Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Centennial Beach (Delta)
Weather: Sunny, 20-28°C
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
It was warm today and maybe that made a lot of birds shy about coming out, because sparrows and sparrow-adjacent birds were in relatively short supply. We did see some chickadees, a few blackbirds and a lone cowbird, though.
Mostly it was mallards (being jerks by hogging seed) and wood ducks, with the males still looking snazzy with their proto-mullets, along with the re-emergence of geese in most parts. The air was full of honks.
We even saw some swallows still hanging out in the main pond, though I wasn’t able to tell what kind they were, as they were in full flitting mode.
Others must have known this is the birding lull, because we were able to drive straight into the sanctuary and the number of people around was definitely down for a sunny, pleasant summer Saturday.
Still, it was fine. Can one have too many glamour shots of mallards?
Centennial Beach
We had some better luck at Centennial Beach, with multiple types of shorebirds prowling the streams left in the wake of the extremely low tide, including yellowlegs, killdeer, semipalmated sandpipers and a lifer–a long-billed curlew. At least I think it’s a lifer, I don’t remember seeing one before and it has an extremely distinctive (and gigantic) bill that curves down. A couple of them were strolling about farther out. We ventured onto the tidal flats for a bit, but were wary of spooking them.
There were also a ton of grasshoppers basically everywhere. I was tempted to title this post “Day of the Locusts.” I got some decent shots.
The other surprise was three snow geese in amongst a bunch of Canada geese. I did not have snow geese in August on my bingo card.
The raptor trail was raptor-deficient, however.
In all, the shorebirds made the trip worthwhile.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
A few shots:
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- Anna’s hummingbird
- Black-capped chickadee
- Brown-headed cowbird
- Cliff swallow
- European starlings
- House sparrow
- Red-winged blackbird
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
American coot(still not yet)- Canada goose
- Killdeer
- Great blue heron
- Greater yellowlegs
- Long-billed curlew (lifer)
- Long-billed dowitcher
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- Northern shoveller
- Semipalmated sandpiper (lifer, at least per Merlin)
- Snow goose (new!)
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Rock pigeon
Raptors:
- Northern harrier
Non-birds:
- Copious pollinators
- A black squirrel
- One turtle
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