Subject: [Tweeters] BC Citrine Wagtail seen 12/9
Date: Dec 9 11:56:40 2012
From: Mark Oberle - oberle at mindspring.com
I watched the Citrine Wagtail in BC for 70 minutes around sunrise Sunday AM.
I arrived at the Courtenay, BC, site at 7:35, half an hour before sunrise. The cable gate at the entrance to its usual field was down. Soon after I got there a smiling young hunter drove down the farm road and parked at the far end, just beyond the last giant brush pile. He walked with his dog through the hedgerow into the fallow potato field east of the "wagtail field."
At 7:55--- 10 minutes before sunrise--- the wagtail called 5-6 times as it flew from the direction of the hedgerow and fallow potato field and landed 30 feet from me. It foraged along the edges of the farm track's puddles for half an hour, occasionally ducking into adjacent short vegetation.
Ron Hoff and his wife from Knoxville arrived about 8:30, and I was able to direct them to the bird.
The Wagtail strolled along the larger pools adjacent to the road and behind the third brush pile. I last saw it at 9:10AM as it silently flew low over a tiny, board foot bridge across the roadside ditch and hedgerow toward the potato field.
As the Hoffs and I left, one Canadian birder arrived so there may be more updates later today.
It was not clear to me if the wagtail had been roosting overnight in the potato field, or perhaps the hunter's vehicle had flushed it from its customary short-grass foraging field. The former might make sense since there is much taller stubble and weeds in the potato field and adjacent vegetation where it could find cover.
It was 35 degrees, overcast (and sleeting part of the time), so I could not get very good photos.
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Mark Oberle
Seattle, WA
oberle at mindspring.com
www.puertoricobirds.com