I had set my alarm to wake me up around 9am on the 20th; I had generally been sleeping past noon and missing out on most of whatever sunlight the days had been offering. I dragged myself out of bed, hit the shower, and was on the road by around 9:30. I decided to head out to the Tsawassen ferry jetty, a long jetty out into a bay with the nice feature of a public road right down the middle and a parking lot at the end. On Saturday, people had spotted a Rock Sandpiper hanging out with the local Black Turnstones out at the end of the jetty. I made the Rock my target bird of the day.

I took Ladner Trunk Road for part of my route, and somewhere along it I saw a tree at the side of the road with a sextet of Bald Eagles in it. I pulled over across from the tree and took some photos.

I didn't even bother to get out of my car, though. I just took a few quick shots and then continued on.

I reached the ferry terminal at about 10:15 and bought one hour of parking. I then took my camera and clambered over the roadside barrier to the south side of the jetty, near Berth One. Berth One is being rebuilt, and perhaps because it's not in use by the ferries, it's a good place to find lots of birds.

There were a lot of birds around today. It was a high-ish tide and the shoreline was relatively empty, but the water held lots of goodies. Goodies like the following Red-necked Grebe.

Then, of course, there were the local turnstones. They were hanging out on all of the wooden structures supporting the berth; it's their usual place when the tide is high. At low tide, or maybe just when they're hungry, they walk along the shoreline. Anyhow, I hadn't checked the tides and had expected to find them along the shoreline, not at the berth. This was bad news for my hopes of finding the Rock Sandpiper.

Making the best of the situation, I climbed over the large pilings and sat on a big rock about as close to the turnstones as I could get without jumping in the water. The bright sunlight made the black-and-white birds a tough subject, but I managed to get several shots that I thought were fairly interesting. Here's one of two turnstones on a beam.

As I was shooting, another fellow came over with his binoculars and we had a little conversation. The fellow was 30ish and had a light British accent of some sort, but I can't seem to remember his name. Anyhow, his bins (or his eyes) were better than mine, and he looked into that darkness that was the left-hand support on the previous picture, and said that there was a Surfbird down there.

Surfbirds are medium-sized shorebirds, slightly longer but significantly bulkier-looking than a turnstone. I had a look through my binoculars, and I could see birds and motion down there in the dark, but I couldn't really see any significant differences in the birds. But I trusted him and aimed my camera at the dark, hoping it would pick up what I couldn't see.

The interesting thing about this is that it worked, sort of. The following photo shows a Black Turnstone in the middle of the picture, and a Surfbird on the right. I ended up focussed a little in front of the birds (which I couldn't see at all in my camera viewfinder) and got a pretty blurry Surfbird, but it's still recognizable. The water, as expected, turned out way overexposed, but that was the only way to get detail out of that shadowy area.

Anyhow, a Surfbird isn't a Rock Sandpiper, but it was still a pretty good find.

After that, my fellow birder left, and I took a few photos of the berth supports themselves. Their complex construction and weathered wood had a nice feel to it.

You know, I've seen whales breach before, but I've never seen a duck breach. That was pretty cool.

Maybe this duck was just in a happy or playful mood, because a little later, I caught him splashing some water around.

After shooting the scoter a while more, I made one final scan around to see if I could find that Rock Sandpiper. I didn't, unfortunately, and my parking time was running out.

I went back to the car and headed off to Beach Grove Park. I went to the woodsy part of the park first. There were lots of Ruby-crowned Kinglets around, and a few Hutton's Vireos. Here's a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, well-camouflaged.

I roamed further around the park, and came across some perched and some flying Bald Eagles, but I'll spare you those. Then I spent some time trying to get a photo of one of the resident Great Horned Owls; this didn't work as it was well-placed within a tree and all that was showing was part of its chest.

It was now almost noon, so I found a place to have lunch in Tsawassen. It was barely passable; if someone out there knows of any decent restaurants in Ladner or Tsawassen, please tell me about them. I'm diabetic and on a strict diet, so no pasta or pizza or sandwich places...

After lunch, I had made no major plans, and started driving vaguely in the direction of home. I was stopped at a traffic light where River Road meets the highway and managed to get off a few shots of a gull before the light changed. Sadly, like many gulls, I can't identify the species. I've asked around, and it's a tough call. I'll leave him unidentified.

There's a park a little ways further north on River Road that I had never been to before: Deas Island Park. ("Deas" rhymes with "bees.") Lacking anything else to do, I stopped there. It was a nice park with some waterfront and nice paths, but I found very little bird life there: a few eagles in trees, and some Common Mergansers in a slough.

So I contented myself with a few other shots. Here's one of a segmented grass of some sort, maybe a bamboo. I've seen these plants in various places around town, but never figured out what they are. They are quite attractive, though, especially if you happen to like plants that look like they are topped with burnt cigarettes.

Next time, I'll visit with a pale old friend down at the lake.

Always into something fowl,
Tom