Listening for Birds at Green Timbers

Jan 15 2013 Green Timbers, Surrey B.C.

After I photographed the Red-flanked Bluetail at snowy Queen Elizabeth Park and on my way home I briefly stopped at Green Timbers. Green Timbers consists of dense mixed woodland park open pasture, a stream and a lake which due to cold weather was frozen. The park is completely surrounded by housing, a tree nursery and a hospital. People use it to walk their dogs, fish, picnics and jog etc.

 As I walked downhill to the pond It wasn't too hard to conjure up a picture of Surrey a hundred years ago. There was the snow on the evergreens and the muted reds of the Alder was mesmerizing and then I heard BIRDS! 

My very first visit was on a hot summer day and very few birds were around.This time it was freezing, there was snow on the ground, a frozen pond and a small flock of Varied thrush.

Note: I should remind myself to look closer at the nature and photograph more than just birds.


The male Varied thrush was photographed in Maple Ridge Park, while the two females were photographed in Green Timbers. 



*AS I WAS LEAVING A RUBY-CROWED KINGLET FLEW INTO A NEARBY TREE*

The Ruby-crowned kinglet ia very inquisitive bird and can be quite tolerant of humans.

It was getting close to deadline so I rushed home and downloaded the Red-flanked Bluetail to the Vancouver Sun and within an hour  the web version was up and next morning other pictures were on the Vancouver Sun front page.
As of today there have been 800 page page views on this blog from all over the world. It just goes to show how much interest is out there when a rare bird comes to town!

This ruby-crowned kinglet landed very close to where I was photographing the Varied Thrush.

QUITE A DAY, EH!