Survey data of 2019 with the complete list of 74 species can be found here.
If you are an avid eBird user, you know that Regional Parks Botanic Garden is a birding hotspot. Searching through 2019 eBird reports by birders who visited the Garden, you will come across quite a few interesting species that were not sighted during our surveys. Since these reports were submitted nearly all by reputable birders, they are worth our attention. Let’s look at, first, a number of birds that are in our checklist, but were not seen in last year’s surveys.
What we missed in 2019: Lazuli Bunting, Lincoln’s Sparrow, Red-breasted Sapsucker, Willow Flycatcher, House Wren, Red Crossbill, Pine Siskin, and American Goldfinch.
The most glaring miss is perhaps Red-breasted Sapsucker. There are active sap wells on several trees in the Garden. In fact, one winter weekend I had a glimpse of the bird in Channel Island Section, but alas, it was outside the survey time. So even though we did not have the bird in our 2019 data, we know it was in the Garden.
Second, there are five reported species that are not even in our checklist: Western Screech Owl, Chipping Sparrow, White-breasted Nuthatch, MacGillivray Warbler, and Brown-headed Cowbird.
Now that we have been alerted to their occurrence in the Garden, albeit transiently, we will keep an eye (and ear) out for them!
In addition to numbers and lists, below are some memorable moments we had in 2019.
Ellen:
One morning our intrepid surveyors ventured into the Canyon Section where the tall redwoods have been living for a very long time. Here it feels truly wild. Traversing the west facing hillside, we heard it: the Pacific wren. The song is pure liquid music.
On this particular morning we were well above the creek. The bird seemed intent on coming to investigate these tall bipeds. Although the song seemed somewhere down the slope, suddenly the bird was just in front of us, skulking around in a sword fern cluster. This wren is a trickster, making his voice appear in places he is not, and sounding oh-so-big! But this bird is tiny and dark brown, with a short cocky tail. Its movement is reminiscent of a mouse. Instead of running on the ground, this wren flies low between clumps of vegetation to investigate upturned roots and decaying logs for food.
We were lucky that day to see the Pacific wren, and we are always delighted to hear its liquid song.
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| Pacific Wren, November 13, 2019. By Minder Cheng. |
Near the Channel Island section remains one of my favorite survey spots. The unmistakable cheery calls and twittering of the Lesser Goldfinch fill the air, and on overcast days their bright yellow breasts appear to be tiny globes of sun--but fluttering ones!
Bart (from two email messages):
A huge flock of Cedar Waxwings spent several hours in the garden today (April 27). They seemed to be flying in a large circle–arriving over the Visitor Center and landing in the alders. From there they went down to the flowering Amelanchier (next to the button willow), then off into the aspens and points south. They kept going in this circuit for a few hours. I think there were probably 100 in the flock.
This evening (May 8th), the Cedar Waxwing flock is back. As I am with this, there are a lot of them perched at the top of the alder that is right across from the Visitor Center deck. There are only about a quarter to half as many as last time (probably between 25 and 50 right now) and they don’t seem to be as “flighty” as they were. Most of them just few off toward the southwest, after a small group flew in from the southeast.
