Where: Centennial Beach and Boundary Bay Dyke Trail (Tsawwassen) Weather: Sunny, 8-11°C
The Outing
The first birding of December was pleasantly sunny and mild, though we got a late start, due to me having an appointment to get stabbed multiple times in my left arm.
After the stabbings, we headed to Centennial Beach, and we saw an actual raptor in the vicinity of Raptor Trail. We also saw various bald eagles, some in trees, some flying too high to really get good shots of. I got probably my best eagle butt shots ever (it was sitting above us in a rather tall tree).
Sparrows proved to be surprisingly plentiful here, as well later along the Boundary Bay Dyke trail. The light was low and a bit golden even from the start, but we made due. We skipped the usual journey onto the mudflats, as the tide was in, but spied numerous shorebirds further out, including dunlins that kept flying about, dwarfed by the occasional seagull towering over them. There were even rarely-seen surf scoters, but they were far enough out that they just looked like duck-shaped blobs through my telephoto lens. Too bad, because they are seriously freaky looking.
By the time we arrived at the dyke trail, the sun was quite low, but we pressed on to The Big Pond™ near a private residence…that proved to be waterfowl-free. Bummer! The adjacent and smaller pond on the western side of the property was populated prodigiously with perpetually propelling and peeping wigeons, mallard and others, however. The wigeons, as in our previous outing, were constantly nipping at and chasing each other. Maybe they are going through the wigeon equivalent of Pon Farr.
By the time we reached the pond, the sun was already sinking over the distant trees, but it did mean we got our first set of sunset shots in a while. We got back to the car three minutes after sunset and returned for dinner in darkness…at 5 p.m.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American bushtit
- American robin
- Black-capped chickade
e - Dark-eyed junco
- European starling
- Fox sparrow
- Golden-crowned sparrow
- Northern flicker
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
- White-crowned sparrow
Waterfowl:
- American wigeon
- Eurasian wigeon
- Dunlin
- Great blue heron
- Green-winged teal
- Long-billed dowitcher
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- Northern shoveler
- Surf scoter
Common:
- American crow
- Seagull
Raptors:
- Bald eagle (adult and juvenile)
- Northern harrier
Non-birds:
- Black squirrel
