Vancouver birding tips - Mid-October (1 Viewer)

Hi,

I'm off to Vancouver for a week next weekend and looking for any seasonal tips for birding and bird/wildlife photography spots in the area.

I'll hire a car if one is needed for any choice locations.

Particularly interested in any good pelagic seabird trips or good seawatching spots for those pacific specialities but also interested in any generally good birding spots, such as parks, wildlife refuges etc.

I'm really looking forward to it as it'll be my first visit to the area.

Thanks,
Mark

Good areas in Vancouver

When I visited Vancouver these were good spots
Boundary bay
Stanley park
Maplewood park
Burnaby lake

Take the ferry to Vancouver island well worth it!
Tsawwassen ferry jetty

Victoria

Clover point


www.mbbirder.blogspot.com

Birding Vancouver

Have a look at the VNHS website

http://www.naturalhistory.bc.ca/VNHS/

Lots of good info on there
A local yahoo forum worth looking at is

http://groups.yahoo.com/group/bcvanbirds/

I live in Nanaimo on Van Island, having emigrated from UK this summer.
Not many opportunities for pelagics, you need to get out on the west coast, if you are only here for a week thats not really likely Victoria has some good sites to if you make it to the island you may get a few things on a whale watching trip from Victoria but it wont be anything too exciting, the Victoria birders went out last week and had a fulmar, which was a good record for them. You are going to get lots of good birds from the shore, Tsawassen jetty, Stanley park in terms of scoters, harlequin duck divers, murrelets ancient is a possibility some seen recently. If you want any more info let me know or if there is anything in particular you are looking for I may be able to help. Birding here is much more low key with far fewer people out in the field but everyone is very helpful.
One place to definately go to if you have a car is Reiffel refuge, closest thing there is to an RSPB reserve over here, good diversity of habitats

Cheers
Pete

Thanks for the tips.

I have a car and may try to make it over to the island but this weather is worse than back home!

I saw a huge raft of surf scoters off Stanley Park 3rd beach today with 3 barrows goldeneye. May try there again tomorrow but will also check out the reserve to the south (is that the same one you refer to Pete?)

Mark,

If time is precious, stay within an hour or two of town, lest you spend all your time driving to somewhere no more special for birding. Here's three very informative sites.

http://www.camacdonald.com/birding/cabritishcolumbia.htm
http://birding.bc.ca/
http://www.naturalhistory.bc.ca/VNHS/

If you need more, send me a PM and I'll set you up for more detailed information and links.

Enjoy your vist to North America's Pacific Northwest.

Cheers,
Robert / Seattle

birding info

Guess you may have this info already but this was latest bird alert, pagers havent reached here yet! Yes Reiffel is the reserve on Westham Island to the south of the airport, the Iona area is very good as well its basicallyat the end of the airport, if you have a map its pretty easy to find, I very often see beaver there as well.

This is the Vancouver Natural History Society's Rare Bird Alert for Friday,
October 12th, sponsored in part by Wild Birds Unlimited, with stores in
Vancouver and North Vancouver. This message was updated at 9:00 pm on October
12th.

If you have a report, leave your name, telephone number, date and location of
your sighting at the end of this recording. The RBA telephone number is (604)
737-3074. To skip the recording, press the pound sign on your phone.

Rare Bird Alert for BOBOLINK and LITTLE GULL.

Sightings for Friday, October 12th:

At Boundary Bay, the BOBOLINK was present for its second day just west of the
foot of 72nd St. It was present up until 9:30 am when it appeared to fly 200
metres further west but was not relocated. No news either way since then. Also
here were 1 HERMIT THRUSH and 12 YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS.

Nearby at the foot of 96th St, the RUFF continues. Also 2 juvenile SHARP-TAILED
SANDPIPERS, 3 juvenile AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVERS, 1 RED KNOT, and 3 MARBLED
GODWITS were seen.

At Stanley Park in Vancouver, the juvenile moulting into 1st winter LITTLE GULL
was again present at Third Beach. This bird was first seen on October 5th.
Also here was 1 PARASITIC JAEGER.

At Blackie Spit, there was an adult winter WILSON'S PHALAROPE and the
long-staying LONG-BILLED CURLEW.

Sightings for Thursday, Octboer 11th:

At Boundary Bay just west of the foot of 72nd St, a BOBOLINK in nonbreeding
plummage was found at 4:30 pm.

At Stanley Park in Vancouver, a LITTLE GULL was present at Third Beach. Also in
this area were 1 ANCIENT MURRELET and 1 EARED GREBE.

Sightings for Wednesday, October 10th:

At Brunswick Point, 4 RED KNOT, 2 AMERICAN GOLDEN PLOVER, 200 WESTERN
SANDPIPERS, and 200 LEAST SANDPIPERS were sighted.

Sightings for Tuesday, October 9th:

At Campbell Valley Park in South Langley, 6 EVENING GROSBEAKS were seen from the
16th Ave entrance parking lot.

Sightings for Monday, October 8th:

At Blackie Spit near Farm Slough in South Surrey, a MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD was
sighted. Nearby at Elgin Park, 1 EVENING GROSBEAK was present.

At Boundary Bay just east of the foot of 96th St, a moulting adult RUFF was
present in a large BLACK-BELLIED PLOVER flock. Also sighted were 1 AMERICAN
GOLDEN PLOVER and 1 SHARP-TAILED SANDPIPER.

At Blackie Spit in South Surrey, a MOUNTAIN BLUEBIRD was seen near Farmer's
Slough. Nearby, the long-staying LONG-BILLED CURLEW and a MARBLED GODWIT were
present.

At Iona, 9 PARASITIC JAEGERS were present at the tip of the south jetty. Nearby
1 LAPLAND LONGSPUR was seen between the two shelters.

If you have any questions about birds or birding in the Vancouver area, please
call Wayne at 604-597-7201, Viveka at 604-531-3401, or Larry at 604-465-1402.
Thank you for calling the Vancouver Rare Bird Alert, and good birding. For
further information about birding in the Vancouver area, log onto the Vancouver
Natural History Society's website at http://naturevancouver.ca .