2014 Summer Vacation - June 23, 2014 - Western Scrub Jays in Maple Ridge

June 23 - Maple Ridge BC

This is quite a short post about a special bird family in Maple Ridge.

I started my day by heading to Pitt Lake where there had been American Redstarts reported. These are very beautiful but very elusive warblers that appear occasionally in the Lower Mainland and Fraser Valley.I had no luck with them and did not even take a photo at Pitt Lake. Strike one for the day.

My next stop was Maple Ridge where there were solid reports of Western Scrub Jays. This is a bird commonly seen in California and parts of Oregon. There have been some reported in Bellingham in the last couple of years, and there is one that is resident in New Westminster. It appeared in my 2013 Birding Blog.

The Jays in Maple Ridge have been resident for about five years, and made an unsuccessful nesting attempt last year. This year they tried it again and were successful with two offspring being produced. According to the BC Bird Alert website, this is the first recorded nesting success in BC.

I made a stop near the address where the birds were reported and had no luck. I tried knocking on the door of the home owner as it had been reported that he was eager to share his prize birds with birders. No answer. Was this strike two?

I took a break and visited my friend Dian as she lived quite close by. After a good visit, I returned to the location and drove slowly up the street. Suddenly i saw a flash of blue and white across the street and there was one of the adult birds.

I stopped and took some poor quality photos before getting two decent shots shown above and below.

By this time the home owner was back and he came out when he saw me. We had a very good chat about the birds and how proud he was of them. He asked me I had seen the babies yet and helped point them out to me. It's obvious from the photos how they differ from the adults, but I had not done my homework (as usual).

Although there were two fledglings, I have heard that only one may have survived, but I have not confirmed this.

Here is the link to the alert.

BC Rare Bird Alert