Delta Naturalists Society

11 Birders met at Queen Elizabeth Park on a chilly but sunny spring morning, eager to explore the season’s first offerings of warblers and other spring and summer visitors.  Glen, Brian, Louise, Gabriele, Marion, Rosemary, and yours truly met in the rose gardens, where White-crowned Sparrows, Golden-crowned Sparrows, and Dark-eyed Juncos stalked the lawns and flitted in and out of the pruned bushes.  Pine Siskins trilled noisily from the tops of trees and Black-capped Chickadees added their “bee-doos” to the morning cacophony.

An early treat for the day was a lone Chipping Sparrow, which gave us a decent albeit brief gander at its attractive plumage and chestnut cap before beating a hasty exit.  Soon after, Anne, Richard, Stephanie, and Colin joined the gang and we meandered about the gardens adding a few other usual suspects to the list: American Robin, Anna’s Hummingbirds, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, and Northern Flickers. We also saw, pottering about within the canopy of a big leafy tree just off the rose garden, a Wilson’s Warbler with its rich buttery yellow plumage and black yarmulke cap.

After that, we struck out into what appeared to be a relatively quiet morning of birding.  Lots of sparrows about, a lone Bald Eagle in a tree, but not much else until we spotted two Varied Thrushes and a Hermit Thrush hunting about at the base of a large tree.  Alas, the latter scampered off before most of our party could see it.  (Never mind, we saw it again later in some brambles, its diagnostic rusty rump giving us a satisfactory ID.)

Then things started picking up.  On our way to the cherry trees, where we suspected we’d see lots of warblers, a Pacific Wren blasted its hectic, jumbled call from the thick path-side vegetation.  We heard American Goldfinches and even more Pine Siskins.  Further down, in a cool thicket of evergreens, a lone Barred Owl snuggled close to the bole of a tree, opening a sleepy eye to check us out as we got close (but not too close) to take photographs.

Entering into the main sweep of gardens, spectacularly dressed in kaleidoscopic spring blooms, we heard and then saw Orange-crowned Warblers, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Spotted Towhees, a Hutton’s Vireo, and, not one, but TWO Townsend’s Solitaires (“But then they can’t be solitaires,” said Glen. Har har.)  Tiny, bejewelled Anna’s Hummingbirds were active, zooming after each other, singing from the tops of trees, and performing their helicopter swoop displays, with a loud “Peep!” at the end.  Alas, none of us spotted any Rufous Hummingbirds.

Glaucous-winged Gulls and American Crows were a staple of the skyline, either gliding at height or crash-landing in some tree nearby (respectively).  Two other birders (not with the DNCB) reported seeing Tree Swallows too, which must have been the swallow species we saw earlier but didn’t confidently ID.  I heard the tinny jittering of Downy Woodpeckers, and saw one later on, hanging upside down on a large branch, en route to the pond.

A flock of what we assumed to be Canada Geese flew overhead at one point, but what really caught our attention was one relatively small bird near the rear of the V-formation.  A Cackling Goose?  In fact, they were mostly Cackling Geese with four Greater White-fronted Geese leading the formation!  The one near the rear must have just been an uncharacteristically small Cackling Goose.  A valuable lesson learned: not all long-necked goosy-looking birds are Canada Geese!  We did later see two actual Canada Geese hanging out on the gardens’ clipped lawns.

Breaking off the path into a thicket of brambly vegetation, a crested flycatcher of some kind flitted about, which—after some deliberation, photo referencing, and the bird call ID function on Merlin—we determined to be a Hammond’s Flycatcher.  We also got a much better look at the Hutton’s Vireo we heard earlier on.  A small fast-flying raptor sliced overhead too fast for us to identify; although we narrowed it down to either a Merlin or American Kestrel (my money’s on the latter due to plumage coloration).  A Cooper’s Hawk called from the top of a spruce tree nearby, and then flew off before we could get a decent look at it.  Thankfully, we were able to identify its call using, once again, Merlin Bird ID.  Whatever did we do before this app?

From there, we paid a visit to the ponds in hopes of padding our list with a few obvious duck species, but our efforts were only rewarded with a few Mallard pairs and Song Sparrows.  Earlier, a pair of American Wigeons were reported so they made the list.

Not long after the pond, my mom and I split off from the main group for lunch at Seasons in the Park and on the way, I spotted a Bushtit nest hanging like a long woolly sock from a tree right next to the stairs leading up from the main garden to the terrace in front of the dome.  (How had we missed that before?)  Wriggling into and out of the nest were a pair of Bushtits!  Although there could have been more, I didn’t hang around long to count.  Lunch was beckoning.

All-in-all, we counted a total of 34 different bird species and enjoyed a truly beautiful day out in the resplendent Queen Elizabeth Park.
Thea Beckman

Photos are on flickr

Thea’s eBird list