Where: Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Piper Spit,
Weather: Cloudy with late clearing, 13°C
There was a lot of cloud, even more wind and fewer birds on this abbreviated day of birding.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
We started at Piper Spit, where we saw surprisingly few birds. Blackbirds were absent and most ducks that were not mallards were in low supply. This was offset somewhat by getting some (distant and partly obscured) shots of some Wilson’s Snipes hiding along the tall grass off to the north and west of the pier. We found them thanks to another birder with a VVBL1Very Very Big Lens.
We watched a seagull work over an ex-salmon in the shallows.
The Dowitchers had moved elsewhere, probably due to the water level being a bit higher, or maybe because of the wind, as it was very windy.
There was a single duck, but a healthy population of coots milling about the other groups of waterfowl, as they do.
In all, it was a wee bit underwhelming, but the conditions were not ideal for birds to be out in the open, and the appearance of the snipes was a nice bonus.
After this we went to the western edge of the lake to get scenery shots of Still Creek. We did not see any birds here, other than maybe a few crows flying overhead.
Tlahutum Regional Park
Our second and final stop was Tlahutum, where the clear highlight were several Pied-billed Grebes plying the waterways and not just the Big Pond™. And while they are divers, the ones we observed didn’t dive, they just…sank. Nic and I both got shots of this in action, where the midsections has submerged and the tail and head haven’t and it looks like a magician’s trick. Grebes are weird.
We also saw some Northern Shovellers in the creeks, which is a bit unusual (they usually stick to the Big Pond) and a few Common Mergansers plying the ruddy-looking river. The light changed over the time we were here, so we were able to take before/after shots from various viewpoints.
The community garden is starting to develop its pond-like puddles, which attracted a murder or two of crows to either drink, bathe or both. There were a lot of crows around, gathering before their nightly trek to Burnaby, where all the cool crows go.
There were also multiple Northern Flickers, but other sparrow or sparrow-adjacent birds were only seen fleetingly. As mentioned previously, it was windy and maybe when you weigh next to nothing you avoid going out in the open where strong winds can bat you around like a shuttlecock.
Overall, not a bad outing, given how bad the weather could have been. We’ll see what the Super El Nino has for us in the weeks ahead.
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:
- Anna’s Hummingbird
- Golden-crowned Sparrow
- House Finch
- Northern Flicker
- Song Sparrow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- American Coot
- American Wigeon
- Canada Goose
- Common Merganser
- Gadwall
- Green-winged Teal
- Mallard
- Northern Pintail
- Northern Shoveller
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Wilson’s Snipe
- Wood Duck
Common:
- American Crow
- A few Ring-billed Seagulls
Raptors:
- None!
Non-birds:
- A few fuzzy caterpillars