Pitt Polder - a favourite birding and hiking site.

A bright sunny day with the promise of adventure lured me to one of my favourite birding and outdoor areas - Pitt Polder. There are three destinations here that I frequent. These include the hike around the dikes at the south end of Pitt Lake, Widgeon Creek (canoeing), and Pitt Polder Ecological Reserve. Yesterday I decided to try the ecological reserve. It had been dry and warm (for January) the last few days so the potential for mud and puddle jumping was low. Besides, I had found some wonderful birds at this location on previous visits.

The pictures above indicate the success I had with my excursion. The hike itself was about five and a half kilometers. I usually have at least one camera with me; yesterday I brought two, but even without them it would have been an awesome time. The panorama is a stitched image of six photos merged in Photoshop CC. I shot that and other landscape photos with my full-frame DSLR equipped with a 24-80 mm lens. My other camera boasted my 500 mm and was used to capture the Marsh Wren (top right).

I was torn between the bird being a Bewick's Wren or a Marsh Wren. Both have a bold white eyebrow stripe, are brown in colour, and have similar sizes and habits. The telling difference is the presence of the marking on the bird's back; Bewick's doesn't have any while the Marsh Wren does. You can just barely see the dark patch on the bird's back. Other photos I took of it are better suited for identification purposes. It doesn't quite look like the Marsh Wren you see in bird books and websites as I think it is bearing its winter plumage.

I also got some great photos of a pair of Bufflehead ducks in flight; I will post those tomorrow. I was hoping to spot a sandhill crane but was disappointed. I am always on the lookout for any birds of prey. I got some excellent photos of a bald eagle a few years ago from here with an unfortunate Coot. I saw a small hawk, possibly Merlin, on the way here.

Overall, it was a grand hike that I thoroughly enjoyed. You can be sure I will be back again sometime soon.

Thanks for reading.     Ericspix     Eric Svendsen

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