Where: Iona Beach, Terra Nova, Richmond Nature House, Garry Point (all in Richmond) Weather: Overcast, 12-13C
The Outing
It was our first truly fall bird outing of the season. I wore pants! I needed them. And not just for the sake of decency.
We had a quest: to find snow geese. We knew they are in the area, but wanted to see them up close and honking. Our first stop was Iona Beach and voila–snow geese! A small group was snoozing and milling about just north of the parking lot. We got our shots in early, but more is always better. We did an abbreviated tour of the beach, as this was not our usual birding day, and saw a lot more snow geese on the far side of the Fraser River, along with cormorants, various gulls and ducks. Also, a lot of giant mushrooms, no doubt benefiting from all the recent rain.
When we circled back, more snow geese had arrived, forming two groups, so we did indeed get more shots.
The tide was in again for the second time in a row at Iona, and it was cold and windy, a big change from our last visit.
We next ventured to Terra Nova, but alas, no snow geese. We did find some solace in a pair of grebes dunking around in a pond covered in red slimy gunk, apparently changing colour for the season. They didn’t seem to mind. Also, there was an assortment of juncos, golden crowns and song sparrows near…the washrooms. Probably just a coincidence.
I shot a few jets taking off and disappearing into the clouds, which looks kind of eerie. The stuff from which bad horror stories are made.
After Terra Nova, we popped by the Richmond Nature House. The feeders were full and the joint was jumping. There were chickadees, both black-capped and chestnut-backed, juncos, towhees, house finches, song sparrows, golden crowns, a Steller’s jay (neat!) and probably every squirrel in Richmond. Everyone was flitting about, diving into the feeder boxes or grabbing seed to go from the hanging feeders. One squirrel actually squeezed inside the cage surrounding a hanging feeder and proceeded to gorge itself.
We ended with a very cooperative Anna’s hummingbird sitting in a nearby tree, singing and showing off its gorget.
Our final destination (not to be confused with the clever/terrible horror movies) was Garry Point. Here we did see more snow geese–but they were off in the distance, beyond where we could go without being able to fly ourselves. Which we cannot do.
But we did round out the afternoon with a few more scenery shots, and a few robins and shorebirds.
In all, it was a good outing, with plenty of birbs, birds, and snow geese, just as we’d hoped. And it didn’t rain!
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American robin
- Anna’s hummingbird
- Black-capped chickadee
- Chestnut-backed chickadee
- Dark-eyed junco
- Golden-crowned sparrow
- House finch
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
- Steller’s Jay
Waterfowl:
- Cormorant
- Great Blue Heron
- Pied-billed grebe
- Mallard
- Snow goose
Common:
- American crow
- Rock pigeon
- Seagull
Raptors:
- Northern harrier
Non-birds:
- Black, gray and Douglas squirrels
- Kites and various fixed-wing birds in and around YVR