Diario de seanthebiobro

A few weeks ago I ran into this American dipper in a side channel of the Campbell River in Elk Falls Provincial Park. It's one of my favourite local hiking spots in Campbell River, but it was the first time seeing this species in this spot (actually my first on Vancouver Island).

Looking into BC's Breeding Bird Atlas, it looks like there are both coastal and mountain dippers. It looks like we might have both in the area — birds living high up in the mountains and others staying along the coast.

Dippers are also known for there tendency to undergo altitudinal migrations.

But which was this (looks like there are year-round iNat observations in the park)?

Are there fundamental behavioural or genetic differences between the two?

Not sure. I do know that dippers are sweet birds.

Feeling a little cooped up in Campbell River, we decided to hit the road and explore the north of Vancouver Island on a little one night trip. It was the first time exploring the area north of Sayward, and we were treated by some incredible landscapes and some nifty species.

On our first day, we decided to stop for lunch in Port McNeil, a small community on the coast on our stop for the night, Coal Harbour. We were eating lunch on a picnic table in a park next the harbour, when we noticed a group of loons just off the shore. I literally jammed the rest of my sandwich in my mouth and grabbed my camera to watch them up close.

Being pretty new in B.C., this winter has been the first time I've really studied loon nonbreeding plumage. I'm still learning! I believe most of the loons we saw were common loons (still have to upload some sightings to iNat) but let me know if there is a Pacific as well in the video (I hope I got it right!)

Exploring the harbour, I came across a loon that looked quite a bit different from the others. Seeing its light yellow bill, I had an inkling it might be a yellow-billed loon — but was a bit unsure with my ID as I had never seen the species before. Fortunately, the iNat community came to the rescue as it always does, and helped confirm my identification. Lifer!

The harbour boasted some other interesting species, including red-necked grebe, horned grebe, black turnstone, red-breasted merganser, and white-winged scoter.

It was a great birding stop on our trip!

-Sean