I hope you are getting out and enjoying our splendid weather (even too hot!) and amazing variety of migrant birds. This month's Friends of Uplands Park bird walk is this coming Friday, May 19th. We meet in the main parking lot at Cattle Point at 8:00 a.m. The date lands within Victoria Bird Week, which is a special week celebrating spring migration and all things birds in Greater Victoria. Some of our target species on the bird walk will be Western Tanager, Black-headed Grosbeak, Western Wood-Pewee, Hammond's Flycatcher, Townsend's Warbler, Warbling Vireo, Band-tailed Pigeon, Cedar Waxwing and Rufous Hummingbird plus Barred Owl of course! The camas meadows are in full bloom as well.

We are in peak migration these days and it's a great time of year to find rare birds. My recent rarities in Uplands Park include Dusky Flycatcher and Nashville Warbler, both rare visitors from BC's Interior. Also, on Saturday, I found a singing male Black-and-white Warbler at Panama Flats. The find marks the 5th record ever for the Victoria area and the 1st since 2012. It was a new Victoria bird for me (#354) which made the discovery even more exciting! An article about this bird was published in the news and you can read it here:

Rare black-and-white warbler draws a crowd in Saanich - Victoria News