On the 29th April, 2012 eighty six WildResearch members boarded the M. V. Frances Barkley in Ucluelet for WildResearch’ s spring pelagic trip to La Perouse Bank.  The weather looked promising, with low cloud cover, a 10 knot wind and 2 m swells.  The first 5-7 km were a bit rough, but most of the people on board had experienced worse sea conditions.

Four Orcas saluted the ship once we were in open water, but birding was relatively slow until the 10 km mark.  Around this point we started to see small rafts of Sooty Shearwaters, and our first Black-footed Albatross and Sabine’s Gull.  The frequency and size of Sooty Shearwater rafts peaked at 15 km out, with a number of rafts of 200 birds.  Past the 30 km mark, we started to have regular visits from Black-footed Albatrosses that flew in and circled the ship repeatedly before landing and feeding on fish chum.

Spring pelagic trips generally tend to see fewer numbers of birds and have lower species diversity, but the real draw is the chance of finding rare seabirds, species that birders dream of seeing. We had an impressive number of Black-footed Albatrosses and good numbers of Sooty Shearwaters, but Pink-footed Shearwaters were scarce. Unfortunately we did not see any terns, jaegers or fulmars.

The highlight of the trip was a Manx Shearwater that was first spotted at 15 km on the way out and was seen by a handful of people before it disappeared between the waves as it flew away from the ship. On the way back likely the same bird was sighted near the original location, but this time most people on the ship were able to see it and some good photographs were taken. This is the 22nd occurrence of Manx Shearwater in BC, but these sighting were the first time the species was seen by a large number of observers. It was a very exciting find for the end of the trip.

Tom Plath, Russell Cannings and Jeremiah Kennedy did a great job of spotting birds and relaying that information to the other decks of the ship. Once again we had many great birders on board that were really helpful about calling out sightings and helping others find what was being seen – there was some exceptional teamwork happening! Pablo Jost worked hard getting the chum in the water, while WildResearch Directors Paul Levesque, Christine Rock, Emily McAuley, Jay Brogan, and Kala Harris made sure that the trip ran smoothly. Special thanks go to Christine Rock who did the bulk of the trip organizing. The crew of the Frances Barkley was once again very helpful and a pleasure to work with.

Offshore Sightings

Birds

• Tufted Puffin – 3 (one sat on the water close to the ship giving great looks; the two others were flybys)
• Ancient Murrelet – 7
• Marbled Murrelet – 5
• Common Murre – 30
• Pigeon Guillemot – 5 (near shore)
• Cassin’s Auklet – 40 (mostly small flocks)
• Rhinoceros Auklet – 40 (most were within 15 km of shore)
• Sooty Shearwater – 2000 (the first were seen within 5 km of shore and they became abundant past 10 km out)
• Pink-footed Shearwater – 8
• Manx Shearwater – 1 (YES!)
• Black-footed Albatross – 20
• Fork-tailed Storm-Petrel – 5
• Red-necked Phalarope – 15
• Red Phalarope – 75 (individuals and a flock of 10-20)
• Sabine’s Gull – 20
• Bonaparte’s Gull – 20 (often associating with Sabine’s Gulls)
• Northern Pintail – 40 (2 different flocks flying 37 km out)
• Green-winged Teal – 2 (37 km out)
• Brant – 8 (37 km out)
• Pacific Loon – 200 (most were in breeding plumage)

Marine Mammals

• Humpback Whale – 70 (great views of a number of Humpbacks close to the ship and many could be seen blowing in the distance)
• Grey Whale – 3 (near shore)
• Orca – 4 (2 males and 2 female near shore)
• Harbor Porpoise – 2 (near shore)
• Fur Seal – 1
• Sea Otter – 3 (7 km out)

Join WildResearch for our annual Bird Identification Workshops at a variety of parks across the Metro Vancouver area!

• Learn to identify a wide variety of wintering birds, with a focus on:
  • Waterfowl
  • Loons
  • Gulls
  • Shorebirds
  • Raptors
  • Sparrows
• Meet and socialize with nature loving individuals
• Network with professional biologists

Dates and Locations

Meeting time is 10:00am for all workshops.

Meeting location and further details are available upon signing up for each trip.

Workshops are open to all current WildResearch members. To confirm your participation, please use WhenToHelp to join the event(s) you’d like to attend.

• Members without WhenToHelp accounts should email info@wildresearch.ca
• Nonmembers can join us at wildresearch.ca/get-involved/become-a-member/

Contact us at info@wildresearch.ca for more information

WildResearch is participating in the BC Butterfly Atlas, a citizen science project aimed at increasing knowledge about butterfly species biodiversity and distribution within British Columbia. More information about the BC Butterfly Atlas project can be found at: http://www.bcbutterflyatlas.ca/

Members of WildResearch are encouraged to participate in the BC Butterfly Atlas by 1) submitting incidental observations, 2) monitoring a site, 3) monitoring a 10x10km atlas square and/or 3) assisting WildResearch with surveys in our atlas square.

Assisting WildResearch with surveys:

WildResearch has committed to surveying the 10x10km atlas square 10DV85 and based on advice from the Butterfly Atlas Coordinator, we’ve identified 7 suitable sites to survey within our atlas square which include:

• Vanier Park
• Jericho Beach/Spanish Banks
• Pacific Spirit Park
• Southlands
• Sea Island
• Iona Island
• Arbutus Corridor

Printable PDF maps of each site are available by clicking the above links. For an overview of these locations, please look at the following pre-set google maps link: https://maps.google.ca/maps/ms?msid=200700335528771346770.0004c146f10248f8096f6&msa=0&ll=49.267132,-123.178711&spn=0.095213,0.222988

Survey details:

Please keep in mind that the Butterfly Atlas protocol suggests meandering through a site to target areas likely to contain butterflies. While we have chosen the above sites, you are free to explore the sites as you see fit. This means that you MUST record latitude/longitude or UTM coordinates (Northings and Eastings) every 100m, as indicated in the Instructions for Atlassers document on the BC Butterfly Atlas website. This spatial information can be obtained from a handheld GPS, smart phone that has a GPS feature, or can be estimated from grid lines on the attached maps. 

Recording and submitting data:

We ask that those assisting WildResearch with surveys:

1. Register themselves:
2. record survey data on FORM C, download FORM C here:http://www.bcbutterflyatlas.ca/instructions-forms/
3. enter data into the provided ‘BC Butterfly Atlas-WildResearch data template’ excel spreadsheet
4. email the spreadsheet to info@wildresearch.ca on or before September 1^st 2012

How to sign-up:

WildResearch members can sign-up to assist WildResearch with surveys by sending an email to info@wildresearch.ca indicating the following information:

1. name(s)
2. site(s) interested in surveying (of 7 listed above)
3. survey period(s) ; 1) mid-June, 2) mid-July, or 3) second half of August