One more for the list as our time runs out. With only hours to spare before our flight to New York, we met up with our friend Bonnie, a Vancouver resident who had been away until now. This was our first (and only) chance to meet up with her, and what’s more she knew of a site where Varied Thrush had been seen very recently. It was too good an opportunity to miss even though it meant driving through the centre of the city away from the airport. Unfortunately the traffic was heavy and our progress was slow with the inevitable roadworks, and when we finally reached Bonnie on the north side of the city we only had about half an hour before we needed to head back to the airport. Talk about high pressure birding! We leapt into Bonnie’s car and headed uphill out of the city. On a steep hillside which was currently undergoing housing development but still held remnants of forest habitat, we searched again for the elusive Varied Thrush. At least one bird had been seen in this very spot only a couple of days earlier, but of course, with our luck, there was no sign of it today. Just as we climbed back into the car to head back downhill, a bird landed on top of a small pine. It looked unfamiliar and worthy of a closer look. No, not a Varied Thrush but a Townsend’s Solitaire, a new bird for us, a lifer and a year tick, so a great way to end our Canadian adventure. We managed to get the hire car back to the airport in one piece with no further upsets and even made the flight in time – just!
We now head for Cape May Bird Observatory where we hope to arrive tomorrow afternoon local time, just in time for the run up to the World Series of Birding on 10th, so there should be plenty of birds and birders around.
Bird species list: 2173
Posted midnight 6th May, JFK airport, New York