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.

July 12, 2020 - Sunday Morning at Cheam Wetlands

There was not golf scheduled on Saturday, so this weekend I met Mary-Jean at Cheam on the Sunday morning. My drive out there was a bit crazy, I was passed by a big pickup truck with dirt bikes on the back. They must have been doing 150 KM plus.

Within seconds of them passing me, they were pulled over by a ghost car who was running a radar trap. He must have called for backup, as I saw a marked cruiser pull a U-Turn on the freeway median to come back and assist. Justice was served very promptly.

On to the birding. It didn't take long for us to spot some colourful birds, first this male Grosbeak.


Black-headed Grosbeak - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

And then he was joined by another male, possibly an offspring or a sibling of the first one.


Black-headed Grosbeaks - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

The next photo is a Garter Snake as far as Mary-Jean and I can tell. The magnification of the camera lens makes it look much bigger than it actually was.


Garter Snake  - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

This American Goldfinch was in a colourful setting, I didn't quite nail the photo, but it's worth including.

American Goldfinch - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

I saw my first Vulture of the year last week, and once again here this week.

Turkey Vulture - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

Here's the first Cedar Waxwing of the day, just in launch mode.

Cedar Waxwing - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

Earlier there was a snake, now here's a slug. I captured the detail on this one pretty well.

Slug - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

The light was gradually getting better as the morning went on.  This Song Sparrow shot was an example of how good light improves image quality.

Song Sparrow - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

It's still difficult to get a good shot of an Eastern Kingbird, their contrasting dark and light plumage 

seems to cause exposure issues. This is one of my better results for this species.

Eastern Kingbird - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

Here's a couple of scenery shots to show what a special place this is.

That's rock, it looks a little bit like an Owl.

This next shot is not of a rock, but a colourful turtle.

Western Painted Turtle - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

The next bird was the early highlight of the day, especially for Mary-Jean. And she "spotted" it first.

Spotted Sandpiper - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

Spotted Sandpiper - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

I thought the Spotted was a new bird for me for 2020, but I checked my list at home. I had seen one in May at Iona Regional Park, on the inner sewage ponds. This location was much more aesthetically pleasing.

I quite like the tones on this Robin, probably a female with the lighter plumage.

American Robin (F?) - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

We were just completing the southeast loop trail when we spotted a male Bullock's Oriole close by in the bushes.

Bullock's Oriole - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

An interesting drama unfolded as a female came into the area. I don't think this was a prelude to mating.

Bullock's Orioles - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

These next shots are my first ever good ones of a female Bullock's Oriole. She looks like she survived the run-in with the male.

Bullock's Oriole (F) - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

Bullock's Oriole (F) - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

And the last bird of the day was another Cedar Waxwing.

Cedar Waxwing - Cheam Lake Regional Park, Chilliwack BC

After 3+ hours of birding it was time to head back home. As it was a Sunday in the summer, the trip was over two hours. But the birds were worth it, especially the Spotted Sandpiper and the Bullock's Orioles.