Birders,

I spent a weekend in Vancouver and had some good birding, the weather was
nice, albeit foggy in coastal areas.

I left the hotel in Burnaby at 5:00 AM on Saturday (mostly because the couch
I slept on was terribly uncomfortable and I could not sleep). I headed
through the city and on to Reifel. It had never even crossed my mind that
the sanctuary might not be open to a certain time, so when I arrived at
about 6:30 and saw that it was not open until 9:00 I was a little
discouraged. I decided to go try Tsawwassen instead. The blanket of fog was
so thick in that area that all I could see were a few birds on the
shoreline. I did manage 2 BLACK OYSTERCATCHERS, a WILLET and a small flock
of BLACK TURNSTONES however. I decided to try Blackie Spit and the Whiterock
Pier instead. Blackie Spit was shrouded in fog and not a bird to be seen.
The Whiterock Pier was also fog laden, but there were patched of blue sky
and I could see a few birds including HARLEQUIN DUCKS, LONG-TAILED DUCKS,
SURF SCOTERS and WHITE-WINGED SCOTERS. No Black Scoter though. On my way
through Whiterock I heard my years first RED CROSSBILL calling.

I tried Brunswick Point which was shrouded in mist as well. I did manage a
few interesting things there including a big flock of GOLDEN-CROWNED
SPARROWS and a few FOX SPARROWS. It was then back to Reifel. Despite the fog
I found a nice variety of birds here including BEWICK'S WREN, BUSHTIT,
CHESTNUT-BACKED CHICKADEE, a BLACK-CROWNED NIGHT-HERON (with help from Rick
Toochin) thousands of SNOW GEESE, PURPLE FINCH, calling BLACK-BELLIED
PLOVERS, a small flock of TREE SWALLOWS and a nice assortment of waterfowl.

The next morning (Sunday) I took Connor back to Reifel. There again was fog,
but it was not as thick as on the previous day. We found most of what I had
the day before plus a nice AMERICAN BITTERN and a BELTED KINGFISHER.

We then walked Brunswick Point, enjoying passing NORTHERN HARRIERS, singing
MARSH WRENS, huge flocks of SNOW GEESE, small formations of TRUMPETER SWANS
and our target bird, a lone SNOWY OWL perched in the marsh.

All in all it was an interesting weekend and it was nice to see some coastal
birds as well as some old birding friends.

Bye for now,

Chris Charlesworth
Kelowna