Trip Report by Maureen Collier

On November 27, 2021, six members participated in this walk in spite of showers that turned into rain. The Hastings Park Sanctuary has many features – ponds, marshland, and mixed forest. Also there are remnants of earlier habitats from before the PNE was built. We enjoyed seeing three pairs of Hooded Mergansers in the big pond, with the males doing a few dramatic interactions. Also seen were a Double-crested Cormorant, a Great Blue Heron as well as numerous Mallards.  

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A highlight was an excellent view of one of the Cooper’s Hawks, which I’m guessing was a female as it seemed big. It perched for several minutes in a leafless tree on the south side of the pond, seemingly little disturbed by our presence. We got a beautiful front view of its full buffy speckled breast.

There was not much action in the shrubbery nor on the ground, probably due to weather. On the west path above the big pond, we enjoyed two Brown Creepers moving steadily up the alder trees. As the ground slopes down to the pond at this location, the creepers were often at our eye level.

Unfortunately, Doug Cooper was unable to lead this bird walk as planned. However, he spotted and photographed this Varied Thrush on an earlier walk in the Sanctuary. Doug has also sent us some information on the Hastings Park Conservancy group. Some of the work that they do includes Nature walks, and work with the PNE Advisory Group. https://www.facebook.com/TheHastingsParkConservancy/

Another recent and unusual observation:

Leona and I saw this Bohemian Waxwing last week. This sighting has also been documented by many people on the Rare Bird Alert and on Ebird (https://ebird.org/alert/summary?sid=SN35799). After rain stopped it hung out and fed in the same tree it has been seen in since Thursday. Photographed by Jeff Brooks, it was spotted on Vancouver’s West Side near Trafalgar and Valley. According to allaboutbirds.org, the peachy face, grey belly and rufous under feathers on the tail distinguish it from the more commonly seen, Cedar Waxwing.