Despite the cool, wet and gloomy weather that has dominated during March and April this year, the spring migration is currently in full flow with new species of birds arriving on the Sunshine Coast on a daily basis. Some of these species are here to stay and breed during the summer, and others are just passing through on their way to locations further north.
For the ten-day period April 14 to 23, snow goose flocks were seen and heard overhead in abundance with up to 15 skeins daily and thousands of birds. They are winging their way to Wrangell Island in Siberia to nest and will return again in September. Among the dozens of snow geese flocks there have also been a few flocks of both Canada geese and white-fronted geese. The Canada geese flocks are separate from the local birds that have become sedentary and no longer migrate as they should.
Newly arriving species are too numerous to mention individually, but the families most in evidence are the sparrows and the warblers. White-crowned and golden-crowned sparrows are currently present in great abundance. Most are transiting our area for areas further north, but white-crowns will remain as a common summering species here. Other sparrow species that have been recorded are savannah, Lincoln’s, a few chipping and one or two white-throated. Sparrows are seed-eating, ground inhabiting birds. Up in the trees the insect-eating warbler family predominates and yellow-rumped and orange-crowned warblers have been abundant with black-throated grays and Townsend’s warblers just arriving. Common yellowthroat is an aberrant warbler that is a marsh-dweller, and they are now common in all of our wetlands.
The cold spring of 2017 has produced some migration anomalies, presumably because the Coast Range mountains are still cold and snowbound. A few species usually migrate at higher elevations in the mountains but appear to have been driven down to sea level by the weather. It has been an unprecedented year in coastal B.C. for Say’s phoebe, normally a very rare species on the Coast, but recorded here about 10 times this spring. April is online to be a record year also for Townsend’s solitaire with multiple birds being seen all along the Sunshine Coast.
Most other migrant species will arrive in the next two to three weeks, and we currently await the arrival of black-headed grosbeaks, cedar waxwings, yellow warblers, Swainson’s thrush and numerous others. On the water, look for huge flocks of surf scoters (in the thousands) and the first Caspian tern has already been seen at Mission Point.
To report your sightings or questions, contact Tony at [email protected] or 604-885-5539. Good birding.
