July 23-24: Male PAINTED BUNTING in Ucluelet

On July 23 and 24th, Jerry Herst and Julie Dorfman (both of Chicago, IL, USA), observed a male PAINTED BUNTING visiting a feeder at the On the Inlet B&B in Ucluelet, BC.

No word yet as to whether it's still around or if there are photos.

Stay tuned...

Red-necked Stint Boundary Bay July 27th-28th

A Red-necked Stint was observed at Boundary Bay. It was seen at the foot of 96th street among a flock of peeps by Kevin Louth around 3:00pm.

Photo: Jim Martin

Present again on the evening high tide (July 28)

July 22--Possible Little Gull on Murtle Lake (Wells Gray Provincial Park)

An adult LITTLE GULL was seen at close quarters and well-described by Jeff Morgan (although without binoculars/camera) who was paddling around Murtle Lake on July 22.

It's a very large lake and is tricky to access, but a follow-up check to the near-section of the lake on July 24th turned up 0 gulls.

Rangers have been notified so if any subsequent sightings happen we will let you know!

COMMON GREENSHANK + RED-NECKED STINT! (Sandspit)

More details pending-- all I know right now is that Peter Hamel observed a breeding plumaged adult COMMON GREENSHANK near the Sandspit airport on July 18. Also recently in the same area was a breeding-plumaged RED-NECKED STINT.

I believe the greenshank would represent the first BC record.

UPDATE: Thanks to Rick Toochin for passing on more info from Peter (who is away on holiday):

The Greenshank was an adult in breeding plumage feeding at Little Spit at Sandpit as the tide was rising. There was an adult breeding plumaged Pacific Golden Plover near it as well as a small flock of peeps. The bird was well observed in a scope and binoculars just unfortunately Peter didn’t have

a camera with him. The bird came in fairly close before a Raven flew over and flushed it away.

There were a few Ravens nearby as they were trying to catch a family baby Oystercatchers and the adults were making a hell of a lot of noise. Peter felt that this commotion made the birds like the Greenshank nervous and the rest of the birds flighty. Peter was able to hear it call when the bird flew, see the white on the back in flight , and when it was sitting the green legs and the thick upturned bill, etc. He was in disbelief when he found it but has seen this species before on his travels in Europe and Asia in the past. He is really sad he didn’t have a camera with him at the time!

Costa's Hummingbird in Gibsons

Photo courtesy Penny Hall

Barry Janyk reports the Sunshine Coast's first EVER Costa's Hummingbird in the Gibsons area. If you're in the area and would like to see the bird, please phone Barry at 604-886-4713

To see more pictures, visit:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/pennyhallphotography/7613629510/

Ash-throated Flycatcher in Agassiz

From Rick Toochin:
[Agassiz is in the Fraser Valley]

"It was along Tuyttens Road very near Cutter Road.  From Highway 7 you just cross over the Rosedale Bridge heading towards Agassiz. Turn left down Whelpton Road then at the end of this road turn left on Tuyttens Road. Look for it in the habitat by the slough. This is very close to where birds have been reported before which begs the question why do they turn up here so much? In the same area was a Sora calling, 1 Western Kingbird, 2 Eastern Kingbirds and a nesting Kestrel. I tried for the reported Indigo Bunting and only had singing male Lazuli Buntings along McGregor Road."

Brown Pelicans popping up in Salish Sea

On July 2nd, a single BROWN PELICAN was observed by Ian Thomas near Pender Island. Now today (July 7), David Hutchison found one fishing close to the end of the Iona Jetty (near the Vancouver Int. Airport).

Perhaps this is a sign that this species will become a regular summer visitor in 2012 (which had been the case up until around 2009 when they became scarce--possibly due to La Nina).

Blue-grey Gnatcatcher near Pemberton

June 28--John Tschopp with this report: "While dealing with a customer in front of our shop, a small drab bird landed on the wooden fence. It was doing a lot of flitting and flying to and fro, Kinglet like behavior. Size about like Kinglet, but longer tail. In flight two prominent white marks would show on the lower half of tail. Distance 15 feet, no binoculars, no picture. Warm, overcast, no wind. At last it flew up into spruce chasing bugs along branches."


For location, click HERE.


No follow-up sightings yet.

May/June 2012--Raining Black-throated Sparrows in BC

This spring has seen a remarkable influx of Black-throated Sparrows into southern Coastal and Central BC with a minimum of nine birds reported. In order of occurrence, with the most recent first:

26 June 2012 - Chutter Ranch near Merritt, Nicola Valley (Jarrod Hobbs)

14 June 2012 - Cinnamon Ridge access rd., Tranquille, Kamloops (Ellie Hill)

13 June 2012 - 5km west of Hope Airport (Rick Toochin): a different bird to the following

11 June 2012 - Jacks place, Delair Road, Hope Airport area (Rick Toochin): photo below

11 June 2012 - Scarfe Building, UBC (Tracy Lau)

11 June 2012 - Bridge Pond, Squamish River Estuary (Chris Dale): video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uK3Qawd1OTs

9 June 2012 - start of Grant Narrows Trail, Pitt Lake (Roger and Andrew Foxall): still present 10 June with a second individual also reported.

27 May 2012 - Front and Alberts St., Yale (Aaron Gaffney): photo below

10 May 2012 - Osoyoos Airport (Doug Brown)

Black-throated Sparrow @ Hope Airport, 12 June 2012 (Rick Toochin)

Black-throated Sparrow in Yale, 27 May 2012 (Aaron Gaffney)

BROAD-TAILED HUMMINGBIRD in the Blaeberry

May 30--Doug Leighton is reporting a female Broad-tailed Hummingbird form his feeder in the Blaeberry (near Golden). Here is his report to eBird:

"Counting dusk hummer swarm at feeder at 9:55 PM (8:55 Pacific) when this obviously larger bird arrived to feed; had Nat Geo book at hand and clearly saw all other key features (including tail) with direct comparison to female RUHUs beside it. . Too late for photos tonight but I am 100% certain on this ID."

May 31--Update: Doug has been watching the feeders all morning and no BT yet. If it shows up again he would be happy to welcome birders so stayed tuned.