Tuesday Oct 13 2015 West Dyke, Steveston Village/Richmond. Sunny 14c
After the Canada Thanksgiving weekend I desperately needed an excuse to walk off all the turkey, stuffing and pumpkin pie I had eaten. With that in mind I made my way out for a full day of birding. My first stop was to be West Dyke near Steveston Village.It was a new location for me and the news that a Tropical Kingbird had been seen the previous day had me stoked. If I could find the vagrant it would be a Canada year bird #268. The Tropical Kingbird is a rare visitor to the Lower Mainland and Vancouver area so the opportunity to see it was too much to pass up.
There was one last year at Brunswick Point and another a few years before that. We had just had a small storm which originated in Pacific Ocean which may have blown it off course and brought it to our shores. The species is more at home in arid Arizona, hopefully it will eventually find its way home. Meanwhile here are some pix.
 |
| Tropical Kingbird with grasshopper. |
 |
| The bird spent the morning hawking insects from small Pacific Crabapple tree |
 |
| A flying ant becomes the kingbird's next meal |
 |
| The kingbird has incredible eyesight and would fly 50-60 yards to snag and insect. It seemed more intent on hawking insects and seemed oblivious of passersby, cyclist and photographers. |
"It's never too late to start birding"
John Gordon
Langley/Cloverdale
BC Canada
Nice work John! I loved seeing this beauty yesterday too!
ReplyDeleteThanks, I was so glad I could find the bird for Peter Candido who had been looking for it for three hours.
DeleteThat's the best thing about the birding community, the sharing of knowledge and the years of expertise out there.