Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam) Weather: Sunny, 8°C
The Outing
Today was a surprise edition of birding. The weather predicted some rare sunshine, so we took advantage with a trip to Piper Spit and Tlahutum Regional Park.
First, my camera: Closer examination revealed a lot of carbon build-up on the contacts of the lenses that my previously gentle cleaning had not touched. Using a brass brush and isopropyl alcohol, these were cleaned much more thoroughly. The contacts sparkled!
And the good news is it worked. The telephoto lens worked without any issues at all. It was nice to go back to blaming myself and not the equipment for lousy shots.
Fortunately, I got some good shots, with several chickadees and squirrels fighting for the “most adorable” award.
Piper Spit presented an unusual case of light that was at times too bright, but better still than rain. A woman teased us about a possible owl sighting, but we were not precisely sure of the location, and no owls were sighted. We were sad.
On the other hand, a bufflehead showed up in the mix, and we got some nice shots of his shiny iridescent head. The gulls seem to have taken up semi-permanent residence now, claiming the landmass off the pier as their kingdom. Or gulldom. It’s also the place where they gather and collect weird things like golf balls and other stuff we probably don’t really want to identify.
And a surprise appearance by barn swallows! We’ve seen them in March, but I don’t recall ever seeing them in February before, and especially not the first week of the month, so that was a neat treat. The albino pigeon was back, too, easily identified by, well, being pure white. But also by being banded. I’ve seen one other albino here, but it is not banded.
There was some avian drama to be had and the pecking order (heh) appears to be:
- Crows > coots
- Goose > crows
Coots, of course, mostly terrorize themselves.
Tlahutum presented a surprising number of birds, but they tended to be farther away, and by then the light was getting low and golden. Still, we saw some mergansers, gadwalls and yet more swallows (way up high). The fields of tall yellow grass did look rather pretty in the golden light of late afternoon.
Overall, this was a fine shorter outing, and I was pleased that my camera is back to behaving normally again.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- Black-capped chickadee
- Dark-eyed junco
- Fox sparrow
- Golden-crowned sparrow
- Red-winged blackbird
- Ruby-crowned kinglet
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
- White-crowned sparrow
Waterfowl:
- American coot
- American wigeon
- Bufflehead duck
- Canada goose
- Dowitcher
- Green-winged teal
- Hooded merganser
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- Ring-necked duck
- Scaup
- Wood duck
Common:
- Crows (multiple murders)
- Rock pigeon
- Seagull
Raptors:
- Northern harrier
Non-birds:
- Several Douglas squirrels
