It’s summertime on the Sunshine Coast!
How do we know this? Apart from the wonderful summery weather it is evident that summer is here because the Swainson’s thrushes are singing their glorious songs at dawn and in the evenings.
Swainson’s thrush is the West Coast equivalent of the famous European nightingale. The two species are both in the thrush family and look similar in that they are both unassuming little brown birds that belie their exceptional singing ability. Further, they are both shy birds that stay hidden low in the forest or brush and rarely show themselves.
The birds winter in tropical jungles and arrive on the Sunshine Coast reliably after May 12 when their soft “whit” call note can be heard in the forest after this date.
After about a week, presumably when the males have established their breeding territory, they begin to sing their wonderful song with its pure musical notes that spiral upwards. The males will sing until about July 10 after which song becomes redundant as the breeding season is over for another year.
To listen to the song of Swainson’s thrush on a June evening as the sun sets over Vancouver Island and the sky darkens is to touch the essence of summer on our beautiful Sunshine Coast.
On May 29 another harbinger of summer first reappeared — the common nighthawk.
This is another bird seen and heard on summer evenings as it flies zig-zag patterns across the sky in search of insects which it scoops up with its wide-open bill. The bird, which often flies in loose flocks, is often noticed as it dives and the wind whistles through its wing feathers.
June is the month of maximum bird song on the Sunshine Coast and all of our best songsters are now singing.
On Redrooffs Road in Halfmoon Bay, black-headed grosbeaks, warbling vireos and MacGillivray’s warblers are very evident. Along the powerline the song of the olive-sided flycatcher can be heard with its famous “quick three beers” refrain.
Sunshine Coast birders have found some unusual birds in the last couple of weeks with a male Bullock’s oriole at the Sechelt Marsh and then a pair at the Wilson Creek estuary, and a yellow-headed blackbird in West Porpoise Bay. On Gospel Rock in Gibsons there has been a pair of lazuli buntings.
To report your sightings or questions contact [email protected] or call 604-885-5539.
