Where: Surrey Bend Regional Park (Surrey), Brydon Lagoon (Langley), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Sunny, 9-10°C
With Reifel still weeks/months/eons away from re-opening, we decided to revisit a few places we hadn’t been to in some time, with some very mixed results.
The weather was consistently sunny and mild all day, which was a nice way to wrap up February.
Surrey Bend Regional Park
I remembered this place having nice views of the river, but not a lot of birds, at least not the kind willing to show themselves.
Both memories were accurate. We heard and fleetingly saw a few birds, but I did not catch any photos of them. The river scenery was indeed nice, but I think this particular park is best left to the dog walkers and families enjoying barbecues in the picnic area, as the birding is rather…minimalist.
The sign at the entrance includes the phrase that also doubles as the title of this post. There is no denying the Fraser River is watery. There was quite a bit of it.
Brydon Lagoon
This was an unexpected jackpot, with not only virtually every waterfowl we normally see in the Lower Mainland represented, but also a decent supply of songbirds and a couple of raptors thrown in for good measure.
The waterfowl ranged from Buffleheads to Common Mergansers and Goldeneyes, to a plethora of Mallards and a pair of Canada Geese that were not afraid to let you know when you invaded their personal space via a sudden loud honk, followed by death stare.
A large gathering of gulls in the central area of the lagoon (which is not really a lagoon, it’s a small lake or perhaps a pond with grand ambitions) were occasionally spooked by the appearance of a juvenile bald eagle. But then the eagle would fly off and land in a tree nearby–only to then be harassed by the same seagulls. Such is the circle of life.
A single coot was on hand, but without others, there was no coot drama to be had.
Songbirds included a few we rarely see, like a Yellow-rumped Warbler (I did not get a shot), as well as roving gangs of American Bushtits. I managed a few decent shots, which always feels like a major triumph with these spazzy little things.
We walked up a trail away from the lagoon and pondered exploring on through Hi-Knoll Park, which we did on our last visit, but elected to head elsewhere after not seeing much else away from the lagoon. Overall, though, this seems like a good sport to return to.
Tlahutum Regional Park
We rounded off the afternoon at Tlahutum, but after seeing copious birds on the last visit, they seemed fewer this time, and most were farther back in the main pond, boo.
Nic suggested we go down the other trail we usually don’t take and this yielded some nice views of the mountains, the moon and while we did see some mergansers and wigeons in the waterways, it was tricky to get good shots due to angle/foliage and such.
But we got in a lot of steps, which will help boost our stamina for future birding. Yeah, that’s it.
In all, the birding was bad-great-meh, which is actually a perfectly cromulent average.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American Bushtit
- Anna’s Hummingbird
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Chestnut-backed chickadee
- Golden-crowned Kinglet
- Golden-crowned Sparrow
- Song Sparrow
- Spotted Towhee
- Yellow-rumped Warbler
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- American Coot
- American Wigeon
- Bufflehead
- Canada Goose
- Common Goldeneye
- Common Merganser
- Great Blue Heron
- Green-winged Teal
- Hooded Merganser
- Mallard
- Ring-necked Duck
- Scaup
- Wood Duck
Common:
- American Crow
- Seagulls aplenty
Raptors:
- Bald Eagle
- Mystery Hawk
Non-birds:
- A black squirrel
- Western Painted Turtle
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