North Vancouver Afternoon Birding

It was time for my semi-annual weekday visit to North Vancouver for a dental appointment. I always try to leave work early and make a stop at Lonsdale Quay before going up Lonsdale for my appointment.

I made good time on this day and was able to park nearby and walk down to the quay.


Lonsdale Quay, North Vancouver BC

My first goal is to see one or more Pigeon Guillemots. They nest under the Quay in early spring. This appointment was later in the year, but my luck held.

Close to the pier was a pair of them. The lead bird had captured what may have been a shrimp. The second one wanted a share.


Pigeon Guillemot - Lonsdale Quay, North Vancouver BC - 2017 Bird #166

Here's a close-up of the lead bird, I don't know if the trailer (possibly a mate or offspring) was rewarded on not.

Pigeon Guillemot - Lonsdale Quay, North Vancouver BC - 2017 Bird #166

Another common bird in Burrard Inlet is the Pelagic Cormorant. The best place to see them in numbers is Granville Island. Here's a solitary specimen.


Pelagic Cormorant - Lonsdale Quay, North Vancouver BC

I got one more shot of a Guillemot further out on the Quay.


Pigeon Guillemot - Lonsdale Quay, North Vancouver BC

Across the bay from me was a large blue barge. I noticed Gulls flying near it, and then saw that they were casting shadows on the barge. It took me a while, but I eventually got a shot. I believe these were Glaucous-winged Gulls.



As I was returning to my car, I caught sight of a Rock Pigeon taking off from a ledge on an apartment building.


Rock Pigeon - near Lonsdale Quay, North Vancouver BC

My dental appointment went quite late and I was stuck in rush hour traffic. I needed some gas, so I decided to head towards Deep Cove, get gas and visit Maplewood Conservation Area until the traffic thinned.



It was a hot afternoon and there was little bird activity. I did encounter this Robin on the trail.


American Robin - Maplewood Conservation Area, North Vancouver BC

Another common bird seen was a Great Blue Heron on the shoreline of Burrard Inlet.

Great Blue Heron - Maplewood Conservation Area, North Vancouver BC

On my walk around the trails I did hear some Warbling Vireos, but could not locate them visually. I saw many Swallowtail Butterflies, but the Nikon is not too good at catching moving objects. I'd left my Canon SLR at home. I did get a photo of a Swallowtail in Alberta, stay tuned for a series of posts on that trip.

A Juvenile Weekend

If you're a fan of cute young birds, this post is for you. This was my first weekend outing since returning from the Okanagan in early June. That excursion is detailed here: Okanagan Birding 2017

On Saturday the 17th I played golf at Belmont Golf Course in Langley. There's a healthy population of Canada Geese on the course all year. At this time of the year there's a cross-section of Goslings at various stages of development.


Canada Geese - Belmont Golf Course, Langley BC

These geese are molting and are probably unable to fly at this stage, so they stay close to the water.


Canada Geese - Belmont Golf Course, Langley BC

The next day I was off to Reifel to meet up with the person who runs a bird photo site where I post some of my better photos. The site is named BirdViewing.com and it was based out of Montreal. Chris, the creator of the site, has recently relocated to Richmond, so I finally got to meet him.

The theme at Reifel was youngsters as well. Here are some younger Canada Geese.


Canada Geese (Imm) - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Probably the cutest bird of the day was this single Wood Duck chick. I did a bit of research and the hens lay up to a dozen eggs, so I'm not sure why this female only had the one chick. Perhaps it was the runt and the siblings were on their own already.


Wood Duck (F) and (Imm) - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

I had to post more than one photo of these two.



Wood Duck (Imm) and (F) - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Since it was Father's Day, I got a nice shot of a male, maybe the dad of the chick...

Wood Duck - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Of course the Mallards are famous for having many offspring and they soon learn that Reifel is a safe place to approach humans.


Mallards (F) and (Imm) - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Over on the West Dyke trail there were different species of Swallows buzzing around catching insects on the fly to feed to their young. This Tree Swallow looks close to fledging, but is still hoping for free meals at this point in time.


Tree Swallow - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Purple Martins have family life nailed.  Here's a shot from long distance,  The male is the dark blue bird, with possibly a female on its left. The other three all look like recently fledged chicks.


Purple Martins - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

My last bird of the day was a singing male Marsh Wren. This video was taken from 50+ meters with the Nikon zoomed out.

It's my first sighting of this species for the year. I'd heard them in other places, but was reluctant to add it to my 2017 list until I'd had either a good look at one, or a reasonable photo.


Marsh Wren - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC - 2017 Bird #165

That ended this day's outing.

Pitt Lake Monday with Mary-Jean

I booked this Monday off from work as I had a golf outing at Pitt Meadows Golf Course in the afternoon. I arranged with my friend Mary-Jean to meet me at the golf course early in the morning so that we could go birding at Pitt Lake.

She was commuting in from Chilliwack for work and took the morning off. We did the same thing last year and had a very good morning, hopefully this would be similar.

We took a quick side trip down a road where I'd seen an American Kestrel in January. There were no Kestrels, but I finally got a photo of a Barn Swallow. I'd seen one in January, but none since then.


Barn Swallow - Ladner Rd. Pitt Meadows BC

The next stop was Catbird Slough on the way to Pitt Lake. This area has a dike that looks down on the Alouette River as well as a few smaller ponds. There is often a good collection of birds here, and they are tolerant of human activity.

There are a number of Swallow boxes on the dike, this one had been put to good use.


Tree Swallow - Catbird Slough, Pitt Meadows BC

We briefly heard and saw a Willow Flycatcher with it's familiar fitz-bew call. We'd get better photos later in the day. Here's what I took at the time.

Willow Flycatcher - Catbird Slough, Pitt Meadows BC - 2017 Bird #152

Then I spotted another flycatcher, an Eastern Kingbird. This was a lifer for Mary-Jean but she could not see it initially. I'd called out Kingbird, but she'd only ever seen a Western Kingbird. She was looking for a bird with Brown and Yellow colouring whereas the Easter is mostly Black, White and Brown. Fortunately, she did see it and added it to her life collection.

Eastern Kingbird - Catbird Slough, Pitt Meadows BC

Next up was a Rufous Hummingbird perched on a tree. This male had probably completed his mating obligations and left the female to raise the young.


Rufous Hummingbird - Catbird Slough, Pitt Meadows BC

Unknown to me, Mary-Jean had spotted and photographed a Yellow Warbler. I'd yet to see one this year and missed out on this one. I'd get one a few days later in the Okanagan. I believe she saw her lifer of this species a few days earlier in Chilliwack.

Yellow Warbler - Catbird Slough, Pitt Meadows BC - Photo by Mary-Jean Payeur

We then saw another Warbler, a Common Yellowthroat. Mary-Jean took the better photo, a common occurrence for the morning.

Common Yellowthroat - Catbird Slough, Pitt Meadows BC - Photo by Mary-Jean Payeur

Catbird Slough has its name for a reason, it is one of the rare places in the lower Mainland where you can see a Gray Catbird. I heard one singing it's never-ending song and together we spotted it in a tree overlooking the river. This was another lifer for Mary-Jean, and once again she took the best picture.

Gray Catbird - Catbird Slough, Pitt Meadows BC - Photo by Mary-Jean Payeur - 2017 Bird #153

I did zero in on the bird and took this video with the Nikon::

We weren't quite done with Catbird Slough yet, there were Cedar Waxwings in the area. The first photo is by me with the Canon, the second is Mary-Jean with her Nikon.

Cedar Waxwing  - Catbird Slough, Pitt Meadows BC


Cedar Waxwing - Catbird Slough, Pitt Meadows BC - Photo by Mary-Jean Payeur

We had exhausted Catbird Slough and moved on to the Nature Trail right at Pitt Lake. As we were walking in, with Mary-Jean in front, I saw a bird on the ground near the foot of the trail. At first i thought Sparrow, but then changed my mind and said Thrush.

Mary-Jean was blocking my angle for a photo and she did not recognize the bird as a Thrush (she was thinking the brightly coloured Varied Thrush). I dodged around her and took one shot. As I suspected, it was a Swainson's Thrush.


Swainson's Thrush - Grant Narrows Regional Park, Pitt Meadows BC - 2017 Bird #154

This is my fourth photo ever of this common, but elusive species. You can hear them in any forest in spring and summer, but they skulk around in the underbrush and are very hard to see.

As we walked along the path we noticed a load background humming noise. I believe this was from Honey Bees, they are used in the nearby Blueberry fields for pollination. We saw quite a few like this one along the trail.



We had a brief flyover by an Osprey, a fairly common sight around Pitt Lake.


Osprey - Grant Narrows Regional Park, Pitt Meadows BC

It was quieter on this trail compared to Catbird Slough. We did find one spot where a Willow Flycatcher was posing on a snag for us. Here's a photo from each of us, ladies first.


Willow Flycatcher - Grant Narrows Regional Park, Pitt Meadows BC - Photo by Mary-Jean Payeur


Willow Flycatcher - Grant Narrows Regional Park, Pitt Meadows BC

Mary-Jean nailed this one of a Cedar Waxwing.


Cedar Waxwing - Grant Narrows Regional Park, Pitt Meadows BC - Photo by Mary-Jean Payeur

I caught a couple of shots of a Crow just as it took off from a perch. Here's the best of that series.

Northwestern Crow - Grant Narrows Regional Park, Pitt Meadows BC

Finally, as we headed out we saw a Bullock's Oriole. It was too brief to even raise cameras, but this was Bird # 155 for me. I'd have pictures a few days later in the Okanagan.

Creeper at Sandpiper Golf Course

This is a real short post. While playing golf on the 18th hole at Sandpiper golf course in Harrison Mills, my friend Gary hit a shot into the trees. This area of the course had primarily coniferous trees - a likely place to see a Brown Creeper. I tried to get a photo with my IPhone, but the bird was constantly on the move.

I'd brought my Nikon and ran back to the cart to retrieve it. The bird stayed in the area and I got one shot that had decent focus.


Brown Creeper - Sandpiper Golf Course, Harrison Mills BC - 2017 Bird # 151

The only other photo I took was this shot from inside the on-site restaurant.



The food is very good here if you're ever in the area.

Victoria Day at the Colony (Farm Regional Park)

I decided to concentrate on only one location on this holiday Monday, as it seemed I was spending as much time driving as birding on some weekends. It was about this time last year that the Black-headed Grosbeaks arrived here, so they were my target bird for the day.

The walking trail that parallels the Lougheed Highway was where I had success previously. It didn't take long for me to hear a Grosbeak song, similar to a Robin but more melodic. For a large bird, they can be hard to find high up in the treetops. My first photo was a bit obscured, the second one caught the bird in the open.


Black-headed Grosbeak - Colony Farms Regional Park, Coquitlam BC - 2017 Bird #149

The male is quite different looking from the female, she is more brownish with no black to speak of. I only saw the singing males on this day. This photo is a better capture.


Black-headed Grosbeak - Colony Farms Regional Park, Coquitlam BC

Also present were numerous Cedar Waxwings, but they were also high up in the trees. This is a long distance zoom with the Nikon.

Cedar Waxwing- Colony Farms Regional Park, Coquitlam BC

The north end of the park is bordered by the Coquitlam River, quite a bit below my vantage point. Looking down, I saw some movement and found a Spotted Sandpiper on the shoreline. I had to use the super zoom again. I did not realize until I saw this photo on the computer that there were two of them.

Spotted Sandpiper - Colony Farms Regional Park, Coquitlam BC

Here's a closer look at one of them. As mentioned in my previous post from Iona, it's a treat to see them in breeding plumage. In Fall they are just brown and white.


Spotted Sandpiper - Colony Farms Regional Park, Coquitlam BC

On my way back to where I'd parked, I took some more shots of the birds I'd seen on my way in.

Black-headed Grosbeak - Colony Farms Regional Park, Coquitlam BC

Cedar Waxwing- Colony Farms Regional Park, Coquitlam BC

I moved east to the main parking lot and met another birder and his wife. We spent some time looking for Lazuli Bunting but had no luck. They had parked on the far east side of the park and mentioned they had seen Eastern Kingbird on the way in. I decided I could do some more walking and headed that way with them.

The park is bounded by the Coquitlam River. This is the main bridge for crossing from west to east. That's the Port Mann bridge in the background.

We did spot the Kingbird, but it was quite distant. I couldn't locate it with the Nikon, so this cropped photo from the Canon was the only one that turned out. I knew I'd see more of them on my upcoming trip to the Okanagan in early June. This was my 150th species of the year!

Eastern Kingbird - Colony Farms Regional Park, Coquitlam BC - 2017 Bird # 150

There's a marsh area on the east side of the park where there are plenty of Blackbirds. 

Red-winged Blackbird - Colony Farms Regional Park, Coquitlam BC

On my way back I saw a couple of our more common Sparrows.

Song Sparrow - Colony Farms Regional Park, Coquitlam BC

White-crowned Sparrow - Colony Farms Regional Park, Coquitlam BC

I'd spent nearly four hours in the park and the heat in the afternoon meant it was time to head for home.