I was most excited when I found out I had needed
to go to Vancouver, BC for a short business trip. My BC list was only 81, so needless to say
there were many possible species I could add to my province list. Although ordinarily I would think about
adding some vacation birding time to a trip such as this one, I was planning a
trip to both BC and Alberta in June, including about 3 birding days in eastern
and southcentral BC. So I couldn’t quite
justify taking more vacation time on this trip.
But then with a little research I realized that there were a number of
species possible along the coast in and around Vancouver that would not be
feasible on my inland trip in June. But the
challenge was whether I could squeeze in a bit of birding time to try for these
local coastal targets. I was only going
to be in the area for 2 full days, and at most could only be free before work in
the morning and after work in the evening.
But since at this high latitude sunrise was just after 5 and sunset wasn’t
until 9, that would give me at least a couple hours free for birding at the
beginning and end of each day. I would
sleep after I got home…
With some detailed eBird research I came up
with a list of about 30 possible coastal targets that would be less likely or
not feasible on the inland June trip.
Then I started researching the best locations to visit to maximize my chances
to find as many of these targets as possible.
I picked out 4 locations to bird covering quite a number of habitats,
hoping for about 20 of my coastal targets, and 50-65 new birds for my province
list.
Day 1 – Early AM - Burnaby Lake Regional
Park
I had to be at work that morning in Burnaby
starting at 8:30, so I had time to cover just one site in and around the greater
Burnaby area. I decided to bird Burnaby
Lake Regional Park because of its varied habitats of woodlands and wetlands,
and recent sightings of several of my key coastal targets. Plus it was only 10 minutes from the
office. In route to the park I spotted a
Peregrine Falcon flying up to a power line trestle – the first of my coastal
targets. I arrived at Piper Spit in the
park a bit after 6 (later than I had wanted), but then got a work call delaying
the start of my birding time even further.
But as I finally stepped out of my car at 6:30 the woods were alive with
song – including numerous Swainson’s Thrushes singing from the understory, and
Golden-crowned Kinglets and Chickadees calling from the conifers. It looked like it was going to be a nice
morning.
I walked to the lake edge where mudflats
had recently held several of my target shorebirds. But the extent of the mudflats was quite
limited, and I only found a Solitary and a Spotted as new birds. There were lots of tame waterfowl as well,
and I picked up Blue-winged and Cinnamon Teal and Hooded Mergansers in with the
numerous Mallards and Wood Ducks. I then
walked over to the wetlands to try for Virginia Rail, but could only come away
with Yellowthroat, Warbling Vireo (singing a different dialect than the eastern
birds), and the first of many Wilson’s Warblers. I also saw the first of many Song Sparrows
which are much darker and rustier than the ones I’m used to in the east.
Although I already had 14 new birds for my
province list I wasn’t doing too well with my coastal target species. I then started walking down the trail to the
east along the northern edge of the lake.
Soon I got lucky with 2 of my coastal targets – a pair of Bushtits were
foraging right along the path, and a Hutton’s Vireo flew in to a bush right
next to me to feed its fledglings. The
trail continued to be very birdy, and I picked up birds like Western Tanager
and Black-headed Grosbeak in the woodlands, and Willow Flycatcher and Yellow
Warbler out in the wetlands. Plus I had
at least 5 Rufous Hummingbirds along this part of the trail.
I then made my way to the Conifer Loop
trail where I added singing Purple Finches that didn’t sound much like their
eastern counterparts (a possible split some day?). And a pair of large doves flew in and landed
high in a conifer. Although I expected
them to be Band-tailed Pigeons they were surprisingly Eurasian Collared Doves.
It was now 8:00, and although I wished I
could continue to cover this very birdy spot, I had just enough time to head to
the western part of the lake where shorebirds and a Cackling Goose had been
reported recently. The Cackling had been
feeding on the ballfields with Canadas, but there were no geese in sight that
day. I headed to the lake and there was
no mudflat either. I was striking out
here. That is until I started scanning
through the Canada Geese on the lake and picked out a (the?) Cackling Goose
swimming with its larger cousins.
I left the park with 26 new province birds,
including 4 of my coastal targets. Plus
I made it to work in time to head to my site walk, where I added a calling
Steller’s Jay to my province list. A most
productive morning!
Day 1 – Evening – Iona Island
For my first evening of birding I had
picked out Iona Island on the north side of the airport. This location has a large sewage treatment
plant, several more natural but still man-made lagoons, and a small area of woodlands,
all surrounded by tidal flats and open water.
And along the way you pass by some small horse pastures where I made my
first stop to look for blackbirds.
Although I could only find Starlings, I noticed a large shorebird in the
pasture in the distance – a migrant Whimbrel which is a nice rarity for the
location.
My first stop on the island was at the
sewage treatment impoundments in search of shorebirds (local birders had given
me the code to the gate to access the inner impoundments). While walking in I had the first of many
Caspian Terns fly over (another coastal target), along with some Cliff Swallows
in with the numerous Trees. There were
only a few shorebirds feeding in the “mud”, but I added 2 Lesser Yellowlegs and
a Western Sandpiper, along with 6 Pectorals, a Solitary, and a Spotted. A flyover Osprey and a Brewer’s Blackbird
also were new additions.
The next stop was at the lagoons just to
the north, with excellent cattail and reed habitat. Here I picked up a diverse set of species new
for my list – Black-crowned Night Heron, one lone Ruddy Duck and a flyby Merlin
- along with four coastal targets - a pair of Virginia Rails, the first of
several Purple Martins, numerous Anna’s Hummingbirds, and several singing
Yellow-headed Blackbirds. I got this
nice phonescoped photo of one of the blackbirds –
A quick stop in the woods yielded few birds
at all. Then I realized the likely
reason – I flushed a Great Horned Owl perched in one of the cottonwoods.
The last habitats to bird were the tidal
flats and the open water beyond.
Unfortunately it was at mid-tide meaning there were substantial mudflats
to scan and the only shorebirds I found were a flyby flock of 4 Least
Sandpipers. There were several gulls
feeding on the flats including a couple target California Gulls, along with at
least 15 more Caspian Terns roosting on driftwood. The last new bird of the day was another
coastal target - a really distant group of 4 White-winged Scoters.
That gave me 88 species on the day, 45 of
which were new for my BC list and 16 of those were my coastal targets. Not bad for about 5 hours of birding!
Day 2 – Early AM – Stanley Park
Stanley Park on the northern edge of
Vancouver is a beautiful natural park with many acres of mature conifers on a
peninsula surrounded on three sides by open water. There are also two small lakes in the park,
and I decided to start my birding at one of these spots, Beaver Lake, due to
the diversity of recent eBird sightings there including several of my coastal
targets. I arrived a bit before 6, and
while trying to figure out the rules for the parking meters, I heard a nearby
song that I had studied the day before – Black-throated Gray Warbler. It took me a while to find the bird high up
in a cedar, but I eventually got to see this striking warbler. And while looking for this target, I also
added Yellow-rumped Warbler and Red Crossbill. In route to the lake I heard the drumming of a
target Red-breasted Sapsucker. That gave
me 4 new birds and I hadn’t even reached the lake yet.
Beaver Lake was a beautiful spot featuring a
shallow body of water surrounded by boggy vegetation and small deciduous trees
at the edges. And farther from the lake
you had the tall cedars and firs typical of the rest of the park. So it presented an interesting juxtaposition
of habitats and bird species. The first
part of the loop trail around the lake had several benches where local visitors
apparently routinely fed the birds.
There were numerous very tame Song Sparrows and Red-wings feeding on the
ground including these two female Red-wings at my feet –
I couldn’t get a picture of the male that
landed on my shoulder!
Common birds in the small trees at the edge
of the wetlands included Song Sparrows, Wilson’s Warblers and Spotted Towhees,
and the conifers featured numerous singing Swainson’s Thrushes, Creepers,
Golden-crowned Kinglets, and Chestnut-backed Chickadees. As I walked around the lake I heard a couple
notes that sounded like a Least Flycatcher.
But that would be a rarity for this far west, plus it was tough to pick
out the call from all the other songs in the area, so I wrote it off as a
Hammond’s. But a bit farther along the
trail I heard it again, and conclusively ID’d the call as a Least as it
continued to give its monotonous “song”.
While listening to the Least I added a singing Townsend’s Warbler and a
calling Pileated Woodpecker. A bit
farther along the trail I picked up a Red-breasted Nuthatch and a singing
Pacific-slope Flycatcher. Plus I heard a
singing Varied Thrush – not new for my list but always one of my favorite
songs. Another highlight was a flyover
flock of about 40 Canada Geese that included 1 Cackling Goose at half the size
of the Canadas. What an exceptionally
birdy spot!
As I walked back to my car I heard a
singing Western Pewee along the way joining the Yellow-rumps and Black-throated
Grays I had heard earlier. I checked the
time and it was already almost 8:00 - I had thought I would have plenty of time
to bird several other areas in the park that morning, but the Beaver Lake trail
was just too birdy! I had just enough
time for a quick stop at the northern end of the park at Prospect Point to
check for divers on the water. Just
after I got out of my car I heard a singing bird in the low brush that I
couldn’t quite figure out - eventually I realized it was a MacGillivray’s
Warbler. Then off to the point where the
view was beautiful, but the only “divers” were cormorants. Then I heard the sound of a dove taking off
and noticed a flock of 20 Band-tailed Pigeons flying out of the conifers out
over the water – another coastal target.
I ended the morning with 12 more for my BC list – 3 of which were
coastal targets.
Day 2 – Evening – Raifel Refuge and
Tsawwassen
After work I headed to the southwest toward
the Raifel Bird Sanctuary on Westham Island.
But first, just as I crossed onto the island, I made a quick stop to
look for countable Mute Swans on the Fraser River. With just a few minutes of searching I found
a flock of 8 roosting on the riverbank.
My next stops were on the very birdy entrance road to the Sanctuary,
where I picked up a singing Bullock’s Oriole, and a couple Yellow Warblers that
sounded a lot like Redstarts.
Then onto the Sanctuary where I hoped to be
able to find a pair of breeding Sandhill Cranes somewhere in the marsh (I had
no specifics), and maybe some shorebirds.
When I arrived at the park I was surprised to see so many tame ducks and
geese – again being fed by park visitors.
Then as I entered the main trail I was shocked to see these 3 Sandhill
Cranes feeding among the tame waterfowl.
And this one walked right by me along the
trail.
Later I found the spot where the Cranes
were nesting, sitting still enough to give me the opportunity to take this
photo holding my phone against my binocs. And I was worried that I might not find the
cranes…
Other than the tame waterfowl (and cranes),
it was pretty slow birding. I reached
the perimeter of the western lagoon and hoped for shorebirds, but found
none. As I continued to walk along the
trail I thought to myself that at least it would be nice to find a Phalarope
swimming in the lagoon. And just a
couple minutes later I noticed a male Red-necked Phalarope feeding in one of
the ponds. Maybe I should have wished
for an Ivory-billed Woodpecker…
Since birding was slow I finished my stop at
Raifel faster than expected. That meant
I had time to head to the Tsawwassen Ferry terminal. Along the way I heard a singing House Wren in
a small suburban area. A few minutes
later I reached the terminal road, which is bascially a 2-mile-long rock-lined
jetty sticking out into the open water.
I was a bit uneasy birding out there given the potential for security
concerns, so I only made a quick stop, luckily picking out the key target bird
- the resident Black Oystercatcher.
A quick scan of the water revealed a large
flock of Surf Scoters, and 3 roosting Red-breasted Mergansers and several
Caspian Terns on a nearby spit. But I
dipped on the expected but out-of-season Brant - perhaps I needed a more
lengthy search to pick them out. Despite
missing this coastal target, I ended the day finding 5 coastal targets among
the 18 new province birds, and 76 species total species.
That gave me a total of 112 species for the
trip, including 21 of my 30 coastal targets, and 63 new species for my BC
province list, which now stands at 144. Not
bad given my limited available birding time. And not only was I happy with finding so many coastal
species, but adding the non-coastal birds will help me focus my birding efforts
when I come back to the province in June.
No comments:
Post a Comment