November 28 Part 2 - Wilband Creek Park

 We travelled from Mill Lake Park to this location, with one stop at a 7-11 for a bathroom stop. Upon arriving at Wilband. I realized I was missing my binoculars. We returned to Mill Lake and then the 7-11, but the binoculars were not found at either location. We carried on with our visit here and I tried to forget about the binoculars. 

In the parking lot at Wilband, we were greeted by a flock of House Finches.

House Finch - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

The next bird was much more exciting, one of my favourites, a Merlin.

Merlin - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

Fortunately, it landed on a tree nearby.

Merlin - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

Willband is quite large and was a good walk. We made a quick stop at a large pond and saw this duck, probably my favourite Merganser.

Common Merganser - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

We walked the loop through the park and saw a good variety of birds:

Great Blue Heron - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

Great Blue Heron - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

Trumpeter Swan - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

On a much smaller scale were these Bushtits, part of a flock.

Bushtit - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

Bushtit - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

Here's an odd couple of Americans, a coot and a Wigeon.

American Coot and American Wigeon (F) - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

By this time were were on the large viewing platform overlooking a large body of water. There were hundreds, if not thousands of birds on the water.

I concentrated on individual birds that were close or I didn't have many shots of in 2020.

Pied-billed Grebe - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

Common Merganser - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

Common Merganser - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

Here's some Canada Geese leaving the scene.

Canada Geese - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

Just like at Mill Lake Park, this Cormorant seems to enjoy the company of ducks. 

Double-crested Cormorant, Bufflehead, American Wigeon and Mallards.

This is a nice clear shot of a male Ring-necked Duck. You can kind of see the faint purple ring on the neck.

Ring-necked Duck - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

The Trumpeter Swans decided to join the fray, creating havoc with the smaller birds.

Trumpeter Swan - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

As we left the park, the light was getting low and there were some beautiful reflections on the water wit a lone female Bufflehead.

Bufflehead (F)  - Wilband Creek Park, Abbotsford BC

This was the end of a great day of birding, marred by the loss of my binoculars. But they were getting older. This will allow me to buy a better pair that I can use going forward.

November 28 - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

Recently I've been birding with my friend Mary-Jean quite a lot. She lives at Cultus Lake near Chilliwack while I'm in North Delta. We've been taking turns on birding locations, this week we were close to her home turf in Abbotsford.

We started at Mill Lake Park. It was my second visit here, the first was to see the rare Cape May Warbler in January 2019.

That visit is detailed here: 2019 Birding Blog . We did not see anything as rare as the Cape May Warbler, but had a productive day.

The main feature of the park is the lake, and more of these photos show water birds, starting with the most common species.

Mallard - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

A common duck in Fall and Winter is the Bufflehead. Here's  two males in breeding plumage.

Bufflehead - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

And a couple more shots of the male:

And here he is taking off:

Bufflehead - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

Here's a pair of Mallards, I assume they are a mated pair.

Mallards - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

Mixed in with the ducks was a single Cormorant. I don't believe it was any threat to the ducks, it was likely a good spot for diving for fish.

Double-crested Cormorant - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

Back to the Bullheads, here is a female:

Bufflehead (F) - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

And this is what the water looked like seconds later after she dove.

Another common bird was the American Coot. It's not related to ducks, it's more closely related to Rails and Herons.

American Coot - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

I quite like this shot of a female Mallard having a stretch:

Mallard (F) - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

One last duck before we reached an area where the shoreline was not accessible.

Ring-necked Duck (F) - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

As we circled we came across a couple of Monkey Puzzle Trees, quite a unique looking tree.

It seems like I can't go birding anywhere without seeing Ruby-crowned Kinglets, not that I mind.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

It looks spooky in this shot.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

Also present were the irruptive Pine Siskins. They will show up in numbers wherever there is suitable food to eat.

Pine Siskin - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

They're quite comfortable eating upside down.

We were back to the open lake and I got some good shots of Northern Shovelers. This shot of a female shows the straining behaviour they use for feeding.

Northern Shoveler (F) - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

And here she is employing the technique.

By this time a second Cormorant was present. I took this shot just before left for our next Abbotsford destination.

Double-crested Cormorant - Mill Lake Park, Abbotsford BC

November 21 and 22 - Pitt Meadows and Delta Backyard

Saturday November 21 - Pitt Meadows

I decided to take a drive out to Pitt Meadows as this was where most of the rare bird alerts were coming from. There was a Gyrfalcon and a Prairie Falcon on the current report. After the drive out I headed for the rural area where the Prairie Falcon was last seen. I stopped on Connecting Road, one of the locations mentioned. I did find some birders who had just seen the falcon, but then Bald Eagles had appeared and the Falcon took off to the north. 

They suggested I try Ladner Road near the Golden Ears Golf course. I drove over there and saw a magnificent raptor perched on a wire. It was a Red-tailed Hawk. I got a couple of nice shots.

Red-tailed Hawk - Ladner Road, Pitt Meadows BC

Because of the sunny weekend weather, there were people out everywhere and I decided to head back home and maybe try again on my day off on Friday the 27th.

Sunday November 22 - North Delta Backyard

This was easier and involved less travel. I'd seen and heard a Pileated Woodpecker in our yard the last few days. On this day, it suddenly appeared at our bird feeder to partake in some Sunflower chips. I grabbed my Nikon and got some good shots thorough the window from about 4 - 5 feet. Here it is just before coming to the feeder.

Pileated Woodpecker - Backyard, North Delta BC

I won't add much more commentary as these shots are somewhat repetitive, each one is zoomed in a bit closer. First the approach to the feeder.

Getting closer:

And the score finally. The bird would need to eat a lot of seed to get much sustenance.

Pileated Woodpecker - Backyard, North Delta BC

It took off a bit later, we'll likely see it frequently throughout the fall and winter.

November 11, 2020 - Three Jay Day

 After viewing some Remembrance Day ceremonies on TV, I headed out to Ladner to see if I could spot the Blue Jay that has been on the rare bird alert for quite a while. The reports were centered around Ladner Harbour Park, which is just off Highway 99 after the Tunnel.

It was another case of not having to find the bird, just find the birders. There were quite a few there when I arrived. I ended up spending about 90 minutes at the location to see the target birds, a Blue Jay and one or more California Scrub-jays.

The conditions were dry but overcast, which made the surrounding forest look quite gray, not ideal for bird photos.

It didn't take long to get my first shot, a group of Snow Geese flying overhead.

Snow Geese - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC

After the geese, there wasn't much to see for a while, I did see something in the trees that turned out to be a House Finch.

House Finch - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC

A little while later, one of the star attractions appeared, a California Scrub-Jay. This bird was formerly known as the Western Scrub-Jay, but this species was split into two species in 2016. The west coast version is the California, the interior one is the Woodhouse’s Scrub-Jay. Splits like this always make birder's happy as it adds the possibility of a new life list addition, possibly of a bird one has already seen.

It was hard to get a clear shot as the bird was on the move foraging for insects.

California Scrub-Jay - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC - 2020 Bird #127

Here's the rear view:

After that it was back to a more common (and co-operative) bird:

Spotted Towhee - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC

Suddenly there was a flurry of excitement as the Blue Jay made it's first appearance since I had arrived. It was on the move, making it difficult to get a clear shot.

Blue Jay - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC - 2020 Bird #128

It disappeared as quickly as it had arrived and I went back to the more common local birds.

Northern Flicker - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC

The third jay species was the next to appear, our local Steller's Jay.

Steller's Jay - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC

This seemed to attract the Blue Jay's attention as it reappeared and afforded me a few more shots.

Blue Jay - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC

The bird is quite striking in flight:

And one last shot:

It's unfortunate the day was overcast, making the birds look somewhat drab. However, they have been at this location for a few weeks or more, so a sunny day may come while they are still there.