July 2018 - Point Roberts Collection

This post contains photos and videos taken at Lighthouse Marine Park in Point Roberts in the month of July. This is the quiet season for this location. However, I did pick up one new species for the year.

July 7, 2018

This video shows the rocky shoreline and sharp drop off, quite different from the sandy flat beaches in the Metro Vancouver area.

One of the year round residents is the Pelagic Cormorant. They can be identified by their narrow dark bill and by a white patch at the rump end of the wings. However, this is not visible year round.


Pelagic Cormorant - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA



I have seen Belted Kingfishers here on a few occasions, but today I was lucky to see both a male and female. Contrary to most bird species, the female is the more colourful of the two, with a ruddy orange band around the breast. The male just has a single blue band.


Belted Kingfisher (Male) - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA


Belted Kingfisher (Female) - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA

She seems a little agitated about something.



Here's a short movie of her:

July 22, 2018

On this day I was lucky to see a few Rhinoceros Auklets, small seabirds that are seen occasionally at this location. I only had the Nikon camera with me and it's not suited for getting sharp images of moving subjects. This photo was the best of the few I took.

Rhinoceros Auklet - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA - 2018 Bird #187.

Here's a slightly better photo taken in July 2017 at the same location.


Rhinoceros Auklet - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA - July 2017

The last bird of the month for Point Roberts was sharper, an immature California Gull, probably a year away from full adult plumage.


California Gull (Imm) - Lighthouse Marine Park, Point Roberts WA

Grouse Mountain - July 2

This is my first regular blog post since the end of May. All of my June posts cover time spent on vacation in Alberta and Washington State. They are detailed in my 2018 Vacation Blog available for viewing here:

2018 Birding Vacation Blog.

As July 2 was the Canada day holiday. I ventured out to Grouse Mountain in North Vancouver to see if I could find a Chestnut-sided Warbler that had been reported. It had been seen on the Powerline trail which cuts across the mountain at a fairly low level and is accessible from the main parking lot.

This eastern Warbler is a rarity on the West Coast and had made the Vancouver Rare Bird alert. I have visited this area in the past and  had some luck with hard to find local birds.

After parking and climbing up to the trail, the first creature I saw was not a bird but a butterfly.


Lorquin's Admiral Butterfly - Grouse Mountain Powerline Trail, North Vancouver

I really like this next shot of a common bird, the Spotted Towhee.


Spotted Towhee - Grouse Mountain Powerline Trail, North Vancouver BC

Further along the trail I spotted a flycatcher, the familiar Fitz-bew call of the Willow Flycatcher. I believe this one is a juvenile.


Willow Flycatcher (Imm) - Grouse Mountain Powerline Trail, North Vancouver BC

At the same time the Warbler popped into view:


Chestnut-sided Warbler - Grouse Mountain Powerline Trail, North Vancouver BC
2018 Bird #185

This warbler is commonly seen in the East, my first sighting of it was in 2012 at Point Pelee National Park in Ontario.

Chestnut-sided Warbler - Grouse Mountain Powerline Trail, North Vancouver BC

I got a nice shot of a Swallowtail Butterfly, but am unable to identify the exact species.


Swallowtail Butterfly (sp) - Grouse Mountain Powerline Trail, North Vancouver BC

I got this single shot of a West Coast Warbler.

MacGillivray's Warbler - Grouse Mountain Powerline Trail, North Vancouver BC

2018 Bird #186

The last bird of the afternoon was another Willow Flycatcher.

Willow Flycatcher - Grouse Mountain Powerline Trail, North Vancouver BC

It was a very productive afternoon, with the Chestnut-sided Warbler being the unquestioned highlight and the MacGillivray's Warbler a close second.