CrazyM Bird & Nature Photography
Birding in British Columbia, Canada
Everybody loves to see owls,
… and this afternoon this Barred Owl provided many visitors at Reifel with a good close look as it roosted right above the trail.
Bonus bird of the day was this White-throated Sparrow just down the trail from the owl.
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.
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.