PHOTO: Dunlin & Coyote by Glen Bodie…..
It promised to be a grey and cool – or maybe even cold – morning on the dike when these 13 birders met up at 104th Ave: Lynne and Warren, Grace, Henry, Naoko, Brian (w/o Louise), Stephanie (w/o Colin), David S, Connie, TK, Lucia, Margaretha and Glen. The tide was well out, but on its way in, and all we could see was black rafts way out on the open water. Even a scope wasn’t helpful. We could tell by the sound and the occasional flights that there were a LOT of Snow Geese down closer to White Rock and a few skeins of them flew over us.
The nearby trees produced a Merlin (Taiga) and the regular little birds: Song Sparrow, House Finch, Spotted Towhee, American Crow. A few trees further on showed a bird at the top of the tree with a different posture / body shape and the sharp-eyed among us recognized the Northern Shrike which had been reported recently.
At the edge of the tide we could see large flocks of peeps. When they all lifted into the air and flew in close-quarters it was clear that this was large murmurations of Dunlin. When they were on the sand we could see mixed in with those large flocks some slightly larger birds which the scope helped us determine were Black-bellied Plovers. Across from the tide were bushes that offered a few more smaller species: Fox Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, White-crowned and Golden-crowned Sparrows. As we moved along, the tide kept creeping in and the Dunlin murmurations became mesmerizing. There were no Pipits in the Eel grass, and no one sitting on the old cannery pilings. There were several huge settlements of gulls, seemingly mostly Glaucous-winged, but one is never sure that’s all they are, settled on the mud flats and later again in the fields.
We stopped at 96th Ave as the route beyond that seemed less interesting. The tide had come in so far already that we saw little in the foreshore other than a few Eurasian Collared-doves. A Coyote appeared in the shallows, some thought it was a dog, bounding through the 4” deep water clearly in a hurry to get somewhere. He soon was past us completely and had raised no few flocks of peeps, and startled an Eagle off his perch.
As we came back along the dike, the weather became warm in the sun and the waters were fully in and glassy smooth. The cannery pilings now provided perch for some Black-bellied Plovers. As the tide came in so did the rafts of ducks which had been off shore, and we saw American Wigeon and Northern Shovelers. A small flock of Black-bellied Plovers settled on a large puddle in the fields. The same small birds were in the trees, warmed by the new sunshine.
In all we had 26 species observed and the casual birding chat-fest kept everyone involved between sightings.
Report by Glen Bodie
Photos are on flickr
Next Tuesday & Wednesday (Oct 29 & 30) the outings will be to Point Roberts, USA
Bring PASSPORT or NEXUS.
Meet at 9 am at Lighthouse Marine Park (811 Marine Drive). Some people may stop first by Kiniski’s at the west end of Gulf Rd.
To sign up for an outing, click on the DNS bird outing schedule sheet.
Delta Naturalists Society 