Central Valley CBC

[Gord]

I participated in the Central Valley (Abbotsford and Mission) Christmas Bird Count today, slowly getting back into doing more such events as my family gets a little older. (makes me feel old! )

I was to meet at Tim Hortons at 8, but thought Id cruise the area first to perhaps find a short-eared owl at dawn. I did, however, find 6 lesser scaup and 4 ring-necked duck in the ditch (or part of) that flows into the Sumas. They would be the only ones we found.

Driving past the flooded field at Whatcom Rd on the way to meet the count team, I noted with delight that the water was not completely frozen as I had feared with the cold weather. There were LOTS of wigeon on it. I knew we'd find an Eurasian wigeon in there somewhere.

Met with John, Ed and another fellow Im embarassed to admit I forgot his name and off we went. In what we guessed to be at least 1500 American wigeon were three drake Eurasian wigeon and one hen. It was tough counting and even spotting the Eurasians as the flock was very tight together.

The next highlight was a good flock of about 30 white-crowned sparrows in a field along the highway. Also we found some savanah sparrows, golden-crowned sparrows and a fox sparrow. John and I saw a small flock of finch like birds that looked like siskens but we couldnt say for sure, and the wind and noisy highway traffic made hearing them impossible.

Along Hogan Park was a flock of about 20 American pipits that Ed found. A great find. On the trail at Hogan Park while discussing the numbers of birds we saw, I hope I wasnt too rude when I, more sharply than intended, said, "Listen!!!" and I thought I heard redpolls coming. Sure enough, there were at least two calling as they passed overhead. I thought Id go into 2007 not seeing/hearing any!

Right when I had to go back into Chilliwack for a bit, we spotted this very white raptor in a tree. It was quite apparent even without binoculars and it must have been a good 400 yds away. After careful study, we agreed it was a Krider's form of red-tailed hawk. Only the second or third Ive ever seen. Neat bird! This was on Whatcom Rd just south of the first bridge after the overpass. Im still not up on the road names in the area.

When I got back, I went over the area we counted earlier to see if there were any new species. Of note, I picked up some robins and a dark juvenile rough-legged hawk. As John had lost his cell phone, I couldnt meet back up with them, so I just cruised some more. At the UCFV campus I observed a small flock of golden-crowned kinglets feeding in the low bushes by an entrance. Many times then even landed on the sidewalk and picked at something. Possibly salt from when they spread it on the ice? At times, they were very close to me, not more than 5 feet away. Cute little guys. Also, a brown creeper landed on one of the small tree trunks close by too.

Last highlight was at the garbage station. (thanks for the tip Brent! ) I spotted this very dark backed gull among the others. My interest peaked. Then it's head came up, looking streaked! Not slaty-backed streaked, but streaked all the same. Lesser black-backed? No, this guy is bulky with big beak, and the eye (usually fairly reliable field mark) is dark. Then I see the legs; nice and pink. This is obviously an adult bird, with very dark back and jet black wing-tips so what's with the dirty head/neck? It flew for wing tip inspection and the wings were good for western gull too. I then realized upon closer inspection when it landed again closer to me that it was dirty from whatever garbage/mud/? it had been poking in. A good weird moment!

That was my day. I ended it at a nice looking field with tall grass where a short-eared owl should be, but none showed even though I couldnt stay right to dark.

I think between us all we got 51 species. List of species and some pictures to follow.

Thanks for a good day John and the rest of the team! ;D

[dvdk]

I participated in the Central Valley CBC as well yesterday, and although my list in no way compares to Gord's I still enjoyed spending the day out in the field with Ted, Peter, and Brian.

Peter and I combed through Downes Bowl first thing. Turns out we weren't much better at spotting birds than we were were at finding each other. Having planned to start at 8, we ended up setting out at more like quarter to 9 due to some difficulty in locating each other. Not the best of starts to the day, although the drive to the park did yield a Great Blue Heron.

I don't have my checklists anymore, but in total the Bowl yielded only in the neighbourhood of a dozen species. It was amazingly quiet and the woods just seemed listless. Along the boardwalk only mallards, although I'd hoped for at least some wood ducks or shoveller or merganser. I could go on all day listing birds I'd hoped to see but it just wasn't happening today. Perhaps the best birds were a Bewick's wren, Downy Woodpecker, and Red-tailed Hawk.

Disappointing as Peter is new to the sport and you always like for your first outing to be an exciting one.

Fishtrap Creek with Ted and Brian wasn't much better - we spent much of our walk musing out loud as to where all the birds could be. The usual waterfowl of course were there - cormorant, heron, wigeon, coot, green-winged teal, bufflehead, common+hooded merganser.

However no ruddy ducks or pintail or shoveller or anything else unusual. Then again, I was the one with pen and paper, not the one with the scope!

We did find a Northern Harrier in the blueberry fields across the street, as well as a Cooper's hawk up the road at Stoney Creek, and tracked a small wren through the canary-reed grass for a good 15 minutes without ever getting a good look at it. General consensus was Marsh Wren, but couldn't confirm it.

We also had a flock of 5-6 adult and immature White-Crowned Sparrows in the First Nation land across Bateman road from the park. And a couple of bald eagles at their nest on the other side of Highway 11. So that's about it folks, a fun day of birding but very little to show for it. Today would almost certainly have been better, as it was warmer and boasted some warm sunlight in the morning.

[Gord]

Nice report! I am not surprised you guys found a lot of dry areas too, there were plenty of them in both counts I participated in and I dont think we were alone in noticing it either. Numbers were down a little bit or so I understand. Central Valley CBC had a tally of 88 species.

Here are a couple pictures.

Here is the flock of wigeon we counted (close-up)




And a panoramic further back, that doesnt show the whole flock as about 20 feet more are cut off. Wow!




The darker rough-legged hawk juv.










Alright, back to bringing in the New Year!! Hope you all have a good New Year with lots of great birds!