Blog – Page 23 – CrazyM Bird & Nature Photography

Short-eared + Snowy Owl

It was a nice sunny afternoon when I started my walk at Boundary Bay. As with my last visit here, I was going to look for wintering sparrows. Not long after starting,

… this male Northern Harrier did a close fly by. On the sparrow front as I progressed east along the dyke I was only finding the usual suspects.

Like this White-crowned Sparrow,

… and Song Sparrow. With clouds moving in and the sun starting to set, it was time to start heading back. While adjacent to the golf course,

… I came across this Short-eared Owl that had stopped to rest on a fence post. As it continued getting darker,

… I was pleasantly surprised to see this Snowy Owl roosting out in the marsh. One has been seen here off and on for a couple of weeks now. The first one I saw this winter was also about two weeks ago at Reifel way out in the west marsh.

Eurasian Wigeon

It was cool, windy and wet when I made my way to Reifel to help out on the trails this afternoon. Understandably there were not many visitors, but there was a Great Horned Owl to show the hardy few I met along the east dyke trail. The birding highlight of the day,

… was a Eurasian Wigeon in the house pond at the back of the gift shop. While neither my shooting position or weather were ideal, it was still good to see this winter visitor.

In other sanctuary news, the well known raptor snag got blown down this past week. Along the main path to the large covered viewing platform,

… it was a favourite roosting spot for birds of prey and for visitors to see and photograph them.

Harrier, Short-eared + Lincoln’s

It was a half decent day with a light overcast and I decided to head out for a late afternoon walk. The destination was the Boundary Bay area to look for migrating and overwintering sparrows. I started form 72 St. and made my way east along the dyke. While checking for songbirds,

… there was the expected Northern Harriers,

… and Short-eared Owls active over the marsh. Beyond the end of the golf course I eventually found a group of active sparrows. They were busy going back and forth from the tree line to the marsh. It was a mix of White-crowned, Golden-crowned and Song Sparrows.

Then one of my target birds made an appearance. This Lincoln’s Sparrow popped up from the ground and posed nicely on the side of the trail for me. This area is also a good spot to see American Tree Sparrows, but I could not locate any today.