Eleven enthusiastic birders joined trip leaders Michelle Baudais and Harvey Dueck for a birding field trip at Iona early on March 27th. Despite the forecast, the weather was pleasant and rain-free for the entire outing.

We started off viewing a mixed flock of dunlin and black-bellied plover on the beach. Some of each species were in their winter and black-bellied breeding plumages, so it was a good teaching/learning flock.

We went into the inner ponds next. All four ponds were full of water, so there was no good feeding place for shorebirds and we didn’t see any in the ponds. The east ponds were empty of birds, but the two western ponds had a good mix of ducks: mostly scaup and pintail, with a few wigeon, ring-necked ducks, gadwall, green-winged teal, northern shoveler and mallards.

We left the inner ponds and walked through the outer ponds toward the washrooms. We spent awhile watching a tree swallow on its nesting box. We had a great view of a perched female northern harrier, so many of us had a good look at its owl-like face. Fox sparrows were the most frequently seen sparrow, with a few song sparrows. We didn’t see any golden or white-crowned sparrows. There were yellow-rumped warblers in the trees: we only spotted the Audobon variant. A female rufous hummingbird put in an appearance. There were (to me) surprising numbers of ruby-crowned kinglets flitting in the bushes. Our ebird checklist only records 2, but I’m sure there were more. There were at least 12 herons nestled in the reeds in the pond closest to the parking lot.

We moved on to the beach by the washrooms. When we got there a flock of dunlin and sanderling were feeding at the waterline, but crows chased them away. There were distant northern pintail and gulls, plus red-winged blackbirds and robins.

It was a very pleasant morning overall. Several of the participants were new to Nature Vancouver and at least one of the participants became a member later that day. It was great to meet everyone. Michelle and I hope to see many of you at future Nature Vancouver events!

The complete list of birds can be found in our ebird checklist. Counts are approximate, as we were focused more on enjoying the birds than on counting them. Thanks to Laura Moniz for recording the checklist!