PHOTO: Great Blue Herons by Jonathan Mwenifumbo…..
8 Delta Nats met at Iona Beach Regional Park in Richmond on a gorgeous autumn morning – Terry, Dorothy, TK, Lidia, Lorraine, Connie, Lorna and Jonathan. Those of us coming from south of the Fraser had terrible traffic to deal with.
A pair of Eagles were perched in a tree at the entrance. The lovely bright sunshine made it hard to identify the ducks in the pond. The tide was far out so we left the shore until the end of the outing. We looked in vain for the Lapland Longspurs that had been seen near the washrooms the day before. There were Crows, Starlings, House Finches, White-crowned Sparrows, Savannah Sparrows, Song Sparrows and a Flicker. A group of Crows chased a Red-tailed Hawk away before we could get photos. Large flocks of Cormorants, Canada Geese and Snow Geese flew over.
Continuing our walk toward the inner ponds we added Golden-crowned Sparrows, Fox Sparrows, Red-winged Blackbirds, Ruby-crowned Kinglets, Chickadees, Towhees, Robins and Marsh Wrens. Herons, Mallards and Pintails flew over. Because of construction we are no longer able to access the inner ponds. So we walked along the fence to the road where two of the inner ponds can be viewed over the fence. Canada Geese, Pintails and Green-winged Teal were on the far sides of the ponds but there did not seem to be any shorebirds. A Downy Woodpecker appeared briefly, two Northern Harriers were patrolling the ponds and ducks, and an Eagle flew over.
Heading back to the river we saw more of the same, and added an Anna’s Hummingbird. Several Herons were perched on pilings in the river. Walking back to the shore we saw more than a dozen Herons standing in the fields. The tide was closer to shore now and more Herons were stalking prey in the shallow water too. There were Ring-billed Gulls on the shore but no shorebirds. Then huge flocks of noisy Snow Geese flew over and landed on the water – an amazing sight.
Report by Terry Carr
Photos are on Flickr
Next week (October 21 & 22) the outings will be to Terra Nova Rural Park in Richmond.
Meet at 9 am by Terra Nova Adventure Play Environment, 2340 River Rd (at the west end of River Rd and west of the north end of No 1 Rd).
To sign up for an outing, click on the DNS bird outing schedule sheet.
Delta Naturalists Society 