PHOTO: Serpentine River by Glen Bodie…..
Richard and I had a nice walk around the Tynehead trails on Wednesday, starting from the Fish Hatchery parking lot. Maybe everyone else was put off by the forecast, but we had nice conditions – sure it was cloudy but nothing more than that. See our “group picture missing only the photog”.
I don’t recall that we’ve ever had a large number of species seen there in the past, and today was no exception. There was a total of only 13 species – see the eBird report linked below. Maybe we would have found a few more if we had more eyeballs working on it. The majority of these were heard and not seen. Of those which we heard, about half were well-known and easily identified, and the other half needed some help from Merlin, but we agreed with Merlin once we had seen what it said it heard. Perhaps the most notable was the large number of Pacific Wrens – they were everywhere! Very often they were singing their long complex trills, but we also heard shorter calls as they flit around the streams and bushes. One often sees or hears a Brown Creeper, but not too often more than one. We had at least two, but probably three, calling back and forth to each other from several different trees in a grove – but we never got eyes (or cameras) on them.
A highlight was a young couple with their kids walking the trail who wondered what it was that these two old guys with cameras were staring at so intently in the bush. We were seeking the elusive Pacific Wren! It graciously provided several examples of it’s melodious call which got everyone peering into the bush. Other passers-by then stopped to see what everyone was looking at. When a very small dark brown thing flit from under some leaf to further in to the bush they understood the challenge. I’m not sure we created any birders out of the onlookers, but perhaps they now consider a walk on the trails as more than just fodder for their step-counter.
Report by Glen Bodie
The Saturday outing (March 23) has been cancelled.
Next week the Tuesday & Wednesday outings (March 26 & 27) will be to Deas Island Regional Park, 6090 Deas Island Rd, Delta (off River Rd east of the Massey Tunnel). Meet at 9 am in the parking area near the rowing club.
To sign up for an outing, click on the DNS bird outing schedule sheet.
Delta Naturalists Society 