Stanley Park, Vancouver today. I have been looking forward to this, since we booked the trip. Varied Thrush is the main target.
A drive around reccy, we parked and decided to walk around a bit the walk produced bits and bobs, but nothing to get the camera on really, except a showy Song Sparrow near the car park. OK shall we try somewhere else, we both said. We walked back towards the car, as we got to a crossroads just before the car park, i caught a movement, can't be what i thought it was, can it? But, it was, a big Owl had flown onto a log right by the track, a Barred Owl, absolutely brilliant. We got some shots, and gradually moved closer, than, bad luck struck again, a runner was coming along the track from the other way, shite!!!! But no, the Owl took no notice, wow, i can't believe that. It allowed us to get closer, even walk passed it, so we could get the light on the right side. Mental.
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| Barred Owl |
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| Barred Owl |
Another part of the park produced a flock of American Robins, in a tree with some berries on it. Maybe we can get some other stuff here we thought. We did, Black-capped Chickadee, Western Tanager, Spotted Towhee, House Finch and a rather small Woodpecker, which neither of us got a good look at.
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| Western Tanagaer |
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| House Finch |
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| Black-capped Chickadee |
A further short walk, and i found a Red-eyed Vireo (which has now been re-identified from my pictures, as a Yellow-green Vireo, see the bottom of this page for more details), and while we were watching it, the Woodpecker came out of hiding, a male Downy Woodpecker. Nice bird.
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Downy Woodpecker
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A couple of Chestnut-backed Chickadees were found nearby too. A Great Blue Heron showed extremely close near the Lost Lagoon, where there were also American Wigeon and a female Green-winged Teal.
Chestnut-backed Chickadee
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Green-winged Teal |
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| Great Blue Heron |
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Raccoon
More wandering produced more Spotted Towhees, Western Tanager, and some House Finches and Chickadees all in a small flock. Then our only Raccoons of the trip. Up to 4 of them, showed quite well as you can see. We then moved unto Beaver Lake, we saw the Lodge, but sadly no Beavers, shame! There we had some Carolina or Wood Ducks, and some nice Dragonflies too. There were also Red-necked Terrapins, a Green Frog and some Douglas Squirrels, you can see all the Animals (other than the birds), we saw on the whole trip at this part of my website.
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| Wood Duck (Drake) |
We then returned to our original car park, to look for Ducks, like Barrows Goldeneye, but it seems we were too early in the Autumn, for the returning Ducks, so we walked a bit along the same track. To our surprise the barred Owl was back, but this time up a tree. Showing well again though!!
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| Barred Owl |
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| Barred Owl |
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| Dusky Canada Geese |
We also had a small flock of 'Dusky' Canada Geese, looking rather different to the Canadas we get in the UK. While looking at the Geese, a Woodpecker came and landed on a tree nearby. A Red-breasted Sapsuker, and it showed really well too!
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| Red-breasted Sapsucker |
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| Red-breasted Sapsucker |
This part of the Blog page was written and added at a later date.
I will try and add some more info, and details at another later date,
when i have the final article
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| Yellow-green Vireo |
This photo caused a real stir in Canada, after an email conversation with a Canadian birder, who decided this was a Yellow-green Vireo, NOT as i had thought a Red-eyed Vireo! At the time i was a bit worried about our ID, but we thought it was too far out of range for Yellow-green, how wrong could i be? It turns out it could be only the second record ever for Canada (there is some debate now about the '1st' record), and the first for British Colombia. I received quite a few emails from birders in Canada. One of which, gave me a telling off, still makes me laugh now thinking about it, saying i should have let people know about the bird. Then another email, 5 minutes later, apologising, as he had now read the full report!!! I, of course forgave him!
Wish i had known what it was, i would defo have put the news out.
A drive around reccy, we parked and decided to walk around a bit the walk produced bits and bobs, but nothing to get the camera on really, except a showy Song Sparrow near the car park. OK shall we try somewhere else, we both said. We walked back towards the car, as we got to a crossroads just before the car park, i caught a movement, can't be what i thought it was, can it? But, it was, a big Owl had flown onto a log right by the track, a Barred Owl, absolutely brilliant. We got some shots, and gradually moved closer, than, bad luck struck again, a runner was coming along the track from the other way, shite!!!! But no, the Owl took no notice, wow, i can't believe that. It allowed us to get closer, even walk passed it, so we could get the light on the right side. Mental.
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