September 2, 2020 - Return to Reifel

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

 The Reifel Bird Sanctuary closed in March 2020 due to the COVID-19 pandemic. They finally reopened in late August with a new reservation system to control the number of people allowed in the sanctuary. I was able to reserve an afternoon slot on this day and invited my friend Mary-Jean to join me. She drove in from Chilliwack and we made our way to Reifel, arriving at 1:00 PM.

After checking at the gift shop, we headed for the Display Pond to check out the shorebirds. There were many Dowitchers, probably all Long-billed. They are more common on the West Coast than Short-billed. These were my first for 2020.

Long-billed Dowitcher - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC - 2020 Bird #107

Here's another view. The bird in the back is still in breeding plumage.

Long-billed Dowitcher - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

The next birds seen are easily identified as the common House Sparrow. We don't see them in the Lower Mainland that often, but they were here in numbers.

House Sparrow - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Here's a shot of a male in breeding plumage.

                                        House Sparrow - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Another common bird flew overhead in formation.

    Canada Geese - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Chickadees are quite common at the sanctuary, this was the best shot of one for the day.

Black-capped Chickadee - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

The East Dyke trail is tree-lined on both sides and is the Sanctuary's best place to see songbirds. An example is this Yellow-rumped Warbler, possibly returning from the North and making its way south. The colouring indicates that it is a female.

Yellow-rumped Warbler - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

There were a few Robins along the path, most seemed to have juvenile plumage.

American Robin - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Surprisingly, the next bird was a first of year for me. The pandemic really reduced my birding options for a good part of the year.

Eurasian Collared Dove - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC - 2020 Bird #108

The next sequence of photos shows our most exciting action of the day. This appears to be a juvenile Brown Creeper that was climbing quickly up a tree. It was difficult to keep focus as the bird ascended.

Brown Creeper - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Brown Creeper - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

This was my clearest shot.

Brown Creeper - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

The last bird in this area was a female Wood Duck. The fact that it was on a tree indicates how they get their name.

Wood Duck (F) - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

We made our way down the center trail and visited the Southwest Marsh. While the display pond had featured Dowitchers, this location had  good number of Yellowlegs. They appeared to be all Greater Yellowlegs as their bills were much longer than the depth of their heads.

Greater Yellowlegs - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Greater Yellowlegs - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Greater Yellowlegs - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC

Brunswick Point

We made a quick visit to this location which is quite close to Reifel. I haven't had much luck here in recent years, but Mary-Jean had never been here before. 

We only saw a few birds, mostly swallows. There were a number of them on the wires overhead and they appeared to be immature Barn Swallows. But is seemed to us that the birds feeding them were Tree Swallows. We were probably wrong about that as the young were definitely Barn Swallows.

Barn Swallow - Brunswick Point, Delta BC

   Barn Swallow - Brunswick Point, Delta BC

Here's an adult bringing food, I'm not sure if there was some conflict here.

Barn Swallow - Brunswick Point, Delta BC

And the last bird of the day was an American Goldfinch,  possibly a juvenile.

American Goldfinch - Brunswick Point, Delta BC

August 18, 2020 - Chilliwack Birding at Camp River Wildlife Area and Great Blue Heron Reserve

 It's been a month since I last posted on this blog. Each weekend in between, there was some reason I didn't go birding. This post features a backyard bird first, and then a Saturday trip to Chilliwack to explore a new location with my friend Mary-Jean.

August 14

I finally got a shot of a bird seen and/or heard occasionally in our back yard. The one photo that I took was so poor, that I've substituted a shot taken in 2014 in the front yard.

    Steller's Jay - North Delta BC (2014) - 2020 Bird #104

August 18 -  Camp River Wildlife Area, Chilliwack BC

I finally had a free Saturday morning to go birding in Chilliwack with my friend Mary-Jean. She suggested we visit a new location that she had discovered by accident earlier in the week, the Camp River Wildlife Area. It is located on the north side of Chilliwack on a 21 acre property. It was dedicated as a natural area by the former owners and is now maintained by Nature Chilliwack. 

Here's a view from inside the reserve. Note: there some mowed paths for walking!

At first we were seeing only the more common birds as shown below:

    Black-Capped Chickadee - Camp River Wildlife Area - Chilliwack BC

Pine Siskin - Camp River Wildlife Area - Chilliwack BC

    American Goldfinch - Camp River Wildlife Area - Chilliwack BC

Overhead there was a Turkey Vulture and a Red-tailed Hawk hunting for their respective prey. I didn't get a good shot of the Vulture, but did better with the Hawk.

    Red-tailed Hawk - Camp River Wildlife Area - Chilliwack BC

We had seen some Willow Flycatchers initially and later saw and photographed what we thought was another one. But on closer looks at home, we bounced from Olive-sided Flycatcher and landed on Western Wood-Pewee.This was lifer for Mary-Jean and a 2020 first for me.

Western Wood-Pewee - Camp River Wildlife Area - Chilliwack BC

2020 Bird #105

Here's one more shot of the Pewee.

We had a very brief encounter with the next bird. It was a Vireo, but I didn't ID it until looking at the photos at home the following day. It was a Red-eyed Vireo, another lifer for Mary-Jean and a year bird for me. It had just chased off a couple of other birds (I think Cedar Waxwings) and still looked threatening in this shot. 

    Red-eyed Vireo - Camp River Wildlife Area - Chilliwack BC - 2020 Bird #106

We've been seeing Cedar Waxwings all summer and this location was no different.

Cedar Waxwing - Camp River Wildlife Area - Chilliwack BC

This one looks like a first year bird, with the more mottled feathers.

Cedar Waxwing (Imm) - Camp River Wildlife Area - Chilliwack BC

The last bird photograph is a nice one of a common woodpecker.

   Downy Woodpecker - Camp River Wildlife Area - Chilliwack BC

Hopefully, this dragonfly survives with all the hungry birds at this location.

   Dragonfly - Camp River Wildlife Area - Chilliwack BC

August 18 -  Great Blue Heron Reserve, Chilliwack BC

We had time to visit here before I left to play golf at the nearby Chilliwack Golf Club. This is a look at the visitor center from one of the paths on the reserve.

There were the usual House Finches at the feeders.

   House Finch (F) - Great Blue Heron Reserve - Chilliwack BC

This female Wood Duck was out on the pond.

    Wood Duck (F) - Great Blue Heron Reserve - Chilliwack BC

My last bird of the day was a Pied-billed Grebe. 

Pied-billed Grebe - Great Blue Heron Reserve - Chilliwack BC

Now it was time to go play a late afternoon round of golf to finish the day.

July 18 - Flycatcher morning at Cheam Wetlands

I had a late golf game again at Chilliwack and met up with my friend Mary-Jean early to do some bird-watching. The highlights of the day were flycatchers. I managed some reasonably good photos of a few species.

As usual, Cheam Lake was beautiful in the early morning light.

The first creature of the day was not a bird, but a mammal. There are a number of Rabbits roaming the park.

But the title of the post hints at Flycatchers and it didn't take long for us to spot and photograph the common Willow Flycatcher. 

    Willow Flycatcher - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

The best way to identify this species is by its call, a two-syllable fitz-bew. The white throat and the bill colours (Orange underneath and Black on top) are also good field marks.

I  don't normally associate American Goldfinches with water, but this one seems to have an affinity for H2O.

   American Goldfinch - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

A commonly seen bird at Cheam is the Cedar Waxwing. If you see one, you know there am many more around the park.

   Cedar Waxwing - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

As always, there were Mallards on the lake, this female looks somewhat bedraggled, perhaps from raising a brood of ducklings recently.

   Mallard (F) - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

When we arrived at the end of the Western Loop trail, i was able to use my telephoto lens and get a reasonably good shot of the resident Trumpeter Swan. It was still on the rare bird alert as the only member of its species who had not gone north for breeding.

   Trumpeter Swan - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

Our next sighting was a larger flycatcher, the somewhat misnamed Eastern Kingbird. Although the Western Kingbird is restricted to the West, the Eastern can be seen in the Lower Mainland of BC on occasion. We always see at least one here at Cheam, about 100 km east of Vancouver.

  Eastern Kingbird - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

The next photo is a common bird in an unusual pose.

                            American Robin - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

The next two shots feature on of my favourite birds, a Belted Kingfisher darting over the lake.

Belted Kingfisher - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

Next are a couple of more shots of Cedar Waxwings, a truly photogenic bird.The second bird looks like a recently fledged juvenile.

   Cedar Waxwing - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

   Cedar Waxwing (Imm) - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

We encountered a couple more flycatchers, these one both appear to be Willows'.

    Willow Flycatcher - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

I took the next shot without really knowing what i was shooting. it appears to be a Marsh Wren taking a dust bath, probably to remove parasites.

    Marsh Wren - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

This next shot of a turtle swimming is one I quite like.

    Western Painted Turtle - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

As we were walking the South loop trail, we noticed a flycatcher high above moving around in the upper part of a large tree.It did not appear to be a Willow flycatcher, as the call was wrong. After looking at the photos, i believe this was a Hammond's Flycatcher.

    Hammond's Flycatcher - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

    Hammond's Flycatcher - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

If my ID is correct, this is species #118 for 2020 for me.I suspect it's a lifer for Mary-Jean.

I'm always on alert for Butterflies and got this shot of a Cabbage White along the same trail.

    Cabbage White Butterfly - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

Near the end of the trail, Mary-jean spotted  a possible Swainson's Thrush, a nemesis bird for me. I took a shot of a very murky shape in the bus, followed by this clear shot of a bird. I've concluded this is a juvenile Spotted Towhee, but there may have also been a Thrush in the area that eluded me.

   Spotted Towhee (Imm) - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

The last shot of the day was another Cedar Waxwing, possible an immature bird.

   Cedar Waxwing (Imm) - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

It was now time for me to head for the golf course, I have not been back to Cheam again as I write this on August 7th, maybe next weekend i can get back there.