Photojournal - 1 September 2004

A Queen Elizabeth morning


September had arrived and I was determined to not let it stop me from birding. For the first, I planned a morning outing to Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver. There had been reports of Nashville Warblers, American Redstarts, and Orange-crowned Warblers from this park recently. Besides, it was a place I'd never been birding and it wasn't wetlands.

The morning turned out to be quite overcast. Rain was constantly threatening and occasionally breaking out. I kept my camera on my shoulder under my coat, bringing it out from under its protection only when shooting.

Soon after I arrived at the park, I spotted some birds in the tops of a few nearby trees. I could tell by the shape that some of them (but not all of them) were flycatchers. Here's an early shot, showing a flycatcher of some sort in the background, and a yellow warbler or goldfinch in the front.

 

Right after that shot, the flycatcher chased the yellow bird away.

Here's a later shot, with two flycatchers.

 

I wandered around the hill and eventually came to the large gardens, which are located in an old quarry. At a crossing, I looked to my left and saw a pretty-darned-big raccoon on the path. He stopped and locked eyes with me for a second, before scurrying away under a bush. I quickly broke my reverie and tried to pursue, but he ducked under a bridge and then into some dense underbrush, where I couldn't track him.

From where I ended up, I could see several people in the gardens, including the following guy. He was gyrating his hips all around, like he was Elvis or somethin'.

 

I like the monstrous leaves on the plant behind him.

Here's a view that's less zoomed in, showing more of the gardens.

 
The gardens were quite pretty, and I need to go back some other time to shoot just the gardens in order to do them justice. I'll present you with one more shot of them, though.  
As I was skirting the outside of the gardens, I didn't see any of the reported warblers, but I did see a large bird flying towards the top of a tree. Following the motion, I came across a Cooper's Hawk, just as a hole in the clouds came by.  
While I was taking photos, another Cooper's Hawk arrived. There were two of them, both juveniles. Here one is giving the other a hard time. The recipient of the scolding seems to be making a "buzz off" gesture.  

It turns out that these two Cooper's Hawks had been reported (by Len) along with the warblers, but I had remembered only the warblers. So I wasn't expecting these guys.

Here's another shot of the one on the left.

 

I followed the hawks through the trees for 45 minutes or so, catching them in a few different places, although they liked to return to the tree where I first found them.

Here's one of them at another tree. You can see that he's probably not too hungry.

 

I can sympathize with him...I tend to slop my food on my chest, too.

It started to rain more consistently, so I decided to head back to my car, happy with having gotten good shots of the hawks. On the way back, I encountered a small group of yellow birds. The rain had slowed to a drizzle, so I was able to pull out my camera and take some photos. Unfortunately, the birds were under some trees, in the dark, with the bright overcast sky behind them. I wasn't able to get any good pictures of them; this is probably my clearest shot of one.

 

As I continued along, a Steller's Jay lit on a branch almost directly above me. He was eating a bee or wasp.

 

From my position under the jay, I found one of the little yellow guys in a bit more light. At least, I think this is the same kind of bird. This guy could be a Nashville Warbler or an Orange-crowned Warbler, but it's impossible to tell from my photos.

 
My final bird of the morning was an American Robin, standing in a puddle getting drizzled on.  

Then it was off to work, with no more photography until the weekend. September had truly arrived.

Still wanting to find those warblers,
Tom

 

Return to TSI Photojournal