DARE TO BIRD

Ilya and I went birding in San Diego. We signed up for our first ever Photo workshop. We didn't know what to expect but were pleasantly surprised.  We did it with Tim Boyer, more info  HERE for those interested. We birded on our own the other days and had a nice relaxing vacation. We ended up seeing 161 species in 9 days. Some of the highlights were: Reddish Egret, Painted Redstart, Black-throated sparrow, California Towhee, Pomaerine Jaegers, Black-throated Green warbler, Laughing Gull, Thick-billed Kingbird (ABA Code 4), Cassin's Kingbird, Lesser Goldfinch, White-collared Seedeater (non-countable), Red-Shouldered Hawk, Black Phoebe, Snowy Plover,Yellow-crowned night heron, Rufous-crowned sparrow, Allen's Hummingbird, Black-vented shearwater, Island Scrub-Jay, Brown Booby (Aba Code 3), Black Skimmer, Little Blue Heron,Nuttal's Woodpecker, Hermit Warbler, Green-tailed Towhee, Verdin, Wrentit, Blue-gray Gnatcatcher, California Gnatcatcher, Californi...

My good friend George Clulow found a Siberian Accentor  (6th record for BC) while doing a Christmas Bird Count. Birders from all over the ABA came to see it including friends from WA and OR. I met people from Quebec there and NY. It was a cool phenomenon. The bird took many hours to see. I saw it a total of 3 times once with two young birders and another after seeing a Brown Thrasher (BC Rarity in Revelstoke) and once with Ilya when he got back from the field. Each time was a long painful wait in cold weather but worth it to finally see the bird. It would pop out for brief moments and I was only able to get a record shot.  This bird is an ABA Code 4 bird and a few weeks before this sighting I was in Victoria looking at another ABA Code 4 bird the Redwing. The Redwing found by Nathan Hentze was as painful a twitch as this one by standing for long hours but it involved the price of 3 expensive ferries! Thank goodness for carpooling. Congrats to George on a great find. You c...