Barrow’s Goldeneye our only addition.
It all started so well.  An early start to catch the 9am ferry back to the mainland to give us plenty of birding time around the Vancouver area to follow up on some gen we’d received from local birders.  But just down the road, a police block sent us heading in the wrong direction and soon saw us hopelessly lost in a residential area.  So a vital twenty minutes were lost and we missed the ferry, with nearly two hours to wait for the next.  The crossing itself was smooth and serene across a glass-like stretch of water, but where were all the birds?  We saw a few Glaucous-winged Gulls, a couple of pairs of Pigeon Guillemots and a flotilla of Pacific Divers, but long spells of no birds within binocular range of the ferry.  Then suddenly Alan shouted out as seven Barrow’s Goldeneye swept past the boat and landed close to the shore, our only new bird of the day.  We scanned hard all the way back to Tsawwassen, looking for birds, whales and bears.  Seals and porpoises were in plentiful supply and we saw our daily River Otter, but no more new birds for our list and no sign of the elusive orca.Back on the mainland, we headed south to Robert’s Point.  This is technically in the USA so we had to go through border control to reach the Lighthouse Point nature reserve.  The other cars passed through without a hitch, but our British passports created more interest, so we had to park up, go into the admin office, fill in the inevitable forms, leave our fingerprints and photographs and pay a $6 fee for the privilege entering the US, even just for a few hours.  More birding time lost before we were free to head for the coast and continue our birding.  At the nature reserve, we set up the scope and scanned, and scanned, and scanned.  There were birds out there all right, but so far out that even at full mag it was impossible to identify most of them.  Luckily the moment was saved by a flock of some 150 Black Brants who did stay in close enough for us to enjoy good views, and a single Marbled Murrelet and a small number of Rhinoceros Auklets.  Once again we were entertained by hundreds of porpoises who regularly broke the surface around a couple of kayaks just offshore, but still none of those mythical orcas.  Back through the border control again into Canada and we headed for a nearby bird observatory, apparently a birders paradise, only to find that it had just closed before we got there.  Our efforts to sweet-talk our way in didn’t work, rules are rules, and we were turned away empty-handed.So we braved the traffic and headed for central Vancouver to Queen Elizabeth’s Park, where we’d been told that Varied Thrush had been seen only a day or so ago.  Not put off by traffic jams, roadworks, road closures and diversions, we persisted until we finally found the park, a popular place with dog-walkers and pram-pushers.  We found a less busy area, with mature trees and some understorey growth which looked more promising, but our luck really wasn’t in today and nothing showed except the reliable Black-capped Chickadee.  Still, at least we know where to head for at dawn tomorrow for a last-ditch attempt before flying to the east coast.The day hadn’t quite finished with us:  we’d no sooner walked into a restaurant for a quick supper than the TV flashed up the winning goals that put Chelsea neck-and-neck with Man U at the top of the Premiership.  The final blow to Alan’s day as a Man U supporter, though as a Chelsea fan, Ruth at least had a happy ending.Bird species total: 2172
Posted 10pm, 5th May, Vancouver