Photo: Say’s Phoebe, by Glen Bodie
There were only 3 signed-up for today’s outing – David, Noreen and Glen. So we made a plan to drop one car at the south end of 34th Street and car-pool up to the regular starting point on River Rd. Because there is now a permanent bridge across the ditch at 34th that allowed us to walk one direction only, and walk further along toward DeltaPort past our regular turning point, before getting back in to the other car. Brilliant! When we got to the regular spot we found Anne and Margaretha were there waiting for us. Five people total did not wreck our car-pooling plan so we were off!
It was variable weather: a stiff breeze to start, patches of sunshine, fog through most of the walk and some sprinkles of rain just near the end. The birds didn’t seem to care, so neither did we. The river was quiet – just a Bald Eagle on the opposite shore and 2 Bufflehead couples on the water. We quickly encountered our bird of the day – a Say’s Phoebe all alone, nicely perched on a parking sign. Two Tree Swallows swooped around above the trees along the road. The fog began to surround us as we moved along the trail. The pilings had the usual Double-crested Cormorants. The bushes and trail-side gave us White-crowned Sparrow, Golden-crowned Sparrow, Dark-eyed Junco, Fox Sparrow, Spotted Towhee and American Robins.
By now we could no longer see the river through the fog so we focused on the fields and the bushes seeing an increasing number of Killdeer in 2’s and 3’s, and Dunlin in 20’s and 30’s. There were Kinglets in the bushes, both Ruby-crowned and Golden-crowned. The first of many Marsh Wrens called from the reeds alongside the ditch and, with some patience, Noreen and Glen were able to get a picture of this elusive little singer. We could hear some very large numbers of Snow Geese off past the marshy foreshore and a few flew over us. Two Northern Harriers patrolled the foreshore.
As we got to our frequent turning around point, we could finally see past the foreshore and it was all mud flats, quite a low tide. Because of that, most of the ducks were well outside our vision. The flats had large numbers of Dunlin and Black-bellied Plovers. The only ducks we saw there were Green-winged Teal. The area around the farm provided Eurasian Collared-Doves and a rooster, but none of the finches, hummers or swallows we often see there. We kept looking expectantly out over the mud flats but the fog and the distance kept everything just out of view. Near the end a Bald Eagle nest had 2 adults in it.
We walked back up 34th to the car and completed our car-pooling. We finished the day with 36 species.
Report by Glen Bodie
Photos are on Flickr
Next Tuesday and Wednesday (April 1 & 2) the outings 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 following Saturday (April 5) there will be another outing to Brunswick Point.
Meet at 9 am in the new parking lot at the south end of River Road West in Ladner – past the Westham Island Bridge. Parking is no longer allowed at the end of River Road. The parking lot is 1 km before the end of River Rd near 30B St.
To sign up for an outing, click on the DNS bird outing schedule sheet.
Delta Naturalists Society 