Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Piper Spit (Burnaby) Weather: Sunny, -7°C to -5°C
The Outing
The second birding trek of 2024 took place as we were breaking records for cold weather. It started out at -9C and got up to -5C by the time we left Reifel. Normal highs would be around 7C. So it was chilly. Fortunately, there was little wind, as earlier wind gusts had temperatures feeling like as low as -26C.
In fact, save for a bit of open water tucked under the deck that houses the warming hut (my second favourite place), every pond and waterway at Reifel was frozen solid. It was pretty, but this meant that diving ducks were nowhere to be seen, as they do not have tiny, duck-sized ice picks to break through the frozen surface.
Shorebirds were also absent for similar reasons. We were sad.
Canada geese and wood ducks, which might have otherwise been present, were both absent, though we saw them at Piper Spit.
But we were compensated by seeing a red-bellied sapsucker and a barred owl. I actually got a shot of the owl’s face, proving they exist (owls, not just owl faces).
Back on the negative side, it seems the extreme cold was playing havoc with our equipment at times. I had a sequence where all of my photos were super blurry, as if image stabilization was working in reverse or maybe the ghost of George C. Reifel was grabbing my camera and shaking it every time I lined up a chickadee.
There were a lot of chickadees.
My camera seemed to benefit from spending some time in the warming hut, as did I!
The cold not only affected which birds we saw, it also affected the behaviour of the ones that remained. I asked Nic1If you are reading this and you are not Nic or haven’t read a birding post before, Nic is the friend I go birding with. He still only has a single SD card, but his camera could totally beat up my camera around the back of the school. to offer his thoughts on the birdly behaviour, and they are below.
Nic's notes on winter birds as written by Nic: Aggressive chickadees Chickadees were landing and flying very close. They even landed on us a handful of times, which they’d never done before! Missing ducks With every single pond frozen--and not just a little bit frozen, the ice looked really solid--there were far fewer ducks to be seen. Some species, such as hooded mergansers and buffleheads (diving predators) and shovelers (filter feeders), were complete no-shows. Remaining were some mallards, wigeons and pintails--all ducks that live on grass--clustering around the main pond behind the office and warming huts. That’s where people were feeding them, and the ice under the huts seemed mostly melted. Likewise, no shorebirds anywhere. Are the avocets finally moving on? Coots (yes I know, they’re not ducks) were present, but in very limited numbers. They seemed to be scattered throughout the sanctuary: one by the small slough in front of the entrance, a handful by the observation platform in the centre. More robins Robins come and go regardless of temperature, but there seemed to be an unusually high numbers of robins around, and in unprecedented spots, like around the west dyke trail. Then again, maybe that’s where the best winter berries are found! More Sandhill cranes Staff said there were fifteen cranes hanging around the sanctuary, and they all seemed to stay around the main pond. Small wonder, since they were being fed mountains of grain 24/7! This is not without problems, because those birds are fairly finicky and territorial, and I could see a few small confrontations as they bumped up against each other's personal spaces; the local family (2 parents + 1 young) are the most put out, I'm told. And wouldn’t you be, if you suddenly found a dozen strangers camping in your front yard during lean times? Birbs and ducks crouching down Ducks tended to lie down on their stomachs when resting on the ice, and in at least one instance it looked like it was pulling its feet up and into the feathers. Likewise, birbs crouched down very low when eating, covering the legs with their belly fluff. Just some rarely-used tactics to keep their extremities warm.
In all, it was weird dealing with such unusual cold, one of those “interesting to experience” things that I can’t say I’m eager to go through again.
We wrapped up at Piper Spit, and while there was ice on the lake, it was not fully frozen and the area immediately around the pier had no ice at all, so most of the usual waterfowl were present, along with a bunch of gulls and crows. By this time the temperatures were starting to fall and, as is often the case, there was some wind coming across the water, so my hands were starting to defeat the image stabilization all on their own. I also took copious shots of gulls taking off and landing repeatedly, but most were with the sun shining into my viewfinder, so I was hoping the shots would turn out.
Most did not turn out.
But I did get some decent shots, even with the cold and complications. In all, I’ll be happy to go out next time with temperatures above freezing. It’ll feel downright spring-like in comparison.
The Shots
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American blackbird
- American robin
- Anna’s hummingbird
- Black-capped chickade
e - Dark-eyed junco
- Fox sparrow
- Golden-crowned sparrow
- House sparrow
- Northern flicker
- Red-bellied sapsucker
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
Waterfowl:
- American coot
- American wigeon
- Canada goose
- Great blue heron
- Green-winged teal
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- Ring-necked duck
- Sandhill crane
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Rock pigeon
- Seagull
Raptors:
- Bald eagle
- Barred owl
- Northern harrier
Non-birds:
- Gray and black squirrels
