PHOTO: Hermit Thrush by David Hoar……
Anticipating a fine day of birding, 12 DNCBers arrived at the QE Pitch ‘n Putt for a 9am start: David and Noreen, Brian and Louise, Colin and Stephanie, Warren and Lynne, TK, Lidia, Marion, and Glen. It was overcast and “cool” – some had extra extra layers and David wore shorts!
It was a VERY slow start. An Anna’s Hummingbird was all we saw at the start, nothing in the Rose Garden except some bare flower beds, nothing on the hillside below the lawn bowling. Some Chickadees in a flowering tree provided a brief interest. Nothing on the trail down around the restaurant to the small quarry. At the small quarry we took a group picture just to make sure there was at least ONE picture from the day.
And then sharp-eyed Colin spotted some Orange-crowned Warblers way up on a tree. It was a start … a slow start. To that point people were starting to get more interested in the flowers. Everything seemed a little bit out of sync. Some flowers were late, some had been killed by the cold, there seemed to be few bugs and therefore few birds feeding on the bugs. Maybe the warblers had taken a look and moved on to better feeding. The flower beds were tended, but seemed sparse compared to previous years. We forged on.
We did not see any owls in their usual spots. Occasionally Merlin would pick out a possibly interesting sound, but nothing was seen. We went down the hill to the pond and we saw Mallards! Two Canada Geese flew in (noisily). And we heard small sounds in the bushes. Merlin said Townsend’s Warbler but no one quite believed it. Noreen and Marion thought they had a Black-throated Gray Warbler but it went into hiding. As we walked around the pond we saw two Bushtits. Further around we had more small sounds in the bushes, probably a Pine Siskin and something else. A number of flitting birds in the bush had us all interested and Merlin agreed with us that it was American Goldfinches, a Song Sparrow, and a Spotted Towhee. And finally, the sun was breaking through the cloud cover.
At the large quarry we found the Bushtit nest we had been told to expect but there was no activity around it. Colin spotted a Cooper’s Hawk WAY up in the sky. And then out on the grass the main event started. In retrospect, we probably should have waited till 11am and just met at the quarry to start. There were Dark-eyed Juncos, White-crowned Sparrows, Golden-crowned Sparrows, Bushtits, Orange-crowned Warblers and a Golden-crowned Kinglet. That kept us busy for quite a while! As we moved along the pathway we had a great showing of a Pine Siskin coming to the water for a drink and 3 Hermit Thrush with their reddish tail and spotted breast. They stayed around for quite a while.
We went up to the ledge over-looking the quarry to pause for a moment and bask in the sunshine. We seemed to be done. Walking back around the mountain to the Rose Garden and parking didn’t add anything to our list of species, though we all could recall days before when we had seen lots of Flycatchers and Vireos and Finches and Warblers in all the flowering trees. But not today. To add to the species list we found some mushrooms beside a flower bed – looked like Agrocybe praecox, the Spring Fieldcap. David looked through his pictures later and found a Wilson’s Warbler. So that increased our count to 26 bird species……the great majority of that all in the large quarry.
Report by Glen Bodie
Photos on flickr
David’s eBird list
The next Saturday outing (May 4) will be to Serpentine Fen. Meet at 8 am in the parking lot on King George Blvd by the bridge over the Serpentine River. We will not use the gated parking lot behind Art Knapps.
The next Tuesday & Wednesday outings (May 7 & 8) will be to Joe Brown Park, 5381 125A St, Surrey. Meet at 8 am. There should be enough room to park below the traffic circle on 125A St.
To sign up for future outings go to the signup form and put an x by your name.
https://tinyurl.com/dncb-signup
Delta Naturalists Society 