PHOTO: Short-eared Owl by Glen Bodie……
There were 9 birders at the North 40 park at 8am: Alan and Liz, Warren and Lynne, Colin and Stephanie, and Roger, Anne and Glen.
The sprinkles had stopped and the sun tried to break through the clouds, often succeeding but leaving us a bit chilled whenever we got away from the bushes and the wind picked up. Before we even left the parking area Anne had 6 species on her list and we were off to a good start. It was predominantly small songbirds such as Sparrows (Golden-crowned, Song and – seen later on – Savannah and Fox), Black-capped Chickadees and Ruby-crowned Kinglets. The Fox Sparrows in particular were very noticeable singing their springtime call. We’re still a few weeks early for the migrating Warblers and Flycatchers that can often be seen here – need to come back soon!
Down at the first “possible owl tree” we were all hoping to see an owl, and we were in luck as a Barn Owl flew off from the tree. After shifting around in some nearby trees, the owl took off in the opposite direction, and we lost sight. A quick group of 5 Goldfinches zipped past us. On a smaller deciduous tree across the road there were 3 Downy Woodpeckers chasing each other around, and we presumed competing for mates. Further down the road, as we left the cover of the Chestnut trees, we were called back by the whitchity-whitchity call of our first Common Yellowthroat of the season.
We continued through the over-grown streets and walkways spending as much time on the springtime vegetation as on the few species we saw in there. One tree back in the bush had some Crows doing a lot of complaining about life. Instead of them harassing some owl it seemed they were keeping watch on a group of 5 Bald Eagles in a tree. There were a few clusters of birds along the way where we saw a number of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, American Robins, Black-capped Chickadees, Spotted Towhees, a lone Bushtit perhaps looking for a place to build a nest, and a lone Rufous Hummingbird. As we returned to the parking area the sky filled with a kettle of 17 Bald Eagles, swirling around on the thermals.
We were done at North 40 early, so decided to drive down the road to the Dyke at 72nd St. Due to construction you cannot go East from that Dyke entrance. But right from the parking area we could see out over the field, and there was a Short-eared Owl swooping over the territory, soon followed by a male Northern Harrier, and the two had some aerial interactions. Later we also saw the female Harrier. There were peeps at the waterline but they were a long way off. Some ducks were seen in the ditch and overhead and in the distance – Wigeon, Mallard and Hooded Mergansers. The bushes along the dyke had smaller birds, but they tended to stay on the lee side of the bushes where we could not get a good look. We only walked to the end of the Hydro training area and then called it quits.
It was a good day of birding, resulting in 21 species at North 40, and 15 species at the Dyke for a total (removing duplicates) of 28 species.
Report by Glen Bodie
Photos are on Flickr
Next Tuesday & Wednesday (April 15 & 16) the outings will be to Brydon Lagoon & Hi Knoll Park in Langley.
Meet at 8 AM in the parking lot at 19850 53 Ave, Langley.
To sign up for an outing, click on the DNS bird outing schedule sheet.
Delta Naturalists Society 