Mystery Underwing Moth

On the night of September 14, 2014, we surprising large numbers of a very large moth fluttering about the porch light here at Moorecroft Regional park, in Nanoose Bay, BC. Watching them for a few moments, I felt that it was a species that I couldn't recall having seen before. Later in the evening, I realized that several must have come in when I had the door open, and were now noisily bumping into lamp shades around the house. As large as they were, it didn't take long to capture them and release them outside. Curious as to the species, I photographed one, thinking I could identify it later. Well, I should have known better. After sending the photos to quite a few different people, there was no consensus as to what the species was, although Catocala semirelicta and Catocala unijuga were the most commonly suggested species. Reading about the abundance,  distribution and habitat preferences of the two moth species, it seems that semirelicta is more likely. Next time, I'll make sure and wait to release the moth AFTER it has been identified.

Flicker Wave

Northern Flickers are common enough year round here on the east coast of Vancouver Island, that it is easy to forget that they are actually migratory in much of this province, as well as Alaska and the Yukon. If one pays attention though, migratory waves of this species do occur, especially in Autumn, as the snow begins to fall in the far north.

In Moorecroft Regional Park, Northern Flickers do nest, but in low numbers. As far as I have been able to determine, there are only two breeding pairs occupying the 34 hectares within the park boundaries. Thus, except for the period right after fledging, or during a migratory wave, one rarely encounters more than a couple of Northern Flickers on a walk in the park.

On the morning of September 9, 2014 I was doing my morning walk around the park, and stopped in at Skipsey Pond to see if any migrants had flown in overnight. Checking the thickets of red-osier dogwood around the pond, I found a few Yellow-rumped Warblers, Black-throated gray Warblers, Warbling Vireos, and my first Ruby-crowned Kinglets of the fall. I also heard a lot of woodpecker activity in the snags that surround the pond. It took no time at all to spot a few of each of the five common woodpecker species here. And everywhere I looked, there were Northern Flickers. In the end I counted 17 of them around the small pond. A very impressive number for such a small area. Several hours later when I had finished my park rounds, the number had grown to 54 Northern Flickers, the highest count I have ever had in this park.

Returning home for breakfast and switching on the radio, reports of snow across the Yukon, northern BC, and even as far south as Calgary, made me wonder; Was it simply the time to head south, or were the large number of migrants all of a sudden triggered by the first snows of the season? Only the Flicker knows.    

California Gulls Return

There are large numbers of California Gulls passing NW over Moorecroft right now. Probably due to the unsettled weather, they are passing quite low over the park and they are vocalizing continually, which is typical when these birds migrate at lower elevations in the dark. It will be interesting to see if this movement continues after sunrise.

Some years, we see massive numbers of California Gulls moving into the Salish Sea at this time of year, searching for the herring spawns which help fatten the birds for their long migration to the prairies.

One Year At Moorecroft!

Today marks the one year anniversary of our becomeing caretakers of Moorecroft Regional Park, and the begining of our second year of keeping a list of bird species recorded here. Below is a list of the 135 bird species noted from the boundaries of the park.

Greater White-fronted Goose

Snow Goose

Brant

Cackling Goose

Canada Goose

Trumpeter Swan

Wood Duck

American Wigeon

Green-winged Teal

Mallard

Northern Pintail

Greater Scaup

Harlequin Duck

Long-tailed Duck

Surf Scoter

White-winged Scoter

Black Scoter

Common Goldeneye

Barrow's Goldeneye

Bufflehead

Hooded Merganser

Red-breasted Merganser

Common Merganser

Red-throated Loon

Pacific Loon

Common Loon

Yellow-billed Loon

Red-necked Grebe

Horned Grebe

Western Grebe

Double-crested Cormorant

Brandt's Cormorant

Pelagic Cormorant

Great Blue Heron

Turkey Vulture

Osprey

Bald Eagle

Northern Harrier

Sharp-shinned Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Red-tailed Hawk

American Kestrel

Merlin

Black-bellied Plover

Killdeer

Black Oystercatcher

Spotted Sandpiper

Black Turnstone

Surfbird

Least Sandpiper

Dunlin

Red-necked Phalarope

Red Phalarope

Parasitic Jaeger

Bonaparte's Gull

Heerman's Gull

Mew Gull

Ring-billed Gull

California Gull

Herring Gull

Thayer's Gull

Iceland Gull

Western Gull

Glaucous-winged Gull

Glaucous Gull

Caspian Tern

Common Tern

Common Murre

Pigeon Guillemot

Marbled Murrelet

Ancient Murrelet

Rhinoceros Auklet

Rock Pigeon

Band-tailed Pigeon

Great Horned Owl

Snowy Owl

Barred Owl

Northern Saw-whet Owl

Common Nighthawk

Black Swift

Vaux's Swift

Anna's Hummingbird

Rufous Hummingbird

Belted Kingfisher

Red-breasted Sapsucker

Downy Woodpecker

Hairy Woodpecker

Northern Flicker

Pileated Woodpecker

Cassin's Vireo

Hutton's Vireo

Warbling Vireo

Steller's Jay

Northwestern Crow

Common Raven

Chestnut-backed Chickadee

Bushtit

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Brown Creeper

Bewick's Wren

Pacific Wren

Golden-crowned Kinglet

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Swainson's Thrush

Hermit Thrush

American Robin

Varied Thrush

European Starling

American Pipit

Cedar Waxwing

Orange-crowned Warbler

Yellow-rumped Warbler

Black-throated Gray Warbler

Townsend's Warbler

MacGillivray's Warbler

Common Yellowthroat

Wilson's Warbler

Western Tanager

Black-headed Grosbeak

Spotted Towhee

Savannah Sparrow

Fox Sparrow

Song Sparrow

White-crowned Sparrow

Golden-crowned Sparrow

Dark-eyed Junco

Red-winged Blackbird

Brown-headed Cowbird

Purple Finch

Red Crossbill

White-winged Crossbill

Common Redpoll

Pine Siskin

American Goldfinch

Evening Grosbeak

A New Turkey Vulture Migration Route?

For some time now, I have suspected that the numbers of Turkey Vultures migrating through Metchosin and East Sooke Park each Autumn are probably greater than the total breeding population on Vancouver Island. So where are these other Turkey Vultures coming from? We know that some of them are coming from the southern and northern Gulf Islands, and a few migrate across Johnstone Strait onto Northern Vancouver Island. But what about the large breeding population on the Sunshine Coast? Is it is possible that these birds somehow make their way across the Salish Sea onto Vancouver Island somehow? The distance across much of the Salish Sea is even greater than that across Jaun de Fuca Strait, and would seem to be a barrier to any of the migratory raptors that do travel well across water. Some recent observations from Moorecroft Regional Park in Nanoose, has made me wonder if perhaps the Salish Sea isn't the barrier it was previously believed to be.

On September 27th, 2011, we were doing some sea-watching from Vesper Point, in Moorecroft Regional Park. At app. 12:40, a kettle of 14 Turkey Vultures were spotted, fairly high, and north of Gerald Island. These birds were flapping hard, and seemed to be loosing altitude fairly quickly. When they reached Gerald Island, they began soaring again, and quickly gained some altitude, before soaring ashore over First Bay in Moorecroft, and then continuing on towards Nanoose Hill. About 15 minutes later, another kettle of 17 Turkey Vultures appeared app. two kilometres to the northwest, very high up and soaring towards Gerald Island. They also began catching thermals as soon as they reached Gerald Island, and it didn't take them long to reach the Moorecroft shoreline. Interestingly, this kettle also contained a Cooper's Hawk and an American Kestrel. Although I had little time today to perform active monitoring, I did notice three Turkey Vultures soaring ashore from the direction of Gerald Island.

So where are these birds coming from? The total breeding population on Gerald Island this year appeared to be one pair, and the adults and young left the island back in late August and spent several weeks in Moorecroft before going elsewhere. I would imagine that the total breeding population of the two Ballenas Islands is similar, and it is possible that they made their way onto Vancouver Island previously anyway. I can only think of two explanations. These birds are flying directly across from the Sunshine Coast (app. 28 kms) or from Lasqueti Island (app. 10 kms). I would think that direct crossing from the Sunshine Coast is unlikely. It is simply too far. Lasqueti Island is certainly within the range of a migrating Turkey Vulture though. And there are certainly more than 30 pairs of Turkey Vultures nesting on Lasqueti. How do I know this? Because for years I have counted them as they migrated from Lasqueti across to Parksville, usually coming ashore near the Englishman River Estuary, a distance of about 17 kms. The problem is, I see Turkey Vultures migrating across there every year. Why would they suddenly begin migrating in the other direction? 

I am beginning to wonder if the Turkey Vultures we have seen over the past two days are not actually from the Sunshine Coast, and are using Texada Island as a migratory Stepping Stone. Looking at a map, it becomes obvious that if Turkey Vultures do migrate between the Sunshine Coast and Vancouver Island, this is likley the route that thyey take. Using Google Earth, I made the following calculations;

Smuggler Cove (north of Sechelt) to Thormanby Island = 1.5 kms
Thormanby Island to Texada Island = 3.5 kms
Texada Island to West Ballenas Island = 12 kms
West Ballenas to Gerald Island = 3 kms
Gerald Island to Moorecroft Regional Park = 1 km   

All of this seems entirely possible for a migrating Turkey Vulture to accomplish. Now, with only about a week left in the migratory period, I need to do a lot more monitoring to see if this is indeed the case. Exactly the type of mystery that fascinates me.

Loon Migration

I did a complete census of Moorecroft Regional Park this morning. I won't bore anyone with the data though. It was like a graveyard in the forest. Except for striking numbers of Red-breasted Nuthatches, there were virtually no birds at all. It did get a bit more interesting when I got to Vesper Point though. There was a really heavy migration of loons taking place. And although we have been seeing one or two Common Loons here for the past few weeks, today there were Pacific and Red-throated Loons as well. In two hours this morning I counted the following birds moving past Vesper Point;

Pacific Loon: 112
Common loon: 38
Red-throated Loon: 2

Moorecroft Census

Today I did a complete census at Moorecroft Regional Park, in Nanoose Bay, Vancouver Island, BC. New birds for the 2012 list in the park were Common Terns, Parasitic Jaegers, and Rock Pigeon. All expected, but only seen for the first time today. Passerine migration continues to be exceedingly slow, but the number of Dark-eyed Juncos has increased substantially in the past few days. The number of Red-breasted Nuthatches locally continues to astonish. I have never seen so many in my 17 years on Vancouver Island.

Canada Goose: 3
Northern Pintail: 18
Surf Scoter: 6
Red-breasted Merganser: 2
Common Loon: 5
Brandt's Cormorant: 1
Double-crested Cormorant: 7
Pelagic Cormorant: 4
Great Blue Heron: 2
Turkey Vulture: 18
Bald Eagle: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 2
Cooper's Hawk: 1
Parasitic Jaeger: 2
Bonaparte's Gull: 47
Heerman's Gull: 1
Mew Gull: 2
California Gull: 16
Glaucous-winged Gull: 31
Common Tern: 5
Rock Pigeon: 1
Barred Owl: 2
Rufous Hummingbird: 1
Anna's Hummingbird: 2
Belted Kingfisher: 2
Downy Woodpecker: 3
Hairy Woodpecker: 4
Northern Flicker: 12
Pileated Woodpecker: 4
Hutton's Vireo: 3
Common Raven: 6
Chestnut-backed Chickadee: 27
Red-breasted Nuthatch: 41
Brown Creeper: 10
Bewick's Wren: 3
Winter wren: 8
Golden-crowned Kinglet: 19
Varied Thrush: 6
American Robin: 15
American Pipit: 3
Orange-crowned Warbler: 1
Yellow-rumped Warbler: 5
Spotted Towhee: 8
Song Sparrow: 4
Dark-eyed Junco: 79
Red Crossbill: 60
Pine Siskin: 43