Where: Maplewood Flats (North Vancouver) and Tlahutum1Formerly known as Colony Farm Regional Park (Coquitlam) Weather: Sunny with late cloud, 25-28C
The Outing
We ventured out on a special Sunday edition of Birding With the Boys™ and our first stop was Maplewood Flats, which we had not visited in the summer before.
As it turns out, most of the birds in the summer hide in all the lush vegetation and trees. Near the entrance, a sign indicated several dozen species spotted and while we caught a glimpse here and there, and we heard but didn’t see a few more, the birds were overall a bit scarce.
Until we moved out onto the beach, where a super low tide allowed us to venture a bit further out than we’d normally get. There were crows and seagulls in abundance, along with a bunch of purple martins, who were nesting in bird boxes that are normally surrounded by the water of Burrard Inlet.
We also saw some large ex-crabs and then about a million tiny living ones. They are pretty cute when they’re that small, but we grew concerned we might be inadvertently mashing entire families under our feet, so we tread carefully and tried to avoid the watery parts of the flats where they tended to cluster.
There was seagull drama over the possession of molluscs.
After baking under the glare of the sun on the flats, we moved onto Tlahutum Regional Park, where we…continued to bake under the glare of the sun, as shade there is hard to come by. We saw a group of immature starlings, some fleeting flickers and cowbirds and even a few ducks in the pond, but overall, the quantity of birds was on the low side. Probably avoiding the heat, unlike us.
The community gardens featured a lot of immature white-crowned sparrows, looking young and scruffy, one here-and-gone Anna’s hummingbird that I managed to get a shot of, plus glimpses of others.
Overall, it wasn’t a great outing in terms of birbs, but it was still nice to be out and to see Maplewood Flats in its full summer dress.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- Anna’s hummingbird
- Blackbird
- Brown-headed cowbird
- Common yellowthroat
- Northern flicker
- Purple martin
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
- Tree swallow
- White-crowned sparrow
Waterfowl:
- Mallard
Common:
- Crow
- Seagull
Raptors:
- None!
Non-birds:
- Tiny crabs
- A few garter snakes that slithered off before we could get shots
- One scruffy-looking squirrel that also did not stay and make cute poses for us
