Subject: [Tweeters] Harrison River birding
Date: Dec 1 18:57:16 2008
From: Dennis Paulson - dennispaulson at comcast.net


Hi, tweets.

Just north of the border, in that foreign land called Canada, there
are many wonderful birding destinations. Most of you know that; some
of you even live there!

We spent much of today along the Harrison River and its tributaries,
east of Vancouver. This good-sized river empties into the Fraser
River. Many, many salmon spawn in the Harrison and its tributaries,
and they attract what is surely the largest concentration of Bald
Eagles in this region. just east of the bridge on hwy 7 that crosses
the river, you can head south to Kilby, a tiny settlement at the
river. Drive right through Kilby down to a park (mostly a parking
lot) on the river bank. From this spot today we could see hundreds
and hundreds of eagles on the far shore of Harrison Bay (a very wide
part of the river) and dozens of eagles all around us. This was a day
of low clouds and no wind, so there were no eagles in the air, but on
sunny days there are lots.

There were flocks of Tundra Swans yodeling out in the bay and many
hundreds of ducks, including great numbers of both goldeneyes (the
largest concentration of Common Goldeneyes I have ever seen) and
pochards (big flock of Canvasbacks, many Lesser Scaups and Ring-
necks, a few Greater Scaups), also Buffleheads and Common Mergansers
and a smattering of wigeons, Mallards, and other dabblers. It's just
the spectacle, not the rarities. There are a lot of passerines in the
thickets in that area, and I wouldn't be surprised at something
uncommon. We saw a pygmy-owl on the telephone wire on one drive down
to Kilby, and we always watch for Hawk Owls, as the lower Fraser
valley has had sightings of that species in some winters.

You can also head north on a road just to the west of the Harrison
River (lots of gulls and ducks and a few eagles feeding in a marshy
stream right along the road) to the Chehalis River hatchery and walk
out to the Chehalis to see large numbers of salmonids of several
species (mostly Chum Salmon, also Cohos and Steelheads) gathering in
the diversion channel to the hatchery. Today there were lots of
Glaucous-winged Gulls and a few Herring and Thayer's feeding on
salmon eggs. The smell of salmon carcasses is, shall we say, notable.
I've always been surprised not to see any rare gulls in the area, but
that shouldn't stop anyone from looking.

There are also a lot of dippers at the south end of Harrison Lake
(tame enough for pointblank photography), and there was one working
the ponds at the Chehalis hatchery.

On Sunday we also saw the hybrid male goldeneye, first reported by
Steve Mlodinow, in a flock of Barrow's at the end of the road west
from Blaine. That's a guaranteed spot for Long-tailed Ducks and/or
Oldsquaws and usually has a great variety of loons, grebes, and ducks.
-----
Dennis Paulson
1724 NE 98 St.
Seattle, WA 98115
206-528-1382
dennispaulson at comcast.net



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