Hi Tweets,

The Citrine Wagtail is still present in Comox as of this morning.

Last night Tina Klein-Lebbink left Seattle at 630PM, took the 10:45PM
Tsawwassen ferry to Nanaimo (Duke Point Ferry Terminal - 2 hour ride),
drove to Comox, and crashed in a hotel for a few hours until dawn. It
got light a little after 7AM, and we were on site shortly after. I
located the Citrine Wagtail within about 10 minutes and we got good
looks for about an hour, at a distance requiring spotting scopes (the
far end of the field). We stayed until a group of about 10 others
were on site and had the bird located, and then we caught the 10:15AM
ferry back to Tsawwassen, stopped by Boundary Bay on the way home, and
made it back to Seattle by 430PM. What a trip!! Here are some
specifics for those looking to pursue the bird.

Directions:

>From Courtenay, take 17th St heading east out of town. Cross the
bridge and turn right. Continue towards Comox approximately 500m to
the second dirt track on the left. Several hundred feet down this
road is a stand of trees and a steel cable crossing the dirt path.
Just past the cable, in the field to the left with the standing water,
is where we located the bird and where it has been photographed. When
we arrived on site there were no birds in the field, several Bald
Eagles flying around, Trumpeter Swans were beginning to congregate in
the nearby fields, and there were the usual assortment of gulls.

The Wagtail:

When I first spotted the wagtail, it was the only bird in the field,
it was near the far end near the brush standing right by the water,
and I just noticed a small bird moving around on the ground. It was
not flying or flitting, even when things warmed up a little, and we
only saw it take two shorts flights during our observation. In the
early light, the wagtail's breast appeared buffy, but with better
light it clearly became white. The mark that first caught my eye was
the white supercilium and the "open" face.

This bird behaves exactly like its name suggests, in that it was
constantly wagging its tail. While preening, we could clearly see the
bold white wing bars and the white outer rectrices (reminded me of
Juncos). Like I mentioned before, the face is quite distinctive, with
the bold white supercilium, the white auriculars, and the overall
light face. I also noticed that when the bird hunkers down, it looks
like there is a little dark dot on either side of its neck/shoulder.
The back of the bird is overall very grey, contrasting strongly with
the white field marks. It spent most of its time bobbing around on
the edge of the water. When it stands still, it is easy to lose,
especially if its back is facing you. Great looks though!

Other birds:

On the ferry, we saw about 70 Brant, 2 Ancient Murrelet, 2 Common
Murre, 1 Rhinocerous Auklet, and numerous gulls, some of them
California. We also were fortunate to see two dolphins at a distance.
Overall there was not much activity on the ferry and it was quite
windy.

At Boundary Bay, we spotted 10 Snowy Owls and probably an equal number
of Northern Harriers, but no Short-eared Owls and no Long-eared Owl.
It was VERY windy and cold, the water was very high with standing
water in the fields around the Owls, and we did not stay for long. We
noted large numbers of Pintails and peeps as well, but the peeps were
too far away to ID. 4 kite surfers were enjoying themselves out in
the Bay, which was quite fun to watch.

In a parking lot on the way back a beautiful Brewer's Blackbird said
hello as I was packing up my things.

All in all, an absolutely fantastic day!!

-Nathaniel Peters
ncpeters at uw.edu