The Vancouver Queer Birders had their September outing at Iona Beach Regional Park, in the hopes of seeing migrating shorebirds. We’d go out some distance on the south jetty, and hang around the main pond. Alas, there were no shorebirds to be found!
But we did find a cute frog pretty early on, so that’s something!
Also some fun birbs in the tangle of bushes just north of the start of the jetty. Here’s a male goldfinch, already changed back to his drab winter outfit.
And a Lincoln’s Sparrow! I’ve only seen them a handful of times, and I think this is my first sighting at Iona?
(That’s an immature white-crown in the foreground to the right.)
Shot from the jetty: a Ring-billed Gull giving us the evil eye. Geez, I didn’t know ring-bills were homophobic!
So this is interesting: we saw several large flocks of Double-crested Cormorants. Even though the ones living in these parts don’t migrate, it stands to reason other populations do!
Well, even if we didn’t get the birds we wanted, the scenery’s always nice. And I have to say, the weather turned out better than we expected. I thought it would be more overcast, and possibly even a bit drizzly. But the drizzle held off, and the sun came out after a few hours!
Then we went up the road to check out the next pond. Still no shorebirds, but there was little snail.
Also a Savannah Sparrow!
And we saw a bunch of starlings, with what looked like a few adolescents moulting into their adult colours. I’ve never seen them like this before. It’s kind of adorable!
Back at the main pond!
In conclusion: no adorable shore-peeps, no Yellow-headed Blackbirds (well, not that I had high hopes for that one), so that’s sad. But also a good day with friends and better-than-expected weather, and some pretty nifty birds. I’ll take it!