Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 16°C
The Outing
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
It took 26 days before circumstances and weather finally allowed us to go birding again. With the forecast looking a bit iffy, we opted for a repeat of last time.
We arrived at Burnaby Lake and watched a couple of salmon at the top of the fish ladder at Cariboo Dam swimming oh-so-close to the gate into the lake, but not quite making the push through. They looked old and tired.
After that, we arrived at The Stump, where the scary old fungus face is all but gone now. However, there were chickadees all over, a nuthatch (again!) and a Steller’s Jay. A good start. We moved on to Piper Spit. Nic realized then that he only had a tiny bit of charge left in his camera battery, swapped it out for the spare to find the spare was dead. The third battery was fully charged, however! and back at his apartment. So I stayed at Piper Spit and shot birds, while Nic took the roughly 90-minute round trip back to his place to get the fresh battery.
He was duly mocked.
As for Piper spit, no new arrivals, but the teals were more plentiful, as were the pintails. And the was drama all around, with pretty much all species, save for the dowitchers, going mental on each other at one point or another. The mallards seemed especially mad. Maybe this is just how they entertain themselves when it’s not mating season.
The dowitchers could have been closer, but at least they’re still hanging out in the area.
In all, it was fine, with conditions being milder than expected and the light, especially earlier on, being not bad at all.
Tlahutum Regional Park
We next went to Tlahutum and there’s not much to report. The clouds had thickened, so it was darker and a few drops feel a couple of times. The community gardens were largely impassable due to giant ponds that formed after last wee’s atmospheric river. We hoped for more along the trails, but only saw a few distant wood ducks and even more distant robins and crows. :sadtrombone: Ironically, after the battery drama (not to be confused with the duck drama) earlier, Nic ended up taking no photos at all at Tlahutum.
For me, the best part may have been that I took 489 photos and somehow had not a single issue with my camera. Weird. But nice!
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare, rarely-seen or recently returned birds highlighted in bold.
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American robin
- Black-capped chickadee
- Red-breasted nuthatch
- Red-winged blackbird
- Song sparrow
- Steller’s jay
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- American coot
- Canada goose
- Green-winged teal
- Long-billed dowitcher
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- Northern shoveller
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Assorted gulls
- Rock pigeon
Raptors:
- None!
Non-birds:
- Several very weary-looking salmon
- A non-living salmon
- A Douglas squirrel
- A millipede
