Monday Morning at Pitt Lake

I took the day off work to play golf at Pitt Meadows Country Club in the afternoon. This gave me time to spend an hour or two at Pitt Lake. As I pulled up to the parking spot near Catbird Slough, another car arrived with two birders I knew quite well, Floyd and Peter. We set out together.

I was relating to them my possible American Bittern sighting on May 15th and they said it sounded like one. And then, one flew by. It was very similar to what Mary-Jean and I saw, and they confirmed it was a Bittern, another tick for my life list. I called Mary-Jean on the spot to give her the good news. I did not get a photo as it happened too fast.

We started looking for other birds, the first one seen was this Common Yellowthroat.


Common Yellowthroat - Catbird Slough near Pitt Lake, Pitt Meadows BC

Another bird in the distance was a Belted Kingfisher. This species is notable for the females having more colourful plumage than the males.


Belted Kingfisher (F)  - Catbird Slough near Pitt Lake, Pitt Meadows BC

Another bird seen and heard was a Willow Flycatcher (or Fitz-bew as Floyd calls them). This is a better picture than the one in the previous post from Grouse Mountain.


Willow Flycatcher - Catbird Slough near Pitt Lake, Pitt Meadows BC

We got back in our cars and parked at Pitt Lake. Then we walked north on the dike along the River. We heard Gray Catbird, but had a tough time spotting it and getting any kind of photo. This was the best I could do for my first catbird of the year. I'd see a few more in the Okanagan in early June.


Gray Catbird - Pitt Lake, Pitt Meadows BC

Once again I spotted a lone male Rufous Hummingbird perched on a tree. Seems like every outing has to have one.

Rufous Hummingbird - Pitt Lake, Pitt Meadows BC

By this time I had to head for the golf course while Floyd and Peter carried on. I spotted this female Common Yellowthroat on the way back to my car.

Common Yellowthroat (F) - Pitt Lake, Pitt Meadows BC

That's it for this post. I spent early June in the Okanagan on a golf and birding trip. That will be detailed in a separate blog. There's one more post coming for this blog - Columbia Valley and the Ryder Lake Ramble.