PHOTO: Surf Scoter by Chris McVittie….
The day started at 9am with those who had driven south breathing a sigh of relief that we no longer have to work. The traffic in the opposite direction was incredibly bad due to a major accident North Bound.
It was a beautiful cool sunny day with no breeze off the water. The initial eight were: Richard, Warren, Lynne, Brian, Louise, Chris, Glen with the welcome addition of Pat. We set off down the pier on time.
The anchovy special had long passed on, so we contented ourselves with some of the regular sightings. Some of the highlights were: Horned Grebes, Common Loons, all three Scoters, Black Turnstones, Buffleheads, etc.
Moving onto Blackie Spit we keep out numbers at eight. Glen couldn’t walk far and decided to stay at the pier and Gabriel joined us.
The spit was cooler as there was a breeze. Walking onto the Spit we saw 1000-2000 Bonaparte’s Gulls in four or five feeding frenzies in the bay. We guessed that the anchovies had moved around into Boundary Bay. There was little other activity on the Spit and we left having only three species in the bag. Walking on into the park was very quiet. The temperature and breeze keeping most birds hunkered down. As we walked we started to see and hear more of our usual birds adding species to our list.
There were many Wigeon and Pintails sheltering with their heads down. In amongst the Wigeon were a some Eurasian Wigeon. A Merlin entertained us for a while being chased by three American Crows. Two American Crows were seen fighting, or mating, or both.
Gabriel wanted to walk through the gardens. Interesting to see what people were growing. There were few birds. After the gardens we wandered back to our cars.
The highlight of the day came right at the end of the day when we were down to five people. As we started to the last path to the carpark there were two Northern Flickers in a tree. Another bird flew in that was about the same size but with the distance and light it was hard to identify. Photos later showed that it was a California Scrub-jay! The bird of the day in the last two minutes of a 3.5 hour outing.
Wonderful sunny day with wonderful company.
Report by Chris McVittie
Photos are on Flickr
eBird checklists:
Pier – In all we had 20 species at the pier, with Pat and Brian adding Red-breasted Merganser near to the car park.
Blackie Spit – Quiet day with 25 species
Overall 38 Species
Next Tuesday & Wednesday (November 25 & 26) the outings will be to Boundary Bay Dyke at 104th St in Delta. Meet at 9 AM at the south end of 104th St. Park at Delta Heritage Air Park.
On Saturday, November 29 there will be an outing to Centennial Beach in Tsawwassen.
Meet at 9:30 AM in the concession/washroom parking lot.
To sign up for an outing, click on the DNS bird outing schedule sheet.
Delta Naturalists Society 