PHOTO: Olive-sided Flycatcher by Chris McVittie….
A small group of us, Chris, Thea, Susan and I, gathered this morning at the SW side of QE Park in rather cloudy, grey weather. Our mission was to spot migrant birds, specifically warblers and flycatchers. The park is a great place for migrant birds stopping over to feed and rest as they fly north. The first half hour or so was slow birding: it was quite a cold morning and the light was poor. Few birds were singing. Fortunately, Thea’s sharp eyes located some movement in the tree tops, and we were able to identify some Western Flycatchers foraging in the branches.
We walked a loop that took us all round the northern part of the park carefully listening for calls and searching the foliage. Gradually the birds appeared, and we started adding to our list. Black-capped Chickadees, Golden-crowned Kinglets and Red-breasted Nuthatches were heard and seen working through the conifers. A Downy Woodpecker explored some dead branches, and a Brown Creeper climbed up a tree trunk. We heard a “ps-st” call from the bushes and traced it to a calling Western Flycatcher (previously known as Pacific-slope Flycatcher). Other flycatchers we found on our walk included two Western Wood-Pewees and an Olive-sided Flycatcher. None were easy to photograph as they were silhouetted against a grey sky in poor light, but some record shots were taken. Looking at these afterwards I found it difficult to see the field marks that we saw through the binoculars as they were mostly viewed from below. We considered size, shape, and patterns of dark and light on their plumage.
The light slowly improved as we walked around the park. The pond only had a group of Mallards. Glaucous-winged Gulls flew overhead. Northern Flickers were active and calling. We heard and saw several House Finches and briefly heard one Purple Finch singing (in my view, a much more melodious bird). Tree Swallows flew over but no Barn Swallows. Swallow sightings generally are far fewer than I remember from past years.
We worked our way around the northern part of the park picking up more species as the weather brightened: Wilson’s Warblers with their shiny black caps and yellow bellies, Yellow-rumped Warblers, and a couple of Orange-crowned Warblers. A flock of a dozen Pine Siskins flew into a tree top. We finished up with a respectable 30 species for this beautiful park.
As we had word of a family of Barred Owls at another location not too far from the park, Chris and I headed home that way. Parking was a problem, so I viewed them from the car, while hovering briefly in not really a parking zone, and Chris got closer for photos.
It was a very pleasant morning with great companions and some lovely Spring migrant birds.
Report by Anne Murray
Photos are on Flickr
Next Wednesday (May 21) the outing will be to Colony Farm Regional Park, Colony Farm Rd, Coquitlam.
Meet at 8 am at the Community Gardens parking lot.
From Port Mann Bridge take the exit to Hwy 7 east (Lougheed Hwy).
To sign up for an outing, click on the DNS bird outing schedule sheet.
Delta Naturalists Society 