A lucky dozen turned up at Terra Nova in sunshine and with blue skies just before 08:00. These included Roger 2, Mike B2, Lidia, Gabriele, Margaretha, Marion, Terry, Jim K, Glen, Richard H., Noreen and I. Bryan DeB joined up with us later along Westminster Highway near the community gardens.
We started off into the play area with a Bald Eagle perched overhead, and were greeted by a Spotted Towhee singing its Spring “rasp” and a cluster of Golden-crowned Sparrows at our feet. There were lots of early blossoms and Pussy Willows throughout the park, and the early Indian Plum could be seen in various spots. Black-capped Chickadees, Song Sparrows, and Red-winged Blackbirds could be heard at the bridge, but there were no signs of the Pied Billed Grebes that had spent much of the winter in the pond. Overhead there were swallows, and careful study identified both Violet-green and Tree. At times more than 15 could be seen soaring high overhead, but it was difficult to keep track of them, so the bulk were called mixed VGSW/TRSW. A few sparrows including a Fox and several Song were along the trail edges, and a colourful Red-winged Blackbird called to us from its perch in a flurry of pussy willows.
At the community garden, a woodpecker was drumming, but we were unable to see it. Probably a Downy Woodpecker as they are fairly common here. After we crossed Westminster Highway there were numerous Spotted Towhees as well as Golden-crowned Sparrows where some locals put seed on a regular basis. A few Mallards were in the ditch, and Northern Flickers called from high up in the cottonwoods where European Starlings could also be seen. There was a distant raptor sighting which turned out to be a Red-tailed Hawk looking over its shoulder at us, so it gave us both a back view showing reddish central tail feathers and a face-on view.
At the structure just before the dyke Jim K took a group (socially distanced) photo so I expect we are rather tiny in the big picture. We crossed the dyke and went to the marsh edge where a distant light coloured bird could be seen favouring elevated perches. This was a Northern Shrike (grey with black mask so likely an adult) and at one point it perched atop a large gnarled root and two other birds could be seen on the far side of the same root. A photo revealed that they were Western Meadowlarks, a nice find.
Snow Geese could be seen distant to the south, and later on they moved closer as we walked the dyke. I estimated that there were about 3000. We waited for the flock to move, and they obliged (eventually) and made quite a spectacle as they all lifted off in response to a circling raptor (probably Eagle, but there was also a Northern Harrier present). It is hard to capture the enormity of this event with still photos, but the memory (and video) will retain some of this as the large flock circled back and landed where they started from.
Heading back along the dyke towards Westminster, we encountered Purple Finch and then saw what looked like Yellow-rumped Warblers. One flew overhead across the dyke and landed distant where another seemed to be doing the typical fly-out insect hawking behaviour and displayed the white side tail feathers. We tried to get closer, but without luck. Instead, we encountered a flock of Bushtits in a Forsythia bush.
Cutting back into the community garden to look for owls without success, we did encounter a pair of Red-breasted Nuthatch and a Winter Wren, now called the Pacific Wren as it called from a dense brush patch. Although not seen, I did record 3 nice cycles of its natterings which are posted to eBird (https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S104953824). An Anna’s Hummingbird male was busy feeding in the flowering Mahonia – Oregon Grape – in the garden and several others had been seen in our circuit.
From here we cut back through the park and encountered a Marsh Wren. Jim, Mike and Roger headed back by the dyke and also encountered 2 Marsh Wren and 6 Great Blue Herons, the first of the day for the group. An occasional gull flew overhead, and both Glaucous-winged and Ring-billed Gulls were identified.
Back at the cars, we could see distant cormorants that were probably Double-crested but too distant to be certain. Some ducks were in the reeds of the marsh, and amongst them were Green-winged Teal, Mallards and American Wigeon.
The total species count was 32 with 3 other taxa identified not to the species level. With blue skies and sunshine, we all considered this to be a great day for birding, even if we did not encounter a rare raptor.
David Hoar
Delta Naturalists Society 
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