PHOTO: Black-bellied Plover & Dunlin by Terry Carr…..
9 Delta Nats met at Boundary Bay Dyke at 104th St on a cold wet morning – Teresa, Lee, Connie, Dottie, Christine, Lori, Mike, Bob and Terry. We walked along the dyke towards 96th St.
The tide was very high, so there was no place for the shorebirds to land. However there were thousands of ducks on the water – Northern Pintail and American Wigeon with some Mallards. Every now and then an Eagle would make them fly – an amazing site. Also large murmurations of Dunlin and Black-bellied Plovers flew by. Black-bellied Plovers are larger than Dunlin and have shorter bills – they do not have their breeding black bellies at this time of year, but in flight they show their black armpits. A huge flock of Dunlin, with some Black-bellied Plovers, landed in a field where they were well camouflaged.
An Eagle was standing on the pilings where shorebirds often stand – so there were no shorebirds on them. However near the mansion on some shorter new pilings, Black-bellied Plovers were standing in lines with some smaller Dunlin mixed in. There were Ravens, Crows, Herons and more Eagles here. Along the dyke were Song Sparrows, White-crowned Sparrows, Golden-crowned Sparrows, Chickadees, Juncos and Starlings.
We arrived back at our cars cold and wet, but glad that we had braved the weather.
Report by Terry Carr
Photos are on lFlickr
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.
Next Tuesday & Wednesday (Dec 2 & 3) the outings will be to Tsawwassen Ferry Causeway & Reifel.
Some people may meet on the ferry causeway at 8 AM. The parking pullout is part way along the north side of the causeway.
Meet at Reifel at 9 AM. DNS has been booked as a group. You do not need to book parking – just tell the gatekeeper that you are part of the DNS group booking. Non-Reifel members will need to pay admission.
To sign up for an outing, click on the DNS bird outing schedule sheet.
Delta Naturalists Society 