Delta Naturalists Society

As usual, the birding day I chose turned out to be the rainiest day in the week. More than half of the signed up group of 14 decided to stay home and most of us were late. Only Noreen and David made it to the Tsawwassen jetty to peer at birds through the early morning rain; the rest of us – Jonathan, Colin and Stephanie and me – chose to start the day by meeting them later at Reifel.

No surprise, the line up at the gate was non-existent, and we were soon checking out the home pond in light but persistent rain. A smattering of ducks and yellowlegs were present there, so we pushed on, taking the southern dyke first.

A few Greater Yellowlegs called an alarm and a splashing mammal caught our attention: a River Otter! It was feeding on something in the water, but we couldn’t work out what. Later we saw it in the home pond too. A Lincoln’s Sparrow showed itself very briefly in the bushes, but the trail was mostly quiet, as we shared our reminiscences of seeing American Bitterns on previous visits. None today, and only a few Yellowlegs and ducks on the lagoon, but the sudden sight of a Barn Owl flying up and over the bushes was a treat.

The middle lagoon had two female Ruddy Ducks (rather late in the season) and we saw a single Wood Duck among the Mallards, Wigeon, Northern Shovelers and Gadwall. The West Field had Long-billed Dowitchers and both Greater and Lesser Yellowlegs: the poor light, constant drizzle and lack of a scope meant we could not pick out any Short-billed Dowitchers today. A number of smaller “peeps” flew over too, also unidentified as to species.

A brief cessation of rain made the dyke walk a bit easier, but views remained obscured. We saw Northern Harriers and Cooper’s Hawk in flight and we slowly picked up some expected species on the rest of the walk: House and Purple Finches, Song Sparrows, both species of Kinglet, Brown Creeper and Red-breasted Nuthatch, and a flurry of Yellow-rumped Warblers. A newly arrived Golden-crowned Sparrow sang briefly for us, and the first Fox Sparrow of the winter also posed nicely. A couple more Lincoln’s Sparrows caused some head-scratching as to their ID – photos should confirm if the rain drops haven’t blurred the lens too badly.

Back at the House Pond, a Belted Kingfisher posed nicely, yelling at us. Reifel seldom disappoints and even on such a damp day, our tenacious group had 48 species for the 3 hours we were there.
Addendum: The last two “Lincoln’s” Sparrows were identified from photos as being 2 Savannah’s, bringing our total species to 49.
Anne Murray