PHOTO: Dunlin Murmuration by Glen Bodie….
It seemed a not-too-promising day from the weather forecast, and a few birders fell off the sign-up sheet, but still, Nicki, Bruce, Anne and Glen met at the Ferry causeway pullout, and later met up with Lori at Reifel. The rain held off until we were on our way home. It was dull and cloudy at the ferry, but light enough that you knew spring (and the time change) were coming. There were the usual suspects – Black Oystercatchers, Bald Eagles, a gulp of assorted Cormorant species (yes, that is the collective noun), some Scoters, Common Goldeneye, Bufflehead and Common Loon. The star of the show though was the 4372 Dunlin murmuring across the sand bars just north off the jetty’s end. Wow!
We were greeted at Reifel’s Gift Shop entrance by 3 Sandhill Cranes (either 2 adults and 1 juvenile, or 1 adult and 2 juveniles, hard to tell), a pond full of Northern Shovelers, and multiple Anna’s Hummingbirds at every feeder. The Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds and Mallards were everywhere. A Black-crowned Night-Heron was in the usual tree, but very hard to see deep in the branches. The lookout over London Slough was notable for the complete lack of birds out on the water, on the logs or on the shore, not even a Great Blue Heron – but don’t worry, we found them later.
Heading down the East Dyke trail we saw more daffodils almost ready to pop than we saw Black-capped Chickadees. Finally, at some feeders we saw Spotted Towhees, Red-winged Blackbirds, Song Sparrows, Fox Sparrows and Golden-crowned Sparrows. No ducks in the ditches, no geese on the Alaksen fields. We searched in vain for a Saw-whet Owl, or any Owl, and continued on around to the observation tower, seeing some Gadwall and Hooded Mergansers along the way. A few Great Blue Herons perched on poles out in the marsh, and the trees across the marsh held 8 Bald Eagles.
We continued around on the Outer Dyke trail. There were Northern Harriers patrolling the marsh, a Peregrine flew quickly past overhead, Marsh Wrens were in the bushes practicing their calls for spring mating, more Northern Shovelers dabbled in the Ponds and out in the marsh, sitting on some logs were about 11 Great Blue Herons. Along the SW edge of the ponds we had been told to look out for the Bittern “right where the sign is”. Knowing it was great at camouflage ,we slowed right down and scanned the area carefully, finally finding it moving slowly through the reeds. Where we expected a larger bird with a vertical posture, we saw a smaller bird with a very horizontal posture. It quickly snatched something off the ground, but I don’t think we got a picture of it, and then it disappeared back into the reeds.
Having had that success, and feeling as though the rain was not far off, we didn’t linger on the route back to the Gift Shop, adding only some beaver-cut trees, Wood Ducks and a Sharp-shinned Hawk. Once again at the Gift Shop all the hummers were entertaining people who had 3 foot lenses and stood 14 feet from the feeders.
It had been a good day, and Anne got to enjoy looking for the birds because Bruce did the eBird lists so Anne didn’t spend all her time looking at her phone! We had 14 species at the Ferry jetty, and 35 species at Reifel which, eliminating duplicates, gave us a total of 44 species for the day.
Report by Glen Bodie
Photos are on Flickr
Next Tuesday & Wednesday (March 11 & 12) the outings 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 