Well, not that high. But the run went better than I was expecting.
I waffled on whether to run, but finally headed out a little past 11 a.m. and opted to run the river trail. A change of pace is always good. Conditions were decent–cloudy and around 16°C. I encountered only a few others during the run, although one was a guy I see fairly regularly on the river trail who walks with a pair of walking sticks and always says hello. Friendly people are the best.
I started out better than expected at 5:53/km, but dipped below the six-minute mark for the next two km. I felt like I had enough gas to push a little and ended with an overall pace of 5:56/km, which I declare perfectly cromulent. My left knee is not feeling as stiff today and for the run did not present any issues. The right knee felt a bit off for the last little bit of the run, but it didn’t persist and I don’t think it’s anything.
My BPM was a bit lower at 148 and I hadn’t noticed before, but the elevation on the river trail is nearly evenly split between ascending and descending (the lake, by comparison, is much more about the descending). I don’t think this means anything, I just noticed it.
In all, a good start to the week.
Post-run view of the river.
Stats:
Run 1,064 Average pace: 5:56/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: 0 Location: Brunette River Trail Start: 11:28 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 29:49 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 16–17°C Humidity: 73–69% Wind: light BPM: 148 Weight: 171.7 pounds Total distance to date: 7,125 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (105/227/332)
Where: Serpentine Fen, Blackie Spit (Surrey), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam) Weather: Partly sunny, 19–21°C
20,000 steps and four locations later, we wrapped up the penultimate summer birding outing for 2026 under partly sunny skies.
Serpentine Fen
Rare instance of the Serpentine River not lined with people fishing.
First up was Serpentine Fen, which had a weirdly large number of people fishing along it, like there was a contest or something. And that contest was Insure No Waterfowl Will Hang Out Because of Everyone Fishing. Despite that, we did see some herons, and assorted seagulls over the river.
We also spotted some Yellow-rumped Warblers in a stand of trees, but my camera failed to properly focus on any of the four shots I managed, as the warblers tend to move around a lot. It was confused, I was sad.
This is the best I got, as example:
Note the branch behind in perfect focus. 😛
However, the best stuff would come later, not when we discovered they had finally patched the scarily huge hole in the floor of the second viewing tower, though that was nice to see:
I did not test the sturdiness of the caution-taped plank.
But rather, one of the ponds that had not dried up was host to not just some Northern Shovellers, back from wherever they hide during the summer, but also multiple varieties of shorebirds capering about, both in and out of the water. Neat.
We also observed a plump spider feasting on a grasshopper caught in its web, and another one making a web using its butt spinneret. It was quite an elaborate show.
There were also the aforementioned billions of butterflies, mainly the West Coast Lady, a predominately orange butterfly that is tricksy to shoot.
In all, Serpentine Fen proved better than I expected. The abundance of fishers was still weird, though.
Blackie Spit
Looking north. Blackie Spit already has an early fall look to it.
With everyone fishing at Serpentine Fen, fewer people were at Blackie Spit, which made parking easier. We did not see any Savannah Sparrows, so they may be gone for the season, which will make Nic sad. Seeing some (distant) Caspian Terns helped to mollify, though.
The highlights here were Black-capped Chickadees, more shorebirds in the creek adjacent to the trail to the pump station and about 20 million Mallards, who were in such plentiful numbers there was a constant set of them flying over and landing in the water. We also caught a glimpse of a Belted Kingfisher darting overhead.
We also saw probably the last of the sad wasps, and some of the sparkly beetles previously seen at Iona Beach.
I also got a blurry shot of a Mallard pooping mod-flight, which I will share here:
If you gotta go, you gotta go. Also remember this when a duck is flying over you.
Combined with the usual nice scenery, Blackie Spit was perfectly cromulent.
Piper Spit
View from the pier, looking east. Not shown: Bad people feeding good birds.
But Nic was not sated, so we went to Piper Spit. And yes, there were people feeding the birds. Not just feeding them, but feeding them from a honking huge bag of seed:
The bears means it will attract bears, too, probably.
But once we looked past the people feeding the birds, we noted the presence of Green-winged Teals, Common Mergansers and some Northern Pintails, newly arrived (or back from wherever they hide). There was also a group of Killdeer capering about on and around the island area, along with some Long-billed Dowitchers and yellowlegs. It was a very Shorebirdy day.
A few male Mallards are close to being back to their breeding colours, but multiple Wood Ducks are already sporting their shiny mullets again and looking pretty.
Tlahutum Regional Park
The classic view of the Coquitlam River from the Millennium Bridge.
We wrapped up with a trip to the community garden because the number of sparrows and sparrow-adjacent birds we’d seen up to this point was a bit low and Nic wanted MOAR.
However, the garden proved nearly bird-free. We did see a few fleeting Golden-crowned Sparrows, confirming they’re back, as well as a White-crowed Sparrow or two, but that was it.
I got some nice shots of flowers and the river.
In the end, a busy and pretty good day of birding. We didn’t see any coots, but the fall migration has definitely begun, so coot time is coming.
The Shots
All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto. Some landscape shots captured with a Samsung Galaxy S26.
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Clearing skies, cooler temperatures.
As the kids would say.
With three days since my last run and the left knee feeling stiff after possibly twisting it while sleeping (?!), I opted to take it easy (don’t sue me, Don Henley!) and ended with a pace of 6:10/km, which is fine. Conditions were similar to Monday, but my BPM was up at a bit at 150, maybe just a bit flabby or something.
I did have six geese fly over me as I crossed the bridge at Deer Lake Brook. I’m not sure if that’s lucky or not. They didn’t poop on me, so maybe lucky.
I also had to avoid a riding mower, a parks truck, and a putt-putt car. The trail was busy, but not with people. I did not see any regular runners, but one guy running the opposite direction had BO strong enough to knock down an elephant. It hit me about a second after I passed him. I don’t want to know what he had for breakfast.
In all, a perfectly decent way to end the week. The knee survived and I remain on track.
Piper Spit, post-run, looking like Still Creek.
Run 1,063 Average pace: 6:10/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: -1 Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 9:37 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 31:00 Weather: Cloudy, some sun Temp: 15–16°C Humidity: 76–73% Wind: light BPM: 150 Weight: 171.9 pounds Total distance to date: 7,120 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (100/223/323)
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Cloudy, with drizzle imminent.
It’s Labour Day and despite the cloudy skies and threat of rain, the trail was reasonably packed, with joggers, families, and others out and aboot.
And it was fine! Around 10 minutes into the run it started to drizzle and it persisted for about as long, so everyone out enjoying nature got slightly damp, including me. This was also fine.
I started out with a pace a little over the six-minute mark, second km was a bit faster and the rest were under, bringing my overall pace to 5:53/km, just edging my performance on Friday, though with an even lower BPM of 147. My final km was 5:33/km, my fastest lap post-surgery (noting it, as I don’t run for speed, but it’s nice to see I still have some oomph).
The runner with the weird armband was out again, still shirtless. He has a very neutral expression when he runs. Probably so people don’t notice the weird armband.
Conditions were very similar to Friday, and this helped produce a similar effort, which was better than I expected. Overall, a good start to the week.
A moody-looking lake, post-run.
Stats:
Run 1,062 Average pace: 5:53/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: 0 Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW) Start: 12:01 p.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 29:36 Weather: Cloudy, some drizzle Temp: 16–17°C Humidity: 77–73% Wind: light BPM: 147 Weight: 170.8 pounds Total distance to date: 7,115 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (95/210/305)
Where: Burnaby Lake Regional Park (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam) Weather: Sunny, 21-23°C
The first birding of September, which yielded no fall migrants (boo), but some photogenic locals (yay) and no tree frogs.
Looking north across the lake from the rowing pavilion.
Burnaby Lake Regional Park
We checked out the west end of Burnaby Lake again and it started with the flash of promise–a fleeting Savannah Sparrow. Then we saw no birds, but did catch some nice scenery. When we got to a view of the lake (something that may surprise a lot of people: on the 10 km loop around the lake, there aren’t actually many clear views of the lake itself) we saw a Great Blue Heron holding vigil in a tree far above us. It started to ruffle its feathers and I figured this meant one of two things: imminent flight, or pooping. But it tricked us and stayed put, even doing the one-legged thing.
As always we saw Canada Geese, both on the ground and in flight, with and without dander stuck to their bills. No Xtreme molting this time, though.
At the bridge over Deer Lake Brook we watched a Song Sparrow bouncing from lily pad to lily pad, thinking it was drinking, but further examination revealed the lily pads were festooned with bite-sized bugs perfect for noshing on (if you’re a Song Sparrow).
Nic opted to not try to shoot a Barn Swallow at the rowing pavilion. I was a little surprised some are still hanging around. Maybe it felt bad for us, since there were no fall migrants to be seen. Maybe they are waiting until actual fall starts.
We crossed over the new pedestrian bridge again, and with the better light, I got some semi-artsy shots of it.
In all, it was a nice trek, even if birds were scant.
Tlahutum Regional Park
The big pond at Tlahutum, now with water again.
There were a few more birds at Tlahutum, but being mid-afternoon, they proved a bit elusive, often chirping and singing from the trees, but not venturing out into the sun. We did catch sightings of House Finches and American Goldfinches. One goldfinch even cooperatively landed on a railing not far ahead of us, but my camera inexplicably refused to focus on it and it flew off. The goldfinch, not my camera. I was a but peeved, but technology, amirite?
We had better luck with pollinators, including a hover fly, another freaky sweat bee (?!) that was a shiny green, unlike the previous shiny blue one we saw. Or maybe they change colours. I don’t know how they work.
We saw a spider on the trail and got some shots, but looking at them later, we discovered the spider was carrying a whole load of babies on its back. Both delightful and terrifying.
We also saw a White-crowned Sparrow that had something very wrong with its face, though we couldn’t determine what it was–a mess of feathers on its right side that seemed to be obscuring the eye. It seemed to be faring all right, but was annoyed by whatever it was.
With birds keeping to themselves, I shot more kitsch than usual and experimented more with composition and just taking weird shots of things. I amused myself.
In the end, not a lot of bird shots (or shots, period) but it was nice to be out and the weather was a lot better than the original forecast, so hooray for that.
The Shots
All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto unless otherwise noted.
Pedestrian/cycling bridge over Highway 1 connecting to Burnaby Lake.
New pedestrian/cycling bridge over Highway 1 connecting to Burnaby Lake.
Canada Goose in front of chain link fence.
Canada Goose giving me a distinct "Whatchoo lookin' at?" look.
Great Blue Heron at the lake edge.
Great Blue Heron in a tree, ruffled.
Fixed wing bird, species Air Canada.
Ladybug on a leaf.
Lily pads in the sun.
A song Sparrow snacking on bugs on the lily pads in Deer Lake Brook.
Coquitlam River, looking full. And green.
One of the bolts holding together the Millennium Bridge that crosses the Coquitlam River.
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Cool, cloudy and calm.
I headed out a bit later than normal, but with the sky cloudy and temperatures cooler, I wasn’t overly concerned.
And it turned out the conditions were ideal for me to put in my best post-surgery run yet, making it the first time since mid-May that I broke the six-minute mark, coming in with an average of 5:54/km. My BPM was only slightly higher at 150 and never went higher than 155, an indication of how better weather is a mercy when running.
It was a more technical run, in that I was constantly having to dart around slugs. They were copious.
I saw a few old regular runners, including Hang Dog (he seemed to have more spring in his step than usual) and Very Old Guy with a Slight Limp, who always stares resolutely ahead while running (at a decent pace).
I didn’t experience any issues and my main focus, after breaking the six-minute mark on the second km, was to maintain or improve my pace for the rest of the run. When I hit 5:45/km at the 4K mark, I had breathing room, but still nicked off one more second before the end. It felt good to finally get back to the form I had.
This may all come undone if it’s hot and sunny on the next run, but for now I will bask in the small glory of today.
Still Creek, post-run.
Stats:
Run 1,061 Average pace: 5:54/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: 0 Location: Burnaby Lake (CW) Start: 11:28 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 29:44 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 16°C Humidity: 73–71% Wind: light BPM: 150 Weight: 170.4 pounds Total distance to date: 7,110 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (90/197/287)
View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Moody skies, calm waters.
Today’s goal was pretty simple: Beat the rain. Not that I’m afraid of melting or anything, I just prefer to run when it’s not raining, mostly because I wear glasses and they do not have little windshield wipers on them.
The forecast on the phone and the PC both agreed on showers, but disagreed on when. I decided the safest plan was to go to the lake (my preference) and do a short loop, which would get me back around 11:30 a.m., which was within the window of the more pessimistic forecast–and it worked! It was cloudy, but did not rain. The sun even threatened to poke out a few times, but never quite managed it.
I ran 2.8 km, turned around and planned on running on the main trail, but just as I neared the intersection between the main trail and the Conifer Loop, one of those giant mowers appeared around the corner of the main trail, appearing to take up almost the entire space. So it was off to the Conifer Loop, which I ran in its entirely, coming back out on the main trail and finishing ahead of where I’d planned, but with plenty of time to get back before The Rains (as I type this, it remains dry).
In terms of the run, it went well. My pace was 6:04/km, slightly edging Monday’s effort, though the overall time remained identical at 30:33. I felt fine and broke the six-minute mark on the final km again. The trail was fairly light in terms of traffic (other than giant mowers), no doubt due to the clouds, but the conditions were pretty good for running.
In all, a fine midweek effort.
Brunette River, post-run: Still low.
Stats:
Run 1,060 Average pace: 6:04/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: -1 Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop) Start: 10:13 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 30:33 Weather: Cloudy Temp: 19°C Humidity: 65–63% Wind: light BPM: 149 Weight: 171.3 pounds Total distance to date: 7,105 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (85/184/269)
Music: Saturday Night Fever soundtrack (so groovy)
I wrote 38 posts this month (counting this one) and yet I feel like I’ve somehow failed Blaugust because most of my posts were:
Running
Birding
Random photos
These are all “easy” posts for me and unless you’re really into (me) running, the running posts aren’t even that interesting (though one running post did get me an email–which delighted me!)
Still, I’m glad to have participated. A year from now, I don’t know if I’ll be blogging here in WordPress or somewhere else, but I’ll still be blogging and I’ll do Blaugust again. And I might remember to use the tag more often, too.
Now I need to read through some more of the Blaugust posts from others.
In some crazy alternate universe I bet I was down!
And to be fair, it was the last few days of the month when my weight spiked that makes it look so bad.
But enough with excuses, on to the stats!
It’s a mix of good and bad. The month ended with cookies, so there’s that. Food is my comfort, but I am doing a bit better. Baby steps. Baby steps that don’t lead to a box of Pop-Tarts.
I’m going to boldly predict I will still be down for the year, though!
January 1, 2026: 169.4 pounds
Current: 170.7 pounds Year to date: Up 1.3 pounds
August 1: 168.5 pounds August 31: 169.4 pounds (up 0.9 pounds)
Body fat: August 1: 26.2% August 31: 26.5% (up 0.3%)
Skeletal muscle mass: August 1: 29.8 kg August 31: 30.0 kg (up 0.2 kg)
For a change of pace (and to avoid it getting hotter) I opted to run the river trail today after getting off to a late start in the morning.
And it went well! I had two laps that came in under the six-minute mark, my overall pace was 6:05/km, which beats my previous run and is also the best since the surgery. My BPM was 149, as befits the less-demanding river trail.
I was even able to do math in my head–while running!–and figure out where I needed to turn back in the final km to end close to where I started, for maximum efficiency. And my calculation was pretty close!
I had no issues on the run and didn’t encounter many people. Because this trail is essentially a gated service road, it’s rare to experience actual crowding, but there weren’t even enough people to form a crowd. It was warmer than Saturday at 21°C, and humidity was lower at 55%, but neither had a real impact.
In all, a good start to the week.
Brunette River, post-run.
Stats:
Run 1,059 Average pace: 6:05/km Training status: Productive Performance Condition: +3 Location: Brunette River Trail Start: 11:09 a.m. Distance: 5.03 km Time: 30:33 Weather: Mostly sunny Temp: 21°C Humidity: 55% Wind: light BPM: 149 Weight: 170.7 pounds Total distance to date: 7,100 km Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation) Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (80/176/256)
Music: Into the Great Wide Open, Tom Petty and the Heartbreakers
