Boundary Bay and Reifel Sept 1

[Gord]

If I don't share now, odds are I'll not get to it! The boys and I made a trip out west today. We started at Boundary Bay from 104th Street in clouds and a refreshing but annoying breeze. Right from the end of the road off the dyke there were lots of action. Scanning with the scope picked up a Marbled Godwit sticking out like a sore thumb among the Black-bellied Plover and further along a small godwit. A Hudsonian! I had just called it to Jamie and Benny when the birds flew up. I tracked it in the scope hoping it would land. Seems it did not as while a decent portion of the flock returned we couldn't find it among them. It must have gone with part of the flock that looked to have gone west. There was a Red Knot, however, that either arrived after we came or we gut missed/didn't get to before the fly around. It's been awhile since I've seen a Knot. Lifer for Benny and Jamie. We then walked west keeping an eye for a Buff-breasted Sandpiper seen earlier that morning which explained the small crowd down the dyke a little. We enjoyed great views of Baird's Sandpiper and sat on a convenient log and took things in maybe a bit longer than we planned to do. Nothing wrong with doing that. Overhead, we had two Horned Larks flew by. A nice fall sound/sight. A pair of Peregrine Falcons came and tried a few times for shorebirds then the ducks. Jamie went back to the car at one point and was lucky to get a look at an American Golden Plover on his way back to meet us.

We went to Tsawassan to see if we could get Benny Black Oystercatcher. We saw several including maybe the most Caspian Tern I've seen at one time (41). Also interesting to note 40 odd scaup here. All I looked at before getting distracted seemed to be Lesser in species and certainly would be of note to see out our way at this time of year still.

We finished the day with a nice long visit to Reifel Bird Sanctuary. Lots of action and we saw lots of birds and several new ones for Benny as well. Tide was out by then so not many shorebirds to see but we did get most of the expected peeps.

A great day and nice to have some cooler weather out on the coast.

One of many Baird's Sandpiper we enjoyed seeing.

_0224059 by Geordie LaForge, on Flickr

[nickinthegarden]

Beautiful capture of the Baird's Sandpiper.
I went out to the Tsawwassen Ferry Jetty a couple weeks ago and there was a huge amount of Caspian Terns just off the taxi drop off then also but just a few Lesser Scaup and a number of Black Oystercatchers. The Harlequin Ducks were in their eclipse plumage so not so interesting to see.
At Boundary Bay I was told by some birders about a Hudsonian Godwit they had just seen. I had taken distant, hazy images of the same flock and when I got home I could only see a Marbled Godwit in my images. I do not doubt that these birders saw what they did shorebirds are so mobile they are hard to keep track off. There was no wind when I was there and it was bright, I could see lots of shorebirds further along but conditions were too challenging for me.