Eleven intrepid adventurers met in Maple Ridge Park on a cold and cloudy morning to stalk our not very elusive quarry. Shortly before our official start time, two American Dippers landed nearby, sang a bit and briefly displayed their characteristic dipping behaviour before flying further downstream.

The trip began with introductions, after which we went downstream to see if we could find the dippers again. Under the bridge we found not two, but four dippers, along with a couple of female Common Mergansers. We got to watch one dive under the water a couple of times, presumably searching for salmon eggs, and another dipper swam upstream a bit on the surface of the fast-flowing river. Two of the dippers flew off and headed upstream: we followed but did not find them again. We did get to enjoy a sleepy Great Blue Heron snoozing in a tree and several Glaucous-winged Gulls feeding on Chum Salmon carcasses. We saw a fair number of salmon, but not nearly as many as during last year’s surprisingly large salmon return.

The group moved on to Jerry Sulina Park in hopes of finding a few more species. The pond by the parking lot didn’t disappoint, yielding a male Common Merganser, a couple of Pied-billed Grebe, along with many Wood Ducks, a few Mallards and Norther Shoveler and a lone female Green-winged Teal. The trees were full of Chestnut-backed Chickadees, along with a few Black-capped Chickadees and some sparrows. The female Belted Kingfisher was a life bird for two participants. There were fewer ducks in the field across the road from the park than we’ve seen in some previous years: we counted about 100 each of American Wigeon and Mallards. One Red-tailed Hawk put in appearance near the pumpkin patch.

From Jerry Sulina, we drove to the Connecting Road area to look for raptors. We spotted two Bald Eagles, three more Red-tailed Hawks along with some gulls and ducks before we decided to call it a day.

All in all, another successful quest!

The ebird trip report is https://ebird.org/tripreport/437064

Thanks to everyone who came out for making it such a pleasant event!