Where: Blackie Spit/Crescent Beach (Surrey), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Clouds and sun, 18°C
Blackie Spit/Crescent Beach
We have had issues with parking at Blackie Spit before, but figured with the weather looking rather gray, that would not be a problem today. We were wrong! But it wasn’t just the regular crowd, there was a rowing event and the boats were hogging up a chunk of the main parking lot and the entire secondary lot, so we ended up parking near the Sunflower Café, just like the last time we had problems finding parking here.
This turned out to be a good thing, as it led us to discovering a lifer! Blackie Spit itself did not yield many birds, though we did see some juncos, chickadees and a house cat strolling the beach like it owned the place.
We also thought we saw the first massive flock of snow geese for the season. Nic gave a man and his kid a rundown on them. They were quite far off, but even across the bay we could hear them. When we looked at our photos later, we discovered they were actually Canada geese, just in super large numbers. Whoops!
The star, though, was as we were leaving, through a different-than-usual route. We heard some very loud chattering that Nic first thought was a squirrel, because they can sound weirdly bird-like when they want to. But no, this was an actual bird, blue and white, and with a jay vibe happening. Merlin confirmed it was a California scrub-jay. It was very pretty, as well as loud, and posed a fair bit before flying off. Technically it was north of its usual range, though we later found they have been seen before in the Lower Mainland and some parts north. Neat!
As an added bonus, the weather was much better than expected, with some sun and mild temperatures.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
We did not see any new arrivals at Piper spit and by the time we got there, the sky had clouded over again and while the reported temperature was 18C, it did not feel like 18C.
Still, we did see multiple coots, a pair of wood ducks with the male doting on the female, a pile of snoozing dowitchers (a little too far off, boo), a twisty heron, and a bush packed full of blackbirds. The butterfly garden is pretty much done for the season, so no pollinators there. The male mallards are looking shiny again.
And only one family was feeding the birds this time, which is actually an improvement.
In all, not bad for the first birding of the fall. The lifer–and the excellent shots we got of it–made it totes worthwhile.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
A few shots:
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- Black-capped chickadee
- California scrub-jay (lifer!)
- Dark-eyed junco
- Red-winged blackbird
- Song sparrow
- White-crowned sparrow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- American coot (Three!)
- Canada goose (one billion)
- Great blue heron
- Green-winged teal
- Long-billed dowitcher
- Mallard
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Rock pigeon
- Ring-billed gull
Raptors:
- None
Non-birds:
- A ton (probably several) of sea lions (!)
- A hover fly
- Several squirrels
- A sassy house cat
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