[birdergirl]

Kevin Neill asked me to post the below message:

Hi All,

Yet another banner year 2016 has turned out to be for interesting birds in BC. As in previous years, if you wish, you can vote here on which bird sighting in BC this year was, for you, the BC Bird of the Year. The following list is just a smattering of the material birds seen this year within our land border, or within the pelagic range of our the most birdy of provinces. As always if there is bird you saw, or wish you saw, this year that is not on this list, but for you was the most significant sighting in 2016 please feel free to vote for it instead. There is nothing like seeing a bird for the first time that had always eluded you in the past, instead of hearing the infamous: "Oh, you just missed it. It was just here. It flew off to the west, and just kept going. It was really booking it. Was this year the year that your the long-awaited nemesis bird, that has haunted your avian dreams for years, finally came out of the reeds? Did you hit a milestone listing number this year with a particular noteworthy sighting? As they say..... vote early and vote often.


Redwing - Victoria
Black-headed Gull - Vancouver
Siberian Accentor - Vancouver
White-cheeked Starling - Tofino - BC First *
Brown Thrasher - Revelstoke
Lucy's Warbler - Castlegar and Kelowna -BC First *
White-faced Ibis - Victoria, Cranbrook, and Vancouver
Red-throated Pipit - Victoria and Tofino
Lark Bunting - Hope and Port Renfrew
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Tofino
Horned Puffin - Can't remember where exactly..Bamfield perhaps
Snowy Plover - Ucluelet
Laughing Gull - Sidney-BC First*
Short-tailed Albatross - Off of Cape Scott
Summer Tanager - Kelowna
Red-shouldered Hawk - Victoria
Scripp's Murrelet - Off of mid-Vancouver Island
Slaty-backed Gull - Vancouver
Field Sparrow - Victoria
Brown Booby - Sooke
Hooded Oriole - Vancouver

With two weeks left in 2016 hopefully we can add something juicy like a White-tailed Kite, or Gray Wagtail, or a Mag Frigatebird."

Vote at: goshawk67 at shaw dot ca

Kevin Neill

[birdergirl]

Another message from Kevin Neill:


"Wouldn't you know it at least one, and possibly a second interesting stray have managed to squeeze themselves onto this highly "scientific" list all within the last two weeks of 2016. For those of you who still haven't voted there is still time. I have added the Red-flanked Bluetail to the list, and will consider the possible Purple Sandpiper if confirmed. I know, I know the bird hasn't even been confirmed yet, but if it is, and it was originally found in 2016 then does it make it onto the 2016 list? Would anyone other than the three people who saw it in 2016 actually vote for it? Empirical minds need to know.


This race is much closer than you think so your vote can make the difference. Think of Hillary.


Redwing - Victoria
Black-headed Gull - Vancouver
Siberian Accentor -Vancouver
White-cheeked Starling - Tofino -BC First *
Brown Thrasher - Revelstoke
Lucy's Warbler - Castlegar and Kelowna - BC First *
White-faced Ibis -Victoria, Cranbrook, and Vancouver
Red-throated Pipit - Victoria and Tofino
Lark Bunting -Hope and Port Renfrew
Scissor-tailed Flycatcher - Tofino
Horned Puffin - can't remember where exactly.. Bamfield perhaps
Snowy Plover - Ucluelet
Laughing Gull - Sidney - BC First *
Short-tailed Albatross - Off of Cape Scott
Summer Tanager - Kelowna
Red-shouldered Hawk - Victoria
Scripp's Murrelet - Off of mid-Vancouver Island
Slaty-backed Gull - Vancouver
Field Sparrow - Victoria
Brown Booby - Sooke

Hooded Oriole - Vancouver
Red-flanked Bluetail - Comox
Purple Sandpiper **** - Victoria - Possible, Probable, Perhaps, Somewhat Likely, Not sure yet - BC First


Please vote at goshawk67 at shaw dot ca
Kevin Neill

[birdergirl]

Kevin Neill posted the results of the BC Bird of The Year today:


Hi All,

My apologies for publishing these results so late this year. That interesting new president just south of us has kept me much busier than normal of late.

A couple of noticeable changes came to light this time from the voting process. Firstly, there was a real regional bias this year where most voted for their local bird much more so than ever. Van Isle birders, for the most part, voted for Island birds, Lower Mainlanders kept it close to home as well, and the Interior folks overwhelmingly voted for their Lucy's. This hasn't happened before. Are we turning into a divided birding community where we only vote along party lines now like the dems and publicans? Perish the thought. Many more Sunshine Coast participants this year, which was great to see, and they remained agnostic in their votes. And I finally got some votes from the North this time so my lobbying paid off. Secondly, I received many more votes this year so it must be all about the science.......

And the results are as follows:


Black-headed Gull - 2%

Snowy Plover - 2%

Horned Puffin - 2%

Field Sparrow - 2%

Purple Sandpiper - 2%

Slaty-backed Gull - 2%

Red-flanked Bluetail - 2%

Laughing Gull - 4%

Red-throated Pipit - 4%

White-cheeked Starling - 4%

Redwing - 6%

Lucy's Warbler - 24%

Siberian Accentor 41%


No real surprise for most I imagine that the Accentor won this year's contest. Asian strays tend to get the old ticker pumping a bit faster when enroute to see them. There were more high-fives happening than usual for this bird, and many out-of-towners made the journey to see it. We even had several of our friends from the south twitch this one so it must have been special.

This year my own vote went to the somewhat surreal and stunning light-phased adult Long-tailed Jaeger in Kelowna, which had eluded me as a BC bird up until then. Ever since I was dive-bombed at very close range by my first one on the tundra of Northern Yukon almost twenty years ago it has remained near the top of my most wanted in BC list of birds. I had always envisioned that I would finally run into a dark juvenile with no streaming tail aboard a cold, wet, and bumpy boat aptly named the Coastal Vomitron at some point, but this Okanagan bird was the most significant bird of 2016 for me.

2017 is already off to a spectacular start with two great birds in Victoria. Let's see how they fair at the next rare bird committee meeting. No pressure guys.

May this year bring many Northern Lapwings to your patch.

Kevin Neill