George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary – Page 55

White-throated Sparrow

With the wind and rain warnings in the weather forecast for today I was not holding out much hope for a walk. Around lunch it started to slow down a little and just after one the rain stopped. Realizing there would probably not be much of a break I headed out to Reifel. I normally try to volunteer there on Sunday afternoon’s. There were only a handful of cars in the parking lot on arriving. Not surprising given the earlier conditions. On speaking with Brian, another volunteer, he mentioned a couple of White-throated Sparrows had been seen earlier. Yippee! My odds just increased and I was off to try again. I was about half way along the east dyke trail scanning sparrows when something different got my attention.

Finally I had managed to locate one of the White-throated Sparrows.

An uncommon visitor to this area that can usually be seen this time of year.

The White-throated Sparrow, along with others, spend a lot of time foraging on the ground. With this in mind the tripod was collapsed low and I was shooting from my knees. Much the same approach as with the shore birds on the beach. While it is great when you can them perching on a nice branch, sometimes you just have to go where they are.

It has been four years since my last photos of a White-throated Sparrow. The perseverance of the last week or so finally paid off.

Bonus bird photo of the day was this Brown Creeper on my way back as the rain was starting again.

A Switch To Song Birds

With most of the shore bird migration behind us now, it is time to change gears. This started with the last post focusing mostly on water birds. Despite the grey and drizzly weather the last few days I have managed a few walks. They have been to Reifel where there have been some interesting song birds worth giving a try. One bird that has been seen off and on for a few weeks now is a White-throated Sparrow. Unfortunately I have yet to locate it, so I turned my attention to some of the regulars.

Lots of White-crowned Sparrows around,

… including immature birds. One change of pace,

… was this Slate-colored Dark-eyed Junco. In this part of British Columbia we are most likely to see them at this time of year.

The Oregon Dark-eyed Junco is what we are used to seeing here most of the time. The other bird I was hoping to see was the Evening Grosbeak that had been sighted.

While I did manage to locate and photograph it, the location and lighting were not the best. The bird itself was looking a little bedraggled as well.

Of course there is never any shortage of House Sparrows. This species was introduced to North America from Europe and are referred to as Old World Sparrows.

While similar in appearance and behavior, they are a different family from the other New World Sparrows. Another change of pace while watching sparrows,

… was a couple of Hermit Thrush mixed in with them foraging on the ground. Continuing to scour the mixed groups for the White-throated, something else caught my eye.

This odd colored Fox Sparrow, perhaps partially leucistic.

This is how I would normally expect them to look. So while nothing too much out of the ordinary, a couple of interesting finds.

Red-necked Phalarope

There were decent crowds while volunteering at Reifel this afternoon in spite of it being the last major long weekend of the summer. Birding wise though, it was relatively quiet. One bird, however, did delight many visitors. A Red-necked Phalarope spent most of the day in one of the centre display ponds.

While these shore birds are routinely seen in the outer ponds at this time of year, it is not often they are seen here. This provided a unique opportunity for a lot of visitors to see this little beauty up close while it swam and foraged at the edge of the pond next to the path.