Delta Naturalists Society

Three painfully optimistic birders, Bob, Dottie and Lee, left White Rock in the pouring rain, arriving at the North 40 Park Reserve just in time for the rain to end.  It was cloudy, chill and damp, and absent any other birders we could find.

Croaks sounded from the water-filled ditches, likely bullfrogs, but a rabbit hopping past a clump of blooming daffodils gave the scene a sweet, belated Easter vibe.  Eagles and Glaucous-winged Gulls flew overhead, as well as a Great Blue Heron and a pair of Mallards.  Merlin heard a Yellow-rumped Warbler and a Savannah Sparrow, but we couldn’t spot them.  A flicker was calling.

We did see a small flock of Goldfinches, Golden-crowned Sparrows, Song Sparrows, a Chickadee and a female Downy Woodpecker. A female Purple Finch was singing from the top of a stand of blooming plum trees, trying to be heard over the passing train.  Bob took us to visit the Wych Elm, always worth admiring. It had yet to leaf out, but there was an impressive polypore fungus at the base of the trunk (Fomitopsis ochracea?).

No owls were seen in the Western Cedar today. Most of the bird activity was on the north side of the park, overlooked by crows and numerous Eagles in the trees. There we saw and heard Starlings, Robins, Song Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds and more Golden-crowned Sparrows.  There were also numerous Rufous Hummingbirds, perched high or chasing each other through the air. Lee heard an Anna’s.

As always, lots of dogs and dog walkers were in the park, all well behaved. The water and mud limited our exploring to mostly to the paved paths.  Heading back we saw a nice patch of orange fungus on a branch, (possibly witch’s butter, Tremella mesenterica?).  The sky was just clearing as we left.

Dottie Uhlman

Flickr photos

eBird list Delta by Lee Wright
–North 40 Dog Park (old wireless station) Apr 11, 2023
2 Mallard 
1 Anna’s Hummingbird 
6 Rufous Hummingbird 
2 Glaucous-winged Gull 
3 Great Blue Heron 
24 Bald Eagle 
1 Downy Woodpecker 
1 Northern Flicker 
6 American Crow 
1 Black-capped Chickadee 
10 European Starling 
10 American Robin 
1 Purple Finch 
4 American Goldfinch 
8 Golden-crowned Sparrow 
6 Song Sparrow 
6 Red-winged Blackbird

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Glen Bodie (who was unable to join the Outing) commented on Lee Wright’s photos of fungi seen:

1. Tremella mesenterica usually called Witch’s Butter is very often and easily confused with Dacrymyces chrysospermus usually called Orange Jelly. Not sure how to tell them apart (different shade of colour, preference for a different host tree?) and not sure it REALLY matters that much as they’re both not interesting as food, though I hear the Tremella is better eating even raw but the Dacrymyces needs cooking.
2. Fomitopsis ochracea – note the spelling, the “ochr..” part suggest the colour ochre which you can see in the brown top. The paler whitish band at the edge is the new growth. This one seems to be first or second year but as it keeps going (a perennial polypore) you’ll see more of the white edges overlapped by the next ochre layer with a new surface of pores across the bottom each time.