Along the Shores of Stanley Park

November 14, 2006 - What better time of year to take a walk along the Stanley Park Seawall? Fair weather visitors and tourists are at a minimum and some days you can pretend that this magnificent creation of nature and man, belongs to you alone.

Late fall and early winter are the very best time to spy shoreline birds who are either spending the season or stopping by briefly to recoup from long flights mapped by instinct alone. An area especially rich with such feathered wonders lies just off the seawall between Second Beach Pool and Third Beach. Just last week we noticed that the red-billed Oystercatchers had returned, swooping between the landscape of half submerged boulders. Even if you missed their beautiful red eye and bill you would know them by their distinctive whistle, sparking interest in even those not smitten by the bird watching bug.

Sandpipers and many other species abound between now and the next few weeks making an early winter stroll well worth the exercise.

Latin Name: Haematopus palliatus

Identification Tips:

- Large shorebird - Bright orange, long, thick bill - Head and breast black - Dark grey back and wings - White belly - Large white patch on inner wing - White uppertail coverts and dark tail - Pink legs

Adult: - Yellow eye - Orange orbital ring Juvenile: - Eye dark and orbital ring not conspicuous - Dark end of bill - Upperparts faintly fringed with buff

Diet: They feed mostly on oysters, clams and other bivalves and use their bills as 'hammers' to pry open the shells.

Similar species: The striking black and white plumage, large size, and bright orange bill make this bird quite unlike any other.

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