Texada Island To Vancouver Island Turkey Vulture Migration confiirmed!

This morning I was at Vesper Point in Moorecroft Regional Park, doing a sea-watch and wondering if I might see a few Turkey Vultures migrating. I did not have to wait long. At 10:18, I spotted a kettle of 12 Turkey Vultures which had just left Texada Island, heading almost straight south. The birds were still fairly high up when the reached land, above South Ballenas Island. They then kettled there until 10:32. By this time they were fairly high up, and drifting SE. Suddenly, they all turned and began a steep descent towards Gerald Island. They came ashore on the back side of Gerald Island about 5 minutes later, and were quite low to the water, with some birds now flapping vigorously. The difference between their ability to soar from Texada to Ballenas, vs the much shorter hop from Ballenas to Gerald, was pronounced. After spending about a half hour perched in trees on Gerald Island, the entire flock began kettling over Gerald Island. By now the NW wind was very strong (app. Bf, 5) and the birds seemed to have trouble staying together. Within 30 minutes, all 12 birds had made the shoreline of Vancouver Island, although only 4 came ashore at Moorecroft, while the rest seemed to arrive somewhere about halfway down the shore towards Schooner Cove.

It remains to be seen whether these vultures are all birds that summer on Texada, or if some are migrating onto Texada from the Sunshine Coast.

East Sooke Hawk Watch

Today Donna, our grandson Cedar and I headed down to East Sooke Park to take in the annual Fall migration of Turkey Vultures and raptors off of Vancouver Island. East Sooke Park is more or less the southernmost tip of Vancouver Island, and is the place where the majority of raptors, vultures, and many other migratory species, make the jump across Jaun De Fuca Strait to Washington State. Because Vultures and raptors have issues with crossing large bodies of water, the birds gather here, sometimes stacking up to counts of several thousand birds, waiting for the weather conditions to be ideal for crossing the Strait.

Today was not the best raptor watching I have ever had at East Sooke Park, but it was still exciting, and I never tire of seeing large kettles of Turkey Vultures drifting back and forth from hilltop to hilltop. The waters off East Sooke Park were also absolutely teeming with alcids and gulls today, which makes for good sea watching, when the raptor activity dies down.

We realized on the drive home that one of the reasons that the vulture count seemed low, was because there are still good numbers of them up island, which have yet to migrate. We noted 87 of them on the drive home between Metchosin and Nanoose Bay.

Birds noted between 09:00 and 14:00 today;

Turkey Vulture: 480+-
Osprey: 1
Bald Eagle: 3
Northern Harrier: 1
Sharp-shinned Hawk: 7
Cooper's Hawk: 3
Northern Goshawk: 1
Red-tailed Hawk: 29 (two dark morphs, the rest being typical western types)
Merlin: 2
Vaux's Swift: 160+-
Band-tailed Pigeon: 320+-

Nanoose Hill Hawk Watch

For many years I have been hoping to do some migration monitoring on local hills in the area between Nanaimo and Qualicum Beach. Unfortunately, I am usually away in the NE corner of BC at this time of year doing this type of research for wind energy project proposals. This year, with the economy in the toilet and the Canadian Conservative Party fascists dismantling the environmental assessment process, I find myself unemployed, and thus able to do a bit more hawk watching locally. Today, Donna and I hiked to the top of Nanoose Hill on what is known as the "Notch Trail". It is a quick slog to the top through Douglas Fir, Garry Oak and Arbutus forests, which are broken by rock outcrops near the top, offering great views to all directions but the east. We spent five hours here, starting at 9:00 and ending at 14:00. It was hot and sunny, with only a slight breeze from the north. Migration was slow, but we were thrilled to have as many as 23 Turkey Vultures above us at one point, soaring so close that we could hear them croaking at each other.
Birds recorded from Nanoose Hill Today:
Turkey Vulture: 66
Osprey: 1
Red-tailed Hawk: 2
Merlin: 1
Peregrine Falcon: 1
Glaucous-winged Gull: 3
California Gull: 3
Band-tailed Pigeon: 81
Vaux's Swift: 4
Anna's Hummingbird: 3
Hairy Woodpecker: 1
Northern Flicker: 10
Hammond's Flycatcher: 2
Hutton's Vireo: 3
Steller's Jay: 2
Common Raven: 12
Horned Lark: 1
Violet-green Swallow: 5
Chestnut-backed Chickadee: 14
Red-breasted Nuthatch: 27
Brown Creeper: 4
Bewick's Wren: 1
Winter Wren: 3
Golden-crowned Kinglet: 22
Ruby-crowned Kinglet: 5
Hermit Thrush: 1
American Robin: 69
Varied Thrush: 15
American Pipit: 24
Yellow-rumped Warbler: 35
Dark-eyed Junco: 21
Brewer's Blackbird: 2
Purple Finch: 3
Red Crossbill: 28
Pine Siskin: 550
American Goldfinch: 4
Evening Grosbeak: 2