| Despite
the overcast and sometimes rainy weather, on Saturday the 19th of
March I spent the day in the field and had a great day. A Boreal
Owl had been reported from Reifel for several days running, so I
started early and got out there around 8:30. John, the caretaker
at Reifel, had already spotted the bird and had the cedar tree containing
it roped off. He directed me and another birder to where we could
see the little guy. Sadly, the owl was snoozing and the angle of
view we had on him didn't show too much. Thus, I only got pictures
of the chest of a Boreal Owl. However, the Boreal was still a lifer
for me. |
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| In that
photo, it looks like it could have been a Northern Saw-whet Owl.
Speaking of which, John pointed out a saw-whet elsewhere in the
same tree. This one I had more of a sideways angle on, but he was
no more cooperative about showing his face than the Boreal. |
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Seeing two owls first
thing in the morning was pretty cool, though, even if the photos
weren't too exciting.
I hung around by the
tree for a while, as more birders arrived and paid the Boreal
their respects. In a little while, my friends Grant and Marcia
arrived. With them was a fellow named Jim, a birder friend of
theirs visiting from Florida. They had some looks at the owls
and then Jim and I went looking for the local Mandarin Duck. I
vaguely knew that there was a Mandarin that was around Reifel,
but I didn't know he was fairly predictable. Anyhow, we found
our duck between the parking lot and the water, where a mass of
Mallards generally hangs out.
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| The Mandarin
was a very photogenic lifer #2 for me. He didn't take his bill out
of his back very much, though. |
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Back by the cedar with
the owls, we connected up with Grant and Marcia and followed someone
along the water back towards the entrance to have a look at a
Great Horned Owl nest.
We saw the nest, which
was quite far away from the path. There was an owl in the nest..he
could just be made out with a scope. Not a great sighting, but
it'll do. It was so far that it wasn't worth photographing.
In the woods around
us, G and M picked up the song of a Hutton's Vireo, and (discovering
that I hadn't seen one that I could identify) they kindly walked
around until we found a couple of them. We found them in the trees
between the entrance road and the water. Here's one of them, lifer
#3 for me that day.
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| We discussed
the fine points of distinguishing Ruby-crowned Kinglets from Hutton's
Vireos, and I discovered that I haven't been careful enough in some
of my identifications recently: I could very well have mistaken
some Hutton's for kinglets. I've since gone back through my photos,
looking for the thick dark band behind the second wing bar (which
is on the kinglet but not the vireo). It turns out that I had seen
and photographed a Hutton's Vireo the week before, but I didn't
count it as a lifer then because I don't count lifers until I know
what I've seen. (Kinda makes sense, doesn't it?)
Also hopping around
in the trees with the vireos were a few Bushtits. Here's a yellow-eyed
one; we also saw some black-eyed.
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| We soon
were back at the parking lot, with the mass of people milling around
the owl tree. I checked on the Boreal and he was still in the same
pose. I went back in search of the Mandarin Duck, who wasn't in
the same pose, and got in a few more photos of him. |
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He's quite the adorable
little guy.
Next, Grant, Marcia,
Jim, and I did a tour of the sanctuary, following the outer path
in a clockwise direction. It started at the warming hut, where
I found this lady, a Greater Scaup. She came swimming up to have
a look at me and my camera.
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| Going away
from the entrance, Marcia noticed a broken shell on the ground,
and conjectured that it was from a goose. |
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| A little
further along, we saw (amongst many other things) another Scaup.
This one was male and clearly a Lesser. |
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| Along the
west side of the refuge, we saw many eagles and a harrier or two.
There were a mass of Snow Geese further out along the foreshore.
As we got closer to the tower, we found ourselves below a busy group
of swallows. There were some Violet-Greens and some Trees. I caught
a decent photo of a Tree Swallow when it landed on a nest box. |
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It's nice to see the
swallows back in town. They always put on such a good aerobatic
show.
We kept walking and
headed for the woodsy part of the trail. There were the usual
sparrows around: House, White-crowned, and Golden-crowned. A Fox
Sparrow did a little scratching on the path in front of us. Here
I caught him halfway in one of the few clean shafts of sunlight
we had that day.
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| Along the
east side path, we encountered a female Wood Duck at a feeder. She
gave a number of calls before ducking out. |
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| There
was a male, possibly her mate, floating nearby. He had pretty fresh-looking
plumage. |
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| Next up,
we encountered a couple of Yellow-rumped Warblers, the first I've
seen this year. I didn't have great photo-ops with them, but I did
get a few that clearly show that it's a Yellow-rumped. |
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| Soon we
were back in the parking lot, checking up on Mr. Boreal again. He
still hadn't perked up and still was showing only his chest. More
birders had gathered around, and I spoke with Bill and Jeff. Jim
and Jeff and I went back in search of the Mandarin for Jeff to see.
We didn't find the Mandarin, but we did find a Mallard who was trying
his dangedest to look like one. |
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But it really wasn't
that good of an imitation and we weren't fooled for long. He just
didn't get the color or the shape right.
While searching for
the Mandarin, though, I found myself close to a few American Coots.
As is my wont, I started taking photos of their feet. I found
that one of the Coots had some sort of blister or tumour on their
right foot. Poor ol' coot. That must hurt.
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| Grant and
Marcia were going to try for a big owl day, so they were going to
go out to Brunswick Point to look for a Snowy. My back was hurting
and I needed sustenance so I decided to go to lunch instead and
then out to the ferry jetty. As I was heading for my car to leave,
though, I was looking at the pigeons and noticed a grey one with
a white collar. I've been waiting for a grey pigeon with a white
collar. I pull the camera up and it's click-click-click...lifer
#4 for me for the day...a Band-tailed Pigeon. Yellow legs and all. |
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Well, four lifers before
lunch is pretty darned good. Lunch was not quite that good, but
it was passable and then I headed out to the little parking lot
right before the compensation lagoon at the end of the ferry jetty.
There I pulled out my spotting telescope and zeroed in on lifer
#5: a Brant. Brants are a type of goose. There were several of
them out there, about 40 or 50 meters from where I was
The weather had taken
a bad turn, and it was darker than it had been in the morning,
and raining to boot. I set my camera up on a tripod next to my
scope, and put a 2x teleconverter on the lens. I managed to get
some identifiable Brant shots, but nothing I'm particularly proud
of.
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| Grant
pulled up behind me just as I finished my first set of Brant photos.
There was a female Common Goldeneye paddling around near the rocks
below the parking lot and I removed the teleconverter to get photos
of her. She looks like she could use a hair dryer. She's almost
got a "wet dog" look to her face. |
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Further out in the
water, there were a few Horned Grebes and Surf Scoters, and more
than a few Bufflehead and White-winged Scoters. I tried to get
some pictures of the White-winged Scoters, but they were too far
off.
A number of Black Turnstones
were also on this side of the jetty, and we scanned through them
for Rock Sandpipers or Surfbirds, but found neither. We decided
to head on to the Great Blue Heron colony on the cliff where the
jetty makes landfall. I took a few photos of herons in trees,
but really felt that a sunny day would yield better photos.
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I didn't put the wide
lens on my camera, so I wasn't able to get very many of the birds
in the photo.
We headed on to the
park on the south of the causeway to check for the local Willet,
who I have never found. Soon after we get out of our cars, Grant
spotted the Willet a little ways down the beach. I decided to
clamber down the beach for closer photos, and the others decided
to head on to Beach Grove Park in search of a better Great Horned
Owl sighting than the distant one from the morning.
Eventually I was able
to get within about ten meters of the Willet, and so I got photos
of lifer #6 for the day.
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| The bird
didn't flush, so I didn't get to see its distinctive underwing pattern.
The Willet marked the
end of memory card number two, and I changed cards as I headed
back to my car. From there, I zoomed along to join Grant and Marica
and Jim at Beach Grove.
Once I was there, Jim
came over and pointed out the local Great Horned Owl to me. We
were lucky in that the owl was out of her usual nest spot, sitting
on a branch in the open. From the side of the tree she was in,
I easily saw her, but when she had the trunk behind her, it was
almost impossible for me to visually separate her from the tree.
She's got great camoflauge. It was a little dark so I was basically
shooting blind, aiming the camera at where I knew she was and
hoping that she was presenting a nice posture and that I didn't
have small branches or anything in the way. I varied my position
and took a lot of photos, and was rewarded with a couple that
turned out okay. Here's the Great Horned beauty, in more detail
than I was seeing her.
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| That was
all for Beach Grove; and we caravanned over to Boundary Bay, hoping
for Short-eared Owls. The owls didn't happen, but along the way
we did find a couple of Peregrine Falcons. Here's one that was particularly
close. I was surprised, as I expected this falcon to take offense
to me and fly off, like most other Peregrines I've seen. But this
one stayed put and let me photograph. |
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The Peregrine was the
last good subject of the day, and soon I was heading home after
a skookum day in the field. Six lifers makes for a pretty darned
good day.
Checking my list twice,
Tom
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