Sketch and story by Tom Godin,
January 04, 2002

One of the greatest gifts an avid birder can receive is one that must be given by nature. I speak of the lifer. A lifer is a bird that has never been seen by the birder before and is cause for celebration and usually a lot of learning. I received such a present on our recent Christmas bird count.

I returned from the coast on December 28 to find that the 100 Mile Christmas bird count was to be held the next day. I knew I would be suffering ‘car-lag’ from the trip but I arose the day of the count with enough energy to pull on my boots and assemble the gear. It looked like a great day. The clouds were scattered. There was sunshine and no wind. The temperature was just below zero, enough to make it cool but not too cool. I was keenly aware of the number of bird species tallied on the Williams Lake and Quesnel bird counts, 46 and 49 consecutively, and wanted to see how many 100 Mile could get.

A squadron of Redpolls had assembled on the feeder in the yard even before I was out the door so they went down as the first species.

There was no bird activity at the butcher shop on the road to town. Usually several Bald Eagles and Ravens are can be seen without difficulty.

I was to meet my partner-in-the-count at 10 so I had time to do a little scouting through the town beforehand. Three feeders on the north edge of the subdivision usually attract Red-winged Blackbirds and sure enough I got them without difficulty. Most were immature males and the occasional female, part of a flock of about 100 birds. I was surprised to see one yellow-headed Blackbird with them. It was a male in first winter plumage with a bit more yellow on the nape than is shown the typical bird book picture.

As planned, I met the other birder and we methodically covered the different areas in and around town. At Skaday Bridge we got a Northern Shrike, the only one of the day. By plying the skies we did count two Bald Eagles, again the only ones seen. A walk through the park produced a Song Sparrow but no American Dipper. Things were going about as expected.

Long trudges through spruce groves were good exercise but failed to produce a Three-toed Woodpecker, a bird I always hope to get on the winter count. In the park, following the sound of pecking on a tree trunk, we discovered a pair of Hairy Woodpeckers.

After a pause for lunch we went to the north end of the town to the ranch with the historic barn. Last year we got Rock Doves, commonly called pigeons, at this location and Brewer’s Blackbirds. We hoped to do the same this time.

As we stepped out of the van we could see a lot of Brewer’s Blackbirds on the fences and around the feet of the horses and cows. We went a little closer and I saw a curious sight. Through binoculars I was studying three very black Brewer’s Blackbirds lined up on the fence when I noticed that the fourth bird in the row had a very reddish back not unlike a squirrel in colour. As one of the Brewer’s Blackbirds in front of this bird lowered its head I could see the face of the reddish-backed bird. It was a Rusty Blackbird. How did I know, never having seen one before? It was exactly like a Rusty Blackbird in a painting by J. Fenwick Lansdowne.

‘Rusty Blackbird!’ I started repeating. ‘The fourth bird on this fence is a Rusty blackbird!’ It flew before my counting partner got a good look at it but I was already sure of what I had seen. It took a while but we finally saw the Rusty Blackbird again and two others. The Rusty Blackbird was a lifer for me!

As I said earlier, a lifer sighting usually leads to learning and in reading about the Rusty Blackbird I found that the more gaudy bird I saw was a female. The other two were males with black with reddish tinges on their heads. The name Rusty makes sense when these winter plumages are encountered. In breeding season the males are very black and show a bit of green on the head.

Rusty Blackbirds are normally found in the north in breeding season and migrate to places like Minnesota and as far south as Florida in winter. The Williams Lake checklist shows the Rusty occurring from April to October as rare (one to six sightings a year) with no winter recordings. Other winter sightings recorded in Birds of British Columbia are very scattered throughout the province. Rusty Blackbirds do occur in the west in winter in states like Oregon and California but generally the Rusty Blackbird population winters on the eastern side of the continent. I think it is safe to say that this winter sighting could be called noteworthy.

After the Rusty Blackbird sighting we hit a few more places. As winter days are short, those who had taken part in the Christmas bird count convened at a local restaurant to share stories of the day and compile a list of what had been seen. When it was all over we tallied 29 species totaling 993 birds. The species with the biggest numbers was the Common Redpoll followed by the Red-winged Blackbird, Raven, and Black-capped Chickadee. One interesting bird on the list was the Boreal Chickadee which came to my feeder where I had a person stationed to record its visit. Unfortunately the White-breasted Nuthatch didn’t show but it has been absent for some time now. It seemed odd but not one Pine Siskin was counted. The species we did get were typical for the area in December. With the sighting of the Rusty Blackbird, the Blackbird clan was well represented with the Red-winged, Yellow-headed, and Brewer’s Blackbirds all being present in the area.

I think if we got a little more organized and got a few more people in the field we might have a hope of getting near 40 species but even then I doubt we could hit species numbers like those recorded in Williams Lake and Quesnel. We lack open water which reduces our chances of getting waterfowl for one thing. But all in all it was a fine day of birding. We did the important thing which was record our winter birds.

We had over a dozen people in the field on the count. Some people, restricted to the indoors, phoned their sightings in. Our youngest birder out for the Christmas bird count was a ten-year-old. For those who missed getting to go out perhaps another outing could be planned. There are still lots of winter days left. A night of owling should be considered. Soon the owls will begin their mating and territorial calls and luring them in with imitations of their calls is much easier.