Shorebirding – Tofino style!

During the long winter months in Calgary I like to plan out a few birding trips for the coming spring and summer months, with a preference for visiting pastures new (to me, at least). Having read about the annual May ‘Tofino Shorebird Festival’ held in neighboring British Columbia’s Vancouver Island, this seemed an ideal destination: a new place, potential for new birds, and only a short flight & drive away. Plus, I could spend a little time in Victoria checking out a few other birdy spots that I hadn’t got to visit when I last passed through 2 years before.

Flying into Victoria on Thursday night, I made my way at a leisurely pace to Tofino (several hours’ drive away on the west coast of the island) stopping in at a few locations along the way where I was able to shoot a few birds that I don’t see too often:

 

 

 

 

By the time I arrived in the Tofino area in the late afternoon, the sunny blue skies of Victoria had given way to cloudy and showery conditions. Undeterred, I headed out to Chesterman Beach to look for shorebirds. The results were quite disappointing to say the least…the beach was full of people, but worse was the fact that many of them had brought their unleashed dogs along and they were charging up and down the beach, and frequently pooping in the sand. Definitely not ideal conditions for finding birds. The afternoon was rescued when I was able to find half a dozen Semi-palmated Plovers hiding behind some large rocks:

 

Rising early the next day, the weather conditions had deteriorated further: bright overcast clouds (which is actually great for photography), however there was now an almost constant accompanying drizzle. The good news was that my camera (Canon 1Dx) is designed to cope with wet conditions like this, so I headed back to Chesterman with hopes for better birding this go around.

Once again, the shorebirds were almost non-existent…

Although I did manage to find some more Semi-palmated Plovers…

As well as a Common Raven seemingly venting its frustration at the lousy weather:

By now I was beginning to think this ‘Shorebird Festival’ must just be some sort of lark to draw in tourists!

So, I decided to try a little further down the coast at Pacific Rim National Park, specifically the miles & miles of sandy shore at Long Beach. Again, quite a few people here, but with so much shoreline there was plenty of space for all…including, finally, a bevy of shorebirds!:

 

I quickly hit the deck (I like to shoot shorebirds with my lens at their eye-level, so this means I need to lie on my belly) and began firing away, trying to pick out various individual species, such as:

 

Sanderling:

Black-bellied Plover:

Short-billed Dowitchers:

Least Sandpipers:

More Semi-palmated Plovers:

Only later when I was reviewing my images and videos on my PC did appreciate why so many shorebirds congregate here on their northward migration: there is a lot to eat! Shorebirds move so quickly as they forage that with the naked eye you can’t always notice what they are doing, but clearly there is an abundance of sand worms out there that they are feasting on:

 

One of the many great things about shorebirds is that they are – at least in North America, in my experience – quite tolerant of people. All you need to do generally is be patient and either move slowly towards them, or let them come to you as they forage up and down the shoreline. This enables some very close encounters:

 

And don’t be discouraged if the flock startles and flies off en masse…often the flock will whirl around:

and around…

and around…

And many times land back in the same place…right where those juicy worms were before!

After about two hours of getting covered in sand and saltspray, the drizzle became rain and I decided to call it quits, very satisfied with the morning’s shorebird feast and now understanding why you can have a shorebird festival here!

 

On my way back to my vehicle, the ‘icing on the cake’ moment came in the form of this unexpected treat: a colourful Varied Thrush that made a brief appearance in the conifer forest bordering the shoreline parking lot:

 

All in all, I am very happy I made the Tofino trip!

Finally, on the morning in Victoria before I headed home to good ol’ YYC, I was able find a few nice gems:

 

And a lovely sparrow:

 

and last but not least…who doesn’t like hummers?: