Where: Boundary Bay Dyke Trail, Centennial Beach (Delta) Weather: Mixed sun and cloud, 5-7°C
The Outing
We were once again out for a weekday bird adventure because the weather looks bad for the weekend. I’d feel even worse about it if I was still in school.
We headed out to Boundary Bay first, which we haven’t been to in a while, starting out at Beach Grove. After seeing a few errant robins (don’t ask about my pictures of them), I suggested we move into the dog area, which has a few trails meandering among the trees. Our detour was rewarded with not one, but two rare sights: a red-breasted nuthatch (which I heard tap-tap-tapping on the side of a tree before seeing it) and a varied thrush. Neat! We also saw a lot more robins.
We then headed to the dyke trail, and saw plenty of eagles in the trees and occasionally soaring above them. Even better, we saw multiple Northern harriers, including one that didn’t seem to be hunting, but was just kind of hopping and flying around in short bursts, landing for a bit, then taking off again. It did this conveniently close to the trail, so we had plenty of chances for good shots. As we continued up the trail, we saw a few songbirds, several Anna’s hummingbirds and at the private ponds a platoon or three of wigeons, including a rarely-seen Eurasian wigeon. Also, coot interlopers among the wigeons.
A guy reported seeing an owl flying over the marsh, but we did not see anything that resembled an owl. We did see the marsh, though. Content that we’d gotten enough steps, we turned back, saw some more harriers, and a few herons, and then headed off to our second destination, Centennial Beach.
The tide was out so we went out on the beach where we saw a fair number of cute little sanderlings. The conditions were just right for them, so we got a lot of opportunity for shots of them feeding, flapping and occasionally preening. We ended up walking down the beach because the sanderlings never ran out. It was sanderlings all the way down, with occasional gulls, ducks and a few crows mixed in. We finally started closing in on the pump station, but from the beach side, and realized there was no good way to cross without getting very muddy and/or wet, so we ended up backtracking a lot of the way back and then getting onto the trail proper. The tidal flats near the pump station were replete with gulls. There were yellowlegs and some dunlins, too. It was a shorebirdpalooza.
As we moved away from the water, we saw some towhees, golden crown, flickers and more, but some were not very close or cooperative. Birds gonna bird. We also saw a bunny near the Raptor Trail, which seems an unwise place for a bunny to be. Then we saw more bunnies, And more still. I can only imagine how many were hiding in the brush, wrinkling their cute little bunny noses.
We rounded out the day by getting a few more shots of the sanderlings before heading out.
Upon getting home, I discovered my robin shots were not good (boo, but not unexpected), but all of my other shots were also not good. I was sad, then discovered the tablet I was using was loading lower-res versions of the photos, making them all look fuzzy. The actual shots were fine, for the most part. I took roughly one million shots of sanderlings (they are adorable) and about 500,000 shots of gulls flying overhead (they are not adorable, but I wanted to nab at least one good shot of them in flight–and I did!)
With the weather being a mix of sun and some cloud and the wind low, it was reasonably comfortable at both locations. In all, a good day for birding, especially with so many rarely-seen birds.
The Shots
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American robin
- Black-capped chickadee
- Dark-eyed junco
- European starling
- Golden-crowned sparrow
- House finch
- Northern flicker
- Red-breasted nuthatch
- Red-winged blackbird
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
- Varied thrush
Waterfowl:
- American coot
- American wigeon
- Dunlin
- Eurasian wigeon
- Great blue heron
- Greater yellowlegs
- Green-winged teal
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- Sanderling
Common:
- American crow
- Seagull
Raptors:
- Bald eagle
- Northern harrier
Non-birds:
- Bunnies!
