Abbotsford species Nov 23

[Deleted]

Hi, everyone.

In addition to what I reported about gulls yesterday, I should have mentioned that I saw several other interesting birds on the flats in the north end of Abbotsford.

Two male Eurasian Wigeon were among the large duck flocks on the river bank across the channel from the dyke trail between the north end of Gladwin and Glenmore Roads. There were also large flocks of geese there that had some smaller races, probably good numbers of Cackling Geese. Of course, large gull flocks are in the habit of hanging out there too, always with potential for something good.

At the corner of Harris and Bell roads, a pair of Peregrine Falcons flew and perched in adjacent trees. Given the size difference, and the non-competetive interaction, I think it was a male and female, probably a pair, maybe the local resident pair.

At the river bank site at the east end of Page Road, I heard calling Tundra Swans, and soon a flock of 7 flew right over head. Nice to pick out Tundras that way instead of having to scrutinize the bills of large numbers of Trumpeters busy digging their heads into corn stubble fields.

Stan Olson
Abbotsford

[Gord]

Good sightings Stan!

Dave and I went out for a quick look this mid afternoon. The target bird was the Slaty-backed Gull. My start got off rough as I could not locate my binoculars! I looked everywhere but since I was running late to meet Dave, I had to go without them. It did not feel very good birding without them. I might as well have been birding without my pants the feeling was similar. I did unearth my little guy's pair of compact binoculars from where he discarded them on the floor of the car. Even though I washed the little fingerprints off the lenses, they did not perform very well.

We saw several flocks of gulls including a good number on the sandbar at the end of Page Road but no gulls of note aside from a Western Gull that probably had a little Glaucous-winged Gull in it. While gulls were priority, we did stop quickly to look at the swans up close to the road. There were quite a few Tundra Swans there.

Im looking forward (shame on me) for a good rain to get the fields wet for the gulls again. Im also looking forward to finding my binoculars since they are still AWOL. I expected to find them when I got home under the couch cushions or maybe hidden in the Fisher Price Barn sporting their own set of little fingerprints. All the usual suspect locations to hide Daddy's things have come up empty.