Birding, August 2, 2025: Hot pigeons in love (or not)

Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 24°C

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

A bit of a breeze kept it from feeling too warm.

It was a shorter birding trip today as I did a rare run/birding double header. I have over 38,000 steps as I type this.

It was a sunny and pleasant mid-afternoon at Piper Spit, and with the no feeding rule still in effect, two things can be observed:

  • Far fewer people on the pier
  • The waterfowl tend to hang out farther away from the pier because no free snacks

We are still yet to see any new migrants arriving, but soon™. We did see several ducks that appeared to be hybrids of mallards and whatever else a mallard finds sexy (and vice versa).

But the variety and, in some cases, numbers were way down. Pigeons? Plenty! And some of them quite frisky. Blackbirds? We saw one. Gulls? Also, only one. Geese? Multiple gaggles.

Still, we shot what we could, and some birds cooperated by getting all showy with flapping and splashing and scooting across the water.

In all, not a bad little outing and none of my photos were accidentally overexposed, hooray.

The Shots

Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.

Here is an unedited shot of a pigeon (except for cropping) to prove I took photos, while I go through all of my shots.

A pigeon possibly staying away from one very amorous male.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American robin
  • Barn swallow
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot (not yet!)
  • Canada goose
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Great blue heron
  • Mallard
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeons (in love)
  • A ring-billed gull

Raptors:

  • None!

Non-birds:

  • A squirrel
  • Some pollinators
 

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