May 3, 2020 - Boundary Bay (not so) Rarities

I visited the 72nd Street area of Boundary Bay on this Sunday, hoping to see a couple of birds reported on the local rare bird alert: Long-billed Curlew and Pacific Golden Plover.

They were seen frequenting a site known  to local birders as "The Turf Farm". It actually is a place that grows lawn turf for landscaping.

I pulled up to the site with my camera and scope and had immediate success (sort of). There were in the fields a good number of Shorebirds with down-curved bills. In my haste to record them, i reported 14 "Long-billed Curlew" on EBird. I was asked to provide photo proof and uploaded the best shot I had. I get a message back from our local moderator telling me these were Whimbrel. Did I ever feel stupid!! I knew immediately as I'd seen Whimbrel many times in the past. I'd also seen Long-billed Curlew (much rarer here than Whimbrel) enough times to know better.

Anyway, here's some shots of the Whimbrel.

Whimbrel - Turf Farm, 72 St Delta BC - 2020 Bird #82

Whimbrel - Turf Farm, 72 St Delta BC

There were many plovers as well, but they were quite far away. I was smart enough to figure out they were all Black- Bellied. I did send one photo to the E-bird moderator to ask if it could be a Pacific, but the answer was negative.

The birds were far away, so the photo quality is very poor.


Black-bellied Plovers - 2020 Bird #82 and Whimbrel - Turf Farm, 72 St Delta BC

An interesting thing about this scene that was that there were Bald Eagles sitting in the same area, quite close to the shorebirds. I guess the shorebirds felt safe as long as the Eagles were on the ground.


Northwestern Crow and Bald Eagle (Imm) - Turf Farm, 72 St Delta BC

Bald Eagle - Turf Farm, 72 St Delta BC

This was the end of my birding for the day, no rare birds to report.