Well hidden in the conifers on the eastern trail were four Northern Saw-whet Owls and a pair of Great Horned Owls. Other birds Jonathan and I met: a Northern Shrike, a Merlin, ten Sandhill Cranes… at least four thousand Mallards… and more!!!! wow!
Tag: Mallard
If you want to see rare birds, you must learn to recognize the subtle clues in your environment:
A Northern Hawk Owl was perch on a tree on Westham Island Road, bathing in the attention of a flock of photographers:
According to the Vancouver region checklist of rare birds, the Northern Hawk Owl has been recorded here only 5 times within the last century!
From there I proceeded to the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary, where I was stalked by Mallards and attacked by a Sandhill Crane.
I was trying to proceed on a road where 3 Sandhill Cranes were pecking the grass (one of them was a chick only a few months ago), and got jabbed by one! I backed up slowly, and got jabbed twice more! There were no rules posted anywhere on how to behave when attacked by a bird. Maintaining eye contact and talking to the Crane in a low voice, I managed to pass by him – slowly.
Four Black-crowned Night Herons were at their usual perch at the entrance of the sanctuary, a Great-horned Owl was sleeping high on a tree, Bald Eagles were disturbing the thousands of Snow Geese on the far west, Trumpeter Swans were blowing their trumpets, Northern Harriers were flying over the fields, and more. Below are a few song birds who agreed to be photographed.
I was riding my bicycle to Burnaby Lake Park, early in the morning (According to my standards at the time; I had to set my alarm clock for 8AM to allow time for a long bike ride). Event: raking some sand at a turtle nesting site.
At 9:45am on the side of Winston street, past the intersection with Sperling Ave, I stopped my bike to pay respect to a female Mallard duck who was there with a couple of fluffy ducklings. Suddenly I realized that quackings are coming from down the storm drain, over which mommy duck was walking back and forth. The two last little ones were following mom faithfully and one by one fell down through the sewer grate too…
At Burnaby Lake Park I met a couple of wildlife animal rescue members, and together we launched “Operation Duck”. As the three of us were hovering over the storm drain, mama duck walked to the middle of the highway; we tried to get her to walk back, so she flew high up a far away tree.
Dave managed to lift the grate and had a pasta strainer handy to scoop the young ones.
Ducklings are safe and reunited with mom.
I’m a hero.