January 1st: The Casual Big Day

A casual big day around the Fraser Delta on New Year's day has become somewhat of a tradition. This year our casual big day team comprised of Mike & Sharon Toochin, Yousif Attia and myself.

For those unfamiliar with big days, the concept is simple: identify as many birds as possible within 24 hours. Casual big days and ordinary big days are similar in practice, but differ in principle. Having the word 'casual' precede 'big day' makes a low tally excusable and a high tally much more impressive. I recommend that anyone attempting big days should do them casually. No matter how casual, all successful big days require knowledge of the local birds, careful scouting and strategy. So, let's begin...

Free parking is offered along the White Rock promenade until 10 am and was thus our strategic starting point. We welcomed the year's first sunrise over glassy calm waters as we quickly picked up targets such as Long-tailed Duck, EARED GREBE and Red-throated Loon. A BLACK TURNSTONE on the breakwater and a COMMON MURRE offshore were both bonus birds. A stop at West Beach produced the sought after Black Scoter, Barrow's Goldeneyes and Harlequin Ducks, but no Western Gull.

The evolution of Swarovski Optik spotting scopes (left to right): ST series, ATS series, STX series. If the fine folks at Swarovski are reading this and would like to sponsor us next year, I'm sure a new Canadian winter big day record could be set if I had a new pair of EL binoculars. 

At Kwomais Point we knocked off most of the common forest birds, although finding a Varied Thrush required dropping my scope for good luck. Several PACIFIC LOONS were spotted in flight but required a lot of time spent scanning.

At Blackie Spit we quickly found the LONG-BILLED CURLEW and 3 MARBLED GODWITS at the base of the spit, and the SURFBIRD at the mouth of Farm Slough, which also had 30+ Greater Yellowlegs. We looked for Townsend's Warbler and Hutton's Vireo at their CBC locations near Crescent Beach without luck; however, a Bewick's Wren, which was little consolation at the time, proved to be the day's one and only.

A couple quick stops along 40th Ave. west of HWY 99 produced several CACKLING GEESE mixed with Canadas, and YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS at the manure pile. Not many icterids were seen so we decided to pass on Brown-headed Cowbird at this location hoping to find one later, which we never did. As we left around 10:45 the day list was at about 80 species.

At the horse stable at 112th St. and Hornby Dr. we spotted the RUSTY BLACKBIRD within minutes of arrival, and right before the flock flew landing back-lit by the sun. We scanned a couple swan flocks in the area for Tundras but half were sleeping and the other half were Trumpeters.

Another case of impeccable timing was had at the foot of 104th St. where an ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER briefly alighted in an apple tree just as we exited the vehicle. A Northern Shrike along the dyke here was our day's only.

At the turf farm on 72nd St. we picked up Thayer's and Herring Gulls, and serendipitously, a TUNDRA SWAN flying over with a small group of Trumpeters. At the foot of 72nd St. the GOLDEN EAGLE was perched in its favorite poplar. Along the dyke we picked up a few more Yellow-rumped Warblers (but no sign of the Palms), Lincoln's Sparrow, Western Meadowlark and 3 AMERICAN TREE SPARROWS about 300m east of the car park.

Next was a quick stop at the Tsawassen Ferry Jetty where the water was again beautifully calm. Here we found John Reynolds, a flock of Western Grebes, Pelagic and Brandt's Cormorants and Black Oystercatcher. 

It was then on to Reifel, joined by John, with our second American Kestrel and Rough-legged Hawks of the day en route in the fields around Robert's Bank. Arriving at Reifel we were worried that our big day had taken a turn for the worse, finding a full parking lot and frozen sloughs. However, an overflight of 30+ BOHEMIAN WAXWINGS over the parking lot was another huge stroke of luck. And it continued: AMERICAN BITTERN hunting a frozen slough by the tower (thanks John!); two SWAMP SPARROWS calling from below the tower; HARRIS' SPARROW sitting motionlessly with crowned sparrows in a dense bush not far from the information board past Fuller's slough. We also breathed heavy sighs of relief as we spotted our first and only Purple Finch, Cooper's Hawk and finally finding every Gadwall in the sanctuary gathered around a small patch of ice free water. But no Pied-billed Grebe.

My big day shutter count was zero, but fortunately Peter Candido joined our entourage at Reifel and snapped this photo of the Harris' Sparrow perched deep in a thicket.

We stopped at Tamboline Slough for another attempt at the grebe; no luck, but two Ring-necked Pheasents in the pumpkin patch and 5 AMERICAN PIPITS in overflight were welcome additions to the day list. At Canoe Pass we got Common Merganser, but still no grebe.

We spent the remaining daylight at Brunswick Point looking in desperation for the remaining possible day birds. At this point we were tired; I told Yousif that "I could see the bird he was sleeping with" in reference to a suspicious gull he was speaking of, sleeping on the mudflats. Good birds at Brunswick Point included more American Pipits in overflight, a flock of 15+ Western Meadowlarks, and following a half hour wait at sunset, a VIRGINIA RAIL finally called.

Owling after dark was largely unsuccessful, as we managed to spot only 1 BARN OWL, missing both Great Horned and Barred, and ending the day with a modest 119 species. Despite seemingly impeccable timing with a string of rare birds we still managed to miss numerous common birds along the way, making the list of possibilities for a serious winter big day quite tantalizing.