Totally captivated in 2007 by the live camera feed of the Hornby Island nesting Bald Eagles in B.C., I was drawn into birding and have never looked back. Thus begins my account of what I'm fortunate enough to discover each day and perhaps capture with my camera.



Unless otherwise stated, all images were taken by and are the property of Janice Melendez

Species Counts:

2014 Final Year List: 255; 2015 Year List a/o June 5, 2015: 235; Life List: 327

Thursday, May 6, 2010

Usual Suspects in the Surrey area today- oh, and some more Bald Eagles

I could no longer face the daunting task of editing out all of yesterday's Bald Eagle photos from my Crescent Beach visit, so instead took advantage of the weather and went south again, beginning at Mud Bay Park:


This is an area known for hawks, especially Northern Harriers, although I didn't see any myself today. I ran into another birder and asked him if there was anything of note, and alas there was not, other than the usual suspects of sparrows, such as these:


Savannah Sparrow





Song Sparrow:








On the warbler front, I seem to have stalled with the same two species from before, ie the Yellow-rumped Warbler:



A Common Yellowthroat, with something in its beak:




From Mud Bay Park, one can look across Mud Bay (duh) over to Crescent Beach, where yesterday's Bald Eagle encounter took place, so through my binos I could see them on land and occasionally in flight. Today the tide was out, so here are some of my now-trash birds loitering around in the mudflats:


  


As it was quiet at Mud Bay Park, I continued on to Elgin Heritage Park off Crescent Road, and spent a good few hours there, much longer than my initial visit there last week. Here are a few views from there, I somehow suffered though it, despite no new birds today:


"The Lions"




I enjoyed seeing Green-winged Teals, Mallards (including a female with seven fuzzballs swimming behind her), Spotted Towhees, Rufous Hummingbird (this is where my Lifer one was last week), House Finches, American Goldfinches by the dozens, assorted Sparrows, and the following:


Great Blue Heron:

 





Common Yellowthroat:



An extremely friendly Cliff Swallow, what a joy to see it so close up:



Is he really sticking his tongue out at me???




All in all an excellent day, especially as it gave me time away from photo-editing! My BOTD is this Cliff Swallow. 

And I promise to have my Crescent Beach session done tomorrow- maybe.... perhaps.... possibly....

3 comments:

Alex said...

Love those pictures of the cliff swallows in particular - beautiful colours!

Glad you're having a blast out in BC.

Ann Brokelman said...

Wonderful shots Janice. The cliff swallows have amazing colours. Keep them coming.

Esker said...

Very nice shots of the small birds - all of them - but I thought the cliff swallow looked a bit worn out. (With regard to cliff swallows, I was out to my favourite haunt for them (Pitt Lake, south end, along the dike/nature trail there) and found that they had not arrived back yet. The one you have here may be one of the first back, and it looks like he had a tough time of it. Cheers, Shiprock