Delta Naturalists Society

Note:  DNCB Outing No. 2022-49A to Terra Nova was cancelled.
Small but mighty, I think that’s all you can say of our group. It was cloudy but dry and calm all morning and the 3 of us – yes, three (3)! – Stephanie, Colin and Glen – enjoyed the walk and saw 25 species. The list is at the end of this report. Here’s our group picture:

Without going more than a few steps, we saw 2 Bald Eagles atop a tree, a flurry of Bushtits, and a Bewick’s Wren doing a fair imitation of a Brown Creeper climbing the trunk of a tree. We continued on through the park following pretty much our conventional route. The water surfaces were largely iced over and almost no duck species seen anywhere – except of course Mallards, some Wigeon on the golf course, and a lone Green-winged Teal in the ditch.

Robins, Towhees and Black-capped Chickadees were everywhere. A large flock of Snow Geese announced that they were passing overhead, and they settled somewhere out on the ocean’s edge. The most active birds were the smallest – Anna’s Hummingbird and Ruby-crowned Kinglet – who somehow manage to get enough calories to keep their small bodies moving rapidly.

Over the shoreline marsh we saw a male and a female Northern Harrier on patrol, and up in the trees was a Red-tailed Hawk keeping watch. Later we saw what was most probably a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk given the tail banding and the white spots on the back.

As we neared the end, we saw two more that we didn’t officially add to the list because of uncertainty. The first flew from the ditch to the marsh over the dike path, low to the ground, stubby tail, overall dark brown, a little larger than a Robin and the first thing that came to mind was “Rail”, but it disappeared in to the marsh. Next we heard a lot of insistent chatter in the marsh, and a little brown bird flew up and disappeared again a little further on, so most probably a wren, but Marsh or Pacific, we don’t know.

A marvellous time was had by all. We hope you’ll add to our small but mighty group next week!
Glen Bodie

Photos on flickr

American Robin
American Wigeon
Anna’s Hummingbird
Bald Eagle
Bewick’s Wren
Black-capped Chickadee
Bushtit
Cooper’s Hawk
Dark-eyed Junco
Great Blue Heron
Green-winged Teal
Gull sp 
House Finch
Loon sp 
Mallard 
Northern Flicker 
Northern Harrier
Northwestern Crow
Ruby-crowned Kinglet
Snow Goose
Song Sparrow 
Spotted Towhee
Starling
Varied Thrush
Possible Rail
Undecided Wren