When is a Peacock (or Peahen) a listable bird

When it is in India, of course.

But what about the rest of the world?

We met these members of the Peafowl family in Victoria on October 4.  They are apparently recognized as a feral breeding bird in that area.  They've showed up on Ebird many times.  

These Peafowl were in London, England, in 2010.  They show up on the Ebird list.

But there are no Peafowl showing on ebird in Saskatoon where we saw these in 2014.  So does that make them domestic birds?  Even though they wandered around loose and appear to have had babies?

This beautiful Peacock was in Mazatlan in 2020.  Like Saskatoon, there are no Peafowl recorded in Mazatlan ever.  More domestic fowl, it appears.

But it does seem that we can call the Peacocks in BC a new bird to our list--since I didn't add them in 2010.

Virginia Rail: October 13, 2022

 This guy ran across the path in front of us. I was quick with the camera but not as quick as the rail. Not quick enough to focus, anyway.

The best thing about bad photos is there is always the hope that one day there'll be a better one.

Red-breasted Sapsucker: October 13, 2022

Woodpeckers are another favourite type of bird.  I have so many favourites.

 These were in Duncan B.C.

 Far away in the top of a tree.

But my camera has a zoom lens.

Alcids: aka Birds that prefer to live at sea

These are the birds I really, really wanted to see. Birds that only come to shore to raise babies.  We were hampered in seeing these kinds of birds by not taking an ocean birding trip and by not bringing a scope.  However, we did get glimpses of at least three species.

While in the Pacific Rim National Park Reserve, we saw these little birds off a ways from the shore.

I've compared their silhouettes with every alcid in the bird book, and can only guess.

The next ones we saw were slightly more bird-like.  Seen from the shore in Ucluelet, I have decided they are Rhinoceros Auklets.

 

By Cortes Island we saw 

Common Murres, distinctive by the dark line in their white faces during the non-breeding season.

Cormorants

There are a lot of cormorants on the Pacific coast.  One species has yellow on the face.  They are extremely easy to identify any time of the year.  They are Double-crested Cormorants.  Some of them live in Saskatchewan in the summer.  Some even fish in our dugout.

There are two other species that like the ocean and never wander two provinces over.  They are Pelagic Cormorants and Brandt's Cormorants.  I can just about guarantee that there are some of each in this photo.

In the breeding season the Pelagic has red on the face and the Brandt's has blue. The best I can discover in this off season of October is that the Brandt's shows tan where a chin should be and the Pelagic has a small bill.  Many of the birds above show the Brandt tan chin.

When I looked at individual birds things got a little trickier.

Shall we say this one is a Pelagic because it has no tan and appears to have a thin bill?

I had trouble finding a close up photo of a cormorant with a tan chin so instead chose this fellow because he is kind of tan all over, possibly the sign of a first year Brandt's.  

I have many identifiable photos of Double-crested Cormorants.  But only because I didn't really care!

Bewick's Wren and Fox Sparrow: October 5, 2022

On Wednesday morning we joined the Victoria Natural History Group on a walk through the Swan Lake Bird Sanctuary.  They were so welcoming.  When they discovered that some of their common birds would be life birds for us, they worked to find them.

That's how we met the Bewick's Wren.

 We met the Bewick's again on the thirteenth when we took an estuary walk at Duncan.

And the Fox Sparrow.

Fox Sparrows are infrequent visitors to Saskatchewan.  So far we have never been fortunate enough to see one here, but we were privileged to see several on Vancouver Island.

Both of these Fox Sparrows are of the Sooty subspecies.  This one was also in Duncan.

Bushtit: October 4, 2022

 Royal Roads University is just across the water from the east side of the Esquimalt Lagoon where we were watching the water birds.  The university was recommended to us as having beautiful gardens worth a look.  Not having a boat, we took the circuitous route and spent a couple hours there before returning to the lagoon.

The recommendations were fulfilled when we discovered that on October 4 there were still roses blooming in the gardens.  I was even more pleased when we found a brand new bird in the rose garden.

A tiny Bushtit.
 

Mute Swan: October 4, 2022

There were three swans on the Esquimalt Lagoon the whole month of October.  It is a rare checklist from that month that didn't include all of them. 

The Mute Swan, though not a native species, found its way onto our checklist for the first time.

The other two swans were Trumpeter Swans.  We have seen Trumpeters before, but always from a considerable distance.  These swans were quite used to the people wandering along the shores of the lagoon and may have been posing for photos.

Mute Swans are considered a problem species in many places in the world.  They were brought to Canada from the UK in the 1870s to adorn parks and ponds.  We may have seen one doing just that on our 2010 visit to England, but I was reluctant to count many birds there as wild since so many species are kept to make the parks look beautiful. 

Dunlin and Western Sandpiper: October 4, 2022

Soon after reaching the Esquimalt Lagoon we spoke to a woman with a large camera, always a good sign, who told us there were Dunlins and Western Sandpipers further along.  "I hope I recognize them," I said.  "Oh, you will," she replied, much more sure of my skills than I was.  Maybe she was deceived by my camera.  Not as big as hers, but still fairly large. 

The Dunlin is a small sandpiper characterized by a black belly in the summer.  I've always wanted to see one because I had this idea that with that black belly it would be instantly recognizable.

So the first Dunlin of our lives we see in October with nary a black belly in sight.  

(Even the Black-bellied Plover down the beach a ways didn't have a black belly.  That's nonbreeding birds for you.)

We did find the Dunlins..

 They were smaller than I expected.  In fact not much bigger than the Western Sandpipers.  

This photo shows a Dunlin on the left, a Western Sandpiper on the right, and the smaller fellow in between is a Least Sandpiper.  You will notice that identifying small shorebirds is about as challenging as identifying gulls. 

To give you an idea just how small these small birds are, here they are with the larger of the three birds with Canada in their name.
 

The Western Sandpiper is one of three birds referred to as peeps.  I might have been less sure of their identity if everyone around me hadn't already identified them.  

And just so you know why I referred to the Dunlins in the plural, here are a few resting.

Two New Gulls: October 4, 2022

Short-billed Gull is one of those birds that have recently changed their names.  It used to be called Mew Gull, and in fact, a person we met on the shore of the Esquimalt Lagoon, called it just that.  He mentioned there were five different gulls at the end of the lagoon.  I could name about three, he added the other two, using the old name.  It was split from the Common Gull, a European species, in 2021.

 I think that the immature in the background is a Short-billed as well but there are no guarantees on that.

The other new gull that day was the Glaucous-winged Gull.  Glaucous referring to the light grey colour of its wings.  This gull, you will notice, does not have the dark wing tips over the tail that so many gulls have.

The bill on this gull is much bigger than on the above bird.  As well it has pink legs, in common with the Herring Gull, but the Herring Gull has black wing tips.  Also worth noting is the red dot on the lower mandible.  Gulls are not much fun to ID so the more notable points, the better.

And no, that bird in the foreground is not an immature gull.  Looks a lot like a crow to me.

Black Oystercatcher: October 4, 2022

We passed up the Butchart Gardens to go to the Esquimalt Lagoon.  And I don't regret it.

The first new bird that jumped out at us after we parked the car was the beautiful Black Oystercatcher.  We are familiar with the American Oystercatcher but this was a new one for us.

 They were hanging out with a bunch of gulls.

And not surprisingly, when I looked at my older photos there were Black Oystercatchers seen from the ferry on the trip from the mainland.

Sometimes I just snap photos and don't take time to look through the binoculars.  Especially on a moving vessel.

Golden-crowned Sparrow: October 3, 2022

We didn't recognize our first Golden-crowned Sparrows.  I hadn't done enough research and didn't realize that they were a species we would see often on Vancouver Island.

On our walk along Rithet's trail we saw many, but, I reluctantly admit, did not recognize them.  I took a lot of photos, but they were all far away and mostly in the shadows.  It was only after getting to know them later

that I went back to the first photos and discovered the birds I had glanced at and thought maybe female House Sparrow were

the same bird we had searched for and didn't find in the small town of Morse, Saskatchewan, in March 2016.

Chestnut-backed Chickadee: October 4, 2022

It's not easy to get a photo of an acrobatic bird like this chickadee.

He is all over the place and moving quickly. 

But we saw many and often

So what I don't have in quality I definitely make up in quantity.

Anna's Hummingbird: October 3, 2022

 There are several hummingbird possibilities in British Columbia, but only one is likely in October.

The Anna's, a beautiful little bird with a pink throat.  Or at least the male has a pink throat.

We met our first hummingbird shortly after arriving in Victoria.  We put a few things in the house we were borrowing for a few days, grabbed our binoculars and camera, and walked out the front door.  To find this little guy next door.

We saw a lot of Anna's in the four or five days we spent in Victoria, and none anywhere else we went.

The best photo of the pink throat came while we were waiting for the ferry to take us back to the mainland on October 14.

Surf Scoter: October 3, 2022

 I had great hopes of viewing new birds from the ferry between Vancouver and Victoria.  

There weren't as many species as I had hoped, but we did see our first Surf Scoters.

Fortunately they were not the only Surf Scoters of our trip.  Nine days later we saw a few along Cortes Island.