Boundary Bay/Reifel Bird Sanctuary

Yesterday was my first field trip with WildResearch - we were going to head out to Boundary Bay to learn about IDing shorebirds and raptors. Unfortunately, some seriously gross weather changed that.. We ended up looking at the Snowy owls quickly, and then heading to Reifel Bird Sanctuary (another favourite place of mine), which was much more protected. The weather was still gross - windy, cold and periodic rain, but it was really great to be with people who could teach us about the ducks and other birds.

 

10 snowy owls..!

 Snowy owl in flight.. wish I'd been faster (and my camera focused a bit faster), because it was wayy closer than this photo shows!

 Golden-crowned Sparrow. Identifiable by it's golden crown (.. amazing!). Also learned that it's foraging habits are different than that of other Sparrows (at least the Fox Sparrow). These guys just hop around eating, while the Fox Sparrow sort of digs with its feet.

 Male Wood Duck. These guys are beautiful! One of the guys told us that the females were originally identified as a different species.. they do look similar, but they're a bit flashier than other female ducks (in my opinion, at least)

 Mallard eating at a bird feeder. In a tree. About a meter off the ground.

 Female (left) and male (right) Red-Winged Blackbirds. Without the males close by, I'm very bad at telling the females apart from other Sparows. However, I learned that the beaks are different (more pointed in the blackbirds, more conical in Sparrows), and that they are actually a bit bigger. Size really doesn't mean much when you're talking about birds though, unless you can see them side-by-side.

 This made someone smile :)

Male Northern Pintail. Long tail (which is a bit cut-out), white stripes up the back of it's neck, and the blueish bill are give aways. The females are nice looking, too.

Sandhill Cranes.. these guys are huge (almost waist height). I took way more photos, but my lens was getting really wet, and they weren't focussing. Too bad.. we were really close to them.

All in all, a very chilly day, but well worth the morning of being outside. I think I'll appreciate being at Reifel more now, because I know more. I think R really enjoyed the experience too.. I convinced him to buy a year memebership, so hopefully sometime soon we'll have us both out banding!