Run 1,070: Bikes, people and haunted woods

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: A bit cooler, but still sunny and calm.

Note: I missed Monday’s run due to waiting all day for a delivery that did not show up. Fun!

Today’s run was a bit weird. It is a stat holiday (National Day for Truth and Reconciliation), so I expected the trail to be busier than normal, especially since the weather was also sunny. And it was! But more than I expected. There were a lot of people out, walking, jogging, walking with dogs, jogging with dogs. All the dogs were leashed and well-behaved. The humans were less well-behaved, as I counted four (!) cyclists. Two rode directly past me post-run. The second stopped when I said bikes weren’t allowed on the trail. He said he didn’t know. LIAR. Then, strangely, he rode off. A couple approaching me after seeing this both shook their heads at me. Indeed. The first guy was riding way too fast and never stopped. I hope a coyote bites and punctures both his tires.

As mentioned, conditions were good. It started a tad cool at 13 and only rose to 14 over the run, but it was sunny throughout.

Apart from the crowds, the run went fine. I didn’t really find my mojo until the 4th km and turned in a respectable 5:57/km pace. My BPM was up a bit to 151, reflecting my lack of mojo, perhaps. I didn’t experience any issues, so that was good. In fact, once I picked up the pace, I felt pretty good for the rest and for the 9 km walk back home.

As I approached the end of the river trail, near North Road, a guy with a white beard standing just off the trail motioned to me. I muted my music and went over. Her gestured toward the trees that stood between us and the nearby Brunette River. He told me the woods were haunted and he could hear the voices of women talking. I pointed out a nearby trail that gives access to the river and how it’s not really far from us. He pondered this, speculated there could also be people under the bridge (also nearby) and seemed satisfied. I continued home before he could switch to some other topic.

Back to the run: I opted for a 5K (instead of another 7.5K) because of the aforementioned mojo deficiency, which means I still have that dangling 0.5 in my total run distance. I’ll live with it for now.

In all, not bad for a midweek effort.

The lake getting all reflective, post-run.

Stats:

Run 1,070
Average pace: 5:57/km
Training status: Maintaining
Performance Condition: -1
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:17 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:55
Weather: Sunny with some scattered clouds
Temp: 13–14°C
Humidity: 75–70%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 171.9 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,157.5 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (137.5/284.5/422)

Music: Shuffle play

Run 1,069: Stretching out

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Partly clear and pleasantly cool.

Due to waiting for a delivery yesterday (it was a no-show) and the absence of birding today, I opted to do a run! The watch was recommending a run of 54 minutes (!) at a pace of 8.3 km/hour. I pondered this briefly and rejected it, as I always do. But I was feeling a little frisky, so I decided to try for 7.5 km for the first time in…a long time.

And I did it! My pace hovered around the six-minute mark the whole run and while I knew I could probably come in under if I pushed, I made myself not push, but instead maintain that steady pace. The extra distance (adding about 15 minutes to the run) actually felt fine–I did actually increase my pace very slightly, so I was not flagging at all.

The first minute or so my right ankle felt very creaky. I almost thought of pausing the run, but was reasonably confident it would work itself out, which it did.

I did pause the run to swing my belt with the phone in it around, so the phone was in the small of my back instead of out front, as it’s starting to droop and I had a theory it was somehow making my shorts curl up. I know it sounds strange, just trust me on this. I’m also going to be looking into longer shorts as we get deeper into fall. The five inch ones are nice for showing off my sexy legs, but maybe they’re bulking up too much or something, because the bottom edges are constantly starting to curl up. It’s annoying. Anyway, whatever is causing the curl won’t happen if the shorts are longer.

As for the rest of the run, my BPM was a very fine 147 and apart from the ankle, I experienced no issues. I saw one topless runner, though he didn’t start topless (I passed him twice). No armband, though. But about every other runner was wearing one of those lace-up vests, so they are apparently the hot thing in the runner world right now. I feel like a rebel by not wearing one.

In all, it was good to stretch out the distance for the first time in a long time and have it go well. My next run will either be the same or be 2.5K. We’ll see!

View of the lake looking west, post-run.

Stats:

Run 1,069
Average pace: 6:00/km
Training status: Productive
Performance Condition: Unknown
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 12:03 p.m.
Distance: 7.51 km
Time: 45:05
Weather: Partly sunny
Temp: 14–15°C
Humidity: 75–67%
Wind: light
BPM: 147
Weight: 173.4 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,152.5 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (132.5/271.5/404)

Music: Shuffle play

Birding, September 19, 2026: Birthday birds and freaky insects

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Centennial Beach (Delta), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Mostly sunny, 18–21°C

It was my birthday and what better way to celebrate than going out and getting lightly sun burnt while watching freaky insects and pooping birds?

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

The main pond at Reifel.

We started at Reifel and were immediately rewarded with multiple Anna’s Hummingbirds darting to and fro around the feeders, which were bathed in very nice sunlight. There was also a plethora of shorebirds in the main pond by the entrance.

Also by the entrance, around the warming hut and gift shoo: a whole bunch of spiders. I’ve never seen so many. What do they know that we don’t?

The London Slough, normally ringed by herons, was now full of shorebirds, standing in lines on the logs, mixed in with geese, ducks, and turtles. Why can’t we all just chill out and hang out on logs together like that?

The eastern dyke trail gave us our best shots of chickadees, though we did see them flitting about in other areas. We also caught a roving band of American Bushtits, but alas, I was not able to get any shots good enough to post other than to prove they were there.

And we saw coots. They are back, with their glorious feet and cooty ways.

We saw goose drama, of course, but the Sandhill Cranes were off elsewhere. Making up for their absence was a rare sighting of a Barred Owl, snoozing away in a tree just off of one of the bird blinds. Neat! I’m not sure they still exist, though. Maybe it was a group hallucination.

And the trails have been mostly repaired now, so no more navigating lumpy rocks, it’s also fine gravel or cushiony loam.

Centennial Beach

The goose peninsula.

Whatever was happening at Centennial Beach was not happening this time, so parking was easy. We saw a Northern Shoveller at the pond. Their numbers should start increasing significantly soon.

The tide was in, so we did not see much in the way of shorebirds, apart from some distant Killdeer and the like. If you count Canada Geese as shorebirds, then we saw plenty, as they were colonizing a peninsula not far off the shore.

The highlight, strange as it sounds, was an insect, specifically a praying mantis, which I’ve never seen in person before. It started by Nic nearly stepping on it, as it plopped right down on the trail, seemingly oblivious to us. At first I thought it was a walking stick, but no, it was a praying mantis in all its freaky glory.

It was very graceless, appearing to have trouble both flying and walking. The flying was a series of short belly hops, the walking was like, “These legs are not made for this.” Kind of strange. We took many photos, then left it to hopefully find some way off the trail.

Tlahutum Regional Park

A different view of the Coquitlam River.

We ended at Tlahutum, but birds were hard to come by, for some reason. We did see a few sparrows, but most seemed tucked away somewhere. We spotted a Turkey Vulture flying overhead, but it was very high up. And there was a crow that was molting so conspicuously around its head that it looked a bit like a vulture.

This is also where I’m pretty sure I got sunburned. There is essentially no shaded places at Tlahutum.

In all, a fine birthday outing, with some rare sightings, returned migrants and terrifying goose drama.

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.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Bushtit
  • American Goldfinch
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Dark-eyed Junco
  • Gadwall
  • Golden-crowned Sparrow
  • House Finch
  • Northern Flicker
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • White-crowned Sparrow
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot
  • Canada Goose
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Greater Yellowlegs
  • Hooded Merganser
  • Killdeer
  • Lesser Yellowlegs
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern Pintail
  • Northern Shoveller
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • European Starling
  • Various seagulls

Raptors:

  • Northern Harrier
  • Turkey Vulture

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Spiders
  • Two squirrels in a box
  • Western painted turtles
  • A praying mantis!

Run 1,068: The smoky tang of autumn

Brunette River, pre-run: Signs of fall.

The first run of fall was stinky. I don’t mean performance-wise, because even though I felt lethargic starting out, I finished with a respectable pace of 5:57/km and an excellent BPM of 143. No, it’s because the air had a distinct smell of smoke from…somewhere. Combine that with the usual equally distinct sewer odour near the start of the river trail and it was an olfactory assault right from the start.

I’m not sure if this affected my performance (the weather app on my phone said conditions for running were “fair” and air quality was listed in yellow as “moderate”) but it certainly didn’t help, nor did it give me exciting mutant abilities, either.

I wore my Echo hoodie for the run, mostly in case of showers, but apart from a few random drops, it did not rain. It stayed cloudy and 14°C through the run, though, which was quite pleasant.

I did not encounter many people and the run was pretty uneventful. I picked up the pace in the last few km and this pushed me under the six-minute mark, so yay for finding a little energy.

Anyway, not bad for a midweek effort.

Post-run: The forest primeval.

Stats:

Run 1,068
Average pace: 5:57/km
Training status: Productive
Performance Condition: Unknown
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 11:11 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 29:57
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 14°C
Humidity: 88–85%
Wind: light
BPM: 143
Weight: 172.1 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,145 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (125/261/386)

Music: Shuffle play

Run 1,067: End of summer and surprise coyote

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: A fine last day of summer for 2026.

My watch warned me I might feel more tired and irritable today and it was right on both counts!

After spending most of the morning being irritated, I finally headed to the lake to do a run, intending on a more mild effort to start the week. It turns out I didn’t even need to plan for this, it just happened, because I was very low energy. I picked up the pace to break the six-minute mark in the final km, but overall felt decidedly meh. I didn’t experience any other issues, though.

The weather was fine, though my later start meant it was a few degrees warmer, which may have had a bit of a drag effect on my pace, too.

Also, this is kind of weird: Both today and Friday’s runs (in two different locations) began at the same time, 11:36 a.m. I’m not sure it means anything, other than I should get out earlier.

During the run I saw a fair number of other joggers, including a topless one at the start (no armband, though), and none I recognized. I also saw two snakes, one during the run and one after:

Just chilling on the trail with no legs.

But the highlight, so to speak, was: I finally saw a coyote (they have had signs up all summer warning about increased coyote activity but I had yet to see one). And I actually walked right past it, close enough to reach out and pet it, without even noticing it. As I passed, I caught movement in the corner of my eye and there it was in the grass, intent on…something. It looked up at me for a moment, then went back to whatever it was doing. As you can see in this not-great photo, it had a handsome gray coat of fur:

Coyote in the grass, sailor take warning! No, wait, that’s not how it goes.

In all, for the final day of summer and my first post-birthday run, it was fine. Perhaps I’ll have more pep on Wednesday.

View from the bridge on Deer Lake Brook, post-run.

Stats:

Run 1,067
Average pace: 6:05/km
Training status: Productive
Performance Condition: -2
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:36 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 30:34
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 18–19°C
Humidity: 69–64%
Wind: light
BPM: 149
Weight: 172.9 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,140 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (120/257/377)

Music: Shuffle play

Run 1,066: A modest outing

View of Brunette River, pre-run: Another cloudless late summer day.

I headed out later than planned, never stretched beforehand, and got into the middle of a bit of drama between two people I was not actually involved in before I could even head out, so today’s run was a bit off-kilter. I chose to do the river trail in the name of expediency and adopted a more casual pace.

In the end, I kind of wished I’d pushed a little more at the start, because I could have come in under the six-minute mark, instead of ending with 6:02/km. This is still fine, of course, and despite being warmer and less humid, my BPM was a nice low 145 overall.

The run was otherwise unremarkable and the (still slightly) stiff left knee did not factor in. I passed another runner I sometimes see on the river trail who always has this big, cheerful smile when he passes, as if jogging is the happiest thing in the world. It unnerves me as much as it delights me. I do not smile like that. Ever.

In all, a decent end to the week.

The river, post-run, from a slightly different angle, thanks to the low water letting me move in farther.

Stats:

Run 1,066
Average pace: 6:02/km
Training status: Productive
Performance Condition: +1
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 11:36 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 30:18
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 20–21°C
Humidity: 57%
Wind: light
BPM: 145
Weight: 171.6 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,135 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (115/244/359)

Music: Shuffle play

Run 1,065: Sun and shade

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Nothing but blue sky.

The weather turned out to be a bit warmer than expected, with a projected high of 24°C, so I was lucky to get out early. It was 17 at the start of the run and ticked up to 18, so a bit warmer than Monday, with humidity roughly the same.

The sun is now lower in the morning, so I am seeing a lot more of the dappled sun thing when going under the tree canopy–gotta watch for those tricky exposed tree roots in the shade, though there’s only a few right now. But it only takes one, as I found out back in 2016.

The shaded areas felt pleasantly cool and in this last week of summer, the sunny stretches did not feel too warm–and it was quite sunny, blue sky stretching to the horizon.

I went clockwise and got off to a slow start, partly thanks to some people crowding the trail near the start, but also because I just didn’t move that fast. The opening pace of 6:13/km pretty much doomed me to an overall pace over the six-minute mark (and it was at 6:05/km), but it’s fine. I felt good and didn’t really push, though my pace did improve as I progressed, and the final lap dipped under six minutes, to 5:58/km.

In all, a cromulent midweek effort.

Also: The stiff left knee is mostly better now and as before, did not present any issue on the run.

A few ripples from the geese in Still Creek, post-run.

Stats:

Run 1,065
Average pace: 6:05/km
Training status: Productive
Performance Condition: +2
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 9:58 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 30:40
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 17–18°C
Humidity: 75–66%
Wind: light
BPM: 150
Weight: 172.0 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,130 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (110/240/350)

Music: About Face, David Gilmour

Run 1,064: River low, runner high

Brunette River, pre-run: Calm and cool.

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)

Music: About Face, David Gilmour

Birding, September 12, 2026: The return of (some) migrants, surprise shorebirds, plus a billion butterflies

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.

Gallery soon™.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • House Finch
  • Northern Flicker
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • White-crowned Sparrow
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Belted Kingfisher
  • Caspian Tern
  • Common Merganser
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Greater Yellowlegs
  • Green-winged Teal
  • Killdeer
  • Lesser Yellowlegs
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern Pintail
  • Northern Shoveller
  • Pectoral Sandpiper (a lifer, I think?)
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • European Starling
  • Various seagulls

Raptors:

  • Northern Harrier

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Several ladybugs
  • Spiders spinning webs and noshing on grasshoppers
  • A squirrel with an acorn

Run 1,063: Deliberately mid

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)

Music: Savage, Eurythmics

Run 1,062: Sunblock not required

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)

Music: Discovery, ELO

Birding, September 5, 2026: Random objects, plus some birds

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.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Goldfinch
  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Barn Swallow
  • Black-capped Chickadee (heard)
  • House Finch
  • Savannah Sparrow
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee (heard)
  • White-crowned Sparrow
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Canada Goose
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Mallard
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • Rock Pigeon

Raptors:

  • None!

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • A ladybug
  • A fuzzy caterpillar
  • A spider and her brood
  • The promise of frogs, but no actual frogs (again)