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
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:
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:
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
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:
Combined with the usual nice scenery, Blackie Spit was perfectly cromulent.
Piper Spit
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:
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
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