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