While the sightings are a bit stale now, I took a couple of trips out to Grant Narrows at the end of June and the start of July. On my first trip I walked the full circuit of the Nature Dike Trail. I was lucky enough to see and record a calling Least Flycatcher about 1.5 km from the trailhead. I also spent a good hour and a half chasing down Yellow Warblers hoping to see an American Redstart. It was only later I found out I was looking on the wrong Dike Trail. On Katzie Marsh I was able to make out a pair of Sandhill Cranes and one group of two Mute Swans (lifer!, if you don’t count the ones in Lost Lagoon) and another group of three Trumpeter Swans. I also saw hundreds of Cliff Swallows in the midst of nest construction on the Pitt Lake Trail Viewing Tower. Unfortunately, I have since learned that this colony did not successfully establish this year.

On my second trip I headed southwest along the dike trail before doubling back to the Pitt Lake Trail Viewing Tower. At Catbird Slough I only counted seven Grey Catbirds well below some of the high counts reported in June. I was rewarded with good views of a male American Redstart on this trip now that I was looking in the right spot. As an added bonus I was lucky enough to see my first Black Swift (lifer!) on the walk back along the dike. On my second trip to the viewing tower there was a bonanza of aquatic mammals with a three River Otters swimming by in Pitt Lake and a single Muskrat foraging on the other side of the dike in Katzie Marsh

As you may have already surmised from previous photos of the week, I was truly impressed by the Odonate fauna of Grant Narrows. Over the two trips I saw and photographed 7 different species with most of those species being new to me. The highlights for me were the huge number of Pacific Forktails, the hawking Eight-spotted Skimmers, and a really striking Blue Dasher male.