Photo highlights from my wet coastal trip

On Sunday I left Kelowna at 4am to catch the 10:30am ferry out of Horseshoe Bay. I met Mike Ashbee in Nanaimo and we birded until dark between Yellow Point and Deep Bay. Our main target was Slaty-backed Gull but unfortunately we missed it. Still a great day though and I added RUFOUS HUMMINGBIRD and AMERICAN BLACK DUCK (whether or not it counts) to the year list. Also loads and loads of seaducks and gulls along the coast. Truly a spectacle to behold (even though these numbers are down from past years and it's the tail end of the herring spawn).

I grabbed the 9pm ferry back to the mainland then birded the Vancouver area on Monday finding my first WILSON'S SNIPE of the year at the Iona Sewage Lagoons, my first Vancouver area AMERICAN TREE-SPARROWS (also at Iona), my first Vancouver REDHEAD (Reifel), gorgeous looks at an AMERICAN BITTERN (Reifel), and my first ORANGE-CROWNED WARBLER of the year (Queen Elizabeth Park).

Photos (in order):

-2 young Great Blue Herons (Iona)
-American Black Duck pair (Yellow Point)
-mixed scoter and scaup flock (Deep Bay)
-ME and my great new sweater (Thanks Natalie, Kelsey, Colin, and Kevin!!!)
-Gadwall pair (Iona)
-American Bittern (Reifel)
-Fox Sparrow (Reifel)
-Rufous Hummingbird (Reifel)