Where: Rocky Point Park (Port Moody), DeBoville Slough (Port Coquitlam)
Weather: Mostly sunny, 21°C
Today the weather was more seasonal, but still a bit warmer than normal. It was warm enough for a lot of birds to go bathing, however.
Rocky Point Park (and environs)
Our first stop was the heron rookery just past Old Orchard Park. We did see plenty of nests and plenty of adult herons, variously grooming, snoozing and staring out, but no baby dinosaurs were visible–yet. We may have to return in a few weeks. Or rent a drone or something. Or a Great Blue Heron costume, along with tree-climbing skills, the latter of which I’m fairly certain you can’t rent.
Bottom line: no baby herons on this trip.
We headed along the trail to Rocky Point Park and along the way spotted a number of Killdeer and out and about and bobbing, along with a flock of seagulls enjoying the cool of the water flowing in from nearby creeks, as well as a murder or two of crows doing the same. The crows would carefully (and sometimes trippingly) make their way to a shallow spot in the water suitable for bathing, then energetically splash about before hopping out to let the next one in. Very civilized. The gulls, being swimmers, were just bathing wherever, or snoozing in the shallows while cooling their butts.
We also saw a number of herons variously stalking, flying or creeping under the pier and disappearing. A bird condo out in the water had what appeared to be at least one Purple Martin couple shacking up.
And as always, the lower number of birds is compensated for in part by some pretty nice scenery.
DeBoville Slough
The last time we were at the DeBoville Slough, we were shooting icy fronds. Today I wore sunblock. Apparently there was enough sun to scare off most of the birds, as we saw even fewer than normal, but we did see a peppy spider and a bee both working their way along the trail (unsure why the bee wasn’t, you know, flying). There were also geese honking here and there and the mountains and the slough providing scenic views, but the piling that previously had an osprey nest is nest-free this spring, boo.
Sadly, there wasn’t much activity here, so I can’t really elaborate more. Pretend there are a few paragraphs below detailing birds of paradise or something.
But despite the relative lack of birds, it was still a perfectly pleasant outing.
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 Robin
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Common Yellowthroat
- Purple Martin
- Song Sparrow
- Tree Swallow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- Canada Goose
- Common Merganser
- Double-crested Cormorant
- Great Blue Heron
- Killdeer
- Mallard
Common:
- American Crow
- Plenty of gulls
Raptors:
- Red-tailed Hawk (probably)
Non-birds:
- A distant squirrel
- Some butterflies
- A bee trundling on the trail
- A spider