Dogs suck

There's a spot along 72nd street and boundary bay that's always caught my imagination. It borders the Airport road, and for the longest time it seemed like it was private property. I always recall there always seemed to be movie shoots going on. I hadn't been around in a while so when I drove by it last, it seemed it had been converted into a dog park. Shitty luck for birders as compared to the rest of the area there is alot of dense brush and large trees which would be perfect for roosting owls. 

I figured I would try and get up super early to beat the dog walkers and maybe see a Long-eared Owl or something exciting. 

Well I forgot in Vancouver, no matter how early you get somewhere, there's gonna be someone else there first. Nevertheless I still went exploring, and it really is amazing habitat. I don't know why it wasn't turned into a bird sanctuary, its not like it would matter anyways, Off leash dogs seem to be at every other bird sanctuary anyways.

I found a Great Horned Owl dozing at sunrise, the light was pretty terrible for any great shots, but still nothing beats the excitement of finding an owl hidden in the trees.

I got accosted by a couple greyhounds, which wasn't the worst experience, because they are really the only dog I like, afterwards I went to the end of 72nd to look for the Palm Warbler that had been reported, I walked in between the pump house and 72nd st 3 times. There were plenty of Yellow rumps, flycatching the shrubs bordering the dyke, but no Palm Warbler. I had brief looks at 2 Orange-crowned Warblers as well. 

It was definitely a day for raptors though, I had a Kestrel, Peregrine Falcon, Snowy, Short-eared, and Great Horned Owls. As well as Rough-legged, Coopers, Red-tailed hawks.

Not a bad day at all.

Here's my ebird list.

Species

54 species (+1 other taxa) total

X	Snow Goose
X	Trumpeter Swan
X	Eurasian Wigeon
X	American Wigeon
X	Mallard
X	Northern Shoveler
X	Green-winged Teal
X	Hooded Merganser
X	Great Blue Heron
X	Cooper's Hawk
X	Bald Eagle
X	Red-tailed Hawk
X	Black-bellied Plover
X	Ring-billed Gull
X	Western Gull
X	Herring Gull
X	Thayer's Gull
X	Glaucous-winged Gull
X	Western x Glaucous-winged Gull (hybrid)
X	Rock Pigeon
X	Eurasian Collared-Dove
1	Great Horned Owl
3	Snowy Owl
2	Short-eared Owl
1	Downy Woodpecker
3	Northern Flicker
1	American Kestrel
1	Peregrine Falcon
1	Northern Shrike
X	Northwestern Crow
X	Black-capped Chickadee
X	Bushtit
X	Pacific Wren
X	Marsh Wren
X	Bewick's Wren
X	Golden-crowned Kinglet
X	Ruby-crowned Kinglet
X	American Robin
X	European Starling
2	Orange-crowned Warbler
20	Yellow-rumped Warbler
X	Spotted Towhee
2	American Tree Sparrow
X	Fox Sparrow
X	Song Sparrow
X	Lincoln's Sparrow
X	White-crowned Sparrow
X	Golden-crowned Sparrow
X	Dark-eyed Junco
X	Red-winged Blackbird
X	Western Meadowlark
X	Brewer's Blackbird
X	Purple Finch
X	House Finch
X	Pine Siskin