Where: DeBoville Slough, Blakeburn Lagoons Park (Port Coquitlam), Alouette River/Trans Canada Trail (Pitt Meadows)
Weather: Mostly sunny, 17-22°C
Spoiler: I forgot to wear sunscreen. I am the lobster.
DeBoville Slough
We previously visited the slough in extremes of heat and cold, but today it was in the Goldilocks zone of just right, if Goldilocks was into sloughs instead of stealing porridge from bears. By the way, we did not see any bears, but we did see frequent reminders of bears along the trail, one of which Nic shot because he loves poop. Just kidding, there was a butterfly on it. I opted to go meta and took a photo of him taking a photo of the poop (with a butterfly on it).
Nic shoots the poop:
Once more, we heard yellowthroats, but never got any photos. They are as elusive as the Sasquatch, albeit a lot noisier. In general, birds were a bit tricky to shoot due to distance or foliage, but sometimes they’d sit out nicely on the topmost branch of a tree or something.
Cedar Waxwings were in relative abundance, looking snazzy and elegant as always. We watched one snatching a spider atop a tree.
Waterfowl were either tucked away among lily pads or absent, but we did spy a few Mallards and Wood Ducks.
And when there were no birds, the scenery was always gorgeous.
Blakeburn Lagoons Park
Second spoiler: We did not see any Green Herons. Or any other herons, actually.
But we were treated to two different families of Pied-billed Grebes, the babbies looking weird and adorable with their striking stripe-covered heads. One in particular was almost constantly glued to the parent, begging to be fed. Eventually the parent swam off and returned with a fish that wasn’t so much transferred to the baby Grebe as it was snatched so quickly the best camera EVAR would have been challenged to capture the moment. The baby immediately started begging for more.
The other Pied-billed Grebe family was tightly clustered, as were five photographers shooting them with their mega-lenses. This is how we knew something might be up–always look for The Gathering of Mega-Lenses. One of the parents dove and came up with a rather large fish that could not be swallowed up by any of the babies, so it just sort of passed it around for nibbling. At one point it dropped the fish, but after a few attempts, managed a recovery, to the delight of the insatiable babbies.
We also saw a fair number of dragonflies here and most surprisingly, in one of the lagoons, swimming near a Mallard–a lone coot! Have they returned early? Did they never really go away but just cleverly hid? Is this a rogue coot who never left? I guess we’ll know if we start seeing others. I normally haven’t observed them returning until August.
Alouette River/Trans Canada Trail
The birds were leanest along the Alouette River, but we did watch an Osprey flying down the river, looking down for yummies, and got to see horses, rustic boats and plenty of pleasant scenery. We also saw a Cybertruck, as if to remind us the world can also be cruel. This was offset by a White-crowned Sparrow singing on a post.
In all, a pleasant and step-rich day of birding, marred only by me being silly and forgetting the sunblock. I VOW TO NEVER FORGET SUNBLOCK AGAIN.
The Shots
All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto unless otherwise noted.
Gallery coming soon™.
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American Robin
- Barn swallow (possibly)
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Black-headed Grosbeak
- Cedar Waxwing
- Cliff Swallow (maybe)
- Common Yellowthroat (heard, not seen)
- Northern Flicker
- Purple Finch
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Savannah Sparrow (heard)
- Song Sparrow
- Spotted Towhee
- Swainson’s Thrush (heard, according to Merlin)
- White-crowned Sparrow
- Willow Flycatcher
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- American Coot (!)
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Gadwall
- Mallard
- Pied-billed Grebe
- Wood Duck
Common:
- American Crow
- A Glaucous-winged Gull
Raptors:
- Bald Eagle
- Osprey
Non-birds:
- Assorted pollinators
- Copious dragonflies
- Frogs (heard frequently, seen never)