I checked the weather forecast for Vancouver and it showed four straight days of sunshine with no wind starting on the 15th, a rare occurrence for there. The 'usual' weather for the Pacific Northwest is cloudy or foggy with occasional showers or drizzle, so I decided to search flights for that time period. With the number of delayed flights seeming to be commonplace anymore, I now search for non-stop flights wherever possible. I searched flights to Vancouver and found them to be $1000.00 or more. There was no way I was going to spend that much for one 'lifer', so I searched flights to Seattle, which is about a 3-hour drive away from Vancouver. I found a non-stop flight from Newark, New Jersey to Seattle and back for around $700.00. That was tolerable, so I booked it on Monday and hoped that the bird would stick around a few more days.
Thursday, January 15, 2026
I headed for the Newark Airport at 4:00 AM, parked, and took the shuttle to the terminal. The flight took off around 7:45 AM. About two hours into the 6-hour flight, the pilot came on the intercom and asked anyone with medical experience to hit the call button. I looked at the guy sitting next to me and said, "That's not good." We eventually found out that an older lady at the back of the plane was having a heart issue and her blood pressure was dropping dangerously low! Apparently, whoever the medical volunteer was must have stabilized her because we didn't end up landing in North Dakota. While on descent into Seattle, I took these photos through the window of the Cascade Mountains and Mount Baker, which is the third-highest peak in Washington.
When we landed in Seattle, everyone was told to stay seated until the paramedics came and took the lady with a medical issue off of the plane. She was well enough to walk off, albeit slowly, and then we followed.
I got my car pretty quickly, entered the Taiga Flycatcher's location in Vancouver, and started up I-5. I was supposed to get there around 2:30 in the afternoon, but that didn't happen. I went through customs in about 15 minutes and continued on to Vancouver. At the tunnel under the Fraser River, three lanes had been cut down to one and there was a huge backup. I eventually got through there and started into the city. There are no bypasses or 'ring roads' around Vancouver, so you have to drive straight through it. The traffic was heavy on the streets, which were mostly two narrow lanes on each side with a double-yellow line between. Many of the stoplights don't have left-turn arrows, so if one car wants to make a left, the entire left lane stops. Impatient drivers then dive into the right lane traffic. By the time I got to Sunset Beach Park, it was near sunset. I went to turn into the parking lot and found the gate closed! I tried driving around the surrounding blocks, looking for a place to park, but there were signs everywhere that stated you needed a permit to park there. I finally found out that there was construction going on at the park and the entrance to the parking lot was at a different spot. I parked my car and went over to the stand where you pay to park. Every time I went to enter the information, a screen came up that said, "The printer is not working". After several tries, I finally managed to get all of the information in, paid with my credit card, and took a cellphone photo of the screen.
When I finally grabbed my gear and started walking to the area where the bird was most often seen, it was already sunset. I checked the area on the northwest side of the Vancouver Aquatic Center and couldn't believe it when I found the bird in less than five minutes! I took multiple photos of it in the fading light and surprisingly got some nice ones at pretty close range. It probably helped that I was the only birder there at the time. Here are my best ones of my life Taiga Flycatcher showing the white outer patches midway down the black tail.
I had made a reservation from home at the Abercorn Hotel, which was near the Vancouver Airport, so I slowly made my way back out of the city and checked into it. I grabbed something quick to eat and headed back to my room to relax since it was a long, but successful day.
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