September 8
It was a bit early still for fall migration, so I concentrated on collecting some good shots of the common birds at the sanctuary. One such bird is the Eurasian Collared Dove, which seems to have displaced our native Mourning Dove. I suspect the Eurasian qualifier will be dropped eventually.
Collared Dove - Reifel Bird Sanctuary - September 2019
Although the migrants haven't arrived, there's plenty of shorebirds at the sanctuary. They are primarily Dowitchers and Yellowlegs.
I believe the next two shots are of Greater Yellowlegs. The bill seems much longer than the head and the chest markings are distinct.
Greater Yellowlegs - Reifel Bird Sanctuary - September 2019
Greater Yellowlegs - Reifel Bird Sanctuary - September 2019
No mistaking this bird, even though it's not quite in full Alternate plumage yet.
Mallard - Reifel Bird Sanctuary - September 2019
The last shot of the day shows a collection of resident dowitchers and yellowlegs. Pretty well all of the Dowitchers seen here are Long-billed. The Short-billed are only identifiable by the experts as the differences are very subtle. I think all the Yellowlegs in the photo are Greater.
Dowitchers and Yellowlegs - Reifel Bird Sanctuary - September 2019
September 28
The sanctuary is located on Westham Island, one of the most scenic locations in Delta.
After crossing the bridge I spotted a Red-tailed Hawk on a powerline. There was no traffic behind me so I was able to take a couple of shots out the window. It's always good to have a camera handy inside the car.
Red-tailed Hawk - Westham Island, Delta BC
I kept the camera ready and got it taking off from the power line.
I checked in at the Sanctuary and discovered that a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper had been seen the previous day in the west field. There was a good chance of seeing it today, and all the who's who of the birdwatching community would likely be onsite.
The downside was that high tide was when the bird would show up and that was around 4:00 PM. I arrived at about 1:45.
I made a slow tour of the sanctuary and saw a few birds of interest, including a flock of Bushtits.
Bushtit - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC - September 2019
I took this photo of a female Scaup, I believe it is a Greater Scaup based on the head shape. This was my first of this species for 2019.
Greater Scaup (F) - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC - September 2019 - 2019 Bird #174
I'd killed some time and had reached the West Field. I ran into Monica, a birder I'd gotten to know when we were both on a guided birding tour in the Okanagan. We killed the time chatting about what we'd done in birding recently. A goose flew over and Monica called out Greater White-fronted. I quickly snapped a couple of shots and was able to confirm her call (not that there was any doubt).
Greater White-fronted Goose- Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC - September 2019
2019 Bird #175
We started to head down to the West Field as it was getting closer to high tide time. I took this shot of a Dowitcher on the way. This photo was taken at 3:12 PM.
Long-billed Dowitcher - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC - September 2019
Another hour passed when eventually a Sharp-tailed Sandpiper was spotted. In fact there were 2 or 3 of them. This bird is smaller than the Dowitchers and Yellowlegs and it took me a while to locate it in the crowd of birds. It's in the center left foreground in this shot.
Sharp-tailed Sandpiper - Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Delta BC - September 2019 - 2019 Bird #176
Here it is in isolation:
It had been a long afternoon at Reifel, but a rewarding one.
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