Birding, February 6, 2026: Harriers and hip waders

Where: Serpentine Fen (Surrey), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Sun and clouds, 12°C

A rare Friday birding outing, as Saturday was looking like grand weather for ducks, but less so for humans with non-waterproof cameras. We also started a wee bit later, so only got in two locations.

Serpentine Fen

The first was Serpentine Fen, which we haven’t been to in a while. We were immediately greeted by the sight of a heron, which I have arbitrarily decided is good luck. The river was busy with all kinds of waterfowl, including several large groups of mixed ducks. The only real downside, other than it getting less sunny as the afternoon progressed, is most of the birds stayed on the far side of the river. Understandable, with filthy humans on the other, but it still made for more challenging shots.

Still, some Common Mergansers, which we usually only see from afar, were closer than usual, so that was nice.

We also saw a near-adult Bald Eagle near the entrance, sitting in a tree and looking down. The colouring of its feathers and pose made it look like a metal album cover. DEATH FROM ABOVE or something.

But while we saw a few eagles, the sky was filled with Northern Harriers (or one very energetic and agile harrier). They were all over the place, giving us numerous opportunities to get shots. I got a few that were OK, but most of them the head is obscured by the wings or the camera freaked out because the harrier flew in front of some spiny bushes or something. Is it too much to ask for one to sit and pose for us? I mean, yes, it is. But I can dream (and it basically happened once before). Nic did get a shot of a harrier pooping mid-flight, to add to his Birds Pooping Gallery (buy the whole set).

We ventured the usual loop and made it to the third viewing tower, which still has a prominent hole in its floor. A second one seems to be starting, which is disconcerting. Shortly after this, the trail became very muddy and bog-like. We ventured through, getting our feet a bit mucky, only to see this after rounding a corner:

This is a trail, not a pond. Well, it’s also a pond.

The nearby creek had completely flooded the trail, forcing us to turn back and head through the muck again. We did so, then briefly debated on going back the way we came, or walking on and around, which would force us to take a narrow “path” adjacent to the highway. We chose the latter, then wrapped up the outing by walking in reverse to the other side of the flooded part, which wasn’t very far. We heard a lot of frogs, but as usual, saw none. Frogs are probably the loudest sneaky animals around.

In all, it was nice to return, but it will be nicer still in the summer when we can complete a full loop without needing a boat.

Tlahutum Regional Park

Coquitlam River. The sky was changing minute-by-minute by this point.

We then took a very long and straight path to Tlahutum, which has now completely thawed out from our last visit, as we are back to unseasonably mild weather again.

There were a lot of crows gathered in trees and on the river, looking for trouble. Nic saw a rare double-headed crow that turned out to be two crows cuddling up to each other. I don’t blame him for being confused, as I do not normally think of crows as cuddly with anything.

We were curious if the explosion of voles we saw last time would repeat, but we didn’t see any. It’s like they all returned to their vole pocket dimension. We speculated a bit but ultimately had no real answers on where they went, other than probably just somewhere we couldn’t see them.

The pond, now ice-free, gave us some better opportunities for shooting the birds there, including a grebe that handily sailed past us in profile not too far off. There were also plenty of butts on display.

The sky started to clear up as it edged closer to sunset, but gave up halfway through, so I settled on taking shots of clouds and reflections in the very still creeks and waterways.

It was nice to not have to worry about the weather, even if the light ended up pretty dim by the end. Here’s hoping we get some more sunny days as we get closer to spring¹.