PHOTO:Cooper’s Hawk by Freddie Whiting….
Eleven Delta Naturalist Casual Birders spent a pleasant sunny morning birding coastal locations at Point Roberts.
A few of us – Roger, newbies Claude and Freddie, and Anne – stopped by Kiniski’s first. This stretch of beach presaged the morning’s overall bird abundance – fairly few birds scattered over a wide expanse of sea! A sizeable group of Surf Scoter (I counted 30) along with 5 White-winged Scoter suggested that wintering ducks were beginning to gather. However, the only other birds there were a flock of Ring-billed Gulls, a couple of Common Loons, and 2 Pelagic Cormorants. A few other black blobs on the more distant water were ignored in favour of the usual Casual Birding chit chat.
Moving on to Lighthouse Park, we met up with David and Noreen, Margaretha, and Liz and Alan. Lynn and Warren were caught in traffic jams and joined us a bit later. The ocean looked calm and beautiful in the morning sunshine. Birds were scattered over the water in relatively low numbers. Double-crested and Pelagic Cormorants flew by in small groups. There may have been Brandt’s Cormorants too, but I don’t think anyone got a really definitive view of one. A Common Murre quite close in was exciting, and later we had two Marbled Murrelets near the point. But the usual fall movement of scoters and grebes had not yet occurred. Careful searching eventually found just 3 Surf Scoters, 4 Harlequins, 3 Red-necked Grebes and 1 Horned Grebe, a few Glaucous-winged and California Gulls, and a couple of Caspian Terns in flight. There were some smaller gulls in the distance, too, but they did not get identified to species. A Belted Kingfisher alerted us by its call, and a Cooper’s Hawk was spotted sitting on a post near the car park.
The grass and shrub areas of the park that so often produce many birds of interest were all exceptionally quiet. This encouraged our group to happily chat most of the route, which is what casual birding is all about! A paltry 2 Black-capped Chickadees, a couple of Spotted Towhees, a noisy Red-breasted Nuthatch and a calling Bewick’s Wren added to our rather moderate total of 21 species. Most amazing was the lack of any Killdeer – I have never been to this park without seeing or hearing one. We totally blanked on this common species today, even at the Jetties, another key spot. Fortunately, the weather was lovely, and the chatter of our group filled in for the lack of bird calls.
Our next stop was the Jetties beach (still with much of the beach covered with logs from a storm several years ago). Sharp eyes here spotted a couple of Greater Yellowlegs and the procession of cormorants flying by offshore continued. Warren reported a “frazzled-looking” Great Blue Heron sitting on the rocks. The inlet that hosts many ducks in winter was quiet and only one House Finch was seen in the blackberry bushes.
Despite the slow birding, everyone was enjoying the nice weather and the company, so we moved on to Seabright Farm. Not surprisingly, this was also quiet, although nothing can suppress Flickers and we heard and then saw two of them. A Red-tailed Hawk glided over but, unusually, there were no Bald Eagles! They must all be away at the salmon spawning rivers. Sharp eyes spotted a lone Tree Swallow and then a lovely group of ten Bushtits flitted through the bushes. There are a lot of them around at this time of year, their groups getting bigger and bigger as they meet up with each other. The bushes at this location are excellent habitat for small birds, and we heard Bewick’s Wrens, Spotted Towhees and Song Sparrows, and saw an adult White-crowned Sparrow (eBird suggested the Gambel’s White-crowned subspecies). The trail yielded 14 species and was a nice finale to a very pleasant chatty morning amidst beautiful scenery.
Report by Anne Murray
Photos are on flickr
eBird checklists
Kiniski’s
Lighthouse Marine Park
Jetties
Seabright Farm
Next Tuesday & Wednesday (Sept 10 & 11) the outings are to Tsawwassen Ferry Causeway & Reifel.
Meet on the ferry causeway at 8 am. The parking pullout is part way along the north side of the causeway.
Meet at Reifel at 9 am. DNS has been booked as a group. You do not need to book parking – just tell the gatekeeper that you are part of the DNS group booking.
Non-Reifel members will need to pay admission.
To sign up for an outing, click on the DNS bird outing schedule sheet.
Delta Naturalists Society 