February 6 and 7, 2021 - Boundary Bay, Backyard and Elgin Heritage Park

This post is a collection of three locations over two days.

February 6, 2021 - Boundary Bay

I made a short visit to Boundary Bay on this Saturday and got a couple of unique shots. The first creature seen was not a bird, it was this Coyote wading into the low tide at Boundary Bay, no doubt looking for something to eat.

Coyote Coyote - Boundary Bay, 104 St, Delta BC

It was great to see the coyote, but I was here to see new birds for 2021.

First up were these Sanderlings.

Sanderling - Boundary Bay, 104 St. Delta BC - 2021 Bird #33

And away they go...

Sanderling - Boundary Bay, 104 St. Delta BC

It was a good day for 2021 firsts, including this Northern Harrier.

Northern Harrier - Boundary Bay, 104 St. Delta BC - 2021 Bird #34

That was it for Boundary Bay, but when I got home there was a surprise awaiting me in the back yard.

February 6, 2021 - Backyard

Sharp-shinned Hawk - Backyard, North Delta BC - 2021 Bird #35

I wasn't quite done yet, there was one more 2021 bird to be seen, my first Chestnut-backed Chickadee of the year.

Pine Siskin (Left) and Chestnut-backed Chickadee - Backyard, Delta BC - 2021 Bird #36

February 7, 2021 - Elgin Heritage Park

The following day I visited this location in South Surrey. There was nothing new for the year but I did take a few photos that were worth posting.

Common Mergansers - Elgin Heritage Park, Surrey BC

Mallards are common, but this photo of a pair was one of my better ones so far this year.

Mallards - Elgin Heritage Park, Surrey BC

This photo is not too sharp as the birds were moving fast overhead.

Northern Pintail - Elgin Heritage Park, Surrey BC

And finally, a nice shot of a Towhee.

Spotted Towhee - Elgin Heritage Park, Surrey BC

That's it for this post. The next one will feature a visit to a location in Port Coquitlam.

January 23 to 31 - Remaining January Birds

This post has a collection of shots taken in late January.

The first shot features a Bald Eagle seen on Boundary Bay on the 23rd.

Bald Eagle - Boundary Bay, 104 St. Delta BC  - 2021 Bird #29

On the 24th, I saw two more firsts for 2021 in my front yard.

Hairy Woodpecker - Front Yard, North Delta BC - 2021 Bird #30

Shortly after this photo, another woodpecker posed on the Fir tree in our front yard.

Northern Flicker  - Front Yard, North Delta BC - 2021 Bird #31

This is not a bird but the shot was worthy of inclusion in this post...

Black Squirrel - Backyard, North Delta BC

The last new bird of the month was also seen in the Backyard:

Pileated Woodpecker - Backyard, North Delta BC - 2021 Bird #32

That's the end of this post, on to February.

January 21, 2021 - Elgin Park and Ladner Harbour Park

Elgin Park - Surrey BC

 I took this Thursday off and joined my friend Mary-Jean in some birding. She had come in from Chilliwack hoping to see the Yellow-billed Loon in Surrey at Elgin Park. I had seen it twice already, but from quite a distance across the Nicomekl River.

It was a nice day with good light. Upon arrival we started seeing a good variety of common birds, first  with some ducks. This Green-winged Teal was my first for 2021.

Green-winged Teal - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #19

I like the reflections in this shot of these Mallards.

Mallards - Elgin Park, Surrey BC

A loon did show up, but it was the Common Loon, still nice to see and reasonably close. The flat head is a very good field mark for this Loon.

Common Loon - Elgin Park, Surrey BC

This is a terrible photo of my first Great Blue Heron for the year, but I haven't seen another one yet in 2021.

Great Blue Heron - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #20

This Cormorant was another new bird for the year, with a somewhat better photo.

Double-crested Cormorant - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #21

The year birds kept on rolling for me. The diversity at this location is amazing.

Common Merganser - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #22

Ring-billed Gull (#23) and Common Merganser - Elgin Park, Surrey BC

We saw another Loon, but again it was the Common variety. The fish didn't have a chance.

Common Loon - Elgin Park, Surrey BC 

Another hunter appeared, I'm pretty sure this is a River Otter, but am open to correction.

River Otter - Elgin Park, Surrey BC

There were some smaller bids on the shoreline including this common winter Sparrow.

Golden-crowned Sparrow - Elgin Park, Surrey BC 

Finally, the bird we were here to see showed up! and unlike the other times I'd seen it here, it was quite close to our shoreline. Mary-Jean got her lifer! It was my second sighting of the bird in 2021, the first being on New Year's Day.

Yellow-billed Loon- Elgin Park, Surrey BC

I saw one more 2021 bird before we left, a Belted Kingfisher. It was too fast or I was too slow to take a photo so I have substituted this shot from March 2020 taken at Serpentine Fen.

Belted Kingfisher- Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #24

(Photo from Serpentine Fen in 2020)

Ladner Harbour Park - Delta BC

We  still had some time and decided to visit this location in hopes of seeing the ever elusive Blue Jay that has been in the area since late 2020. I had seen the Blue Jay, but Mary-Jean had no luck the times we visited this site together. Unfortunately, there was no sign of the Eastern Blue Jay, but there were a few birds around.

As we drove into the park, we saw a Pied-billed Grebe swim by, my first of the year. it was gone by the time we parked, so I've substituted a recent photo from Abbotsford.

Pied-billed Grebe - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC - 2021 Bird # 25

(Photo taken at Wilband Reserve , Abbotsford DB in November 2020)

Another first for the year was the very common American Crow.

American Crow - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC - 2021 Bird #26

This next shot almost turned out, but is a little too blurry.

House Finch - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC

Surprisingly, I had not seen a Red-tailed Hawk yet in 2021. Once again, the first photo of the year is a little disappointing.

Red-tailed Hawk - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC - 2021 Bird #27

I did better with #28, the last bird of our day. Although we missed the Blue Jay once again, we did get a nice look at its western cousin.

California Scrub-jay  - Ladner Harbour Park, Delta BC - 2021 Bird #28

That ended our  birding day. The Yellow-billed Loon was definitely the highlight.

January 17, 2021 - Blackie Spit

 After my burst of activity on New Year's day, I did not do much birding until this day. With Reifel still  closed, I decided to give Blackie Spit a try. If nothing else, I was hopeful that the Snow Buntings would still be there, a good addition for the new year.

I parked and headed for the spit. Greeting me were a collection of Eurasian Wigeon. I felt bad that my friend  Mary-Jean wasn't with me as these would have been lifers for her. The one in the middle is a female.

Eurasian Wigeon - Blackie Spit Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #13

Next was a more common duck, but the first of 2021 for me.

Bufflehead (F) - Blackie Spit Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #14

This location is a good spot to see some Loons close up, especially the Common Loon.

Common Loon - Blackie Spit Park, Surrey BC

Another first for 2021 was this Northern Pintail. You can see the tail feature in this shot.

Northern Pintail - Blackie Spit Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #15

The great thing about January birding is that many common birds as seen for the first time of the year. So it was with this common shorebird, the Dunlin. This first shot shows the length and distinctive droop of the bill.

Dunlin- Blackie Spit Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #16

Here's another shot of a pair of them

I walked along the edge of the spit hoping that the Snow Buntings were still in this area. It took me a little while, but I found them eventually.

Snow Bunting - Blackie Spit Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #17

I'd started with the Eurasian Wigeon and ended the visit with the American variety.

American Wigeon - Blackie Spit Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #18

This was a nice productive visit with 6 new species for 2021.

January 1, 2021 - Elgin Park

My last post for 2020 featured a visit to this location to see a rare Yellow-billed Loon. I decided to go back there as the Loon was still being seen and would be a good addition to my 2021 Bird list. 

My tradition had been to visit Reifel Bird Sanctuary on New Year's day so that I could rack up a large number of species on the day. However, Reifel was closed on Christmas Day and is not scheduled to reopen until at least the end of February 2021. This is, of course, due to COVID-19 restrictions.

I did eventually see the Loon again, but my first sightings were the more common smaller birds.

First of the year was this Red-winged Blackbird.

Red-winged Blackbird - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #1

The next bird was another common one, a nicely coloured House Finch.

House Finch - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #2

Bird #3 was the common Black-capped chickadee.

Black-capped Chickadee - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #3

A loon was in the River when I arrived, but it was this Common Loon.

Common Loon - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #4

I was racking up the common birds, and these Mallards were no exception.

Mallards - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #5

The next shot has two species, both firsts for the year (Obviously).

Purple Finch (#6) and Dark-eyed Junco (#7) - Elgin Park, Surrey BC

Finally the rare bird put in an appearance. As before, it was quite a distance away across the Nikomekl River. I'm happy with this shot given the distance.

Yellow-billed Loon - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #8

The remaining birds seen were all small ones, a nice end to the outing.

This is a good shot of a Fox Sparrow. There are a number of races of this species. The Pacific Northwest has the Sooty race.

Fox Sparrow - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #9

The next bird is quite a common one, but not too many look like this. It is a Leucistic Spotted Towhee. This means it is missing certain pigments, in this case on the head.

Spotted Towhee (Leucistic)  - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #10

The last bird seen on this visit was this Golden-crowned Sparrow. This bird is more commonly seen here in winter in it's Basic (non-breeding) plumage.

Golden-crowned Sparrow - Elgin Park, Surrey BC - 2021 Bird #11

There's one more bird photo in this post, it was seen on January 2nd on our bird feeder at home. 

Pine Siskin - Backyard, North Delta BC - 2021 Bird #12

That's it for this post, the next one will feature a visit to Blackie Spit in Surrey.