The Canada Goose (Branta canadensis) on the Saanich Peninsula has an interesting history that is documented in a paper by Neil Dawe and Andy Stewart. Prior to the 1970’s the Canada Goose was mostly a migrant and winter visitor to our part of the island, although small numbers of the “Vancouver” subspecies of Canada Goose nest on the northern part of the island.   There were several small introductions of Canada Geese to the southwest coast of the British Columbia in the late 1920s and early 1930s and then again in the 1970s when larger numbers of Canada Geese were introduced to the lower mainland and S.E. Vancouver Island. These geese came from a variety of places and did not include the subspecies that was breeding on the island.

The earliest documented release of Canada Geese on Vancouver Island was in 1929 when 16 Canada Geese were let loose from a game farm operated by the province at Elk Lake on the Saanich Peninsula.  These introduced birds were augmented by other introductions and reproduced rapidly. By 1958 there were 200 Canada Geese on Elk Lake and were seen moving between Elk and Quamichan Lake in the Cowichan Valley.  

The earliest breeding record I have found for the Victoria area away from Elk-Beaver Lakes was in the notes from the naturalist Tom Briggs that I have entered into eBird.  On May 16, 1960 he wrote, “Met Dave, Ruth [Stirling] and Diedre; they had seen a goose on a nest ....on top of an old snag" ( https://ebird.org/checklist/S27964036) and for the next few days Tom made repeated trips to the Highlands to show others this nest, an exciting find in 1960! 

In the fall and winter our resident birds are augmented by migrant and wintering geese that breed further north.  Many northern hemisphere geese (Canada, Snow, Ross’s, Cackling, Greater White-fronted, Red-breasted, Barnacle, Brant and Pink-footed) are on the increase. It is estimated that there are three times as many geese in North American as there were 30 years ago. (For a review of trends in northern hemisphere geese click here).  The increase in the combination of resident geese and overwintering migrants can be seen below in the graph for Canada Goose for the Christmas Bird Count for the Victoria area.

Here at Leaning Oaks, we have records of Canada Geese for most of the year, except for the first three weeks of July.  This is the period of the year where our resident Canada Geese moult their flight feathers and cannot fly.  Since there are numerous records from nearby Prospect Lake during this period, and that lake is within earshot, they are clearly quieter during this period as well.

As large as a crow, Dryocopus pileatus is Canada’s largest woodpecker and a year-round resident here at Leaning Oaks.  Few days go by when we don’t see one or more of these spectacular birds at our suet feeder, or hear the high pitched and nasal “cuk, cuk, cuk, cuk, cuk” call of this woodpecker.  Masters of wood processing their presence can be detected by the large feeding holes they create in trunks of trees.  These can be rectangular in shape, particularly when they are searching for ants in Western Red Cedar trunks. In fact, they can be so rectangular I have encountered people that refuse to believe they aren’t human made.  It isn’t the only type of feeding hole they make and here our largest Douglas-fir trees have large irregular holes in the bark in the lower trunks where Pileated Woodpeckers have been searching for the grubs of wood boring beetles.  They also feed heavily on Carpenter Ants and Dampwood Termites .
Pileated, by the way,  means having a crest covering the pileum (top of a birds head from the base of the bill to the nape). 

Of the nine species of finch that we have recorded so far here at Leaning Oaks, the Pine Siskin (Spinus pinus) is the most abundant and constant on the property, with records from every week of the year.  That being said, it IS a finch, a group of birds known for nomadism and irruptive behaviour and that has been in ample evidence this year.   Large numbers of Pine Siskins have been present for months now and and feeders have been very busy with this species since last September.  Flocks of siskins have been passing overhead nearly constantly and their upward slurred calls are a nearly constant sound during daylight hours here ever since June of 2020.  

The movements of Pine Siskin are, at least in part, linked to food availability and they wander widely when food crops are low in the northern forests.  These irregular movements are layered on top of a seasonal migration, making generalizations about siskins movements difficult to describe.  

They feed on a wide variety of seeds, including thistle and dandelion, conifers, alders and birches. Their use of bird feeders at Leaning Oaks is variable, some years they are present nearly constantly, and other years they might not use our feeders much or at all.  Presumably in years where there are heavy conifer or alder seed crops they may not need to forage at bird feeders.    They also take green buds and a variety of arthropod prey.  Their thin, pointed bills make dealing with very hard seeds difficult and they often use broken seeds left by other finches.  

Anyone with a feeder will notice that Siskins are remarkably variable in patterning, especially the amount of yellow visible on the wings. Gender is not reliably determined by either plumage or size.
Females are fed on their nests by males and therefore seldom leave the nest during incubation.  Adults feed their youngsters by regurgitation of a thick yellowish or greenish paste.  Young leave the nest on 13 to 17 days after hatching.  

Here at Leaning Oaks, we most often encounter Hermit Thrushes (Catharus guttatus) in the late fall and early winter, less often in the later winter, and then an increase again during spring migration in March and April.  We don’t get to hear its beautiful song here very often, with the exception of the spring of 2013 when a male set up territory on the property and often sang repeatedly for over an hour early in the morning. Very early in the morning in fact. Early morning singing is a feature of Hermit Thrushes during their breeding season and Hermit Thrushes and American Robins both have adaptations in eye structure thought to enable them to detect early morning light better than other bird species that start singing later in the day.
The Hermit Thrush is aptly named, 97% of the sightings we have of Hermit Thrush at Leaning Oaks are of a single bird.

Band-tailed Pigeons are occasional visitors to Leaning Oaks.  We have a few recent winter and summer records, but the majority of our sightings are from the spring and fall periods.  On years where our oaks have good acorn crops, we often have flocks of feeding Band-tails. Patagioenas fasciata  is on the provincial Blue List, largely because of declines over the last 30 years.  Formerly Band-tailed Pigeons on southern Vancouver Island all migrated south for the winter, with most of our birds wintering in Oregon and California, although the species ranges as far south as  Mexico and Guatemala.  In the late 1970s this species began to overwinter on Vancouver Island and in the 1980s we had flocks visiting our bird feeder in the winter months.  By the late 1990s the species started to decline and we no longer have Band-tailed Pigeons using our feeders.  

The Pacific-slope Flycatcher (Empidonax difficilis)is more often heard than seen here at Leaning Oaks.  It's call  a distinct upslurred "seewit" is a common sound of spring in our mixed woods of Douglas-fir, Big-leaf Maple and Garry Oak. a It is a summer breeder here, with our earliest records in the first week of May and the latest birds lingering until the second week of September.  Empidonax flycatchers are difficult to identify, although for us the Pacific-slope is the yellowest of the flycatchers here and the only one with a tear-drop shaped eye ring.  Elsewhere however, the Pacific-slope is very difficult to distinguish from the Cordilleran Flycatcher and in  recent trips to western Mexico where both species winter, we were reduced to recording them as "Western" Flycatchers, unless they were calling. 

Wilson's Snipe(Gallinago delicata) is an uncommon fall or winter visitor to Leaning Oaks, in fact we have only two observations here in the 19 years we have been here.  Snipe however are difficult to see if they don't move, so its likely we have overlooked some.  This is a species that has had an uncertain taxonomic history.  My earliest bird books had it as a separate species from the one found in Europe, but for a long time it was lumped with the old world Common Snipe.  Recently it was re-split off as its own species, due to differences in morphology and the "winnowing" display sounds it makes during courtship flights.  "Snipe" is derived from the word "snite" or "snout" and refers, of course to the extremely long bill of this species.  
The eyes of a snipe are set far back on its head, which allows it binocular vision both fore and aft, handy when you spend a good deal of your life "snite-deep" in mud!
​

For us, the Osprey is a summer resident, and we have records of Ospreys spanning the period from mid-April until the end of September.  The Osprey (Pandion haliaetus) is one of the most widely distributed birds in the world, occurring on all continents except for Antarctica.  As one might guess from some of their other common names, Fish Hawk or Fish Eagle, their diet is mostly fish.  That being said, the pair that use nearby Viaduct Flats spend a lot of their time taking large American Bullfrog (#203)  tadpoles to feed their young.  Watching foraging Ospreys has high entertainment value, both in watching their impressive dives to the water to grab fish just below the surface, and seeing them interact with Bald Eagles (#51) that often steal their catch from them.

Up until a few years ago, we had always taken the presence of Olive-sided Flycatchers(Contopus cooperi ) here at Leaning Oaks as a given.  They reliably arrived the second week of May and lingered until mid September.  Their presence was usually announced by their strident piping calls, or their loud and often repeated "Quick! Three Beers" song.  In 2014 however, all of May passed without us hearing anything from an Olive-sided Flycatcher, nothing in the first week of June either.  Finally a single - and distant calling male on the 10th of June.
Olive-sided Flycatchers declines are widespread.  In 2008 the Committee on the Status of Endangered Widllife in Canada (COSEWIC) looked at Olive-sided Flycatcher and found that Breeding Bird Survey (BBS) data indicate significant and widespread declines in Olive-sided Flycatcher populations throughout North America.  Canadian populations experienced a 4.0% annual decline for the period 1968-2006, 3.3% annual decline for the period 1996-2006, total decline over that decade of 29%.
The cause of the decline is not clear.  Declines have been seen in many birds that make their living taking insects in flight including the Olive-sided Flycatcher.  Suggestions range from loss of wintering habitat, to shifts in timing of insect emergences, the use of pesticides and poor reproductive success in logged over habitats - but so far, the research hasn't been done to determine if it is one or more of these factors working in concert against the flycatchers. 
This year we do have a pair using the property once again and we have been hearing  "Quick! Three Beers" since the end of May.  We didn't take it for granted this year.

We get Barn Swallows flying high over Leaning Oaks, and sadly never stopping by or raising a family  like this group from the Okanagan! And even flyovers are not frequent. 

What one thinks of as a ubiquitous swallow, one that is found nesting on human buildings (...like barns!) , and found over a large range is actually a swallow in trouble. COSEWIC has assessed Hirundo rustica as "Threatened" and it is S3S4 (Blue listed) provincially. Like many other birds that feed on insects, Barn Swallows are experiencing significant and long term declines. that began, seemingly inexplicably in the mid-1980s. There was a 76% decline recorded between 1970 to 2009 across Canada based on Breeding Bird Surveys across Canada!  Factors thought to be contributing to the declines are declines or changes in insect populations, pesticides and loss of habitat in the wintering grounds, and changes in farming techniques that may affect foraging and nesting sites. It would be very interesting to know what the historical numbers were as there are some estimates that approximately 1% of all Barn Swallows use natural nesting sites! (Erskine 1979; Man’s influence on potential nesting sites and populations of swallows in Canada. Canadian Field-Naturalist 93:371-377)

(This is for you Lisa!)

Despite the fact that Tree Swallows  (Tachycineta bicolor) are not uncommon on southern Vancouver Island we only have a single record of this species at Leaning Oaks, a pair of birds on migration in April.  It is very likely we have overlooked "fly over" Tree Swallows.   Like the much commoner Violet-green Swallow, Tree Swallows are cavity nesters, using woodpecker holes,  rotted cavities in trees and nest boxed to raise their families.  Here on southern Vancouver Island they are more closely associated with water than Violet-green Swallows, which uses a wider variety of habitats.

California Quail (Callipepla californica) are noisy, visible parts of the avifauna of Leaning Oaks.  We have several pairs using the property this breeding season.  Some years they disappear for the winter months, and some years we have large groups visiting the bird feeders throughout the year.  They almost always successfully hatch chicks here, but some years the chicks succumb to wet weather and other years they are preyed on extensively by Cooper's Hawks.

California Quail are introduced species here, brought onto Vancouver Island as a game bird.

Chipping Sparrows (Spizella passerina ) are the smallest sparrows that visit Leaning Oaks.  They are uncommon summer visitors here,  and to our knowledge have not bred on our property, although we have seen newly fledged young very close by.  This year provided our earliest spring record, with a pair on the lawn eating dandelion seeds on 23 April.  Our latest record in the year is the 2oth of July, so they don't linger here very long.  I have spent a lot of time listening to  recordings and searching for calling Chipping Sparrows, some of which sound an awful lot like (some) Dark-eyed Juncos.  Despite diligent study, I still make mistakes and feel far more sure of an identification when I see the bird involved.  Small, dapper and pale with a bright rufous cap, they don't look anything like a junco - fortunately.

Yellow-rumped Warblers are found here at Leaning Oaks in the spring and early summer and then essentially disappear for a month and then make an appearance on fall migration from mid-August until the end of September.  They may well be here, only silent in the canopies of the Douglas-fir or perhaps they move up in elevation during those months. The Yellow-rumped Warbler has two distinct colour forms that used to be considered separate species: the "Myrtle" Warbler of the east and "Audubon’s" Warbler of the mountainous West. The Audubon’s has a yellow throat; in the Myrtle subspecies the throat is white. Female Audubon's have less boldly marked faces, lacking the dark ear patches of the "Myrtle" Warbler.  We get both forms on migration, but the form that lingers here to breed is the "Audubon's" form.

Most years, Red-breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber) is an occasional visitor to Leaning Oaks, but a few times over the years this species has been on the property for extended periods and over the breeding season.  Sapsuckers (there are 4 species in BC) feed on tree sap that they harvest by drilling net arrays of holes through the bark and into the cambium of a tree.  Here the tree of choice is Douglas-fir and one of our trees has an large area of sapsucker wells on the trunk about 8 m off the ground.  The sap attracts insects, which are also used as food by the sapsucker.  Some winters, especially those with pronounced cold snaps, we have an influx of Red-breasted Sapsuckers.  

Sigh, maybe next pond will be this big! It would have to be big to hold the world's largest waterfowl. 

Beginning about mid November through to March or April we see or hear these bulky beautiful swans flying over Leaning Oaks on their way to or from a local wetland or field where they over winter.  The trumpeting call is a wonderful reminder of how sometimes there really is good news and conservation success stories.  

By the early 1900s Trumpeter Swans (Cygnus buccinator) had been harvested to near extinction. In 1932 only 69 were known to exist! In the early '50s a few thousand were found in Alaska.  And as you can see by the graph from the Pacific Flyway Council (2006) just the coastal population was 25 000 by 2005! There are still concerns about fragmentation of wintering habitat and development around their breeding grounds in the north - but they are doing alright now, with populations that continue to increase. 

It is hard to imagine Leaning Oaks without Anna's Hummingbirds (Calypte anna),  they are nearly ever -present with their songs that sound like radio static, the small squeak notes that the males give during courtship flights and the constant buzz of activity around the feeders and flowers in the garden.  When we first moved here however,  Anna's Hummingbird had not yet colonized the property and I can still remember seeing the first one in the garden on a sunny October afternoon.  
Local researchers and naturalists, many of them associated with Rocky Point Bird Observatory, have located nests, followed successes and banded Anna's Hummingbirds and are slowly learning about the remarkable lives of this species.  Anna's Hummingbird probably arrived on southern Vancouver Island in the 1950's.  The species breeds nearly year round, with some females building multiple nests a year here.  They sometimes will reuse a nest, or even a one  of a Rufous Hummingbird and they will often re-use nesting material  - sometimes while the chicks are still in the nest!  Alison Moran from the RPBO hummingbird project tells of a female that had overlapping nests where the nest material was reused this way for four successive nestings.

Golden-crowned Sparrows (Zonotrichia atricapilla) are mainly spring and fall migrants at Leaning Oaks, although elsewhere on southern Vancouver Island they are common throughout the winter months, and have, very rarely, lingered and bred.  They are mostly skulkers, hiding in thickets and hedgerows, coming into the open to feed on seeds in the ground or in low weeds. In fall when they arrive they often sing, a mournful clear song that can be remembered as "Oh dear me" or "I'm so weary" which is the source of another common name "Weary Willie".  

Turkey Vultures (Cathartes aura) are a common sight here during the summer and fall months.  Almost always seen flying over Leaning Oaks with wings outstretched and tipped upwards, they have a distinctive rocking back and forth as they fly.  They are most noticeable on nice days when they stay aloft on thermal uprisings.  They also seem to appreciate the assist of a good wind storm as well, and we see Turkey Vultures  using high winds to keep themselves aloft with little or no apparent effort on their part.  Here we have Turkey Vulture records from the third week of February to the middle of November.  They are clearly increasing in numbers as well as how long they stay, with  small numbers being found year round on southern Vancouver Island now.  It is suspected they have been assisted with a contant supply of road-killed animals on ever busier road and milder winters..