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June 10th, 2004  Greater Than Waxwings In last week’s column I stated the upcoming annual Churn Creek trip would be my 10th consecutive excursion - well, it was my 11th. This came to light when a fellow birder, Tim, pulled out his notebook and read from the 1993 highlights, which named me as one of the participants. What is there about celebrating the 11th something-or-rather that sounds somehow inferior to the 10th? Nevertheless, this annual Churn Creek trip proved to be as confounding as some previous outings. Were there outstanding sightings? Well, that depends on whom you ask. Toward the end of this week's column I will trot out one of my sightings that I hope puts no one else, but myself, in a dim light. But first I'll put the trip in a nutshell. Rain was the order of the weekend. In the weeks leading up to the trip I agreed we needed some rain what, I kept asking would be the harm in having a nice warm rain. Does it always have to be an ice-age rainforest downpour? Well, I got my wish. On Scout Island, in Williams Lake, the sky opened its main valves and poured forth a steady torrent. The ambient temperature was high, I’d guess in the seventies, so we got wet and stayed warm. This combination allowed us to walk the trails without the sound of chattering teeth drowning out the few birds that sang in the lashing branch tips. The Veerys, which love this kind of day, were in full voice. Bird sightings rolled in despite the steady overcast weather. Aside from watching a nest of Peregrine Falcons near Dog Creek, and a Sprague’s Pippit on the return trip, most sightings were what one would expect for this time of year. Willow Flycatchers were abundant and vocal. There was no shortage of Lazuli Buntings - I heard so many that their two main songs finally managed to imbed themselves in my memory. Pelicans showed up in two flocks at Alkali Lake. Some saw Long-billed Curlews at the Dog Creek airport. I did not. Bullock’s Orioles and Western Kingbirds were seen in many places. The only common species not on any of our lists was the Lewis’ Woodpecker. By the time we rolled into Churn Creek campsite late in the evening, Mike’s list was well over 100 species. The next day began with usual early morning stroll and other than a close interaction with two very curious Mule Deer, sightings weren’t spectacular. Then, in somewhat of a replay of last year’s Churn Creek Sunday morning, we noticed that the tire on the van in which I was a passenger was losing air and was already quite low. With four adults and all their equipment on board, a saggy tire was going to be troublesome. By now all the members of our convoy had gone ahead but luckily we still had one other vehicle with us, a very capable truck. We decided that a gas station in Dog Creek, about 10 miles away, might offer a remedy to the tire problem so we started in that direction. Though we were concerned about the tire’s condition we had to stop at some traditional birding hotspots on the way where we had in past seen a Spotted Towhee, Pacific Slope Flycatcher, and a resident Ruffed Grouse. The road drops down steeply as one nears Dog Creek and at a spot where the creek crosses the road just on the edge of the community, we stopped again. Rumour had it that a tire pump was on board the van so when we stopped I offloaded some baggage to lighten the load and allow the tire pump to do its thing more easily. Suddenly one of the van’s owners decided to belay the self-pumping and strike out once again for the Dog Creek gas station. The rest of our crew stayed behind. It was a sunny morning and we were in a semi-exotic location with time on our hands, so what else was there to do but a little birding? We wandered up the road and were treated to the best view of a singing Spotted Towhee that one could hope to see. An Orange-crowned Warbler sang out just behind the Towhee. Just so we could complete our comparison of birds that trill, a Chipping Sparrow chimed in. All that was missing was a singing Junco. When we turned around a while later the van hove into sight back by the creek. Two of us hoisted binoculars to scrutinize the back wheel. The tire was inflated! We started in the direction of the van and I fell behind distracted by a Western Tanager and some other little bird that was most likely a female Lazuli Bunting. While I walked towards the van, I happened to look up in a dead tree and see a brown bird with a crest sitting in the upper branches. I can’t remember at this point whether I used my binoculars but without a moments hesitation I wrote the bird off as a Cedar Waxwing. Two of our crew glassed the same bird as I continued walking towards them. When I was directly under the bird I looked up. Suddenly nothing about it reminded me of a Waxwing. It had a rather plain underside with a slightly ‘vested’ configuration like that of an Olive-sided Flycatcher. There was no yellow terminal tail band. I snapped the binoculars to my eyes in time to see the bird fly, without losing altitude, into a fir tree just across the road. 'Was that just a Waxwing?' I asked one of those who were also scanning the bird. When they replied in the negative, I was suddenly perplexed. Thankfully due to being quite tired, my perplexity only allowed for short bursts of rumination about the bird’s true identity. While the van was reloaded I continued scanning the evergreen but never saw the mystery bird again. After a good night’s sleep excess energy returned and the mystery bird sighting grew larger. I began obsessing about it. Very few birds fit the description, in fact the only one seemed impossible. What bird is brown with a crest? If not a Waxwing then what? The only answer I could come up with was a Greater Pewee. But what would a Greater Pewee be doing in Dog Creek? Their range was in Mexico, with scattered sightings in California, and Texas. The problem was that I made my identification of the bird based solely on the sighting of a crest and the colour brown. I know the Cedar Waxwing well and if it had been that bird, considering the view I was afforded, I would not doubt myself for a minute. So there I was, stuck with a brown, obviously crested bird, without Waxwing details. It’s the crest that is still driving me mad. This was a real crest, not a wind-blown, top of the head, mussing of normally flat feathers. I now teeter on a most precarious point. Do I send out word to any birder passing through the Dog Creek area to keep an eye out for a Greater Pewee or do I just stew silently and privately, safe from the embarrassment of putting forth unproven sightings of grandeur? By the way no one else on the trip knows of my Greater Pewee versus Waxwing dilemma. My 11th annual Churn Creek trip may be over, but like some others, it will not fade quickly from my mind. h as I’m not one to honour tradition, I’m equally not one to wonder what the future will bring. To e-mail Tom CLICK HERE To look at previous column CLICK HERE |
