Or Cold, with ducks.
Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Partly sunny, 2-3°C
The Outing
Piper Spit
The weather for today was predicted to be a cold mix of snow and rain, with a possible break in the early afternoon, so we opted to go to the lake around 2 p.m. and see what the ducks were up to.
There was duck drama. And coot drama. The geese just plain flew off and left the whole thing.
But despite the chilly temperatures, the weather actually turned out to be surprisingly decent, with the sun even poking out (note the bits of blue sky in the above photo), so we got in plenty of shots. We didn’t see any particularly unusual birds, like buffleheads, but there were plenty of the usual winter migrants swimming and flapping and bathing. The gulls were busy pulling up eldritch horrors from the water, or grabbing golf balls and being chased by crows.
Oh, and juncos. The entrance to the spit was festooned with juncos, along with copious towhees and others. But if you were in the mood for juncos, you got all you could want and more.
In all, a fine, if shorter outing.
The Shots
Soon?™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- Black-capped chickadee
- Dark-eyed junco
- Fox sparrow
- Golden-crowned sparrow
- Red-winged blackbird
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- American coot
- Canada goose
- Double-crested cormorant
- Green-winged teal
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- Scaup
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Assorted gulls
- Rock pigeon
Raptors:
- None!
Non-birds:
- Maybe a squirrel?
