PHOTO: Brown Creeper by David Hoar…..
About 8:10 Margaretha, Noreen and I headed east from the parking lot to the bridge and en route saw Song Sparrows and Dark-eyed Juncos. As we arrived at the bridge a Belted Kingfisher departed southwards and we later got a look at this noisy bird as we scanned for Yellow Warblers (heard only) and saw a pair of Common Yellowthroat. Further south there was a Black-headed Grosbeak male on a snag and several Song Sparrows hopped over the bench and boardwalk, but there was no sign of ducks.
We returned to the parking lot looking for latecomers, and then headed south taking the quieter Vine Maple Trail where we heard many birds and managed to photograph a few of the more social ones like the Black-capped Chickadees and Brown Creeper, but a Pileated Woodpecker, the 3 Swainson’s Thrush calling back and forth, the several Western Flycatchers (previously called Pacific Slope) and single Western Wood-Pewee were elusive. Amongst a feeding flock of Black-capped Chickadees there was a pair of Chestnut-backed Chickadees and a single Ruby-crowned Kinglet. On several occasions we heard the familiar Golden-crowned Kinglets, often mixed with other Black-capped Chickadees, but we failed to see them.
Margaretha spotted a beautiful football sized (Canadian in size and shape) wasp nest that looked intact but had no evidence of activity from where we stood. Other than a Gray Squirrel (interloper) we did not encounter animals other than leashed dogs along the Vine Maple loop. Joining the main trail near the boardwalk we checked out what was visible of the construction and noted they removed several boards to discourage fence jumpers from using the trail while construction was underway. We headed to the upper parking lot and stopped by Al Schultz’s bench near the pond, remembering the wealth of knowledge he used to bring to our outings. At the pond the American Bullfrogs were plentiful. Noreen counted 30 and we expected more were in the reeds and bulrushes.
Here we turned back and slowly followed the main trail picking up more of the common birds (Juncos and Song Sparrows) and encountering a friendly Red-breasted Nuthatch, Near the open field an American Goldfinch could be heard and also a distant Red-tailed Hawk was calling to the east and in the thicker Hemlock forest a Purple Finch female briefly stopped adjacent to us and a Cedar Waxwing or two called from high up in the canopy. By the time we got back to the cars our count for the day was 22 species counting those heard clearly and not seen.
Report by David Hoar
Next Tuesday & Wednesday (August 19 & 20) the outings will be to Aldergrove Regional Park, 27240 8th Ave, Langley.
Meet at 8 am at the main parking lot at the end of the access road off 8th Avenue.
To sign up for an outing, click on the DNS bird outing schedule sheet.
Delta Naturalists Society 