Delta Naturalists Society

Nine of us gathered at Centennial Beach on a grey and breezy morning and headed for the little pond just south of the playground. This small, sheltered area was quite productive, with a Common Goldeneye, a couple of Buffleheads, and the usual Mallards. Blackbirds, both Brewer’s and Red-winged were flying around, and one poor little Brewer’s posed on a log for close-up pictures, but must have been unwell.

The tide was going out, not the best situation for birding, but still high enough for us to enjoy mixed flocks of Dunlin and Sanderling running and feeding along the edge of the waves. Some scattered rafts of Surf Scoter and other ducks were on the water, and a skein of Double-crested Cormorant went past, necks outstretched. A small group of Long-billed Dowitcher flew over (id inferred from size, long bills, wrong season for anything similar). The light was poor, however, and I had not brought my scope, so we could not get a good view of the more distant water birds.

As usual, gulls paraded the beach and made us work on identification of this rather challenging group. The majority were Iceland (Thayer’s) Gulls, confirmed by Brian’s super photos. A flock of 140 Black Brant flew by, fortunately these attractive sea geese are pretty much unmistakeable. As usual, Bald Eagles were exciting to watch as they interacted. It is amazing to remember how rare these birds were thirty plus years ago, at a time when DDT pesticide poisoning affected the viability of their eggs.

The group continued north up the outer dyke trail, straggling, and chatting, as we Casual Birders do! Enroute we were joined by Margaretha and then by Roger, thus becoming a group of 11, and filling up the trail. Birding was quite tricky, as the light was very poor and the birds were staying low in the breezy conditions. Bushes had Golden-crowned Sparrows, a couple of Purple Finches, and Robins, but it took effort to find common birds like Towhees and Song Sparrows. Starlings and Blackbirds flew around in big flocks, but the variety of species that use this park were just not showing themselves.

Roger had seen a Northern Shrike near the pumphouse end of the trail just before we reached that area, but there was no sign of it now. bThe interior trails were astoundingly quiet: normally the bushes here are very busy in most seasons, but by now the wind had got up and was keeping the birds low. Nonetheless, throughout the three-hour walk our group kept up a happy level of chatter, that would have very much pleased our former leader Tom.

My eBird list had 31 species, and Roger’s Shrike would make the tally 32.

Participants: Colin and Stephanie, Brian and Louise, Jim K, Johnnie, Chris McV, Susan G., Margaretha, Roger M. and Anne.

Report by Anne Murray

Photos will be added to Flickr

Anne Murray’s eBird list