January 2019
A Month with more birds than people!
New Years Day at Reifel Bird Sanctuary
New years day is interesting - not
everything is open and some things (Vancouver Aquarium) can be
quite crowded. We have a beautiful day so I decided to drive
out and see the bird Sanctuary.
The bird sanctuary really is an attraction during the spring
migration when migrating birds stop in the ponds to fill up before
continuing their migration to the Northern breeding grounds.
In the winter, it's mostly the year around ducks and the predators
that feed on them.
The flocks are quite mixed, but overall tame. I think when
so many mallards are keen to see people, the other birds around at
least stay calm when people walk through.
The outer edge of the sanctuary has huge tidal marsh areas that
are a common location to see predators. The birds are rarely
close to the walkways, but even at a distance it is impressive
seeing a bird hunt. In the winter we are also lucky enough
to see the Snow Geese in huge numbers. This is their
southern migration point - the warmest they get in the
winter. They are eating plants and insects in farmers
fields.
The kids are happy to see the malards. We always buy at
least two bags of duck food per kid and the kids make fast friends
with the ducks. As long as they have more seed to give, the
kids are okay with me taking photos.
One of the other kids showed Claira how to
pet a duck. Claira was thrilled when she was able to do
it. I'm not sure how happy the duck was about it.
Walk Around Jericho Ponds
I've seen quite a few birds from the pier at
Jericho beach, but I don't walk around the ponds much.
Nature Vancouver is doing a walk there next week but it's so close
I decided to walk around myself on Sunday morning. I started
at the peer where I spotted a Common Golden Eye picking mussels
off the rocks.
Jericho park is an interesting place to go birding because it has
the intersection of so many different kids of habitat. There
are freshwater ponds, a small forest, ocean beach and large grassy
fields.
While we were at walking out through the forest side, someone
spotted my big lens and mentioned a hawk in a tree. I doubt
I would have spotted it otherwise. The Coopers hawk was at
attention - I suspect a mouse or larger was somewhere
nearby. The hawk completely ignored us, but it was nice to
see!
Tags: Reifel Bird Sanctuary(11), flock in flight(1)
People: Claira(2), Nara(2)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2023 to 2005 > January 2019
Last Modified Sunday, January 22nd, 2023 at 00:03:11 Edit
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