September 25 - Lucky Life List Addition

On Friday September 23 a Rock Wren was reported at Maplewood Conservation area in North Vancouver. Although the American Ornithological Union (AOU) classifies them as abundant, I had only heard of one other report in the Lower Mainland in the last few years.

This species like areas of jumbled rocks and slopes, which makes them difficult to find.

I arrived at Maplewood early on Sunday morning and scanned the area around the a small footbridge where the bird was first spotted. The jumbled rocks were plentiful, but no bird was apparent. Another birder came by and asked me if I was looking for the wren. I said yes, and he pointed to a spot about 200 meters away where two other birders were located. He said, they're looking at it right now.

I made my over quickly, while attempting to be quiet and non-intrusive. When I arrived, the Wren was about 3 meters away in plain sight. I snapped off two shots with my Canon SLR as shown below.


Rock Wren - Maplewood Conservation Area, North Vancouver.


Rock Wren - Maplewood Conservation Area, North Vancouver.

The second photo reminds me of a miniature Burrowing Owl.

This last photo was taken with the Nikon Coolpix. It has a quite different look, richer in colour.


Rock Wren - Maplewood Conservation Area, North Vancouver.

The Rock Wren was lifer # 420 for my AOU North America life list.

Not much else was happening so I left to look for a Lewis' Woodpecker that had been spotted near the PNE grounds. I had no luck with that.

I stopped at the Hastings Park Conservancy on the PNE grounds for a quick walk around. This photo gives a feel for  the environment.



There has been a Green Heron reported here quite frequently, but all I saw were a few Mallard Ducks.


Mallard -  Hastings Park Conservancy, Vancouver BC

I headed for home to record my lifer, only my fourth of the year.