Here is my team report for the Okanagan Big Day Challenge. Hope to see many
of you a year from now at the 17th annual Challenge!

A CHALLENGING BIG DAY

My 2001 Okanagan Big Day Challenge birdathon started out with the usual
logistical challenges-a full day of leading bird tours for the Meadowlark
Festival followed by the festival banquet where I introduced the speaker,
writer Sharon Butala. Not that the festival and banquet were a challenge,
but it would have been nice to nap a bit before heading out into the woods
at midnight. One of my teammates, Dave Aldcroft from Shawnigan Lake, was
waiting for me when I got home from the banquet. I roused my son Russell
and
his friend Gabe David from bed, sliced up some bagels, got Russell and Gabe
out of bed again (Russ had climbed back in and Gabe had apparently never
woken up!) and we were off to Penticton. I dropped Russ and Gabe off at Tim
Hortons to meet the third member of their youth team, Ryan Tomlinson of
Kelowna, then picked up our third, Wendy Marshall of Bridge Lake. Finally
all the details came together and we were at our midnight starting point,
waiting for the screech owls to call at McLean Creek near Okanagan Falls.

And, as often is the case, nothing called back to our whistles. The only
sound we heard was the car full of the Sunshine Coast team pulling up to
try
for the same owls. We left quickly to get to the north end of Osoyoos Lake
to pick up Barn and Great Horned Owls. We found a Great Horned perched on a
power pole near its nest, checked off Yellow-breasted Chat singing in the
darkness, but couldn't find a Barn Owl, though Russ later told us they saw
one several times at the same place.

We then raced north to Oliver and drove up the McKinney Road, where a
Flammulated Owl hooted on cue, but a Barred took a bit longer than planned
and only gave a few odd hoots and whines that had us puzzled for a while.
We
bumped into another team heading up the road as we went down-this road is
one of the most popular for a dawn start to a Big Day in the valley. Our
next owling stop was Irrigation Creek for a second try at Western
Screech-Owl. No sign of the owls, but we did find another team of coastal
birders just waking up to start their day. I walked everyone in to a
saw-whet owl nest box (and found that it's a lot harder to find a nest box
in the middle of a forest in the dark than during the day!), gave the
male's
food delivery whistle, and the five nestlings inside shrieked back. Four
owl
species.

It was getting late now-after 4 a.m., so we drove fast up the Shuttleworth
Creek road to our date with the dawn on the high plateau above Okanagan
Falls. It was getting light by the time we got to 1500 metres elevation, so
we had to drive by our Boreal Owl sites and start counting the species of
the dawn chorus. We opened the doors and the chill of a very cold dawn
greeted us-a skiff of fresh snow and a bitter wind from the north. Not
surprisingly, we didn't hear a single warbler singing, though the Fox
Sparrows and Varied Thrushes were tuning up, and two male Spruce Grouse
broke silence with double wing-claps. Another team pulled up 100 metres up
the road-the Nanaimo gang-and Russ's team came in from the south. We left
to
get some peace and quiet and hopefully a Boreal Chickadee or other high
elevation goodies. The next stop was better-the chickadees called, a
creeper
sang, and a Gray Jay glided in. Things were looking up as we got back to
kilometre 20 and pulled over at a nice overlook above Shuttleworth Creek.
We
jumped out to the sound of a Townsend's Solitaire song, a Red-naped
Sapsucker drum, and a right rear tire losing air quickly.

The youth team drove by, asked if we needed help, but we politely declined
since we'd located all the necessary hardware. Within minutes we realized
all was not well, though, since the spare tire was apparently fused to the
underside of the car by rust (actually the mechanism needed to lower it was
fused). John Brighton and his team from Nanaimo stopped by and helped us
for
some time try to get the tire out, but eventually we phoned my wife who
came
with Dave's wife Diana in two cars so that we could get out of there.
Naramata is a long way though, so it was 8 a.m. by the time we left for the
Venner Meadows road, and the dawn chorus was over. We had seen four Rusty
Blackbirds and a Pine Grosbeak while we waited though, quality birds to be
sure.

In the larches on the Venner Meadows road we quickly found the Three-toed
Woodpecker and then heard a Williamson's Sapsucker drumming. It took us a
while to track him down, but Dave and Wendy were anxious to see this
handsome sapsucker. A Northern Pygmy-Owl came in to our whistles and our
spirits began to climb out of the depths of despair. Venner Meadows itself
was very, very quiet, the mid-morning wind whistling through the pines, the
waterthrushes and sparrows long since stopped singing. We turned around and
headed downhill for the ponderosa pines of Irrigation Creek.

We began to tick off species in earnest there--the Gray Flycatchers were
still singing next to a Cassin's Finch, and a White-breasted Nuthatch
whinnied beside a pair of Western Bluebirds. Further down we finally got a
Pygmy Nuthatch to call, then got to Vaseux Lake where things really picked
up. Three Lazuli Buntings sang at the overlook, while Calliope Hummingbird
males were battling it out and a couple of Lewis's Woodpeckers glowed in
the
warm (finally) sun. Canyon Wrens and Rock Wrens sang, and we were close to
being on-schedule for the species total, but still two hours behind in
time.
We skipped the north end of Vaseux Lake and went directly to River Road,
where the Black-chinned Hummingbird sat dutifully on his telephone wire and
the Black-headed Grosbeak sang exactly where it should. We finally grabbed
some sandwiches at the 7-11 in Oliver at 11:15 for a late breakfast.

At the north end of Osoyoos Lake we added more needed species--Lark
Sparrow,
Bobolink, Gray Catbird, Virginia Rail, Wilson's Phalarope, Say's Phoebe,
but
no Long-billed Curlew. On to Richter Pass and some small ponds for an array
of ducks and then to Chopaka for Brewer's Sparrow. No Sage Thrasher sang,
but we did kick up a pair of Gray Partridge, a real bonus. Trying to save
time, we drove directly back to Penticton via Keremeos, skipping the White
Lake Road with its Least Flycatcher and other possibilities. After a quick
stop at Tim Hortons we were off to the north Okanagan in a hurry.

We met up with the youth gang at Hardy Falls again. Russ blurted out that
they'd seen Vaux's Swift, Western Flycatcher and Veery there, but no
dipper.
We didn't see anything, so left a little let-down. About half an hour later
we pulled into the parking lot of Scandia Games in Kelowna, and the
Great-tailed Grackle was there in all its glory, displaying to a very
uninterested female Brewer's Blackbird. Chris Charlesworth's team pulled in
behind us, so we pulled out and went to Robert Lake for more waterbirds. A
pair of Canvasbacks and a Black Tern were good finds there, and the avocets
were on hand as advertised. No other shorebirds worth noting though. Off to
the Alki Lake landfill for more shorebirds, gulls and ducks. The big relief
there was seeing the Black-necked Stilts that have been around Kelowna for
a
few weeks this year, and finally getting American Wigeon and Northern
Pintail. The gulls were disappointing, though--only a few Ring-billeds and
Californias, and no sign of the usual Herrings and Glaucous-winged. And we
didn't see the Lesser and Greater Yellowlegs, Long-billed Dowitchers and
Dunlin reported by other, more bright-eyed teams.

On to Vernon for the final mop-up--the Commonage produced its usual fine
waterbirds--Common Goldeneye, Bonaparte's Gull, Least Sandpiper (finally a
peep for the list)--and the two terrestrial specialties of the
area--Swainson's Hawk and Clay-colored Sparrow. We had to detour into
downtown Vernon to get a Great Blue Heron at the heronry behind McDonalds,
picked up a Black Swift (still no Vaux's) at Swan Lake and then a real
surprise--three Short-eared Owls displaying over a field. Dave yelled again
and there was a harrier perched on a post. We now had 153 species and the
sun was going down. A quick drive by of the north end of Okanagan Lake (no
time to walk through the trailer park to look for waterbirds) produced
nothing except another Gray Partridge (a bit of good luck wasted there!),
so
we turned south to drop in at Mary Collin's place on Kalamalka Lake.

We quickly got Rufous Hummingbird at Mary's feeders, and a Belted
Kingfisher
flew by calling, but we had apparently just missed the evening fly-by of
Vaux's Swifts. As dusk fell, we drove to the Cosens Bay entrance to
Kalamalka Lake Park, where the Common Poorwill called at 9:10. We then
headed south for one last try for Western Screech-Owl at Woodhaven
Sanctuary
in Kelowna. We got there about 10:20, tiptoed in, gave a few whistles, and
the bird began trilling away in response--bird number 157. Very tired but
very satisfied, I turned over the car keys to Wendy for the drive back to
Penticton. I closed my eyes, but Wendy said something so opened them again
and there we were at her motel in Penticton--an hour had gone by in the
blink of an eye, teleporting through birding exhaustion!

Dick Cannings

Naramata, BC