2016 Sep-Dec

It's been more than half a year into the new year, but I just finished deleting unwanted photos from 2016. As I don't remember much about last year, this post will be more of a picture album than I want it to be.

Sep 10, 2016
Boundary Bay
Mid-August to mid-September is always a good time to see different species of shorebirds migrating south along the shorelines. Many of them will not be bothered by the presence of a photographer if you are willing to wait for the tide to push them closer to shore.
Baird's Sandpiper and American Pipit walked toward me to as close as 3 meters while I sat on a log.

Baird's Sandpiper

Baird's Sandpiper

Pectoral Sandpiper 

Pectoral Sandpiper

 American Golden-plover

The closest one. Smaller than the Black-bellied Plovers behind it.

American Golden-Plover

in the same flock of plovers is another Golden-plover with wing tips shorter than the tail. Not sure if this indicates this is a Pacific Golden-plover.

 American Pipit

American Pipit

Sep 21, 2016

Mountain Seymour

Lincoln's Sparrow

Lincoln's Sparrow

Sep 24

Vancouver

Lewis' Woodpecker

A rare woodpecker visitor from the interior. I think this is a weirdo woodpecker as it prefers fly catching insects over drumming the trees. It spends most of its time sitting on this perch and hawking different winged insects. I was happy to tick off two lifers on the same day, the first was the Rock Wren which I got even better looks on the next day.

Lewis's Woodpecker

 caught a bee this time

 Berries are welcome too.

Sep 25

Maplewood Conservation Area

Rock Wren

Another interior bird showed up near my place in North Vancouver.

Rock Wren

 Anna's Hummingbird female

 Black-tailed deer

A fawn crossing the trail. Deer are seen here almost every week.  

Oct 30

Boundary Bay

Snow Goose

Geese flocks are coming in at large numbers. Most of them are White morph but a few are Blue morph. The second one from the left is a blue morph immature.

 Barred Owl

Only opened one and a half sleepy eyes, a good sign that I did not stress it out.

Blackie Spit

Eurasian Wigeon is almost as common as American Wigeon here, there are so many of the that 3 males are in the background.

Long-billed Curlew

Nov 6

Reifel

First bird is not a bird. A wooden duck is not a wood duck.

 Mallard male

Neither a wooden duck nor a wood duck

 Black-crowned Night-Heron

Reifel is the only place around Vancouver that you can regularly see night-herons.

Great-horned Owl

 is also pretty reliable here.

Boundary Bay

Northern Harrier

you probably won't find this many of them anywhere else in Vancouver and Fraser Valley.

male

females

 Cooper's Hawk

 Barn Owl

 Northern Saw-whet Owl

Nov 11

Vancouver

California Scrub-Jay

This was at least the third location I had tried to get this bird in the past few years. Lucky it was still in the same general area after I ran back to the car to grab my camera.

Terra Nova

Pied-billed Grebe

 Mink

This one is whiter than all of the other minks I've seen so I wasn't sure what I was looking at when it poked its head out.

 Coyote

Looks just like and seen almost as often as a regular dog here.

Nov 14

Jericho

Clay-colored Sparrow

not your average sparrow along the Pacific Northwest.

 Palm Warbler

Also a pretty good bird to have at the same location.

 Northwestern Crow

Nov 27

Stanley Park

Canada Goose

this small individual is probably an Aleutian.

Dec 4

Boundary Bay

Hundreds of Bald Eagles gather around the mouth of Fraser River during winter every year. Not all Bald Eagles have white heads and not all raptors with white heads are Bald Eagles.

Bald Eagle

adult with white head and tail

Great Blue Heron

Having a rodent snack

Red-tailed Hawk

this juvenile hasn't obtained its red tail yet.

Trumpeter Swans

Fall 2015

Sep. 12

Iona

Had never looked at a clean Western Sandpiper so closely before. It took me four years to realize that they have some little webs on their feet! If this bird was not standing on a rock lower than me, I'd probably miss this field mark for another four years.

Western Sandpiper

Western Sandpiper

Sep. 27

Kirkstone Park

Moon

Needless to say, the moon usually is not red. This photo, however, shows a celestial event called lunar eclipse or blood moon. The moon gained its red hue when it is directly in the Earth's shadow. In 2014 and 2015, a total of 4 lunar eclipse occurred, but I was only able to observe the last one because the sky over Vancouver was overcast during the previous 3 lunar eclipse nights, nothing unexpected. Another thing special about the night is that in 2015, the moon was closest to Earth on September 27, this combination will not occur again until 2033.

Lunar Eclipse

Oct. 3

Maplewood

As I do every month, I birded at the ebird hot spot. The most uncommon visitor is a White-throated Sparrow. White-throated sparrows have been reported all over metro Vancouver this fall.

White-throated Sparrow

White-throated Sparrow

Red Crossbill

Red Crossbill

Dark-eyed Junco

I believe this was a slate-coloured subspecies

Dark-eyed Junco

Oct. 24

Mt. Baker

American Dipper

On a day trip to Mt. Baker of Washington State, this American Dipper was singing by an alpine lake, even though it looks like a young bird. I managed to snap a few photos of it through branches of a tree before it went on its swim in the lake.

 Oct. 25
Jericho

Canada Goose

This individual has a distinct white collar around its neck. It was about the size of a Cackling, associated with the Cacklings around, but was often left out of groups. It might be an Aleutian subspecies or at least have more related the Aleutian ones than other Canada Geese at Jericho.

Belted Kingfisher

at its usual spot at the pond

Belted Kingfisher

Cooper's Hawk

Cooper's Hawk

Ring-billed Gull

a close look at the juvenile

Ring-billed Gull