Saturday the 18th was cold and overcast. I dressed myself up warmly and decided to head out to Iona Beach. Over the previous week, there were some birds reported on the jetty there: two species I'd never seen, Snow Bunting and McKay's Bunting. The McKay's is a bird rarely seen outside of the northwest coast of Alaska and thereabouts. The Snow is a similar, closely-related bird, but it occurs regularly all across the northern half of the continent.

As I was leaving my condo, though, I was distracted by a blue bird flying from a tree to the small service building in the middle of the lagoon. I recognized the bird immediately as our local Belted Kingfisher, who I've seen only once before. I know he's a regular because I've heard about him several times from our building's caretaker, Tomasz. Tomasz shares my enthusiasm for birds and phototgraphy.

Anyhow, I quickened my step and pursued the kingfisher around the building until I caught him on a lamp on the east side of the building.

I tried to get in closer, but some people walking in front of me flushed him from the lamp.

I continued my chase, and eventually caught him on the corner of the building. In this shot, you can see how overcast and grey the day is.

What you can't see is the cold; just in the five minutes or so I was chasing the kingfisher, I had gotten a bit chilled. I went back inside and picked up an extra layer.

I then drove out to Iona, arriving around 2:00 or so. Iona is a beach on a bit of a point, and it was colder there than at my home, with a howling wind to boot: it felt arctic. I'm sure that the buntings were enjoying it, but I had on all my warm stuff and it was still cold. I was beginning to have doubts about how pleasant this trip would be.

I encountered fellow birder Carlo in the parking lot, and he told me that there were several people out on the jetty, connected by cell phone, and that they hadn't found the McKay's or Snows. We talked for a while, with Carlo bemoaning the dwindling numbers of Greater Scaup, which used to fill the outer ponds there.

Well, Carlo headed on home and given that it was freezing and the birds hadn't been sighted, I thought that was a good plan. So I scrapped the idea of walking the jetty and headed home.

On the way, I spotted an eagle in a tree on the side of the road and stopped to get a few photos.

Anyhow, that was it for my not-very-photographically-productive day. But just to make this entry a tad longer, I'll show you a shot from another slow day two weeks before. This is a male Hairy Woodpecker, from suburban Coquitlam.

Hoping for warmer days,
Tom