| The second
of January was a somewhat calmer day than the first, but it was
still quite grey. I headed back to the Roberts Bank jetty to look
for the Rock Sandpipers. The jetty has a road that goes out along
it, next to several rail lines. The easy way to get to the road
involves going on an overpass that crosses the rail lines. While
I was driving up this overpass, I spotted a Bald Eagle perched in
a tree straight in front of me. As no other cars were nearby, I
pulled my favorite car-photography maneuver and got some shots of
the eagle out of the driver's side window. |
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| I wasn't
able to get many shots, though, as soon a truck was coming up towards
the overpass behind me. I drove on over to the jetty, and pulled
off onto the gravel area beside the road. The rocks along the shore
next to the gravel area is where the turnstones and sandpipers were
to be found. I got out of my car, and it wasn't long before I found
some Black Turnstones making their way along the shore. Here's one
of them. |
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| After about
five or ten minutes walking along, I noticed another bird on the
shoreline. It clearly wasn't a Black Turnstone. At first I was a
little excited, thinking it might be a Rock Sandpiper, but soon
enough I recognized that it was a Dunlin, a related but more common
bird. Here's the little Dunlin. |
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| I continued
along, and found several more little flocks of Black Turnstones.
Here are a couple of shots of some turnstones that had ventured
about a meter or two from the shore. |
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| I went the
length of the "public" part of the jetty without finding
any Rock Sandpipers, and as I was walking back, I split my attention
between the shore and the birds just offshore. Out on the water,
I found a few different birds, like this pair of Surf Scoters—female
on left and male on the right. |
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| Closer in,
a Common Loon floated past me. |
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| Back near
my car at the base of the jetty, I found this male Common Goldeneye. |
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| And there
were also gulls all up and down the jetty. This one is a Herring
Gull. |
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| Further
offshore, there was a medium-sized flock of American Wigeon. In
the background of this shot is the Tsawassen Ferry terminal. |
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| I got back
in my car and drove a very short ways, parking underneath the rail
overpass. I had noticed a dyke trail that led away from this spot
towards the ferry jetty. As I went out along this path, I noticed
a Downy Woodpecker on a tree by a small shed, but it flew away before
I was able to get a photo. On the water side of the dyke, a Northern
Harrier was hunting. |
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| The harrier
didn't seem to disturbed by my presence and came fairly close to
me. I took the opportunity to take a lot of photos of him. |
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| Here the
harrier is settling on a stump, with the ducks in the bay behind
him. |
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| And here's
a later flight shot, which shows the underwing more clearly. |
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| As I walked
a little further down the dyke, I met a fellow with his daughter
coming the other way. They told me that there were a pair of eagles
down on the mud by the water a short distance in front of me. We
chatted a while and then I continued down towards the eagles. As
I neared their location, one of them took off. The speckled head
and smooth trailing wing edge indicates that this bird is most probably
a three-year-old. |
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| The other
eagle was still down on the mud, and after a few tentative muddy
steps of my own, I found a good vantage point where I wouldn't spook
the bird. This one is either a two- or three-year-old; I lean towards
two-year-old because he had a fairly smudgy bill rather than mainly
orange bill. If he is a two-year-old, there should be some raggedness
to the trailing edge of his wing, and more white on the underwing
than the bird above. |
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| After walking
a little further along the dyke, I saw a group of birds a little
ways out on the water. At first I thought they were ducks, but something
seemed odd about them...they seemed a little too large. I got suspicious
and checked them out with my binoculars. With the bins it was evident
that these were geese. This variety of goose is called a Brant,
and they have really neat black-and-white plumage. For Brant in
the bay, they were fairly close in. Normally I see them farther
out, where it is harder to get recognizable photos of them. |
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| I continued
along the dyke and eventually reached a gate that marked the start
of private property, and so I retraced my route by to the car. On
the way, I noticed a few pointy-billed birds along the path and
in the trees beside it. These were Red-winged Blackbirds, all of
them female. |
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| On the landward
side, in a tangle of vines, there was a sparrow flitting about.
I watched and waited until he perched where I had a clear view of
him: he was a fresh and dapper White-crowned Sparrow. |
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| One of the
more amusing sights of the day was this odd ship, crewed by two
Double-crested Cormorants. They kept watch as their ship floated
by, carried by the currents. |
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Once back at the car,
since there was a little bit of light left, I decided to head
over to Boundary Bay to check on the Snowy Owls. When I got there,
one was out standing in the middle of a fairway on the golf course.
As I watched, two
crows came by to dive-bomb the owl. The owl didn't really seem
to take too kindly to this, and he up and took off after the crows.
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Oftentimes owls will
just sit there and do nothing as crows and other birds mob them.
Only a few times have I seen any of them react like this. It was
nice to catch with the camera.
There was one Snowy
Owl perched out on a log relatively near the parking lot, and
as the light was giving out, I took some photos of him.
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That was it for my
day. Sadly, I didn't find my target Rock Sandpipers, but I did
get some decent shots of some interesting species. I was happy
to have been out in the field, because I knew that soon, work
and weather would be preventing me from doing that.
Your intrepid bay-watcher,
Tom
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