The morning of Saturday December 7th dawned dark and wet, with a heavy rainfall warning from Environment Canada. Several attendees cancelled at the last minute, so only 8 hardy birders joined trip leaders Harvey Dueck and Michelle Baudais at 9am at Maple Ridge Park for our annual quest to find Dippers.

The American Dipper is North America’s only aquatic songbird, so we were relatively confident that the rainfall would not deter our target species. Fortunately that was true! After about 20 minutes of searching, participant Lindsey spotted our first Dipper in a small rapids near shore. We all enjoyed great views of the dark grey, towhee-sized bird as it hopped from rock to rock, bobbing in the typical Dipper manner as it hunted for salmon eggs. On our scouting trip a week earlier we’d only spotted one Dipper, so we were thrilled to find two more as we walked back downriver, all close to shore so that the photographers could get some nice shots.

From here we carpooled to Jerry Sulina Park, about a 5 minute drive away. Our day had begun with only light rain, but it began to rain a bit more heavily as we surveyed the pond near the parking lot. Fortunately, the main attractions at Jerry Sulina are usually ducks, grebes, and mergansers, so we were able to add a number of watery species: Common Mergansers, Mallards, Hooded Mergansers, Wood Ducks, American Wigeon, Common Goldeneye, Pied-billed Grebes, Bufflehead, one Ring-necked duck, and a flyby by about 100 Cackling Geese. We also got great views of a female Belted Kingfisher, American Crows, and a Bald Eagle.

We generally conclude Dipper Quest with a drive to try to spot raptors in the surrounding fields, but by this time everyone was a bit damp so we decided to call it a day at 11:30am. Thanks to everyone who came out on a wet day, helping us continue our 4 year streak of finding American Dippers (following on Larry Cowan’s 17 successful years leading Dipper Quest).

Maple Ridge Park: https://ebird.org/checklist/S204753033

Jerry Sulina Park: https://ebird.org/checklist/S204758890