Rocky Point Bird Observatory: Week 8: The call of an eastern vagrant

In 2003, Finnish sound recording legend, Hannu Jännes, released the year’s hottest album for any Western Palearctic birder worth their salt, Calls of Eastern Vagrants. While this CD—yes, those were still a thing in the noughties—was aimed at a European market, as ever the optimists in the Pacific Northwest this chart topper (among birding circles) remains supremely relevant! This week one lucky birder, David Bell, enjoyed a LIVE performance of one of the 68 showstoppers featured by Jännes for the first time in nigh on a decade on our famed peninsula. So, who graced us with their presence? Well, reader, I won’t keep you in suspense any longer: it was none other than a Red-throated Pipit! A bird that would be more at home on the Siberian tundra or the paddyfields of Indochina than our Garry Oak meadows; and perhaps that’s why it didn’t land, instead choosing to continue south emanating an “emphatic psEEE!” in its wake, to quote an awe-struck Dave. For those of us who missed this spine-tingling performance, we can only hope it’s the first of more this fine autumn. Personally, I await track 24 making an appearance in net 3.

Not to be too outshone, Pedder Bay treated all to a cracking juvenile Lewis’s Woodpecker which put on a fantastic show as it teased a Sharp-shinned Hawk, outmanoeuvring the helpless hawk with both ease and finesse. It was once again our very own David M. Bell who pulled out all the stops to find this beauty. To quote Captain Meriwether Lewis during the Lewis and Clark expedition in 1805, and to which this bird is named for:

"I saw a black woodpecker (or crow) today about the size of the lark woodpecker [now known as the Northern Flicker] as black as a crow...it is a distinct species of woodpecker; it has a long tail and flys a good deel like the jay bird."

While the jury is still out on whether the captain’s comments would have cut the mustard with local eBird reviewers, as we watched our woodpecker flying alongside several Steller’s Jays two centuries later, we did indeed observe it fly a great deal like those jay birds. As one familiar with many species of the Old World, however, I implore readers to have a look at the two chough species which I would argue are the corvids this unusual woodpecker shares a greatest likeness.

The Lewis's Woodpecker having a rest between bouts of making a mockery of the Sharp-shinned Hawks. (Photo: James Kennerley)

With some fantastic observations at each of our hallowed sites, it surely comes as no surprise to you, wise reader, that our nets were bursting with goodies as well! At Rocky Point we banded 310 birds bringing us to 2,156 birds for the season, well above the average of 1,778. This haul included a fine Varied Thrush which is hopefully the first of many of this exquisite species. At Pedder Bay we banded 232 birds including the first Sharp-shinned Hawk and Ruby-crowned Kinglet for the site this autumn. This brought us to to 1,563 for the season and trailing the average of 1,740.

The first of hopefully many Varied Thrushes. (Photo: David Bell)

One of the smallest passerines we encounter, a Golden-crowned Kinglet. (Photo: David Bell)

It's shaping up to be a good year for White-throated Sparrows with seven banded across our stations so far. (Photo: David Bell)

A fine adult male Purple Finch. (Photo: David Bell)

"Really nice AHY M BEWR" -- Evan Lewis, September 2023. (Photo: Evan Lewis)

Steller's Jays continue to leave us all with a smile. (Photo: David Bell)

Here, at RPBO, we appreciate the beauty in subtlety and lucky for us, we are at a melting pot for subtle differences in locally common species such as Savannah Sparrow and Spotted Towhee. While we try our best to squeeze birds into metaphorical boxes, we live in hope that the pipette-wielding folks in league with Illumina(ti) will one day enlighten us as to how many subspecies of these widespread sparrows there really are. Until that day comes, however, we continue to take a Linnean approach and appreciate those understated differences in plumage and morphometrics between our local taxa and the respective foreign taxa, a selection of which we share with you below.

A spotty Spotted Towhee, ssp. curtatus of interior BC. (Photo: Emma Radziul)

A less spotty Spotted Towhee, our local ssp. oregonus. (Photo: Emma Radziul)

Savannah Sparrow probably of the northern ssp. sandwichensis. (Photo: David Bell)

Savannah Sparrow probably of the local ssp. brooksi. (Photo: David Bell)

As always, we welcome visitors to our public site at Pedder Bay where we can be found every morning until mid-October. We would be delighted to show you the process of capturing and banding birds and impart a few bird fact tidbits which we recommend as great office icebreakers the next time you run into that new co-worker at the coffee machine, what more could you want! If you made it this far, thanks again for checking in and an even bigger thank you to all our volunteers who help keep our observatory running.