CrazyM Bird & Nature Photography
Birding in British Columbia, Canada
Today’s walk was not providing much on the photo front. It was not until the end that that the sound of a woodpecker got my attention. I located the source, a Downy Woodpecker, but initially it was tucked away inside the tree and obscured by branches. After changing my position several times and waiting a short while,
… the Downy Woodpecker finally presented itself nicely on a branch.
I knew it was going to be a long afternoon when I got the heads up that there were three Northern Saw-whet Owls in addition to the Great Horned Owl pair along the east dyke trail at Reifel today. On arriving to help out on the trails, the parking lot was full and visitors were being held at the gate until spots opened up.
Only one of the Northern Saw-whet Owls was in a vulnerable spot that needed watching over. For the most part the photographers were well behaved today, other than a couple who figured they could park their tripods and cameras right in front of the bird without moving all day.
For all the visitors that passed by this spot,
… they were treated to an unobstructed view of a Northern Saw-whet Owl. Something that you do not encounter here all that often. This definitely made the day for most of them.
This afternoons walk was to Boundary Bay. The photo opportunities started before I even parked at the foot of 72 St.
A Rough-legged Hawk was in a tree next to the road. This shot was taken out of the car window. After parking I noted it was still there and started walking back that way, but it moved off before I got there.
There were lots of sparrows around at the foot of 72 St. when I started my walk, but nothing out of the ordinary.
There were even a few Ruby-crowned Kinglets among them.
As I continued east along the dyke I came across a large group of White-crowned Sparrows.
While several of them provided great photo opportunities,
… I did not locate any American Tree Sparrows which I was hoping to see.
As one would expect at this time of the year in the bay area, there was no shortage of Bald Eagles.
There were also a few Short-eared Owls active over the marsh.
The owls seemed to be the only thing any of the other photographers out there were interested in. Makes me wonder at times if they aware of the variety of birds that can be seen in this area.