Turtle Day coming to Elizabeth Lake on April 26, 2023
Western painted turtle hatchlings are the star of this free, family event
 
(CRANBROOK) Turtle Day will return to Elizabeth Lake in Cranbrook on April 26. This year, western painted turtles have laid 76 nests in the wetland, and at the end of April, hatchlings will begin to emerge from their nests and make their way to the lake. See the newly emerged hatchlings and learn about their journey, as well as the efforts of the Rocky Mountain Naturalists to protect this Blue-listed, vulnerable species at Turtle Day.
 
Turtle Day is hosted by the Fish & Wildlife Compensation Program (FWCP) together with the Rocky Mountain Naturalists. The free, family event runs from 2:30 p.m. to 4:30 p.m. on April 26 beside the Elizabeth Lake Visitors Centre. Parking is provided behind Elizabeth Lake Lodge.
 
The nesting area at Elizabeth Lake is maintained and monitored by the Rocky Mountain Naturalists working with biologists for the Province of B.C., with funding from the FWCP. Efforts to maintain fencing around the nesting area were successful last year, with only six nests lost to predation. Without intervention, western painted turtles would lose 90% of their nests to predators—primarily skunks.
 
“Habitat loss due to human activities has impacted the Southern Interior population of the western painted turtle, along with road mortality and introduced species,” says Jen Walker-Larsen, the FWCP’s Columbia Region manager. “The work of the Rocky Mountain Naturalists to provide safe nesting habitat and intervention for hatchlings is helping the FWCP conserve and enhance fish and wildlife in watersheds impacted by BC Hydro dams.”
 
The Rocky Mountain Naturalists have a long history of fostering awareness and understanding of our natural environment. They are committed to sharing the message of the western painted turtle’s life cycle—from the egg, to hatching, growing, maturing, and reproducing.
 
The FWCP is a partnership between BC Hydro, the Province of B.C., Fisheries & Oceans Canada, First Nations, and public stakeholders to conserve and enhance fish and wildlife in watersheds impacted by BC Hydro dams. Turtle Day is also made possible with the support of the Ministry of Forests.
 
For more information about Turtle Day and other projects funded by the FWCP, visit fwcp.ca/events.
 
 
For more information:
Angus Glass
FWCP Communications Coordinator
250-352-1300
angus.glass@bchydro.com

Here is a quick guide to "general" arrival week of bird species in the East Kootenay.

It is based on the eBird barchart for the region available here:
ebird.org/canada/barchart?byr=1901&eyr=2023&bmo=1&emo=12&r=CA-BC-EK

As you can see, ducks are generally the first group to return northward but this year we are still waiting for the following:
Tundra Swan           TUSW
Wood Duck              WODO
Redhead                  REDH
Ring-necked Duck    RNDU
Northern Shovelor    NSHO
Blue-winged Teal      BWTE
Gadwall                   Gadwall

Also, Ring-billed Gull (RBGU) and California Gull (CAGU) are late; and Common Loon (COLO).

At time of writing, I find it difficult to believe we could see Tree (TRES) and Violet-green Swallow (VGSW) any day now because I still have a foot of snow in my yard in Kimberley.

And we usually have Western (WEBL) and Mountain (MOBL) Bluebirds back by now, as well as Say's Phoebe (SAPH).  Please come soon.

Western Meadowlark (WEME) are sometimes here the end of February.  One year they arrived to snow-covered fields and had to forage along the plowed road edges - poor things.  Looks like it will be the same this year.  Actually, it has been the same for the past THREE years, I think.

And where are the Brewer's Blackbird (BRBL), Spotted Towhee (SPTO), and Fox Sparrows (FOSP)?

Anyway, look for the above soon, and Osprey (OSPR).  Happy Birding!

Dianne C.

We had 'Little Big Day' last week on May 28th. Congratulations to the the team 'Dipperette’s' for seeing the most species seen ever recorded by a single team: 130 species! The Dipperette’s consisted of Gretchen W, Helga K, Jo Ellen F. and Wendy H. Well done! The closest year to them was in 2007, when a single team saw 128 species (seen by team ‘Stalkers 4’ which consisted of Cathy, Al, Art and Lois).
 
Together, all the teams this year saw 148 species, the 4th highest year recorded. There were 3 teams in total. The other 2 teams were the Three-toed Muskateers (Greg R, Jim H and Katrin P) and the Ruthless Birders (Ruth G, Lyle G, Dianne C, Emma B).
 
Little Big Day is a fun birding competition to see which team (up to 4 people) see the most birds (teams need to stay together and at least 2 people from each team need to see each species). Birding takes place between 6am and 6pm, although you can bird less if you want and you don't really need to 'compete'. It's all for fun. Teams contribute $25, which goes to a worthy nature related cause.

This year, the money is being donated to the 'Elizabeth Lake Shoreline Restoration Project’, being done by the Rocky Mountain Naturalists.
 
A combined list of what we saw:
Canada Goose
Trumpeter Swan
Wood Duck
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Northern Shoveler
Gadwall
Eurasian Wigeon
American Wigeon
Mallard
Green-winged Teal
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Greater Scaup
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Barrow's Goldeneye
Hooded Merganser
Common Merganser
Ruddy Duck
Wild Turkey
Ruffed Grouse
Pied-billed, Horned, Red-necked, and Eared Grebes
Rock Pigeon
Eurasian Collared-Dove
Mourning Dove
Vaux's Swift
Black-chinned, Calliope, and Rufous Hummingbirds
Virginia Rail
Sora
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Killdeer
Long-billed Curlew
Wilson's Snipe
Wilson's Phalarope
Spotted and Solitary Sandpipers
Bonaparte's and California Gulls
Black Tern
Common Loon
Great Blue Heron
Turkey Vulture
Osprey
Northern Harrier
Sharp-shinned Hawk
Bald Eagle
Red-tailed Hawk
Red-naped Sapsucker
Lewis', American Three-toed, Downy, Hairy, and Pileated Woodpeckers
Northern Flicker
American Kestrel
Merlin
Peregrine Falcon
Western Wood-pewee
Willow, Least, Hammonds, Dusky, and Pacific-slope Flycatchers
Say's Phoebe
Western Kingbird
Eastern Kingbird
Cassin's Vireo
Warbling Vireo
Stellar's Jay
Blue Jay
Black-billed Magpie
Clark's Nutcracker
American Crow
Common Raven
Black-capped and Mountain Chickadees
Northern Rough-winged, Tree, Violet-green, Bank, Barn, and Cliff Swallows Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned Kinglets
Red-breasted, White-breasted and Pygmy Nuthatches
House, Pacific and Marsh Wrens
American Dipper
European Starling
Gray Catbird
Western and Mountain Bluebirds
Townsend's Solitaire
Swainson's and Hermit Thrush
American Robin
Cedar Waxwing
House Sparrow
American Pipit
Evening Grosbeak
House Finch
Cassin's Finch
Red and White-winged Crossbills
Pine Siskin
American Goldfinch
Dark-eyed Junco
Chipping, Clay-coloured, White-crowned, White-throated, Vesper, Savannah, Song and Lincoln's Sparrows
Spotted Towhee
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Bobolink
Western Meadowlark
Bullock's Oriole
Red-winged Blackbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Brewer's Blackbird
Northern Waterthrush
Orange-crowned, Nashville, and MacGillivray's Warblers
Common Yellowthroat
American Redstart
Yellow, Yellow-rumped, Townsend's, and Wilson's Warblers
Western Tanager
Lazuli Bunting

by Dianne Cooper

Here is a brief biography about founding Rocky Mountain Naturalists member Mildred White (1916 – 2001), her birding sightings and their journey into the public archive on the occasion of the last of her birding data finally getting entered into eBird.
 
Mrs. White recorded her bird sightings between April 1964 and December 2001.  She wrote them down in 6 Blueline brand record books, which are in journal-style, and 5 black ringed binders, in list-style.

She began recording her natural history observations on 05-Apr-1964 when she was 48 years old.  At first, she re-used loose sheets of letter-size paper to record her "home" sightings of birds and animals.  The paper was rescued from the trash at the gift shop in the Kimberley Hospital where Mrs. White was a volunteer with the Hospital Auxiliary.  Every once in a while she would copy these notes into Blueline-brand bound record books, in a narrative journal-style with wonderfully legible cursive handwriting.  For field trips, she used little pocket notebooks, also transferring these notes to the Bluelines.  After doing it this way for about 25 to 30 years, she switched to list-style for her "final copy" in medium-sized black ringed-binders.  She also re-copied some of her journal-style sightings as lists in the black binders.
 
In December of 1974, Mildred and her husband, King, moved from a modest house on a small city lot in Kimberley to a newly built one on several acres south of Ta Ta Creek.  The acreage was on the western edge of the vast grassy benchlands bordering the Kootenay River.  They built a river-rock birdbath, standing over one meter tall.  It attracted many birds, deer, coyote, and small mammals.  They also put up several nest boxes and feeders for the birds and squirrels.  A shelf-type feeder below the utility room window was easily accessed from indoors during the winter.  In especially cold weather Mrs. White stocked it with her homemade shortbread, a special treat for the birds.
 
A variety of bird habitats were within walking and listening distance of their property.  There was a creek with beaver ponds — Waite Creek, which flows into Bartholomew Lake, and Sun Marsh, named after Joe Sun, a resident of the acreage adjacent to the Whites'.  The Suns operated a market garden with home delivery service of vegetables.
 
Mrs. White enjoyed traipsing around Wasa Sloughs.  The lack of city services gave her an excuse to make the trip across the Kootenay River Valley to the refuse station south of the Sloughs.  From there she would head for the Sloughs, taking a dirt track north through the pine forest to a clearing we now call "Mildred's Meadow".  It was her tradition to check this field for the first of the spring buttercup blooms peeking up between the thick litter of pine needles.  This signaled spring was in full flight, the ice would soon be off Wasa Sloughs, so it was time to start looking for the spring arrival of birds.  Mr. White built a small boardwalk and viewing blind at the end of a spit on the east side of the Sloughs where they photographed waterfowl.  It was still functional in 1979 and I used it several times myself when I first started birding; I didn't know the White's then but had heard about them, everybody had.  They also had a portable blind they set up at Sun or Bartholomew Marshes.
 
She recorded sightings for Project Feederwatch, the Breeding Bird Survey, American Birds / Northwest Field Notes and the BC Sight Record and Nest Record Schemes, the latter two provided data for the four-volume work "The Birds of British Columbia", by R. W. Campbell and others.  Other activities and projects she worked on were for the Rocky Mountain Naturalists, the Federation of BC Naturalists, and the Rocky Mountain Trench Natural Resources Society.  She helped start two of the local Christmas Bird Counts.
 
Mildred was also a guest speaker at Wasa Lake Provincial Park, using her own and King's slides in her presentations.  She wrote a nature column in the Kimberley Bulletin for many years.  In 1996, she and other members of the Rocky Mountain Naturalists composed the "Rocky Mountain Naturalists Wildflower Checklist" commemorating the tenth anniversary of the RMN.  And they also made a "Birding Tour" brochure.
 
In 2000, at the age of 84, she took a computer class at Kimberley Campus of the College of the Rockies to learn Microsoft Excel.  Because of her experiences with other data banks, she was determined to get her data digitized and distributed.  She would contribute records to many organizations and people but then would never hear of how the data were used or what help it had been.  In some cases, reports and publications were unpublished and difficult to access.  In other cases, the cost of obtaining published copies was prohibitive.  If she'd been around when cell phones and the eBird app came out, I have no doubt she would have embraced them both whole-heartedly.  Also, Mrs. White wanted to acknowledge the hundreds of fellow bird watchers who told her of the birds they'd seen, accompanied her on field trips, sharing their enjoyment of birds.

I met Mrs. White in July of 2001 and because of my interest and background with the beginnings of the digitization of bird records, I agreed to digitize hers.  We got a grant from Columbia Basin Trust for tuition for a course in MS Access and the software program; then a grant from BC Nature to publish the database and pay me for some of my time (which worked out well because with my "wages" I was able to replace my stolen spotting scope - but that's another, shorter story).  In the autumn of 2001, we photocopied her 5 black binders at the Kimberley Hospital—they allowed us to use their machine because of all her work with the hospital auxiliary.  She passed away in December.
 
I continued with the project and five years later, in 2006, "published" a database containing data from her black ringed binder notebooks: almost 24,000 bird, animal, and plant sightings of Mrs. White's and over 200 other contributors over 27 plus years.   The database was disseminated to anyone who requested a copy.  The Species Inventory Project, Government of British Columbia uploaded the sightings to their online database, making it available to everyone.  Dr. Mike Panian of the Species Inventory Project said the database was the “largest one-time contribution by a single person in the history of the provincial databank!”

Also in 2006, Dick Cannings, an ornithologist with Bird Studies Canada at the time, and current MP for South Okanagan—West Kootenay, uploaded approx. 17,500 of the bird sightings to eBird.  eBird is an online database of bird sightings contributed by citizen scientist launched in 2002 and operated by Cornell University, New York.  Mrs. White's sightings jump-started eBird in the region.  Twenty years later, birders, researchers, and naturephiles find eBird almost indispensable for its data and an inspiring and invaluable resource for their birding activities.
 
Now, thanks in part to the pandemic which allowed me to focus my undivided attention on the onerous task of going through her narrative journals, I was able to glean another 6,900 or so bird sightings from her Blueline books.  Between the interesting antics of chipmunks, what plants were in bloom, what subjects were deemed promising enough to use up costly photographic film and maybe good enough to pay for printing, where King went fishing and with whom, who dropped by for a visit - friends, family and fellow birders, and what birds and animals they reported, were records of her first time seeing many East Kootenay species.
 
eBird now houses over 24,000 of Mrs. White's bird sightings.  Perusing the East Kootenay checklist on eBird, looking at the date of "first seen": Mrs. White recorded the first sightings of 160 species in the region (we have 348 species but only 306 are on eBird).  This is eight times more than the contributor with the next "most firsts", Ian McTaggart-Cowan.  Dr. McTaggart-Cowan visited the Newgate area in May of 1930 and recorded the first sightings of 20 of our species.  Mrs. White's first "first" was two Killdeer flying down Mark Creek on 5 Apr 1964, and her last East Kootenay "first" was 19 Black-necked Stilt at Elizabeth Lake on 26 Apr 2001.
 
Her journals will be digitized and housed at the Royal British Columbia Museum for anyone to read.  It has been over twenty years since Mrs. White's passing yet her 37 years-worth of fauna and flora sightings remain as an inspiration and a valuable source of information about nature in the East Kootenay.

The End

Many of us enjoy the avian activity around bird feeders at this time of year.  It's a great way to get wonderful views of our local winter birds, see what they're up to - so entertaining and educational.
 
I was chatting with Top Crop Two in Kimberley last month as they were getting their bird feeding supplies ready.  They were saying the popularity of bird feeders skyrocketed last winter - it was a fun pandemic activity - and I expect it will be the same this winter.
 
The latest episode of the podcast "The Warblers" by Birds Canada, titled "Feeding birds the right way", has some great tips for bird feeding, especially about bird feeder hygiene.  Andrés and Andrea interviewed Kerrie Wilcox, co-ordinator of Project Feederwatch for Birds Canada.
 
You can read about the podcast here:
https://www.birdscanada.org/coming-soon-the-warblers-podcast/
 
You should be able to find the podcast on whichever podcast app you use (I use Overcast) or by searching the internet.
 
About cleaning your feeders: Project Feederwatch says: "Birds can become ill from leftover bits of seeds and hulls that have become moldy or from droppings that have accumulated on feeder trays. Therefore, you should clean your seed feeders about once every two weeks, more often during times of heavy use or during warm and damp conditions. Research has found that scrubbing debris off feeders and then soaking them for 10 minutes in a diluted bleach solution is more effective at removing bacteria than using soap and water alone."
 
So, in choosing which type of feeder to use, consider ease of cleaning as well as what food for the birds in your area.
 
Project Feederwatch is a great resource for all things about feeders:  feeder types, bird identification guides and photos.  If you join for a minimum of $25 a year, you can contribute sightings at your feeder (there's an app for that) to help keep track of populations and interactions and whatever else science can tell us about birds.  Consider giving a membership as a gift.
 
They have lots of info about all aspects of bird feeders at:
https://feederwatch.org/learn/feeding-birds/#feeder-types-2

Some bird feeding tips:
- keep your cats indoors; don't have birdfeeders if there are lots of free-roaming cats in your area
 
- clean your feeders by soaking in a diluted bleach solution
- use tube-type or small hopper-type feeders rather than the tray-type so birds can't sit and poop on the seeds they're going to eat - spreading disease
- also, rake and clear out fallen seeds on the ground OR
- place a table under the feeder to catch fallen seeds, then clean it regularly - again with a diluted bleach solution
- if you see any sick birds or hear reports of bird diseases going around, clean up your feeder area; you may have to bring in your feeders for a couple of weeks
 
- place feeders close to windows so birds startled off the feeder don't develop enough steam to hurt themselves if they fly into the window OR
- put your window screens on the OUTSIDE of the window OR
- install reflective decals, streamers, or a commercially available window film designed for this purpose - I save foil seals from yoghurt and coffee cans and tape them randomly on the inside of my windows but this should only be done on windows that don't get a lot of sun; you can trim them to look like snowflakes, if you wish.
 
- try the "ecological" approach for dealing with avian predators:
- the little hawks have to eat too but enough is enough around your feeder sometimes
- encourage species like Blue Jays who act as sentinels, calling the alarm when a Sharp-shinned Hawk or Merlin sneaks up
- situate your feeders and garden plantings to provide quick cover for the little birds.
 
- other mammals can be a problem too, even moose, apparently.
- around here, don't put up your feeders until the bears are asleep
- for squirrels, well, one of my favorite long-winter-night pastimes is watching videos of clever squirrels foiling bird feeder protections or going through backyard mazes to get their nuts.  Our squirrels are usually asleep in the coldest times, which are also best for bird feeding, so good luck on warm days.

And don't forget, your feeder sightings are also important for our local Christmas Bird Counts - more on that soon!  Happy Birding!
 
Dianne Cooper, Kimberley, BC

Join a Christmas Bird Count

Submitted by Daryl Calder

You can contribute to 120 years of community science by signing up for a Christmas Bird Count nearby. It's like a little treasure hunt, and if the birds are rare and unusual, it can be quite exciting.

If you are a beginning birder, you will be able to join a group that includes at least one experienced birdwatcher. Each team of four needs a driver, recorder, spotters and someone who can leaf through a bird guidebook to check the accuracy of each particular sighting. We tend to drive short distances, hop out to look and listen, and take short walks. Sometimes large flocks of birds are seen; several 'counters/estimators' are helpful to provide accurate information. A photographer is very helpful too.

The data collected by count participants over the past 120 years, have become one of only two large pools of information indicating how the birds of the Americas are faring over time. To participate in the count, or to become a 'feeder watcher', please go to the Rocky Mountain Naturalists Christmas Bird Count page accessible HERE. You will find contact information important details and past reports. We hope to have your help at the Cranbrook count on Saturday, December 28, and Kimberley count on Saturday, January 4, 2020.

The Rocky Mountain Naturalist's early morning birding outing leaves every Wednesday (usually) at 8AM and returns (usually) by 11:30AM.  If you would like to join us please contact Jim H. via our request tab on the Home Page.
Thanks to Jim H., Lyle G., Bob W.and Greg R. for the Great Photos!

Photos by Stewart Wilson

Left photo
As September advanced, the warm days dwindled, & summer faded from the Rockies. On the east side of Mount Broadwood, beneath the China Wall, sunlight illuminated an aspen grove as the trees were bowed by an upslope breeze.  September 8th, 2018.

Right photo
Whitebark pine (Pinus albicaulis), looking south from above Spectrum Pass Creek canyon (north side) to the Tchaikazan River (upstream), Friendly Peak (center), & Carefree Mountain (right, in cloud); Tsylos Provincial Park, BC.  August 19th, 2013.
Dan Hicks photos

Mount Broadwood & the lower Wigwam River are within the Nature Conservancy of Canada’s Elk Valley Heritage Conservation Area.  A September survey by a small party of Rocky Mountain Naturalists revealed that the whitebark pine seedlings, planted by dedicated Rocky Mountain Naturalists on this very slope two years previously, had perished in the dry heat of succeeding summers.  Picturesque whitebark pine is the highest elevation pine, a source of seeds & habitat for various subalpine creatures, its numbers have been much diminished, & its very existence threatened, by white pine blister rust, mountain pine beetle (aided by rising temperatures), & an absence of cyclic low-intensity surface fires.  In montane ecosystems, surviving as a tree is challenging, but growing to become one is even more daunting. 
​
By Dan Hicks

RDEK / RMN Bird Checklist updates to Oct 2018
Edited 14-Oct-2018 (now 314 species)
By Dianne Cooper
 
With the recent publishing of the Checklist of British Columbia Birds by British Columbia Field Ornithologist (BCFO), and the sighting of another new species in the East Kootenay, I thought I would tally up the changes over the past 2 ½ years to our newest bird checklist published in 2016.
 
The East Kootenay Bird Checklist was published May of 2016 in preparation of the BCFO meeting that month in Cranbrook.  Every BCFO member in attendance received a free copy.  Our 2016 checklist replaced the previous one published in 2003.  The earlier one covered the traditional Rocky Mountain Naturalist birding area from the US border to Canal Flats and from halfway to Creston to the Alberta boundary.  The new checklist, with the advent and popularity of eBird, covers the Regional District of East Kootenay, the “administrative” area used by eBird.
 
The BCFO checklist records 301 species in Ecoprovince #4, which includes the RDEK.  The Southern Interior Mountains ecoprovince goes north almost as far as Prince George and west to the other side of the Monashee Range, bordering on the Okanagan.  There are many species further west and north that we haven’t gotten yet.
 
36 species found in Ecoprovince # 4 have not yet been found in the RDEK.  Perhaps some of these are more likely to show up here?  Watch for:
 
Prothonotary Warbler
Crested Caracara
Northern Parula
Lucy’s Warbler
Summer Tanager
 
What will show up next!  There’s always something new!
 
The BCFO records 265 species of what we do have.
EK birds not on the BCFO checklist number 48 species.
 
At time of publishing our last checklist, we had 303 species.
Now (12 Oct 2018) we have 313 species.  We also have 4 hybrids, but we won’t count those.
Now (14 Oct 2018) we have 314 species! (see below: Species not on eBird but seen prior)
 
Species that were seen after May 2016 are:
 
Black Scoter
- Oct 2016, Wasa Lake, Dean Nicholson

Anna’s Hummingbird
- Nov 2016, Wycliffe, Lil McPhail (Dean Nicholson)

Northern Cardinal
- Nov 2017, Cranbrook, Katrin Powell (Greg Ross)

Curve-billed Thrasher
- July 2018, Canal Flats, Gord Littlejohns

Ovenbird
- Aug 2018, Fernie, Mike Bentley, Liz Creighton

Lesser Goldfinch
- Oct 2018, Wycliffe, Dianne Cooper, Joe Rothermund

 
Of course, these are all classified as “accidentals” – one or two individuals sighted in the past couple of years.  They are all recorded on eBird.
 
Species documented after May 2016 – but seen before then
 
a.  Now on eBird
These are historical records entered into eBird by people documenting their own or others’ birding journals, much like I did with Mildred White’s records.  The oldest “new” species (added after May 2016) goes back to 1984 (Pacific Golden-plover, Harmer Ridge, 26 Sep 1984, David Fraser).  The oldest “first” record on eBird goes back to 1930. 
 
Pacific Golden-plover
- 1984, Sparwood, David Fraser

Costa’s Hummingbird
- 1992, Fort Steele, Doug Brown

Connecticut Warbler
- 1997, Richard Guillet

Chestnut-sided Warbler
- 1998, Michael Preston

Black-throated Sparrow
- 1984, Mildred White

 
 
b.  Species not on eBird but seen prior
eBird records 301 species in the RDEK but not all species on our checklist are on eBird.  Missing on, or not included on eBird are:
 
Ring-necked Pheasant
- escapees, sightings discouraged on eBird

Least Bittern
- 2010, Ta Ta Creek, reported to the Breeding Bird Atlas

Yellow Rail
- 2010, Columbia Lake, Jason Rogers

Upland Sandpiper
- 1919, Newgate, Birds of British Columbia

Arctic Tern
- 1944, Columbia Lake, Walter B. Johnstone, specimen, Royal BC  Museum (RBCM)

Yellow-bellied Sapsucker
- 1915, Cranbrook, unknown collector, specimen, RBCM

Eastern Phoebe
- 1976, Spillimacheen, Birds of BC

Chestnut-collared Longspur
- 1930, Tobacco Plains, R. M. Anderson, specimen National Museum of Canada (NMC)

McCown’s Longspur
- 1930, Tobacco Plains, Rand, specimen, NMC

Mourning Warbler
- 1996, Spillimacheen River, unknown obs, Birds of British Columbia

Black-throated Blue Warbler
- 2002, Kimberley, Ruth Goodwin

Black-and-white Warbler
- 1971, Wasa Park, Neil Dawe, in Dawe 1971

Grasshopper Sparrow
- 1997, Cranbrook, G. Ross, G. Ross, J. Lawrence, G Davidson, in Am. Birds, Vol 51 No 4 Fall 1997

 
The BCFO Checklist lists 522 species for British Columbia and eBird records 517.
We have contributed some eBird firsts for the province.
Go to https://ebird.org/canada/region/CA-BC?yr=all and click on “First Seen” to see the BC list on eBird. 
 
There was the Northern Cardinal last winter of course, and the Curve-billed Thrasher last July.  Also (but maybe more, and it’s always changing as more people upload historical data):
 
Broad-tailed Hummingbird
- 1992, Fort Steele, Doug Brown

American Avocet
- 1967, Forst Steele, Tom Briggs

Red-headed Woodpecker
- 1998, Dutch Creek, Cam Gillies

Lewis’s Woodpecker
- 1930, Newgate, Ian McTaggart-Cowan

 
In summary, changes to our checklist to date are:
 
chart section of RDEK 2016 checklist   245
 

accidentals                                      58
 

RDEK 2016 checklist total                        303

seen and added after 15 May 2016              6
 

seen before, added after 15 May 2016         5
 

RDEK total to 13 Oct 2018                     314

 
PS  EXPLORE!
If you have an eBird account, for some fun online browsing of birds of the world, head to the eBird “Explore” tab at:
https://ebird.org/canada/explore
- hit the “Surprise me!” link under the box: “Enter species name”, to see a randomly selected world species.
- hit the “Change species” link at the top right, then in the popup, again hit “Surprise me!” to see another.
It’s so fun!  I didn’t know there was such a thing as a “Melancholy Woodpecker”!  It lives in Ghana.  Or a “Quailfinch Indigobird”.  What the heck is that!  There are only a handful of records of it on eBird and no photos.  It is from Cameroon.
 
This feature is in development on eBird and hopefully will soon be available to the general public.
 
And don’t forget the RMN Photo page at:
http://www.rockymountainnaturalists.org/nature-photos-by-us.html
 
Happy birding and um, er, naturing!
 
Dianne C.