Canada Goose x Graylag Goose hybrid at Hastings Park racetrack
Juvenile Snow Goose at Deer Lake Park
Tag: Snow Goose
I really was supposed to go to Brunswick Point. But somehow I ended up at the wrong meeting place for the car pooling. I forgot my bottle of water, but it was the first day of snow in Metro-Vancouver and snow can be melted for drinking.
So I hopped on public transit again and got myself to Terra Nova. I figured nothing else can possibly go wrong, but even before I got there I noticed the traffic and the honking – overhead.
Snow Geese
Trumpeter Swans
It was my first visit to Terra Nova. There were a variety of waterfowls on the middle arm of the Fraser River, as well as on the Terra Nova pond. That was the first time I saw a mega group of Double-crested Cormorants – 200 of them were fishing at the River. I finally had a male Northern Harrier, and a Golden-crowned Sparrow was actually singing his slurry notes. The birds were generally in a good mood, and so was I.
In Granville Island a passionate pair of Mallards were nodding their heads up and down in synchrony, and soon engaged in a brief copulation.
In the small pond at Charleson Park, among the Mallards and the Glaucous-winged Gulls, there was a male Hooded Merganser in breeding plumage; three other Mergansers, a drake and two hens, were floating nearby at False Creek.
A viewpoint to English Bay from Volunteer Park revealed 37 American Wigeons, a Northern Pintail, a pair of Grebes at the distance and ten Harlequin Ducks, 3 males in breeding plumage among them.
In Jericho Park I flushed all the shorebirds and was left with the Geese. 5 Snow Geese, too good for the Geese crowds at Reifel, were on the north lawn; on the west side of the park, among 39 Canada Geese were 7 Cackling Geese.
As I was about to leave, the Crows got all excited. Their nemesis this time turned out to be a Racoon, perched midway up a tree, who gave me an uncomfortable look.
On the way back I ran into a group of people who were operating a stand for free grilled cheese sandwiches. The business model was simple: hand out scrumptious sandwiches to passerby, on a road full of ravenous cyclists who can use any extra calorie. If someone offers you money, refuse. That’s the kind of economical model you learn at the Burning Man festival. Go figure. I had four of these sandwiches. Thanks guys!
Well, I was afraid of getting up at 5:30am, but that’s what getting to Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary by bicycle + public transit entails (giving myself some extra time).
This sanctuary is a duck’s Mecca and a birder’s Jerusalem. A hundred thousand birds were keeping me entertained.
About 2000 Snow Geese were flying in formation in the morning and rested on the field alongside the sanctuary at the end of the day.
11 Sandhill Cranes letting people feed them on the trail? ridiculous.
Not at all like the four Cranes who stood a field away from me, making me work hard and challenging the power of my binoculars at Grant Narrows a month and a half ago.
The multitude of birders out there (they were all looking for a lost Wood Sandpiper who didn’t show up) provided help: I got a look at the Sharp-tailed Sandpiper (a rare visitor from Asia!) through someone’s scope.
The Marsh Wrens, who evaded me yesterday at Boundary Bay, did not evade me today. They were better looking than I expected.
I also got notified of Virginia Rails, and some patience paid off!
Day Summary: 40 species, 3 lifers. Not bad at all.