2016 Birding Blog: August 29

It was a Tuesday night with a favourable tide schedule, so once again I headed for Boundary Bay after supper. Not mentioned in a previous post was that I prevailed on my wife Edith to follow me in our other car to 104 St where parking is allowed. Then she'd drive me to 96 St and drop me off. I was recovering from a mild knee strain and was able to turn the round trip between the two locations into a one-way walk.

Just past 96 St. I met up with an group of birders who had seen a Ruff in the last half hour. A hawk or falcon had dispersed the shorebirds including the Ruff.

Ruffs are occasional visitors to the Pacific Coast, their normal home is Europe and Asia. It's not unusual for a juvenile to take a wrong turn and head down from the far north on our coast instead of the the Asian coast.

I had seen a Ruff on two occasions in previous years, so I was not crushed that it had disappeared.

I started travelling West towards 104th Street when I spotted a collection of peeps on the foreshore. It was a mix of Western Sandpipers and Sanderlings, the latter a year bird for me. The Sanderling is easy to pick out, as their Basic non-breeding plumage is a white body with gray wings, as can be seen in this photo. The Sanderlings are in the centre and foreground left in this shot.

Western Sandpiper and Sanderling- 96 St, Boundary Bay, Delta BC

Something caused the flock to start and fly off, you can see the Sanderlings in the centre of this flight shot.

Western Sandpiper and Sanderling- 96 St, Boundary Bay, Delta BC

With the high tide, other shorebirds were in range for good photos, including this Pectoral Sandpiper.

Pectoral Sandpiper - 96 St, Boundary Bay, Delta BC

As I approached 104 St. I saw another well known birder who specializes in Shorebirds. He signalled me to come over and quizzed me to identify the shorebird he was looking at. I had a good idea of what it might be, and when I looked, I knew it was the Ruff. I told him it had been seen earlier, which informed my guess.

The crisp, fresh looking plumage indicated that this Ruff was a juvenile. Here's the best shot I got at this point in time. The Ruff is much larger than the common Sandpipers, there is a Pectoral in the foreground for comparison.

Ruff - 104 St, Boundary Bay, Delta BC

Some of the other birders I'd seen earlier showed up and they reported that there were three Buff-breasted Sandpipers further east towards 112 St. This would be a year bird for me. My only other sighting was in 2013.

I headed west to beat the sunset and came across another birder heading east to see the Ruff. He pointed out two of the Buff Breasted to me. They were not too close and blended in well with the foreshore. But, between my camera and digiscoping a couple of photos, I got the shots seen below. These were definitely juveniles. One of the three seemed a bit larger than the other two, probably one male and two females.

Buff-breasted Sandpiper - Boundary Bay, Delta BC

Buff-breasted Sandpiper - Boundary Bay, Delta BC

This shot is a digiscope using IPhone and spotting scope.