Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Centennial Beach (Delta)
Weather: Partly sunny, 11–14°C
Last week’s birding felt like an extension of summer, with clear skies and warm temperatures. This week we got the clear skies (to start, at least), but the temperatures were decidedly fall-like. We still wore short, though!
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
The news out of Reifel is that the assorted geese migrations were underway and we did indeed see geese flying in formation–but no snow geese. It was a combination of Canada and Cackling Geese. As for the land-based variety, it was the same mix, with geese alternately hissing (Canada Goose exclusive) at us or standing there doe-eyed, hoping we’d produce a variety of yummy foods for them to peck out of our hands.
The sanctuary was also quite busy, with a mix of families and people with Very Big Lenses, perhaps drawn by the prospect of seeing the snow geese or other winter migrants.
Speaking of migrants, the coot population is slowly expanding and there are now multiple American Wigeons paddling about in the ponds. We still have yet to see any Buffleheads, Ring-necked Ducks or Scaups. The Sandhill Cranes were absent again, stalking about in parts unknown.
At one point the feeders outside the entrance/gift shop had three Anna’s Hummingbirds gathered on one of them, perhaps a sign of the diminishing number of natural nectar sources available. A wasp kept them a bit skittish around the closer feeder (imagine if you were in close proximity to a wasp that was about two feet long).
There was a complete absence of Wood Ducks and the London Slough remains in a weird state. Instead of being ringed by herons, it is now bereft of them (though we saw them elsewhere) and the logs were mostly empty or had a mix of Mallards and shorebirds on them. Maybe there’s something in the water.
The water is generally starting to look less mucky now with the cooling of the season.
In terms of sparrows, the towhees were much more visible today and chickadees were all over the place, in some cases getting too close for my Somewhat Big Lens. They are in full “seek seed from hairless bipeds” mode. We also saw some House Sparrows, who had disappeared on the last visit.
In all, a perfectly fine outing.
Centennial Beach
The tide was low at Centennial Beach and that meant most shorebirds were going to be a long way away. Sad. We did see a bald eagle standing on one of the sandy shoals, though, along with multiple herons.
Golden crowns dotted the paths, along with a dead but seemingly intact dragonfly that was laying on the trail as if it had just touched down for a moment before flitting off. But it would flit no more, as it was very dead. I wonder how it met its end. Do dragonflies have heart attacks?
There were two main highlights at Centennial. The first was hundreds of birds in the water near to the pump station–a mix of wigeons, Green-winged Teals, Northern Pintails and probably some miscellaneous others. And when I say hundred, that is no exaggeration. Occasionally, a bunch would take off and fill the sky, sometimes leaving, sometimes circling back. A smaller but still large group of seagulls also hung out nearby, getting in on the mass gathering. And among them all was a small group of Greater Yellowlegs just bobbing along, doing their thing.
The other highlight was a Northern Harrier that took an unusual flight path down fairly low and on a line roughly parallel to us over the nearby shoreline. She was also in hunter mode, and they can move surprisingly slow as they survey the ground below them for targets. This worked to our benefit and we got some really fine shots of the face and not just the butt, as is often the case with harriers. As we had seen some earlier at Reifel, it served to point out the stark difference between bird close and bird far away.
About midway through our shooting in and around the beach the sky began clouding up and it became clear (ho ho) that we were unlikely to see sun for the rest of the afternoon. Combined with me already being a bit tired from Xtreme Exercise the day before, we opted to end there. Nic still got over 1,100 shots, only 300 of which were the dead dragonfly.
The Shots
All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto. Some landscape shots captured with a Samsung Galaxy S26.
Gallery soon™.
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American Bushtit
- American Robin
- Anna’s Hummingbird
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Golden-crowned Sparrow
- House Sparrow
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Song Sparrow
- Spotted Towhee
- White-crowned Sparrow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- American Coot
- American Wigeon
- Belted Kingfisher
- Cackling Goose
- Canada Goose
- Gadwall
- Great Blue Heron
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Green-winged Teal
- Long-billed Dowitcher
- Mallard
- Northern Pintail
- Northern Shoveller
Common:
- American Crow
- Various seagulls
Raptors:
- Bald Eagle
- Northern Harrier
Non-birds:
- Assorted pollinators
- A dead dragonfly
- A furtive black squirrel