Harvey and Michelle were met by an eager group of birders on the south beach of Trout Lake Sunday morning.  Today’s attendees were mostly Nature Vancouver members interested in learning what the park has to offer for birders.

Once again, we began our tour by examining the birds visible from the beach.  As usual, we had a nice assortment of ducks (Mallards, Green-winged Teal, Wood Ducks, American Wigeon, and Northern Shovellers), American Coots, Canada Geese, and gulls (Glaucous-winged Gulls and Ring-billed gulls).  Unfortunately, yesterday’s Great Blue Heron did not choose to make an appearance, but in compensation we were greeted by three Varied Thrush in the trees surrounding the beach. Most of us were able to get great views of their lovely orange breasts, patterned wings, and striped faces.  They really are the prettier cousins of the more common American Robins.

From here, we began circling the lake clockwise.  Almost immediately we spotted a large group of American Goldfinches just beginning to moult into their yellow summer plumage.  Goldfinches are usually visible in this corner of the park in winter, and Vicky was able to help us understand why.  The nearby trees are mostly European Plane Trees, which grow a large number of globular seed pods. The fluffy seeds inside provide great food for the goldfinches. 

As we proceeded along the muddy paths close to the western shore, we found Song Sparrows, Steller’s Jays, and Anna’s Hummingbirds.  We also encountered the first of the many Golden-crowned Kinglets that we were to see on our walk around the lake, accompanied by just a sprinkling of Ruby-crowned Kinglets, one of which obligingly showed us its ruby crown.

The north end of the lake gave us more views of ducks and coots, and our first sighting of a Short-billed Gull.  But the morning was cool and grey, which meant that the swallows that we saw yesterday were not active and the shrubbery along the north and east side of the lake was relatively quiet. That didn’t mean no birds at all of course.  Part of the group was lucky enough to spot a Belted Kingfisher about halfway down the east side of the lake!  The rest of us were busy watching a small flock of Bushtits, a species we’d missed the day before, and admiring a male Anna’s Hummingbird who posed in one spot long enough to give us all good views through a spotting scope.

By this time we’d returned to the south end of the lake, so after admiring the hummingbird and an obliging Northern Flicker we said our good-byes.  Every pair of binoculars in the Binocular Lending Library were loaned out today and were much appreciated. 

In total we saw 26 species:  https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S162064056