March 2020 - Backyard Birds and Bog Shots

This is the last post for March. It's a collection of shots taken in our backyard or down in Burns Bog. Since I've been working from home, I have made a habit of going down to the Nature trail in the bog at the end of my workday.

It's very sparse for birds, but there's some nice scenery shots. It's tough to spot birds down there as the sun is pretty much obscured by the tall trees. It's even harder to get a good shot of a bird in those conditions.

We have had two species hogging our seed feeder for the last couple of months, Pine Siskins and American Goldfinches. The Siskins come in numbers and occupy most of the feeding ports. The Goldfinches don't back off, but they are less frequent visitors.

Al the feeder shots in this post were taken through a window, which is in a very difficult place to clean.

American Goldfinch and Pine Siskin - North Delta BC

Once it has an open port, the Goldfinch holds on to it.

American Goldfinch - North Delta BC

This is the path I walk in the Bog, it's lovely and kind of spooky looking, or would be in the dark.

This house has quite the back yard. All of the houses above the bog on the street below us are huge, sometimes up to four levels. 

We had a pile of construction rubble in he back yard, which seemed to attract this Golden-crowned Sparrow I was able to zoom in on the bird quite nicely.

Golden-crowned Sparrow - North Delta BC

And one last shot of an American Goldfinch. 

I cheated a bit on the title as this was taken on April 2.

American Goldfinch - North Delta BC

March 29 - Iona Regional Park

For whatever reason, all the Metro Vancouver regional parks have remained open to the public. I decided to give Iona a try on a busy Sunday. I did my best to stay away from people as much as possible, which might be my normal modus operandi when birding anyway.

Upon arrival, it was very crowded with cars, people, and Snow Geese!


Snow Geese - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC

Here's a close-up of one individual. The orange on the face and head comes from rooting around in the soil for plants to consume.

Snow Goose - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC

My first photo of a Tree Swallow at Blakeburn Lagoons Park was not very good. This one is somewhat better.

 

Tree Swallow - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC

The Red-winged Blackbirds are numerous and noisy here. They are easy to photograph.

Red-winged Blackbird - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC

Red-winged Blackbird - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC

Juvenile Male

I thought the shot above was a female, but did my homework before publishing this post. There are no indications that females ever have red on the sides. This is a juvenile male. It's also a really good photo in my humble opinion.

Another shot I quite like is this first winter Golden-crowned Sparrow. Shooting conditions were good on this sunny day.

Golden-crowned Sparrow (Imm) - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC

I was now quite far from the crowds, exploring the area north of the outer ponds and heading east towards the fenced inner sewage ponds. I saw a colourful bird in a blackberry bush, my first warbler of 2020. It's also a rare photo of the yellow rump.

Yellow-rumped Warbler - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC - 2020 Bird #72

Here's a more dignified pose. This is the western Audubon's race of this species. The Eastern Myrtle race has a white throat and less white on the wings.

Yellow-rumped Warbler - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC

I was making my way back to the parking area by the outer ponds and took some more shots of birds I'd already seen.

Tree Swallow - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC

Red-winged Blackbird (F) - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC

I'm pretty sure this is a female when compared to the earlier photo of the immature male.

This snow goose is having some shut-eye. the earlier chaos has calmed down.

Snow Goose - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC

This next bird was a great catch, Violet-green Swallows can be tough to find among all the Tree Swallows.

Violet-green Swallow - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC - 2020 Bird #73

I had one more look at a Warbler near the large outer pond.

Yellow-rumped Warbler - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC

And the birds kept popping up, including this Chickadee

    Black-capped Chickadee - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC

This next shot has puzzled me, but my only conclusion is that it's a female Barn Swallow in a gust of wind. I wonder if it had that stick or branch stuck on it's right side. 

Barn Swallow - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC - 2020 Bird #74

And finally, I had hoped and expected to see a Marsh Wren here. I waited for a while by the outer pond, and finally heard one. It was fairly easy to locate from the sound, and I took a couple of shots (both of the rear of the bird) to end the day.

Marsh Wren - Iona Regional Park, Richmond BC - 2020 Bird #75

Here's looking at you...

March 28, 2020 - Rare Duck at Burnaby Lake

A Tufted Duck at Burnaby Lake had been on the rare bird alert for a couple of weeks. I decided it was time to go see it. Because of the Covid-19 situation, the park was semi-officially closed. There were only a couple of people at the park and I scanned for the Duck in the accessible ponds unsuccessfully.

I walked into a restricted area (closed due to the virus) about 30 meters and saw the duck. Since I was breaking the "rules", I took one photo and got back to the unrestricted area. I felt okay about this as there were no people within 50 metres, so chances of contagion were nonexistent.

Here's the duck. This was my fifth sighting of this species. I'd seen my lifer at Iona in 2008. Other sightings were 2014, 15, and 17 also at Iona. They may have all been the same duck, or perhaps
different ones.

In Europe and Asia, there are over a million of these ducks, so strays do occur.


Tufted Duck - Burnaby Lake Regional Park, Burnaby BC - 2020 Species #71

I was now back in the public area and checked out some of the other local ducks on the ponds.There was a good variety.

Wood Duck - Burnaby Lake Regional Park, Burnaby BC

Lesser Scaup, Canada Goose and Mallard - Burnaby Lake Regional Park, Burnaby BC

The Scaup somewhat resembles the Tufted Duck. they are both in the Genus Aythya.

Wood Ducks (F) and Green-winged Teal - Burnaby Lake Regional Park, Burnaby BC

Northern Pintail - Burnaby Lake Regional Park, Burnaby BC

Green-winged Teal - Burnaby Lake Regional Park, Burnaby BC

Wood Duck - Burnaby Lake Regional Park, Burnaby BC

And for something different, the last bird seen was this sparrow.

Fox Sparrow - Burnaby Lake Regional Park, Burnaby BC

March 21, 2020 - Blakeburn Lagoons Park and Burns Bog

Blakeburn Lagoons Park

Once again I returned to this suburban park in Port Coquitlam. It's an awesome place to see Ducks and Geese up close. There's not much else there. The lagoons are located in a treed/grassy city park. But it does allow good access to the waterfowl.

First birds seen were a pair of Northern Shoveler's. These shots show the size of bill, used for scooping and filtering small critters and bugs from muddy water.


Northern Shoveler (F) - Blakeburn Lagoons Park, Port Coquitlam

The male looks a bit like a Mallard, but the head is a darker green and the black bill is much larger than the Mallard's yellow bill.


Northern Shoveler - Blakeburn Lagoons Park, Port Coquitlam

I'm fairly certain this is a Common Goldeneye based on peaked head shape and bill size.


Common Goldeneye (F) - Blakeburn Lagoons Park, Port Coquitlam

No mistaking this, although I assume the smaller goose is a juvenile Canada Goose and not a Cackling Goose.

Canada Geese - Blakeburn Lagoons Park, Port Coquitlam

I saw my first swallows here today. Didn't get a great photo, but assume they are both Tree Swallows.I'm not sure from the photo if the one on the right is coming or going.

.

Tree Swallow - Blakeburn Lagoons Park, Port Coquitlam - 2020 Bird #69

I ended the visit with a couple of American Wigeon.

American Wigeon - Blakeburn Lagoons Park, Port Coquitlam

American Wigeon (F) - Blakeburn Lagoons Park, Port Coquitlam

Burns Bog

We live above Burns Bog on an Escarpment. Occasionally at night we can hear Owls calling in the bog. On this night, I distinctly heard the hoo-hoo call of a Great Horned Owl. Since ABA rules allow for counting a species if heard and identified, this was 2020 Bird#70.

March 15 - Blackie Spit and Serpentine Fen

As my choices narrowed for local birding hot spots, I picked these two locations for this Sunday afternoon.

Blackie Spit Park, Surrey BC

I had not been here since mid 2019 and it took a while to familiarize myself again. It was also quite crowded in some areas. Social distancing was just coming in to effect.

I went down to the shoreline for a quick look. This view shows that there was lots of  free space available.

At the shoreline I was rewarded with a new bird for 2020, a Greater Yellowlegs. It was quite far out, so the photo is not very good. My shorebird list for 2020 will not be very long, unless restrictions are lifted by fall migration in August-September.

Greater Yellowlegs - Blackie Spit Park, Surrey BC - 2020 Bird #67

Photo conditions were not great, the only other worthwhile shot was this flock of Dunlin.

Dunlin - Blackie Spit Park, Surrey BC

Serpentine Fen, Surrey BC

I decided to take #10 Highway back and make a quick stop at this location. This was one of my earliest birding spots. I saw several lifers here in the late 80's and early 90's. I've not had much luck lately and today was the same. I think some of the paths have grown over, there doesn't seem to be as many places to look for birds as I remember.

I did have some luck when I returned to the parking area. Someone asked me if I was I birder. I replied yes, and they then told me there was a Kingfisher on a wire above the parking lot. I'm a birder, but sometimes not a very observant one.

Belted Kingfisher (F) - Serpentine Fen, Surrey BC

2020 Bird #68

This is one of the rare sexually dimorphic species where the female is more colourful than the male. She has the rusty colouring on the breast, the male is just blue and white.


Belted Kingfisher (F) - Serpentine Fen, Surrey BC



This ended my day on a good note.

March 14, 2020 - Last Visit to Reifel Bird Sanctuary

I suspected that this might be my last visit here because of the Pandemic. As I compose this on May 2, I was right. Reifel closed the following day (March 15th).

The birds must have missed the free handouts of seed from all the visitors at first. I assume they have adapted by now. I have to admit, it had become a pet peeve of mine as the hand feeding had become so prevalent.

My visit only lasted a half hour so there's not many photos to share. First the ducks. This Wood Duck knows how to pose to get fed.


Wood Duck - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

I saw this pair of Pintails in one of the large ponds. They were missing out on the bird seed.


Northern Pintail - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC


Northern Pintail (F) - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

This sparrow was fending well for itself just outside the sanctuary fence. I'm pretty sure it's an immature Golden-crowned.


Golden-crowned Sparrow - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

And finally, I made my way down to the end of the East Dyke trail to look for Saw-whet Owls. I had not been able to locate any so far this year. It was a partial success. The photos are very unclear, but there is an owl hiding in them. I've provided a second copy with a box to show the owl more clearly.


Northern Saw-whet Owl - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC - 2020 Bird #66

That's it for Reifel for now. Future posts will feature different locations.