As I mentioned in my previous posts my parents visited me this past weekend from Red Deer, AB. On Sunday we spent the afternoon in Stanley Park walking along the north shore of Lost Lagoon and the western seawall. Like Saturday, we had cold, clear and sunny weather and great close up views of waterfowl. The real highlight of the day was the great closeup view of the Virginia Rail shown above. I was really surprised to see a Virginia Rail out in the open near the busy trail given the generally secretive behaviour of rails.

In addition to the Mute Swans I mentioned in this weeks photo of the week, we saw and I photographed a number of different species including a leucistic mallard. We saw the expected sparrows and chickadees at the stone bridge. We picked a few more species along the seawall including Barrow’s Goldeneyes, Buffleheads, Pelagic Cormorants, and a Mew Gull. The Mew Gull and the Virginia Rail gave me two lifers for the day. A full list of my sightings is included in the KMZ file below. You can see all of my photos and sightings on the map below.