will perch close overhead, allowing photography even with cell phones.

The beginning of the Yellow Water boat tour - dawn, 3 May 2015

By the end of the two hour boat ride, I had listed 31 species of birds including Azure Kingfisher, a little beauty of a bird, bright red-faced Crimson Finches, Rainbow Bee-eaters, White-breasted Woodswallows, Forest Kingfisher, as well as Darters, Whiskered Terns, Glossy Ibis and other wetland birds.

Black-necked Stork in the fierce NT sun, 1 May 2015, Fogg Dam.

 After the substantial breakfast that is included in the tour price, we headed to nearby Nourlangie Rock, an outlying bit of the Arnhem Escarpment. Much of the exposed sandstone is covered with hundreds of Aboriginal paintings, some possibly depicting the origin of thunder. A boardwalk constructed to bring the tourist close to the rock art winds up and over some of the "best", most colorful designs. Of course for those of us who are not of Aboriginal descent, the best we can do is try to remember what we have seen of the art and to do some research afterwards.

Nourlangie Rock is home to the Banded Fruit Dove, a small, shy pigeon that most often perches quite still, when not feeding, overlooking clueless birders like me who unknowingly walk beneath it, the pigeon invisible to my sun-dazzled eyes because of its shadow-and-light, black-and-white plumage. I'm sure I must have walked beneath a few during our hour at the site.

As we were about to leave, the last people at the site at that time, a Great Bowerbird popped out of nowhere to land on the beaten path. Unlike the brightly coloured male Satin, Regent, and Golden bowerbirds, the Great Bowerbird is much more subdued in plumage, being a soft gray-brown with pale spots. However, it makes up for lack of vivid hue by making itself obvious, my kind of bird. No mistaking this guy for a shadow in the canopy, no way. The Great Bowerbird, to paraphrase Pizzey and Knight (2012) bounds about, active and inquisitive. Its flight is undulating. When the male displays, he does knee bends, grabs objects in his bill, ruffles his feathers and cocks his tail. Just in case you're looking elsewhere, he re-directs your attention to him by hissing like a little gray-brown steam engine, lowering his head and spreading his small pink crest. What a bird!

Great Bowerbird going into a knee bend - Pine Creek, NT - 4 May 2015.

We drove east through Jabiru toward the mis-named Alligator River and Cahill's Crossing, which is a shallow place atop a dam. Just downstream people were spending a warm. calm slightly buggy Sunday afternoon fishing. These were the genuine human inhabitants of Kakadu

Fishing below Cahill's Crossing. Alligator River, Kakadu National Park - 3 May 2015

After a humid afternoon in which I spotted both Little Friarbirds and Silver-crowned Friarbirds around the campground, we spent a hot night sealed inside the van because of the voracious mosquitoes. The heat re-activated our chigger welts so we weren't bored, always having insane itches to scratch somewhere on our motley hides.

Our plan was to rise before dawn to hike over the sandstone outcrops near Cahill's Crossing for any of the sandstone endemics, including the Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon and the Sandstone Rock Thrush. Perhaps because of last night's short, uncomfortable sleep, we dipped on both thrush and pigeon. A Pallid Cuckoo flew by, a couple of Sulphur-crested Cockatoos hung around a tall snag, and a Short-eared Rock Wallaby stuck around long enough to get on my mammal life list, but we had come all this way and didn't see the birds for which the area was famous, at least among birders.

Almost as bad as missing an endemic is having to put up with your birding friends' questions afterwards:

"Did you see the Sandstone Rock Thrush?"
"No."
"Stunning bird! Really something. Long, sleek, and lots of personality, a typical shrike thrush but bigger, and found nowhere else except the escarpments of ..."
"Yeah, I get it. Or rather I didn't get it. It was awfully hot that morning."
"You mean you looked for only one morning? Oh, you need more time than that. We walked for five days before we found one. Did I ever tell you the story?"
"Yes, you've told me the story. Let's get some lunch,  shall we?"
"OK. But what about the Chestnut-quilled Rock Pigeon? Did you find it? We had to work REALLY hard for for the pigeon...."


We had better luck on our way out of Kakadu when we climbed a dry forested hill to Mirral Lookout, viewing the escarpment to the east. Here, quite by chance, we stumbled into small parties of a lifer, the Banded Honeyeater.

Banded Honeyeater at blossom. 
Our destination, the little outback town of Pine Creek, NT, lay to the northeast. I will describe our stay in PIne Creek in my next post.