Birding, August 8, 2026: Bad day to be a fish

Where: Serpentine Fen, Blackie Spit/Crescent Beach (Surrey), Brydon Lagoon (Langley)
Weather: Sunny, 21–27°C

In which certain aspects of the food chain are demonstrated live.

Serpentine Fen

The start of our trek at Serpentine Fen, featuring the Serpentine River.

As we often do, we saw some Great Blue Herons at the fen, standing in or near the river, waiting to stab fish. We saw a little action, but didn’t notice any great blue success.

That would change farther down the river, where some gulls were hanging out. One took off, circled over the river, came in to land and promptly snapped up a sizable fish. It then started gliding around the very still water and dunked its head in, coming up with an even larger fish that took several large gulps to swallow. I swear I could see the fish twitching from inside the gull on the way down. It was a vivid demonstration of how gulls can hunt and eat more than just French fries.

We also watched a pair of Kingfishers chase each other about in the sky above us. Whether it was love or war I could not determine.

We also saw a sole Hooded Merganser, which allegedly don’t migrate, but like coots, pintails and shovellers, seem to hide somewhere during the summer.

One of the three viewing towers has a hole in the (wooden) floor and it seems to be getting a little bigger each time we visit. I guess if you stick to the parts of the floor where the planks are intact, it’s still safe?

We also saw a million grasshoppers because it’s grasshopper season. They continue to demonstrate the power of excellent camouflage, as I often did not see them until we got close enough to prompt them to vamoose.

It was nice to return to the fen, even if birds were a bit in short supply. This is expected in summer, but we could at least appreciate the lush vegetation and warm weather.

Blackie Spit/Crescent Beach

Small bay at Blackie Spit.

Blackie Spit’s parking lots were full, so we had to park on a nearby street. This meant we started a bit further down on Crescent Beach, where I saw a hydrant that I had to shoot (with my phone). Nic said he overhead some guys walking by commenting on the weirdo shooting photos of the hydrant. Yes, I am that weirdo!

Here is the hydrant:

A sturdy little plug.

We saw bunches of herons here, along with some Greater Yellowlegs, and Killdeer. Sadly, most of them were a bit far away, but we were lucky to see them at all, as the tide was actually in when we arrived (it’s usually not just out, but way out).

The beach and picnic areas were very active, so with birds, especially songbirds, a bit on the rare side, I took more scenery shots of boats and random objects.

Brydon Lagoon

Looking north across the lagoon.

Our final stop was Brydon Lagoon, which gave us a single Grebe and our first Wood Ducks. There were gulls here, too, but instead of hunting, they were mostly bossing around the ducks, establishing just which floating objects they could sit upon. We saw one rather young Wood Duck that still could not fly and it was either parent-free or the parents were letting it test its freedom. It seemed to be fine.

Overall, a perfectly cromulent day of birding. The fall/winter migrants should be arriving soon, so variety should be improving. Also, the mostly absent squirrels might return. I have no idea where or why they are hiding. Maybe they don’t like the sun. I mean, if you were fur-covered, would you?

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:

  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Cedar Waxwing
  • Spotted Towhee
  • White-crowned Sparrow
  • Yellow Tanager

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Belted Kingfisher
  • Canada Goose
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Greater Yellowlegs
  • Hooded Merganser
  • Mallard
  • Killdeer
  • Pied-billed Grebe
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • European Starling
  • Various seagulls

Raptors:

  • None!

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators

August 3 2026 birding gallery is up

As the title says. This one is a mix of bugs, birds, and scenery, with a few horses thrown in.

Original post here.

Run 1,051: Replay with pit stop

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Calm and warm again.

Today’s run was mostly a replay of Wednesday’s, with almost every stat and condition being very similar to the last run:

  • Similar temperature and humidity
  • Similar pace and BPM

It was marginally better overall (and air quality was much better), but mostly it’s a rounding error. I started out stronger with an initial pace of 6:09/km, but that dropped off after the 2K mark. I detoured to the Nature House and got a drink at the fountain. This revived me enough to improve my pace…for exactly one km. After that, it was slow again, but in the end the watch declared the run Productive, so who am I to argue?

I minimized the overall workout by doing a short loop, running about 2.75 km CCW, then turning around and heading back. I originally planned to skip the side trails on the return, but the main trail is a lot more exposed to the sun and the shade was very inviting.

I feel there were a few more runners out today, but maybe that’s just a Friday thing.

Other than sweating a lot and feeling like the whole thing was a bit of a slog, I experienced no real issues. In all, a perfectly okay run, but I’m really feeling that six-week gap when I was recovering from surgery and the weather went from pleasant to kind of hot. 25 feels like 30 to me. At least it’s not actually 30.

Brunette River, post-run.

Stats:

Run 1,051
Average pace: 6:23/km
Training status: Productive
Performance Condition: +1
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 11:00 a.m.
Distance: 5.02 km
Time: 32:05
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 24–25°C
Humidity: 54–51%
Wind: light
BPM: 152
Weight: 169.8 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,060 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (40/92/132)

Music: Private Eyes, Hall and Oates

Run 1,050: Yellow Warning

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Haze in the distance.

Canada has a colour-coded weather alert system and when weather is fine, it is colour-free. When it is bad, it can be Yellow, Orange, or Red. Today it is Yellow.

Environment Canada described today’s alert thus:

Issued By

Meteorological Service of Canada, CA, Environment and Climate Change Canada

Affected Area

Metro Vancouver - central including the City of Vancouver Burnaby and New Westminster

Description

Smoke is causing or expected to cause poor air quality and reduced visibility.

Yellow Air Quality Warning in Effect (High Health Risk)

Limit outdoor activity. Reduce activity duration and intensity.

The weather app on my phone described the air quality as “unhealthy”:

I ran anyway.

Did I regret it? Not exactly, but I can also say the run did not make my socks roll up and down in excitement, either.

It was not as hot as Friday, but humidity was significantly higher and I sweated like crazy. The first few km were fine, but the heat/humidity/haze triple combo began wearing me down just past the midway point. I kept going because to the west the sky looked more blue than yellow, and I was running toward the west.

Along the way, I noted precious few other people out jogging, so most were smarter than me. I didn’t experience any specific issues while running–no cramps, creakiness, or whatnot, the whole thing just started feeling like a long, sweaty slog.

Which it was.

In the final km, I reached the rowing pavilion parking lot, crossed over and was greeted by a Trail Closed sign. The last time on this stretch there was only a Trail Closed sign on one end and no sign (ho ho) of any work activity. I paused to contemplate whether to turn back, ignore the sign and assume no work was actually being done (which was the case last time), or go up Roberts Road and reconnect with the trail somewhere over yonder. I couldn’t recall where Roberts Road came out in relation to the trail, so decided against that and could not hear any activity, so I decided to continue running past the Trail Closed sign, telling myself I’d turn around if I saw any people and equipment.

I saw people and equipment right at the very end. Whoops. I felt bad, but at least they were working on the little spur of the official Burnaby Lake Loop and not the part of the trail I was defying the sign on. Ironically, my run ended about 20 seconds later, anyway.

Despite the conditions, I ended up being only four seconds slower than Friday, which surprised me. I guess that’s good. And the watch, which does not know anything about air quality, declared the run productive, so also good.

Now I am off to drink three kegs of water.

Still Creek, post-run, with bonus geese and a not very blue sky.

Stats:

Run 1,050
Average pace: 6:24/km
Training status: Productive
Performance Condition: 0
Location: Burnaby Lake (CW)
Start: 10:40 a.m.
Distance: 5.01 km
Time: 32:11
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 22–24°C
Humidity: 62–57%
Wind: light
BPM: 153
Weight: 170.0 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,055 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (35/84/119)

Music: Accelerate, R.E.M.

A thing that shouldn’t annoy me, but does (pods)

Lately I’ve noticed people shortening the word podcast to just pod. I understand the reasoning–a podcast originally referred to an audio program meant to be played on an iPod (kids, ask your parents) but with the iPod dead and buried, if not forgotten (I still have two) I can see why people might want to use a different term now. And this is before you get into what even counts as a podcast now, since a lot of them are now also on platforms like YouTube, where they are…videos.

Still, “pod” bugs me because it still retains the “pod” part of “iPod”, which seems to me to be the part you’d want to replace. But mainly it just sounds just too twee (yes, I have a kind of twee meter in my head that tells me when something crosses the “too twee” line) and doesn’t really make sense because peas are in pods, not people talking to each other. Also:

Podcast > Pod

Broadcast > Broad

If the latter becomes accepted usage, I will embrace pod.

Birding, August 3, 2026: Hawks on the ground, eagles in the sky

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Boundary Bay (Delta)
Weather: Sunny, 18–23°C

The first birding of August, just before the fall fliers1bird and consumer joke rolled into one start arriving.

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

Marshland and distant mountains at Reifel Bird Sanctuary.

We started at Reifel, which was packed in the morning with both hardcore birders and their Very Big lenses, and assorted families and holiday goers (today is BC Day here in, well, BC).

We did a reverse of our usual route, which isn’t especially radical, but does give a slightly different view on things.

As expected, no fall arrivals have shown up early, but the barn swallows are still hanging around. In fact, we saw one actively maintaining a nest, so at least one more batch of babies is on the way.

Nic shot a billion swallows in flight. I shot a few and the results were not horrible, nor good, but somewhere in the middle. Horrigood.

Most of the ponds were devoid of any waterfowl, but we did see some:

  • A pair of Spotted Sandpipers in the pond by the viewing platform
  • A pair of Greater Yellowlegs in one of the small ponds east of the viewing platform
  • A large group of Long-billed Dowitchers in one of the large main ponds

The dowitchers and sandpipers were not very close, alas, but the yellowlegs compensated.

Sparrows seemed to be mostly hiding from the sun, but some chickadees and House Sparrows were out. And we saw a scruffy young Yellow-rumped Warbler, who was just starting to show some of its yellow.

The geese had filthy mouths and fluff beards, but were well-behaved. A large gaggle on the shore past the marshland may have been migrating.

The oddest moment came when a bird of some sort flew directly over us on the outer dyke and landed on the trail ahead. The profile seemed to be a hawk of some sort, but having one land on the trail is very weird. It flew a bit into a shadier spot, and we got some photos before it…walked into the grass, then popped out and finally flew off. I correctly ID’d it as a Cooper’s Hawk because it’s one of the few I know are local.

And near the end we saw the Sandhill Crane family, so in all, a fine outing, even if many of the ponds are a little too green.

Boundary Bay

Boundary Bay minus the bay, due to low tide.

We originally went to Centennial Beach, but for some reason it was so busy the parking lot was full and backed up. Nice weather + holiday = overcrowded? Whatever it was, I finally relented and agreed to go to Boundary Bay. As always, the scenery was nice, but the tide was extremely low, so seeing shorebirds meant walking about a km across the mudflats to find some water and hoping for the best. We did not do this.

Instead, we walked a few km along the trail mostly populated by cyclists and a few people on horseback, and shot a lot of grasshoppers. We did see a few errant birds, such as some Cedar Waxwings, but that was it.

I am sated on this stretch of Boundary Bay for, let’s say, the next year. Or more. 😛

But overall, the weather was lovely (not too hot) and we saw some birds we don’t see often, so a good time was had.

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:

  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Barn swallow
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Cedar Waxwing
  • Collared Dove
  • House Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Belted Kingfisher
  • Canada Goose
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Greater Yellowlegs
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Sandhill Crane
  • Spotted Sandpiper

Common:

  • American Crow
  • Rock Pigeon
  • Various seagulls

Raptors:

  • Bald Eagle
  • Cooper’s Hawk
  • Northern Harrier

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • A red-eared slider (turtle)
  • Woodland Skipper (approx. one million)

Some trees and a thought (not about trees)

First, this photo I took midway down the path to Lower Hume Park, showing trees and the park further below beyond them. I like the spot of sun on the centre tree.

My camera is a Samsung Galaxy S26, which I keep meaning to write a mini-review on.

And looking at the photo, which nicely obscures that it was taken in the middle of an urban sprawl…

The green to the left is Burnaby Lake Regional Park, where I jog. On the trails, not in the lake.

…I was reminded of an infection I got back in 2018. That might seem odd, and it is. Let me explain (or read this post, because I tend to chronicle all of my health issues and injuries for some reason). It was a kidney infection, which turned out to be a much gentler version of another I would develop six years later. This first one still resulted in me not being able to walk very fast as without a lot of discomfort while I recovered. Being forced to slow down made me pay more attention to my surroundings and I started snapping photos of local scenery and especially flowers. I dubbed this “flower therapy” because I found it very soothing to find some flowers, frame them, then snap a few shots.

And I still find it soothing. Lining up the shot of the trees above put me in an almost meditative mood. I’m sure there’s some science about chemicals being released into my brain. Maybe just plain old dopamine. Whatever it is, I like it, and it’s a simple pleasure I still indulge in eight years later, even without any infections (that I know of).

My first Blaugust 2026 post

My first official™ post for Blaugust 2026 comes with me at a crossroads when it comes to blogging.

A few years back I began exploring options to move away from WordPress, which started as a blogging platform but has evolved into something that does way more than what is needed for a simple blog with words and images.

Also, the head of WP started making…interesting public statements and committing actions that left me uncertain about the platform’s future.

I explored many different sites and platforms, and several came close, but always lacked something. I admit I am a fussy person, and it may be impossible to fully satisfy me. WordPress works, not because it’s exactly what I want, but it gives me flexibility to bend it to my vision, such as it is.

But it’s also complicated, and much of its UI and way of accomplishing tasks are things I’ve simply grown used to and tolerated, never enjoyed.

And now, with seemingly everything tech-related going up in my price, my Dreamhost unlimited plan is seeing a significant price increase, no doubt to move me over to one of the limited plans (the unlimited plan is already no longer an option for new customers). This huge price increase has rekindled my interest in thinking how and where I blog.

More thoughts on this soon–my billing renews on August 15th, so I’ll have to commit to some course of action by then, even if it’s just paying the increased cost of sticking with the Dreamhost unlimited plan.

(I will quickly add that I very recently saw a reference to Pure Blog on Mastodon [somewhat hilariously, I initially misread it as Purple Blog and was a bit disappointed that’s not the actual name] and it’s intrigued me. It looks like it’s Static Site Generator software, but tailored more specifically for blogging. I also feel like I’m more willing to get “to the metal” again with CSS and the like now than I was in the past. Anyway, what I’m saying is I’m actively looking for new options and this is one of them!)

Meanwhile, I remain as cool and collected as typing cat.

#blaugust