On Friday, we took another walk to Stanley Park. We’d hoped to meet up with the same naturalist we met before, and explore the wildlife of the park with him – but he had a family emergency and couldnt make it. He did give us great tips on what to look for. In particular he mentioned a flock of literally thousands of mixed seabirds, and we definately wanted to see that. He’d seen it at Second Beach the day before, but while there were a lot of birds there, certainly not thousands. It was a great view though – seeing scoters and goldeneye, as kayakers paddled past, and ships anchored further out in the bay.
Peter had told us that the birds could be anywhere from Second Beach onwards, even as far as Lion’s Gate bridge sometimes, so we persisted and walked onwards.
On the beach on the way there, someone had been balancing piles of rocks. I can’t see that any more without thinking of Frood. These weren’t to Frood’s standard, but there were a lot of them. Someone had been busy. There were clear skies, and it was a fairly bright day, but it was cold. Didn’t stop people sitting on the beaches, eating picnics, being out for walks, jogging, roller-blading, fishing.
Then overhead – Veronica spotted a raptor.. Then another. Two bald eagles, circling overhead, skimming the treetops, looping over the beach. They’re such huge birds, but still graceful fliers. I guess they’re pretty common here, but to me it’s still a privilege to see them – and hard to believe that Veronica has been working in a cage with five of them! (More on that in part 2)
As we rounded the park, getting closer to the Lion’s Gate Bridge, we started to see groups of sea-birds flying past, dozens, sometimes hundreds. We could tell they were coming from somewhere out of sight, flying out in to the bay, then back again. So, maybe there was indeed still a huge flock out there. Passing ships, boats and kayakers would kick up flurries of birds every now and again. But it wasnt till we rounded the corner and saw the bridge that we saw how many birds there were.
My picture really doesnt even do justice to how many birds there were. A flock stretched out in a long line, thick with sea-birds – literally thousands of them. Local’s say that at this time of the year, most of Canada’s population of Barrow’s Goldeneye come to Stanley park – as many as 7000 birds at once. This crowd were mostly Surf Scoter though, although there could have been any number of rarities hidden in the group – we’d never have spotted them, the birds were packed in so tightly.
The light was starting to fade a little, grey skies and shorter days robbing us of decent light for photography, but I still managed to get a few decent shots to capture the experience.
We walked back through the middle of Stanley 
Park, and my ears picked up a lot more than my eyes did. We heard many birds we didn’t recognize, but only saw a few flickers in the bushes. Veronica heard the bald eagles again, but they were high above, and the foliage hid them. We did manage to catch glimpses of kinglets, juncos, chickadees, and towhee, but not long enough to train a camera on them. At Beaver Lake there were more ducks, among them a pair of Wood Duck – really interesting colours.
By then we were tired, and it was time to head home. That evening we went out for Ethiopian food with a nice couple we met here. Very different to any food I’d had before – there were flavours I’d never tasted before, and the style of cooking is quite unique, and the ginger mead-like drink (tej) was dleicious. I loved the food – may have to see if we can drag the team our for Ethiopian food next time we’re over here.