Harvey and I originally planned to do a birding walk at Trout Lake on Sunday February 18th.  Unfortunately, when Harvey went to post the walk on Meetup, he accidentally advertised it for the 17th.  Ooops!  Rather than change the date for the five people who had instantly accepted the invite, we decided instead to simply lead walks on two consecutive days. 

On Saturday morning we arrived on the south beach of Trout Lake a bit early, and immediately noticed a group of Golden-crowned Kinglets in the willow bordering the beach.  A great start to the day!  While we waited for attendees to assemble we also identified a California Gull floating amongst a group of Glaucous-winged Gulls near the centre of the lake, and a juvenile Ring-billed Gull walking on the shore nearby.  

As the group assembled, we spotted a Great Blue Heron perched in a tree near the north end of the lake, a Bald Eagle overlooking the water from a large tree on the east side, a pair of Hooded Mergansers, and of course, a few American Coots. 

We started our walk with an introduction to Nature Vancouver, and a brief introduction to the history of the park, which was originally used as a hunting ground by the xʷməθkʷəy̓əm (Musqueam), Sḵwx̱wú7mesh (Squamish), and səlilwətaɬ (Tsleil-Waututh) peoples.   After introductions were over, we turned our attention to the water, so that everyone could get a good look at the large numbers of ducks and geese that typically winter on the lake, including Northern Shovellers, American Wigeon, Green-winged Teal, Canada Geese, and Mallards. 

After we’d had our fill of water birds, we began our clockwise circumnavigation of the lake.  The first highlight was a large group of American Goldfinches at the south western corner of the beach along with four raucous Steller’s Jays.  They were quickly joined by a few Dark-eyed Juncos and a male Anna’s Hummingbird who posed for us on a high twig. As we continued up the west side of the lake a small group of crows alerted us to the presence of a juvenile Cooper’s Hawk.  

That was not the end of the highlights. As we reached the north end of the lake, we unexpectedly encountered several swallows.  In February!  Folks reported seeing both Barn Swallows and Tree Swallows.  What an odd year we’re having.

From here we continued around the lake spotting our first Song Sparrow, a Ruby-crowned Kinglet, many additional Golden-crowned Kinglets, and Black-capped Chickadees singing their spring “Fe-ed-me” song.  

Overall, we spotted 32 or 33 species of bird in the two hours of our walk: 

 Holly’s list: https://ebird.org/canada/checklist/S161886720

Geoff’s list: https://ebird.org/checklist/S161879560

Richard posted some photos to meetup: https://www.meetup.com/nature-vancouver/photos/34346540/

When we advertise on Meetup, we often get large numbers of beginning birders.  Not today.  We had a few Nature Vancouver members, a couple of new birders, and several experienced birders who are not NV members (including Edward Nygren, the leading eBirder for Trout Lake).  It was lovely to meet them, share our birding experiences, and introduce them to the club.  

Thanks to Holly and Geoff for keeping eBird lists, to Geoff and Jan for sharing their scope, and to everyone for joining us for a very enjoyable morning.