George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary – Page 35

Song Birds & Blue Goose

At Reifel today, on this Thanksgiving long weekend, there was a half decent crowd. It was overcast with light showers persisting most of the afternoon. It was fairly quiet on the birding front,

… so I was starting to watch some of the fall regulars such as this Dark-eyed Junco. Then to make things a little more interesting,

… I spotted this White-throated Sparrow. That was the excitement for the sanctuary, but things picked up again on the way home. I got flagged over on Westham Island by Brian, a fellow volunteer. In with the Snow Goose flock were some dark morph birds.

One that stood out was this Snow Goose with some of the marking of a dark morph.

There were a couple of juveniles,

… along with this adult dark morph Snow Goose. It was an interesting variety of Blue Goose to end the day with.

Sora & White-throated Sparrow

This afternoon was spent at Reifel helping out on the trails. Recent birds of note were Evening Grosbeak, Palm Warbler, White-throated Sparrow and hundreds of Greater White-fronted Geese. With this in mind the first stop was the lookout by Fuller’s Slough where the Palm Warbler had been seen. While I saw several Yellow-rumped, there was no Palm. Then it was down the east dyke trail,

… where the Greater White-fronted Geese were in the freshly harvested potato fields in the neighbouring Alaksen National Wildlife Area. There were over 400 hundred counted today. Continuing along the east dyke trail I was keeping an eye open for the White-throated Sparrow, but there was not much chance of it coming out with all the people. Next stop was the lookout at the northwest corner of the west field.

The Sora are still present,

… with two of them showing well to the delight of many visitors.

Better yet, they even provided some great photo opportunities. On checking the rest of the west and southwest fields, there were the usual Dowitchers and Yellowlegs. The Hudsonian Godwit has not been seen again since Tuesday. At the end of the day I made my way back along the east dyke trail. With no traffic the sparrows were coming out onto the trail,

… and the White-throated Sparrow among them. A good finish to the day.

Sora & Hudsonian Godwit

Another beautiful afternoon and a half decent crowd at Reifel when I showed up to help out on the trails. On the birding front there were 57 Sandhill Cranes that showed up in the sanctuary late yesterday to roost for the evening. The highlight from the morning walk were the Sora and Virginia Rail showing well at the north corner of the west pond. Also of note was another sighting of a Hudsonian Godwit yesterday. With this in mind I started my walk around the outer ponds. The only shorebirds were Yellowlegs and Dowitchers. On reaching the northwest corner,

… the Sora (I saw two) were active and making brief appearances. While I did also manage to see one of the Virginia Rail, it was not cooperating for photos. I then spent some time checking the east dyke and inner trails seeing my first Dark-eyed Junco of the fall. It was after 3:30 pm and I decided to make one last pass of the west field. Things had changed since earlier with greater numbers and variety of shorebirds present. Then about half way along,

… the Hudsonian Godwit had shown up. It was hanging around with the Dowitchers and Yelllowlegs. A rare visitor to this area,

… but what made it even more interesting was the plumage. It was closer to breeding plumage instead of the plainer grey you would expect to see at this time of year.

It has been a few years since I have seen one, so this was a pleasant end to the day.