Photographically speaking, Saturday the 20th of November was great. I woke up early and it was still dark. Time flew by as I did some work on my computer, and by the time I thought I'd better get going, the sun had just started to rise. I checked the weather by stepping out onto my balcony and looking around, and it seemed a bit foggy, although the weatherman had promised a fairly clear day. The purple of early sunrise was gorgeous and I couldn't help but go get my camera and take a few shots.

Here's the boatyard across the river from my place.

I went off to Delta, intending to hit the spots of recent bird reports. As I entered Delta, the frost on the fields caught my eye and I took a few landscapes, like this one.

I went down to the north part of 72nd street, were a Cattle Egret had been reported. I saw lots of catlle but no egret. I drove around for a little while, apparently in the wrong direction, for later I found that the egret had been spotted further out.

While driving around, I found some Brewer's Blackbirds up on a wire on 64th Street. Black birds against a bright sky aren't that easy to photograph, but I got a few usable shots.

From there, I drove west along River Road, and reaching the decision point, I headed over the bridge towards Reifel rather than out to Brunswick Point. Someone had reported a Sage Thrasher at Brunswick Point, but that seemed like a long shot compared to the Golden Eagle that had been frequently seen at Reifel.

I stopped right by the entrance to Reifel, which is where the Golden Eagle had been seen. There were two Bald Eagles in the trees to the south. Here's one of them.

No Golden Eagles were to be seen, though. I started driving in to Reifel, but almost immediately stopped when I saw three Mergansers (white body, dark head, big diving duck: probably Common) in the water beside the entrance. I got out to take photos of them, but they dived under and surfaced behind some bushes. I walked to see if I could get a better angle, but they flew away as Walter, another birder/photographer, pulled up behind me. We discussed our considerable shortage of Golden Eagles and he went back out as I went further in.

I planned to do a quick trip to the tower, looking for Eurasian Wigeons, Ruddy Ducks, and Swamp Sparrows, all of which had recently been reported. I checked Fuller's Slough as I entered and found a Double-crested Cormorant on a log.

There's a Black-crowned Night-Heron who resides in the slough, and although he was visible, he was behind too many branches for a good photo.

I stopped by the nearby feeder and took photos of the White-crowned, Golden-crowned, and Song Sparrows that were in the area.

There were also a number of Black-capped Chickadees coming by, and I caught a few photos of them, too.

Out by the tower, I found nothing that interested me, so I went back to the entrance, checking for Ruddy Ducks and funky wigeons. I didn't find any. At the entrance, the sightings book had a record of some Common Redpolls, so I considered going back in to try to find them. Only thing was, I didn't know much about them and didn't stand much chance of finding them. So I headed back to my car, only to notice fellow birder Jeff driving in with Ilya in the passenger seat, being lead by John to a secret parking place. The chances of finding redpolls had just dramatically increased, so I stuck around and went back into the refuge with Jeff and Ilya.

When we passed Fuller's Slough, we noticed that the Night-heron had come a bit further out, and I now had a clear line of sight to him.

We made our way to the tower without seeing redpolls or the goldfinches that they were thought to be associating with. We canvassed the area near the tower for about a half an hour, finding a few goldfinches and siskins, but no redpolls. The goldfinches and siskins were in the birch trees, up high, and we had to fight the bright sky to see any markings on them (or to get any photos of them). Here's the best Pine Siskin photo I was able to get under the conditions. My best Photoshop tricks won't get it any further than this.

That big thing out on his fingertips is a Mountain Chickadee. I had a similar photo a few photojournal entries ago.

A little ways down the path, while we looking for redpolls, Mountain Chickadees landed on both me and Jeff (and we didn't have seed in our hands). Those chickadees sure have gotten tame.

We doubled back to take a more interior path, thinking it would yield better chances on the redpolls. On the way we saw a Downy Woodpecker, Purple Finch, and Winter Wren. I only got a good shot of the Downy.

He's got a little bit of wood stuck to the end of his bill. I guess that's a hazard of peckin' wood for a living.

Finally, Ilya pulled a Common Redpoll out of a small flock of finches for us. Again, we were fighting the bright sky to make the identification.

A bit farther along, we found a much larger flock of finches, probably around 80 birds or so. As we were looking through them for more redpolls, a Merlin dove towards them, smacking himself into a tree, then gliding away, probably hurt fairly bad. This scared the finches, though, and they flew up and off.

Ilya found a few more Downy Woodpeckers, one male and one female, on our way out. We agreed to meet over at Brunswick Point to look for Swamp Sparrows and American Tree Sparrows (Jeff and Ilya had seem the tree sparrows there in the morning).

For the first time ever, on my way out, I had to stop at the Westham Island bridge because of boat traffic. Actually, it was house traffic; someone was moving their floating house.

I looked up when I stopped on the bridge, as often there are Bald Eagles on the poles there. There weren't, but the folks in front of me were watching something to the left, and it turned out to be two eagles chasing a California Gull. I hurried out of my car and started taking photos. Here's some of the sequence.

The gull either dragged his wing to execute a short turn or did so by accident.

That was an awesome event to watch; I was pretty excited afterwards.

In a couple of minutes, the bridge closed and I was off to Brunswick Point. Ilya and Jeff soon arrived; Ilya and I headed in while Jeff had a bite to eat. Not long after entering, Ilya found a Varied Thrush in a tree beside the path.

There were a few groups of birders about. We spoke with some of them, and joined Colin and Walter in trying to spot Swamp Sparrows in the bushes on the marsh side of the path. We located lots of Song Sparrows and White-crowneds, but no Swamps. There was a group of seven or eight Northern Harriers further southwest over the marsh, chasing what Ilya identified as Short-eared Owls. I didn't get any photos of them.

Several times we were overflown by groups of eight or ten Trumpeter Swans going to or fro. Here's part of such a group.

It was getting a bit late, and a bit dark. We left the park, passing a floating bird carcass on the way--maybe the gull from earlier. I got some photos of it, but they'res not fit for family viewing.

I got in my car and drove around looking for the local American Kestrel, which Ilya and Jeff had seen on their way in. I didn't find the kestrel, but I did find another Bald Eagle and got a few photos of it. I headed on to 72nd and 88th Streets to check for the Cattle Egret, but ended up empty-handed there, too.

The last stop of the day was in North Delta, where some Bohemian Waxwings had been reported. There I found Jeff and Ilya (whom I had expected) and Carlo (whom I hadn't). I joined them and we walked around the neighborhood, discovering a few berry bushes but no waxwings eating berries. We called it a day and I came home to sort through my photos and get ready for my next day in the field.

Keeping an eye on the sky in case trumpeters fly by,
Tom