January 30th, 2011

Occasionally a bird rare to the local scene will show up unannounced and cause quite a stir in the birding community. Take the case of the Anna’s hummingbird presently residing in a homeowner’s yard in Newfoundland. Not so unusual except that it’s winter out east and there are no flowering plants to provide nectar – and that this bird is far from it’s home and native land on the opposite coast. It’s anyone’s guess how this tiny resident of British Columbia, and California ended up on “The Rock” in January.

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Annas_Hummingbird/id

Closer to home, a varied thrush that breeds from Alaska and the Yukon south through BC, and ought to be wintering in California is hanging out in a Wellesley, Ontario yard (Regional Municipality of Waterloo). It’s one of at least 6 of this species known to be in the province at the moment. Again, the reason for it’s presence here is unexplainable, but one theory is that some wires got crossed in the birds migration modules, and they went east instead of south!!

http://www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Varied_Thrush/id

When these rare sightings become known, birders will flock (pun intended) to their location armed with binoculars, field guides, spotting scopes, and cameras with super-telephoto lenses. An unassuming family’s privacy has just been shattered for the duration of the bird’s stay. Some will be locals, some will drive several hours, and others will book long-distance flights all in the hopes of adding another species to their “life list”.

Stuart MacLean describes this phenomenon with incredible accuracy and hillarious wit in an episode of his CBC Radio show Vinyl Cafe called “The Bird”. In this link, you can listen to the entire one hour show (all bird-watching humour), or fast-forward to the 30 minute mark to hear just the tale.

http://castroller.com/podcasts/CbcRadioVinyl/1697679-VC%20June%2019th,%202010%20The%20Bird

My friend xxxxxx sent me a photo by email a few weeks ago of a yyyyy at her bird feeders. I suggested we keep it our little secret…