On yet another scorching day in Vancouver, a party of 9 intrepid birders met at Brunswick Point on the westernmost lobe of land on the southern shore of the Fraser River. They were Thea, Rosemary, Gabriele, Marion, Noreen, David, Angela, Christine, and Douglas. Here, a long, easy, flat trail traces the curve of the coastline, offering panoramic views of extensive reedbeds and mudflats where—at certain special times of the year—shorebirds flock in their thousands, challenging birders such as ourselves with the task of teasing apart their species. On the land side of the trail, sweeping fields of farmlands bordered by lush, untamed thickets offer a wholly different habitat, and the combination of the two generally means a profitable day of bird-watching!
By the time we hit the trail, we had already added Barn Swallows, European Starlings, Canada Geese, American Crows, and Eurasian Collared-Doves to our list, all being fairly ubiquitous species in this neck of the woods. An interesting sparrow perched on a power cable caught our curiosity and after some scrutiny, we landed on Savannah Sparrow. In fact, we saw what we assumed to be quite a few of them along the dyke but they weren’t singing for us and so I can’t help but wonder if perhaps we missed out on a Lincoln’s Sparrow or two (another unaffiliated birder reported seeing them). A pair of vociferous Bewick’s Wrens caused quite the diversion and while hunting for them in a blackberry thicket, we flushed out an American Robin. Flocks of House Finches and American Goldfinches were also quite active, flitting from bush to bush and tree to tree. Rounding the bend, we found the cannery pilings to be devoid of their usual cargo of cormorants and herons, although a Double-crested Cormorant was seen flying overhead and, further on, amongst the shorebirds and in waterlogged ditches bordering the farmlands, there was no shortage of Great Blue Herons.
Rounding a bend in the path, a swath of tilled farmlands comes into view and you hear the Killdeer before you see them. We counted over a dozen hanging out in this erstwhile/future pumpkin patch, and that was just at a glance; there were probably twice that number nestled in between the corrugations of dirt. The bushes to the oceanside of the path were active with Yellow Warblers (pictured above), Black-capped Chickadees, Spotted Towhee, and lovely, buttery-breasted Common Yellowthroats.
Ahead of us, Marsh Wrens flitted down onto the path to take dust baths: something they typically do to rid their feathers of excess oil and parasites. Past the “first bench”—now the “second bench” thanks to a recent charitable donation—we started seeing sea and shorebirds, although they were too far out to identify… all except the largest (and most unexpected) of them: American White Pelicans! These great birds utterly dwarfed all others in their presence, bringing to mind a stately cruise ship pulling into a harbour filled with yachts (gulls), puttering fishing vessels (ducks), and dinghies (peeps).
A great line of birds littering a sand bar jutted out into the water but the only species we could identify from our vantage point were the pelicans. But as our feet ate up the path, and we came closer to them, we began adding more and more birds to the list. Glaucous-winged Gulls, Ring-billed Gulls, and Caspian Terns thronged about the pelicans, the terns alerting us to their presence with their loud, harsh kraaaks! David snapped a gull doing a fly-by, which, upon later scrutiny, turned out to be a California Gull.
Killdeer in their dozens dotted the nearest shore and while we discerned tiny “peep” sandpipers among them, it was only at our turnaround point, adjacent to the Canadian flag and farmhouse, that we actually landed on a comfortable ID of Western and Least Sandpipers (the latter, flashing their little yellow legs). Sadly, we didn’t have a telescope with us and so we were pretty handicapped in identifying much else. As if in compensation, however, nature threw us a Peregrine Falcon, which we saw harassing clouds of peep sandpipers and again, later on, perched in a tree, affording us fabulous views.
We also heard a Bald Eagle whittering away in the distance but never saw it, and a Belted Kingfisher did a brief, yet close flyover. On the way back, we added a Red-tailed Hawk, White-crowned Sparrows, and Cedar Waxwings to the list, bringing us to a pretty decent total of 36 species.
(And on the animal report, a healthy-looking rabbit and a garter snake!)
Thea Beckman
Delta Naturalists Society 
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