Delta Naturalists Society

Seventeen members had signed up for our walk this morning, and all but a few showed up. Being a little vague, I never got the exact number (14?). We had just got ourselves together in the carpark beside the river when a young Cooper’s Hawk made a dashing appearance, accompanied by some raucous crows. They seemed to enjoy chasing each other. Excellent views of the hawk were obtained, and I even snapped a photo on my phone, it was so close.

We walked the park clockwise, heading south-east from the carpark, through a lot of excellent shrub habitat, and then did the loop to the south. The shrubby vegetation is strongly favoured by sparrows and finches in winter, but today a Willow Flycatcher was calling here. We had another later in a similar spot. Other summer residents of the Fraser Delta were active too: Barn Swallows swooped overhead, and several groups of Cedar Waxwings were seen. A Common Yellowthroat gave a few calls, and another was heard later, but I am not sure that anyone got a good view. Groups of House Finches and American Goldfinches twittered overhead and perched on the birches.

The vegetable gardens were much admired by our troop; a lot of ripe beans and other produce were ready for picking. Anna’s Hummingbirds were active in this area as usual, and sharp-eyed members of the group (thanks Lidia!) pointed them out. The little patch of forest had Black-capped Chickadees, another Anna’s Hummingbird, and another Lidia spotting: a second Cooper’s Hawk, a female! It posed beautifully on a tree branch right in front of us.

Walking on towards the dyke area, we watched a Great Blue Heron actively catching fish in a ditch, and we saw more Barn Swallows and a few different gull species flying overhead. We began to melt in the heat. An active group of hikers tried to entice us to join their club as they strode down the dyke, but we headed back into the shadier areas of the park for our return loop. Gabriele wanted to check out the pond, so we got to see a family of Mallard (a mum with seven grown-up ducklings), some eight-spotted skimmers and darner dragonflies, and several green frogs. A Common Yellowthroat called briefly.

We walked 3.26km over nearly three hours of very social birding on a warm sunny morning. I eBirded 21 species, most of which were well seen, but a couple were only heard. Our casual birders today were Bill and Carolyn, Chris, Gabriele, Jacquie, Jim, Lee, Lidia, Lorna, Mike, John, Robert, Dottie and me.
Anne Murray

Photos are on Flickr

Anne’s eBird list