Birders flock to B.C. Interior for chance to spot rare avian visitor that has flown far off course | 24CA News

Avid birder Chris Charlesworth estimates it took him 60 seconds to vacate his home after he received the cellphone name final Tuesday.

The voice on the opposite finish of the road was his pal and fellow birdwatcher, Jasmine Korcok, who was excitedly calling him from Munson Pond in Kelowna, British Columbia, the place she may hardly consider what she had noticed — a uncommon fieldfare.

A member of the thrush household, the fieldfare is native to Northern Europe and western Asia and historically migrates south to Africa and the Middle East within the winter.

Charlesworth, who raced to Munson Pond instantly after Korcok known as him round 3 p.m. on Jan. 10, mentioned that is solely the third recorded sighting of a fieldfare within the province.

“It’s probably the rarest bird we have ever had in the Okanagan Valley,” mentioned Charlesworth.

According to eBird, a web-based useful resource that lets customers document fowl sightings worldwide, the final recorded sighting was in Salmon Arm in January 2019. 

Charlesworth, who served on the British Columbia Rare Birds Committee and runs his personal bird-watching tour firm, mentioned the one different recorded sighting was in Port Coquitlam “quite a few years ago.”

This is why Korcok needed to do a double take when she first noticed it sitting in a willow tree by the pond whereas she was out birding together with her binoculars.

At first, she thought the robin-sized fowl could be simply that, however the speckled browns of its feathers and absence of crimson markings meant it wasn’t. After learning the fowl’s markings and cross-referencing on-line, Korcok positioned the decision that rocketed Charlesworth out of his home Tuesday.

“I just knew that I’d found something very rare, and it was going to be a big deal to local birders,” mentioned Korcok.

Turns out, it is extra than simply native birders aflutter over the news.

Birders from Alberta, Washington state and throughout B.C. have been en path to the Okanagan since news received out {that a} fieldfare is within the area. And Charlesworth says whereas the fowl is elusive, it’s seemingly nonetheless round.

He was capable of finding it the day after it was first noticed, a couple of kilometre south of its first location, hanging out with a flock of robins. Both sightings have been recorded on the British Columbia Rare Bird Alert web site.

How the fowl received right here is anybody’s guess. Charlesworth and Korcok say it may have been blown astray throughout migration by a storm or caught a journey on a ship crossing worldwide waters.

There can be a uncommon phenomenon often called mirror migration, the place birds typically journey in the wrong way they’re purported to.

Charlesworth figures this rogue fieldfare will hand around in the area for some time as a result of it has discovered meals right here (they like berries, bugs and seeds) and since wherever it’s purported to be is nowhere close to B.C.

“Almost certainly, it is not going to find its way back to its proper home,” he mentioned.