On the 23rd I took advantage of holidays by trying to get out and get more birds in before the end of the year. Unfortunately, it was fairly dark, so the photography was difficult and didn't turn out that great..

I started by going out to 72nd Street in Delta, again searching for the Bohemian Waxwing that had been reported there. I didn't find him, and decided to move on to Brunswick Point to try to get a Swamp Sparrow. I keep trying for them there and striking out. Rather than use River Road, I cut across south Ladner to get to Brunswick. Somewhere in there, on 34A Street or 33A Street or something like that, I came across a field with a small flock of Trumpeter Swans.

I really like the ghost port in the fog that was in the background of that shot.

From the trumpeters, it was a short hop to Brunswick Point. Upon exiting my car, I found a Western Grebe and a Common Goldeneye in the water by the old piles. The grebe was quick to dive, and the water was moving so fast that when he surfaced he was out of camera range. The goldeneye stuck around, but only for a little while. A Double-crested Cormorant on a pile had decided to take off, and in so doing he dove in the direction of the goldeneye. This scared the dickens out of the poor duck. He sprung into flight and then it was bye-bye, goldeneye.

I went on along the dyke, looking for but not finding the Great Horned Owl that often roosts in the trees on the left.

Quite a few Northern Harriers were out hunting. Here I snapped a photo of one in a corner of the field near a bend in the dyke, just as some people were coming along the path towards me.

And this is another crop of the previous photo.

Well, I struck out on the Swamp Sparrow, and with the dark day threatening to turn to an even darker evening, I started back in. As I was walking along the dyke, I noticed some motion out on the foreshore side. I didn't pay it much attention at first because I thought it was one of the harriers. But something about this motion seemed different--more wingbeats and less gliding. Then I noticed that the shape of the bird was all wrong for a harrier.

It was a Short-eared Owl. I got a lot of photos of him flying around. Here's a trio of them.

I've seen Short-eared Owls before, but they were far away and I hadn't had the chance to photograph them. It was great to get one in this close.

As I watched the owl, one of the Northern Harriers took a couple of runs at him. I got a few photos, but they all turned out way too dark. I tried rescuing a pair of them in Photoshop, and here's what I was able to get.

That encounter ended about the same time as the memory card on my camera became full. As I was changing memory cards, the owl found a place on the foreshore to settle down to and I lost track of him behind the tall grass.

Fairly chilly, I continued on, and went down the little dirt road on the land side of the dyke. There I got a few good shots of a pair of Bald Eagles in one of the nearby trees. The lower eagle is on prey; I watched him eat for a while. He then took off, probably to go brush his teeth.

Here's a shot of the whole tree after the dining eagle had departed.

There's a place near the entrance to the park where there used to be some piers or a dock or something. The piles that were the supports of this structure are for the most part still standing, and they are popular spots for birds to perch or sit. On this day, it was mainly shorebirds on the piles.

In this photo, the large bird is a Black-bellied Plover, and the two smaller ones are Dunlin. The out-of-focus bird is another black-belly.

The Black-bellied Plovers (and the Dunlin, for that matter) actually obtain a black belly when they molt into their breeding plumage around April.

Here's a wider shot of the scene.

I made it back to my car, but before leaving I checked for the Cattle Egret that has been reported here lately. I found him perched on the deck railing of the house at the end of River Road.

Like the pygmy-owl from a few days ago, this guy has his leg lifted up and it looks like he has a claw growing from his chest. The gathering gloom (and the fact that he was on private property and I wasn't going to trespass) kept me from getting close, clear photos of him. Besides which, I had gotten good shots of my pal Cyril just a little while back.

As I was shooting the egret, some folks came by as they were leaving the park, and were curious about what I was doing. As I was chatting with them about the egret, some other folks pulled up, and soon we had a little group gathered on the road. It was then that I noticed this little parakeet and its unusual means of transportation. I don't know the exact species of parakeet; there are bunches and bunches of them and I don't have a good reference for telling them apart. It looks like the Black-hooded Parakeet in my guide book, except that this one has a red rather than green tail.

Anyhow, birding would be much easier if you bring your own birds with you...maybe this woman is onto something.

Actually, as I left, she and her group proceeded out into the park. I sure hope that the little parakeet isn't scared of raptors. It would not be a pretty scene if it saw one and tried to fly away. It might not get immediately caught, but it could easily get lost in the dense vegetation.

Pining for the fjords,
Tom