Birding, October 3, 2026: Coots without drama

Where: Blakeburn Lagoons Park, DeBoville Slough (Port Coquitlam), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Burnaby Lake Regional Park (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 17–22°C

intro text

Blakeburn Lagoons Park

The view from the “main” viewing platform.

I suggested Blakeburn Lagoons to see if we could spot the Green Heron again.

We did not see any the Green Heron. Or any herons that were green.

Some patience at what I think of as the main viewing platform paid off, as a Pied-billed Grebe eventually emerged. It caught a large fish and gobble it down. The babbies have grown, so it was able to do so without being harassed by hungry kids.

There were also some Gadwalls, plenty of Mallards and even more Mallards. Blakeburn Lagoons is relatively small, so we moved on after not too long.

DeBoville Slough

Boathouses along the slough.

We moved on to the DeBoville Slough and this time took the south trail. This allowed us to observe a number of multi-storey private homes, some of which seemed…odd, with lots of dodgy-looking artificial turf and side houses of unknown purpose. We also saw a flock of seagulls on the river (not the band), but not much else in the way of birds. The river scenery was quite nice, though, better than the north trail, I’d say.

Tlahutum Regional Park

Coquitlam River, looking full and ripply against a clear blue sky.

We started to see more birds here, along with a very dead grasshopper on the trail being noshed on by a wasp. So if you were wondering what wasps nosh on, there you go.

There was another grebe in the big pond, along with yet more Mallards. Several things were splashing in the Coquitlam River, but we never saw what they were, only the conspicuous splashes. Rather odd. Someone reported a seal sighting, which would also be odd in a river that doesn’t even directly connect to the ocean, but we lie in strange times.

The community gardens yielded a few sparrows and fleeting glimpses of Goldfinches, Yellow-rumped Warblers and chickadees. I surprised myself by getting a fairly decent shot of a warbler. Nic could also hear American Bushtits but they did not show themselves.

The garden is still looking fairly lush in the first week of October. We’ll see how it looks next time as we head into a fall that will be dominated by a Super El Nino™.

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake Regional Park

Just some of the many Long-billed Dowitchers at the spit.

Some people were allegedly feeding blackbirds right at the end of our visit to Piper Spit, but I didn’t see it, so for me, it was a crime-free outing.

The landmass adjacent to the pier is currently quite huge, bringing the shallows in close. This meant that the Long-billed Dowitchers present were pretty close. Nice. And there were a billion of them, more than I’ve ever seen here. Most were snoozing when we arrived, but a few woke up and stalked about, looking for yum yums.

There were only two geese present and both were snoozing, so no goose drama. Multiple coots are here, though, so potential for coot drama was high. In fact, we saw one coot standing on a sunken log and another swam up to it, surely spoiling for a fight. Instead, they briefly nuzzled, then swapped places. Coots, as always, are weird.

Most of the Mallards and Wood Ducks are now back to their shiny breeding colours, and blackbirds were flitting all over, including one that briefly landed on my head, despite my head being completely seed-free (to my knowledge).

In all, a decent outing, with gorgeous, summer-like weather and no sunburn as a bonus.

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 (heard)
  • American Goldfinch
  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Golden-crowned Sparrow
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • White-crowned Sparrow
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot
  • Canada Goose
  • Gadwall
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Pied-billed Grebe
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • Various seagulls

Raptors:

  • Turkey Vulture

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • A dead grasshopper
  • A living grasshopper
  • Some things splashing in the Coquitlam River

Run 1,073: Bonus run to address my OCD

View of the rowing pavilion, post-run (the first one, not this one).

After finishing my 5K, I walked about 1.5 km and decided to do another 2.5 km, so my total run stats would end in a nice round number instead of x.5 something. Yes, I will actually do more exercise just to have nicer looking stats.

Unsurprisingly, this was much like the previous run, but I had some extra zip, with an overall pace of 5:51/km and my BPM only up slightly to 148. No issues otherwise. I ended the run right near the 9K marker, so only had a short walk to exit the trail.

I listed to A Rush of Blood to the Head again, but this time not in shuffle mode, which was accidentally enabled the first time.

Stats:

Run 1,073
Average pace: 5:51/km
Training status: Maintaining
Performance Condition: 0
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 11:33 a.m.
Distance: 2.51 km
Time: 14:41
Weather: Mostly sunny
Temp: 15–16°C
Humidity: 84–78%
Wind: light
BPM: 148
Weight: 171.7 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,165 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (145/288/433)

Music: A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay (this time not in shuffle mode)

Run 1,072: The accidentally casual run

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Sunny and very humid.

I had no specific plan today, but decided to start a little gentler and see how things would shake out. At the first km mark, I felt pretty good. My pace was 6:11/km, which explains why I felt pretty good–that’s downright casual jogging for me. I continued with 6:12 for the second km and resigned myself to a nice, casual start to the week, but my pace improved and I decided to see if I could still get a 5K run in under the six-minute mark. I fell short, coming in at 6:03/km overall, but my BPM was a nice 147 and only peaked at 153 (well below the new maximum HR I was alerted to after the run ended: 163).

I didn’t experience any issues on the run and saw one regular, Hangdog, which was nice. I sweated more than expected, given the temperature, but humidity was quite high at 84%.

In all, it was a respectable start for the week. But it was only the beginning, as it turned out! (See next post for details.)

Reflections ahoy on the lake, post-run.

Stats:

Run 1,072
Average pace: 6:03/km
Training status: Maintaining
Performance Condition: 0
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW)
Start: 10:40 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 30:26
Weather: Mostly sunny
Temp: 14–15°C
Humidity: 84%
Wind: light
BPM: 147
Weight: 171.7 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,167.5 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (147.5/301.5/449)

Music: A Rush of Blood to the Head, Coldplay (accidentally in shuffle mode)

Inktober 2026 Prompt 2: Relic

An internet pal suggested “ear horn” as the relic. I added in some Gum Gum People and here we are.

I feel like I’m learning to draw again, but hopefully I’ll be happier with my output as the month progresses. If not, it’s bag of cookies time! Just kidding. I’ll force myself to have yogurt instead.

Run 1,071: Fake rain and squirrel fights

View of Brunette River, pre-run: Gray, with a splash of fall colour.

Yet another late start and as I headed outside, it was sprinkling a little, so I went back in, grabbed my Echo hoodie and headed off. Almost immediately the sprinkles stopped and I felt overdressed for the entire time I was out.

Welcome to early fall running.

I opted for the river trail and despite Performance Condition being +2, I still felt kind of slothful-even with a good night’s sleep, too. I was over six minutes for the second and third km, and just barely squeaked in under at 5:59/km for the overall average. I have no idea why it is taking so much more effort to get to a decent pace now. Is it the humidity? Am I now super sensitive to temperature change of any sort? Is my body still clogged full of cookies and slowing me down?

The good news is I experienced no issues, did pick up the pace and had an overall BPM of 147, which is pretty good. The weather meant the trail was nearly empty–I only saw one other runner and a cyclist for the entire time I was out.

Also, I saw at least seven squirrels before and after the run (curiously, none during the run. Maybe the river trail is not their preferred environment). After the run I spied a black squirrel clutching a chestnut in its mouth and being harassed by a crow clearly coveting the prize. The squirrel took advantage of its lower height by hiding under a parked car. The crow moved on. Score one for the squirrel’s winter stash.

The river, post-run. The trail travels (out of view) along the line of bushes on the left.

Stats:

Run 1,071
Average pace: 5:59/km
Training status: Maintaining
Performance Condition: +2
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 11:44 a.m.
Distance: 5.03 km
Time: 30:05
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 16°C
Humidity: 90–88%
Wind: light
BPM: 147
Weight: 170.9 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,162.5 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (142.5/288.5/431)

Music: Shuffle play

Firefox version 157 is very round (and how to make it less round)

Very, very round.

Firefox version 157 (Nova) “refreshes” the interface by taking the very, very round corners found in macOS Tahoe and applying them across everything in the browser.

I thought I remembered reading it would come with a control to let you set the roundness of the corners of various elements, because, as mentioned, they are very, very round. But I appear to have misremembered.

There is a way to turn the roundness off, described below. The option may disappear in the future, but it’s there, for now.

Revert Firefox to pre-Nova/157 look

  1. Enter about:config in the address bar and click the button to proceed if you get a warning.
  2. Search for nova.
  3. Click on the option browser.nova.enabled and set it to false.
  4. Restart Firefox (may not be necessary).
  5. Enjoy the pre-157 look.

The full manual control version

This keeps Nova, but lets you set how round various UI elements will be. I found it created some visual weirdness, but that might just be on my system.

  1. Enter about:support in the address bar.
  2. Under Application Basics find Profile Folder and click the Open Folder button.
  3. Create a folder in your profile folder called Chrome.
  4. Create a file in the Chrome folder called userChrome.css.
  5. Add this to the user.css file, save it and restart Firefox:

/* Force square corners on all Firefox UI elements */

{

  border-radius: 0px !important;

}

Set the px value to 0 for a fully sharp-edged experience. If you want a little roundness, adjust the value to taste. Somewhere around 4px-6px is close to pre-Nova.

I am a cancer survivor (and other thoughts)

It occurred to me the other day that I hadn’t written anything on this blog that wasn’t a run report or birding-related since September 3 and wondered, why is it? Ennui? Lack of interest? Just plain laziness? Questioning the value of putting my thoughts out onto this weird, hollow shell we call the internet?

I’m still not sure, but one thing also rolled into my mind shortly after: That I survived cancer. A year ago I didn’t even know I had cancer. In fact, it wasn’t until after my surgery in May this year that it was confirmed to be cancer–specifically thymoma (warning: link includes a kind of gross photo of a thymoma), a “less aggressive” form of cancer that forms as a tumor inside the same space where the thymus gland lives.

The surgery successfully removed the entire tumor, with no evidence that it had spread at all, so I am, as of now, cancer-free. But that’s the thing with cancer–once it’s in you, it can come back, unbidden and unwelcome. It’s why I have a follow-up CT scan scheduled for the one year anniversary of the surgery, in May 2027.

I’m not concerned, exactly, though there is that thought that circles in the back of my mind: that it could return. And that would be no fun.

But does it explain the lack of blog posts?

Maybe, maybe not. I think it’s had some effect, because it’s made me pull back and start reexamining a lot of things, and deciding what’s important, what isn’t, and what silly things are still worth doing, even if they’re not capital letter Important. Is blogging one of them?

I think it is, but I’m not as sure as I once was. Many days this past month I had the urge to write something (my approach, discussed before, is: every topic, no matter how trivial or inane, is fair game), but I always held off. Of course, doing this creates a reinforcing habit of not writing. Someone offered the generic “follow your muse”, which is terrible advice because the muse doesn’t exist. It’s another way of saying. “Wait for inspiration,” which is also terrible advice. I mean, it’s good advice if you never want to do anything, because you can always claim, guilt-free, that the muse/inspiration never came to visit.

To do something you need to invest in it, put in the effort. Do the work. I enjoy writing and something happened this month that made me generally not want to. You have to go back to February 2020–over six years ago–to find a time where I posted less than 30 posts per month. Something happened.

Whether it was confronting my own mortality and being left unsure about the future, or something else, it put a stop to everything that wasn’t a semiautomatic thing (like the running posts). This carried over into other areas, too, where I just felt less engaged or plugged in. I became a spectator instead of a participant. And I don’t even use AI!

Anyway, I shall ponder things and see if other posts follow this one, and if so, when.

I am planning on trying Inktober this year, so that would guarantee a post-per-day and might lead to more. We’ll all find out tomorrow!