On Sunday, February 5th, thirteen Nature Vancouver members joined this season’s quest to find American Dippers along the Alouette River in Maple Ridge.

Larry Cowan led Dipper Quest in December from 2006 until he retired in 2019 and managed to find at least one dipper every year. In 2021, Michelle Baudais and Harvey Dueck continued the quest. We were away in December 2022, so the 2022 quest was delayed until February 2023.

We began the quest in Maple Ridge Park. A short walk along the river turned up one dipper looking for food in a gravel bed. We observed its characteristic dipping behaviour and saw it dive underwater in search of food. We also got to hear it sing!

After observing the dipper for awhile, we headed back downstream. A couple of varied thrush were flitting through the trees, but didn’t perch where we could see them. A brown creeper hopped up the near side of a Douglas fir, so we got a good look. As we returned to our starting point, we were treated to a pair of possibly courting dippers on the far side of the river. There were also two common mergansers.

Maple Ridge Park doesn’t generally offer too many bird species, so we got back in our vehicles and headed to Jerry Sulina Park. In the pond there we found hooded mergansers, a pied billed grebe, two coots and some wigeon. There weren’t any dogs in the off-leash area, so we wandered in and had good views of a couple of male common goldeneye, a spotted towhee, golden-crowned kinglets and at least one Steller’s Jay. One of our group had just moved to the Lower Mainland from Saskatchewan; the Steller’s Jay was a lifer for him and that was exciting for the rest of us.

Leaving the dog area, we continued south along the dike. Many of the trees adjoining the dike have been cut and the snow at the end of December really flattened the grass and reeds, so there were very few birds to be seen until we got to the farmyard near 128 Ave. There we saw a sizeable mixed flock of red-winged and Brewer’s blackbirds, possibly with some brown-headed cowbirds mixed in. There were also some starlings, a spotted towhee and a few Anna’s humminbirds. The groups of juncos and the small flock of golden-crowned sparrows seen in 2021 were absent this trip.

From Jerry Sulina, we drove to the Connecting Road area to look for raptors. There were a few bald eagles in distant trees, but not much other activity. At the midpoint of Connecting Road we officially ended the trip and said our goodbyes, but on the way out via McKechnie Road we spotted the prairie falcon sitting in a tree behind the Hell’s Angels clubhouse. The falcon flew between that tree and a more distant tree across the field, so we were treated to good views of the bird both perched and in flight, though it was a bit distant for good photographs. This was the first time Michelle and Harvey had managed to find this falcon, so the trip leaders were very excited. It was a great way to end a very enjoyable field trip.

The forecast was for rain all morning, but instead we had pleasant weather and even a bit of blue sky! A few drops of rain started to fall as we made our way home.

A big thank you goes out to Leona Axbey for doing the ebird checklists for this multi-location trip.