Delta Naturalists Society

Some Delta Nats took part in the Ladner Christmas Bird Count on December 22.  The cold windy weather resulted in a lower than usual count in nearly all the count areas.  At least the rain held off.

Counts are carried out within a 24-km diameter circle that stays the same from year to year.  The Ladner Christmas Bird Count area includes Tsawwassen, Point Roberts and south Richmond.  Ladner and Victoria compete for the most species in Canada – usually over 140.  The Ladner count area is divided into 11 sub-areas.

I went to the post-count gathering at Reifel. 4 of the 11 areas were not represented.  The preliminary Ladner count without them was 128.  Reports from feeders will be added later too.  I will let you know when I hear the final tally.  The Ladner total in 2017 was 139.

Area I (Tsawwassen east of 56th) found 56 species.  In 2017 we found 71 species.  In 2016 we found 69 species.  We did find the Ruff that has been around for the last few weeks.  That was the only species that no other Ladner count group found.  We did not find the Harris’s Sparrows, but some other groups did.  We did not find the Red-breasted Sapsucker that had been in the same tree, near Boundary Bay School, the previous 2 years.

Area K (Tsawwassen west of 56th) found 60 species.  They found the 6 Snow Buntings on the ferry causeway.

The Point Roberts group saw 91 species including Virginia Rail, Western Meadowlark, Red Crossbill and 266 Golden-crowned Kinglets.

The area including the landfill had 1032 Bald Eagles.

There are photos on the DNCB Flickr site.

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Don’t forget our first DNS Monthly Meeting of 2019, Wednesday Jan 2 at 7:30 pm, at Benediction Lutheran Church.  After the regular business is concluded, Paul and Carol Rennie will be our guest speakers, speaking about The Galapagos Islands and the Peruvian Amazon.

Tuesday, 8 January 2019 will be the first DNCB Outing of 2019.  We will meet near White Rock Pier (WR Pier broken, boats smashed etc. December 20th, 2018, see https://www.surreynowleader.com/news/white-rock-pier-damaged-by-storm/) and then bird at Blackie Spit.  Watch this spot for more details!

Update January 7, 2019

Our plan is still to leave Petra’s at 7:30 and arrive in White Rock about 8.

Although the pier and east promenade are closed, we will park by the museum immediately west of the pier to see what we can see from shore.  Then park again at the west end of the beach before the road goes uphill.  Parking is free before 10am.

Then we will go to Blackie Spit.  We usually park at end of the road in the gravel area, and start by walking out on the spit.