TRUE AMATEUR LET LOOSE IN CANADA!
At times I get ideas above my station that perhaps I know a little about birds ... but a recent visit to Canada on holiday (28 August 18 September) well and truly established my amateur status in the birding stakes!
Like Europe, Canada is firmly wedged in the northern hemisphere and has quite similar families of birds including sparrows, wrens, warblers, woodpeckers, hawks, grebes, auks and waders but very few of them are actually the same species, which is where my problems began.
To attempt to identify them, I had to adopt a different tactic to that employed bird-watching in Europe, and took copious notes of what I'd seen and only pulled out my trusty National Geographic Field Guide to the Birds of North America once back indoors with good lighting to help me pore over the 967 entries and see which ones might match my scribblings.
Some were easy, of course, like the majestic Bald Eagle, the startling blue plumage of Stellar's Jay, and the impressive black and red Pileated Woodpecker. I expected the occasional exotic' type to be relatively easy to identify, too like the hummingbird I saw quite close in a park on Vancouver Island, but on surveying the guide I saw there were 19 possible hummingbird species to choose from.
Range maps narrowed it down, and fortunately I'd got a photograph that homed in further still, eventually allowing me to plump with reasonable confidence for Anna's'.
Many were similarly tricky: Sparrows were prone to pop up just about anywhere, but there are no fewer than 40 species to choose from, of which 18 were to be found where I was travelling in British Columbia and Alberta. One or two, like the White-crowned Sparrow were obvious, very many more were not. It was the same story with warblers only worse.
The guide proclaimed up to 54 warbler species held sway in North America, and my itinerary could produce as many as 21. Now these are not little brown jobs' necessarily, some are beautifully coloured with greens and yellows to the fore (not helpful as I'm slightly colour blind, so often can't pick up subtle contrasts) but many are very similar indeed, with only the shade of the greater coverts, the colour of the outer tail feathers or a slight light eye ring offering a definitive clue to a specific species.
This all made it rather frustrating but also challenging and exciting. I was starting almost with a blank canvas and never knew quite what I'd see each day. Late August/early September meant I'd missed a number of the migrants which had begun to move south for the winter, but there was still plenty around.
I eventually topped 100 species just but couldn't help feeling that was not quite par for the course. Slightly better preparation, or more than one guide, or an occasional trip with fellow birders (as my wife's not that interested in avian wildlife, so I have to choose my moments), or my scope (which latest airline weight restrictions convinced me to leave behind), or a sudden cure for colour blindness ... any or all of these might have improved my performance.
Still, it was truly great to be out in the big outdoors and it doesn't get much bigger than Canada. Everything felt so fresh and alive ... rather too alive, maybe. It was exhilarating to think a really large hunk of wildlife could be around the next corner. We didn't see a bear until the final full day, at an isolated lake. Before that the animal and mammal list had included Orcas, Grey and Humpback Whales, seals, Buffaloes, Beavers, Elk, Bighorn Sheep, several species of deer, ground squirrel and chipmunk.
The birding highlight could have been Belted Kingfishers seeing off some hawks on the river, or Sooty Shearwaters skimming the channels north of Vancouver Island, or the first Bald Eagle, or a single dazzling flash of colour allowing me to identify a Mountain Bluebird. Whatever, Canada is to be recommended as a fabulous holiday and birding location (but go in the spring!).
Gary Atkins