Where: Iona Beach (Richmond), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 18-25°C
The Outing
Iona Beach
We got out to a slightly later than usual start, in keeping with the casual BC Day vibe or something, our first destination, Iona Beach.
Good news, we still haven’t needed the Deep Woods Off! yet. Perhaps that one biting bug nightmare was just a one-time abberation.
Speaking of nightmares, stay tuned!
As usual during peak summer, we did not see a wide variety of birds, but groups of starlings and barn swallows were out and aboot, as well as some killdeer along the river bobbing their heads, and roughly a million dragonflies. The outing concluded with a ring-billed gull pulling worms out of the mudflats.
In-between, we got many shots of the vast low tide, which seemed even lower than normal. Some of the sand actually felt firm and was drying. This created the illusion that I had changed into my “I don’t care if they get wet” shoes for no reason. We made it almost all the way back to shore, within sight of the parking lot and my shoes were still keeping my feet dry. All that was left was a pile of kelp to stomp over to reach the sandy shore, maybe 10 or 12 feet of it. Easy peasy!
Except underneath the thin crust of bright green kelp was a black ichor that was deep enough to come up to our ankles. It also smelled like the fermented remains of The Old Ones. We were committed by the time we realized what we stepped in, so we trudged through the black oil-like goo, then made liberal use of the hose outside the washrooms to wash our shoes, our feet and maybe a little bit of our souls.
We then went to lunch, pretending we couldn’t smell anything.
Piper Spit
We made only one more stop, at Piper Spit. Good: We didn’t get stuck behind any trains. Bad: The water level of the lake was considerably higher, completely submerging the landmass and forcing the shorebirds to dine and snooze elsewhere.
We made do with the usual collection of mallards, wood ducks, poop monsters and blackbirds. The cowbirds seem to have left already, but the young green-winged teals were enthusiastically chasing each other around, testing out their not-quite-ready-for-flight wings.
Songbirds were generally scarce, though a few pigeons were cooing around, as they do. I tried to get a prize-winning shot, but alas.
Speaking of alas, my camera was giving me issues again and I am fairly certain it is the telephoto lens or the adapter. At one point I went to take a photo and could hear a sound coming from the camera. The connection between lens and adapter was a tiny bit loose, so I tightened it and the camera seemed to behave better after. We’ll see how it goes. Replacing the adapter would be relatively cheap, the telephoto lens, not so much (or at all).
In all, a low-key kind of outing as befits this time of year.
Some winter migrants should start showing up soonish. Perhaps the first coots will come calling. One can dream.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American robin
- Barn swallow
- Black-capped chickadee
- House sparrow
- Red-winged blackbird
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- Canada goose
- Great blue heron
- Mallard
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- European starling
- Rock pigeon
- Ring-billed seagull
Raptors:
- Bald eagle (immature)
Non-birds:
- Assorted pollinators
- Dragonflies all up in the hizzy
- Grasshoppers (it’s that time of year)
