It was not overly hot today, but with very little shade on the long trails next to the Pitt and Alouette Rivers, it felt hot. I ended the day with over 28,000 steps!
This was mostly new scenery for us, save for one part we’d been to before, and we were curious to see what sort of birds we’d behold.
As it turned out, not many, alas. They probably hid away due to a combination of the sun and us being out around nappy time.
But we did see some, including white crown and Savannah sparrows, various robins, towhees and ducks, including some common mergansers. We saw a few more birds along the Shoreline Trail, which is, unsurprisingly, in a place called Shoreline Park in south Pitt Meadows, along the Fraser River, including a Bewick’s wren.
We also saw probably the most horses ever. With people riding them. And the horses pooping. Nic stepped in horse poop twice (but it was the dry kind).
With fewer birds, we had to rely on the scenery for most of our shots. Fortunately, with the rivers and coastal mountains, the scenery was very nice. The Alouette River is kind of weird. It’s not very wide, it’s also quite calm, so we saw many people kayaking or on paddle boards. Apparently due to a mix of federal and provincial jurisdiction, the river is also a bit of a dumping ground for old abandoned boats, of which we saw more than a few.
It is also, improbably, home to a floating bridge from Washington State that is moored just east of the Pitt River Bridge.
Overall, it was a good day for shooting scenery (for a change), with just enough birds to make it not a washout as a bird outing. But more birds next time will be welcome.
Also, all of my robin shots came out grainy and blurry. I officially hate robins again. For now.
The Shots
Great blue heron and common merganser passing by in the shallows.
Golden Ears Bridge as seen from Shoreline Park, Pitt Meadows.
Mountains and fields, Pitt Meadows.
Barn framed in green, near the Alouette River, Pitt Meadows.
Alouette River, Pitt Meadows.
The Alouette River is also unfortunately a bit of a dumping ground in spots for abandoned boats.
Mighty mountain.
Leaf in a stream.
Black-capped chickadee hanging out.
Near the entrance to Pitt Meadows Regional Airport.
We’ve had a northern flicker come bug-hunting outside our condo for a little while now, and today it seemed like it would stay long enough for me to grab a few shots, so I did. I had to shoot through a dirty living room window, so I did what I could to clean up the shots (they are grainy if you zoom in, alas). And it was almost too close at times to keep in frame. Shot with my Canon EOS M50.
I have uploaded the full set of photos I deem acceptable from the August 26th birbing extravaganza. The link to the gallery is below. I’ll work on the other photo-less galleries soon™.
This gallery has a bit of everything: bugs, birds, boats. I also indulged and converted three photos to black and white, but kept the originals, so people can argue over which is better.
Lonesome gull.
Great blue heron keeping vigil, Centennial Beach.
Warning on a calm sea.
Room for one only.
Greater yellowlegs doing a balancing act.
Shorebirds by the shore.
Greater yellowlegs strolling for food.
Piling it on.
Pipes!
Pipes! But now all artsy in black and white.
Sand wasp.
A somewhat scruffy crow.
Boat plying the water off Crescent Beach.
Boat, but now black and white, save for a daring splash of colour. But is it art?
Brewer's blackbird, giving everyone The Eye.
Brewer's blackbird, triumphantly having acquired a seed.
Ducks before muck.
Killdeer at rest, looking slightly weird, as they do.
Killdeer doing the flap.
Shiny black beetle.
Female harrier swooping by, up close.
Grasshopper between hops.
Private plane landing at Boundary Bay Airport.
Chairs with a view.
Chairs, but black and white. Does less colour make them less comfortable?
Anna's hummingbird, between rounds of feeding and fighting.
It was actually kind of hot, which was somewhat unexpected, even though it is technically summer for a few more weeks. It was warm at Reifel even mid-morning, but it never got uncomfortably hot. The heat may have affected how many birds we saw, though, as some were no doubt seeking to keep cool in the shade.
At Reifel, we got some early shots of yellowlegs as they were parked up front right in the main pond. There were also swallows still buzzing about, but we declined to try shooting them this time. We next moved on to the London Slough, which had some herons on the periphery and the logs replete with geese and gulls–and two western painted turtles hanging out at one end. There were also several wood ducks who were in their full breeding colours, and were strutting their stuff on the runway fence railing.
We saw a plenitude of chickadees, the usual ducks (wood and mallard), along with a few less seen but technically not migrant waterfowl: mergansers and a pair of Northern pintails.
We saw more numbered geese (wearing collars around their necks bearing numbers like C29) and, of course, goose drama, though perhaps the heat kept any of them from going truly berserk.
The highlight may have been right at the end, when we saw the young eagle that sometimes hangs out at the main pond, trying to catch prey. Apparently it’s not very good at flying or hunting yet, and the staff have dubbed him Doofus. Ouch. He looks appropriately menacing in that raptor way, sitting on the rooftop of the viewing area, though.
Next up was Piper Spit, where most of the landmass is now again submerged following the recent showers. The water is still quite shallow, so that meant more yellowlegs, yay.
There were also a lot of pigeons, who alternated between flying in a group around in circles and landing in a long line near the end of the pier. More importantly, we saw a winter migrant! Two, in fact, and it was our buddy the original weird bird, the American coot. Now we know for sure the season is changing.
We rounded out with an abbreviated trip to Tlahutum Regional Park, where we saw a heron hunting (we don’t see them often here) and, thanks to a couple on the lookout, a rare sighting of a Lewis’s woodpecker. They appear in BC, but very seldomly make it this far west. Unfortunately, it was atop a telephone pole quite far away. I got some shots, but they’re of the “Yes, there is a bird” variety.
Still, a nice lifer. And we also saw some of Nic’s favourites in the community garden, white-crowned sparrows, so we left on a chirpy note.
Also, did I mention it was hot?
The Shots
Full gallery soon (for real, I swear), but here’s a shot to get started.
Greater yellowlegs about to disturb the slumber of a fellow shorebird
Where: Blackie Spit (Surrey), Centennial Beach (Delta), Boundary Bay Dyke Trail (Delta), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Smoke haze and sun, 23-26C
The Outing
Two bits of good news to start:
Despite the return of the smoke haze after a brief respite, it wasn’t as bad as previously. The main change is it was no longer causing a distinct yellow cast to the lighting. Today it mainly affected the visibility of distant scenery (no shots of Mt. Baker) and the sky looked whitish-blue instead of just blue.
I never had any of the shenanigans that happened last week with my camera. I set it to P (Program) mode before heading out, and it stayed there the entire day. Woo. All lousy photos were my own fault, just as nature intended.
We hit four places today. It was kind of crazy, but the good kind of crazy. Mostly.
We started at Blackie Spit and at first the birds were as scarce as the water (it was low tide). Once we moved away from the beach, our luck improved with some house finches, purple martins, a northern flicker, distant herons, a gaggle of ducks in a creek huddled against the shady side (smart ducks–it was hot!) but best of all, a group of greater yellowlegs hanging out on a couple of logs, most of them initially snoozing. They were eventually joined by others, along with a pair of short-billed dowitchers, and began feeding and bobbing and doing the things they do.
We moved onto Centennial Beach next and there we saw some Brewer’s blackbirds, a couple of waxwings, some raptors (not on the Raptor Trail but technically above it), herons and more shorebirds, including a variety of gulls, some terns, more yellowlegs and the ever-cute and weird killdeer. We also saw a very shiny beetle, which ended with Nic taking a photo of his own foot. Nic got some really nice shots of a red-tailed hawk and was able to crop out all the weird stuff that showed up in multiple images, then mysteriously went away on its own. We agree that my dial of doom curse had somehow transferred over to his camera, at least for today.
From there, we moved on to fill our tummies with lunch, then headed for an unplanned trip to the Boundary Bay Dyke Trail. We saw many grasshoppers, though Nic has declared he is done with them, but they remain a freaky favourite of mine. Birds were a bit scarcer here, but we did see some more finches, chickadees (however fleetingly) and a trio of red-necked pharalopes, which I’d never shot before. They were not especially close, but I did get some shots that were good enough for Merlin to ID. I also got some extreme close-ups of planes landing at Boundary Bay Airport, of course. We also saw a male and female harrier and were able to get some of our best shots ever. Even I got a decent shot, woo.
After this, we were still not done, and headed to Tlahutum Regional Park for a quick check of the community gardens. We saw more flickers, white crowns, but best of all, hummingbirds that cooperatively supped at flowers nearby. We both got good shots of these pointy-beaked birbs when they weren’t chasing each other in a territorial dispute..
We each also drank our own weight in fluids. Did I mention it was hot?
Overall, a very respectable outing, with enough birb surprises to almost make up for no Savannah sparrows.
The Shots
This gallery has everything. Birds! Bugs! Boats! Black and white! Yes, I indulged myself and converted three photos to black and white, but I kept the originals for comparison.
Lonesome gull.
Great blue heron keeping vigil, Centennial Beach.
Warning on a calm sea.
Room for one only.
Greater yellowlegs doing a balancing act.
Shorebirds by the shore.
Greater yellowlegs strolling for food.
Piling it on.
Pipes!
Pipes! But now all artsy in black and white.
Sand wasp.
A somewhat scruffy crow.
Boat plying the water off Crescent Beach.
Boat, but now black and white, save for a daring splash of colour. But is it art?
Brewer's blackbird, giving everyone The Eye.
Brewer's blackbird, triumphantly having acquired a seed.
Ducks before muck.
Killdeer at rest, looking slightly weird, as they do.
Killdeer doing the flap.
Shiny black beetle.
Female harrier swooping by, up close.
Grasshopper between hops.
Private plane landing at Boundary Bay Airport.
Chairs with a view.
Chairs, but black and white. Does less colour make them less comfortable?
Anna's hummingbird, between rounds of feeding and fighting.
We started out bright and early, but with an ominous sign: Smoke haze from forest fires to the east was starting to turn the sky a white-gray. By the time we got to Reifel, the blue sky was all but gone.
Still, we saw birds!
It was windy as all heck, too, which made the first part of the morning a wee bit chilly, but not too bad overall.
We started by watching some geese go cuckoo over an apple, then moved on, slightly disappointed by the lack of winter migrants, but it’s still early. Mallards, geese and house sparrows were in abundance, with the latter two showing up in unusually large numbers at the London Slough.
From there, we didn’t see a lot for a while, but came across the proverbial jackpot, with a plethora of dowitchers and yellowlegs in a pond that is most often unoccupied. I suppose the lack of rain has created shallower conditions in this particular pond, just right for shorebirds.
We also finally lucked out in Chickadee Country with a bunch flitting around the viewing platform, after mostly just hearing them taunting us earlier on the trails.
A thing we noticed among the birds and birbs at Reifel: Many were molting, so everyone was looking extra scruffy, sometimes adorably so. The mallards and wood ducks were starting to show signs of their handsome breeding colours returning, so the shift from summer to fall is underway in Birdville.
We wrapped up with some shots of sandhill cranes, one of whom was gorging itself on whatever was in a big plastic Rona bucket. Another actually sat down, something we’d never seen before (except when nesting). Sometimes you just want to get off your feet.
Our trip to Reifel was bracketed at the beginning and end by…cows! In an adjacent field, not in the actual sanctuary itself. I’ve now shot both cowbirds and cows. (We did not see any cowbirds.)
From there we went to the Richmond Nature House, which was a complete bust, as the feeders are still empty. We completed our tour with a tour of Iona Beach, though the wind and bugs (which caused us to retreat quickly from the pond area to apply bug spray as they were biting into us with relish) made us less adventurous than usual. The wind was so brisk I had to wear my cap in reverse to keep it from blowing off, and pretend I was hip. We walked onto the jetty to the point where you can move up or down on the stairs, then turned back. Along the way, we saw some gulls and distant herons, but not much else. Back on land, we caught sight of some cormorants near the barges, but really not much else in terms of birds.
It’s funny how the combination of the wind and the encroaching heat haze made the day feel a bit weird and off. I was expecting it to be quite warm originally, and at times it didn’t even feel like summer.
Overall, though, I was pleased with the shots I got, but unknown to me, disaster was waiting in the wings (bird joke): The dial of doom.
Like most cameras, mine has a dial that lets you switch shooting modes. Like most dials, it has notches and requires a little effort to switch modes, so you don’t do so easily and perhaps capriciously. Today, I observed several times that the mode had gone from P to something else, like AV. Looking through the EVF, I spotted nothing amiss. I am unsure how the dial got switched, though did note that my right thumb sits very close to it when I’m holding the camera. I would like to think I’d notice if my thumbs was clicking the dial to a new position, but maybe not! Maybe my thumb is cursed, or evil. Or my camera is. Or everything is.
What it mean is that I took a bunch of photos that were complete, utter garbage, along with even more than were unusable, blurry messes, but in which you could still at least identify objects, like ducks and trees. I ended up losing over 150 photos because of this. I was not pleased.
But I’m also unsure what to do. I’ll adjust my camera, so every mode should give me good shots, but I’m still baffled at how the dial seemed to so easily turn. If I can software lock it to P, I will do that. If I can’t, I’ll just cry into my pillow. Then I’ll just keep checking to insure the dial is set to P.
That is my new mantra: Still on P.
Overall, then, this was a real mixed bag. I did get some good shots, so it wasn’t a complete disaster, but oof, how can I have had probably my worst day of shooting ever over two and a half years after I got my camera? Bleah!
The Shots
The rest Soon™, but here’s an Anna’s hummingbird to get started.
Where: Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve and Island 22 Regional Park (Chilliwack)
Weather: Sunny, 27-29C
The Outing
We finally made our trek to the Great Blue Heron Nature Reserve near the Vedder River in Chilliwack.
We saw actual herons! Disappointingly, we only saw two, though one did the stabby fishy thing. Fortunately, the scenery and general area was quite nice, plus there were bird feeders near the entrance where we saw oodles of finches (house and gold), along with chickadees, a dove and a lifer (for me, though the photo was not great), a black-headed grosbeak. We also caught sight of a cedar waxwing as soon as we got out of the car, so that was nice, too.
After looping around a few times, we had lunch and pondered where to go next. Nic suggested Island 22 Regional Park, which would at the very least offer snazzy views of the Fraser River. We were surprised that it required payment to get in, but it was only $5, and they didn’t require physical money, which neither of us had. We’re not 20th century Luddites!
The number of birds here was disappointingly few, but we did see a few, included another lifer for me, a Western Wood-Peewee, which I’ve technically seen but not gotten any photos of before. We got shots of the Fraser and the mountains, did a big ol’ loop around the park, then retraced much of our steps when Nic thought he had lost his car keys. They turned out to be in a secret inner pocket of his shorts the whole time, plus we got bonus walking and worked on our detective skills, so it was fine in the end. My watch did mildly chide me in the evening for too much activity, though.
We also saw a bird Merlin could not identify (possibly a kingbird or relative), plus some young robins, but not much else. You never know until you look, though, and it still beat the bust that was the birdless Burns Bog bummer.
Where: Piper Spit (Burnaby) -- twice! and Tlahutum Regional Park1Formerly Colony Farm Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Partly sunny, 21-23C
The Outing
The forecast had called for mostly cloudy skies. Since you can easily get burned on non-sunny days in the summer (unless it’s raining) I don’t know why I wouldn’t need sunblock, but I didn’t put any on and got a good ol’ sunburn all over as a reward for my lack of common sense.
We started out just after 10 a.m. at Piper spit, which these days is mostly geese, mallards, wood ducks and blackbirds. However, the dowitchers were out again. Yay! But the light was bad. Boo! Nic, using his vast scientific knowledge, surmised that if we came back later, the sun (which was burning us) would have moved across the sky to where the light would then be good. Yay! We got our first round of shots and moved on to Tlahutum.
I finally got a decent shot of the sign on the way in, warning of wildlife (with googly eyes) crossings. Behold! (It’s not going in the gallery.)
Taken with my iPhone 12 from out the window of Nic’s sporty car
We checked out the community gardens first and saw goldfinches, some young punk white crowned sparrows, a couple of hummingbirds fighting, as they do, a northern flicker and a giant sign warning us that bears were in the garden. Well, not right when we were there, but in a general sense.
The trails weren’t as bird-rich, but what we did see was unique and zesty! The tide was up, and the Coquitlam River was back to its lush state (at least while we were there).
The zesty birds included:
Common mergansers (they have racing stripes!)
Eastern kingbirds (got my best shots ever thanks to one sitting unusually close to the trail)
Eastern wood-peewee (this was too far away for me, but Nic got some shots)
Non-bird interjection: On the way to lunch, the Google Maps app told Nic to make an (illegal) U-turn at least three different times. He did not. Google Maps really likes U-turns. Must be an American thing.
We returned to Piper Spit and got our better-lit shots of dowitchers, where my ratio of shots where the dowitcher was dunking its head vs. its head being up were something like 50 to 1. I also got some good shots of geese going berserk while bathing.
In all, it was a pleasant and not–too-hot outing. And now I know to always wear sunblock in the summer. Again.
Reifel: We arrived a bit early, and it was somewhat busy at the start, with lots of families out feeding the ducks and such. The kids were generally not terrorizing the birds. Near the first slough, we caught sight of a goose that was both banded and had some kind of module around its neck, with the designation C19. C19 did not seem to mind the thing. We later saw two geese (one of them was possibly C19) and they were clearly not concerned with the tracking (?) devices, as they were snoozing. And speaking of terrorizing and geese, one of them was going full-on berserk by the aforementioned slough. We didn’t encounter too many others on the trails directly, though they were ever-present.
The ponds are continuing to see a lot of bloom and one particularly slimy and had a group of ducks swimming and dunking in it, which led to them being covered, seaweed-like, in the stuff. Scum ducks. Like C19, they didn’t seem to mind their particular condition.
The blackbirds were gathered around the tower as usual, and one juvenile was especially insistent that he be fed. His dad was totally not having it, constantly flying off a short distance, only to be followed by the demanding youngster, its maw open in that FEED ME NOW pose. I got some good shots on that particularly bird. I imagine it eventually got some seed on its own. Or maybe it ran away from home, to guilt-trip its parents.
We heard but never saw any chickadees (or at least I never caught a glimpse of one). But there was a marsh wren and some waxwings and a harrier, which has been absent for quite some time. Finally, we saw oodles of shorebirds (mainly dowitchers), which have been scarce of late, and made good use of the bird blind we rarely visit on the east side of the main pond to better observe them.
Centennial Beach: Raptor Trail once again failed to live up to its name, but we saw some herons, a few somewhat distant killdeer and a new lifer for both of us–a Bonaparte seagull (named after a cousin of the emperor, who apparently contributed a lot to ornithology back in the 1830s). We also had a Savannah sparrow handily land on a rope fence right in front of us, just long enough to get a few photos. Nic was pleased. The tide was in, making the beach look rather ordinary, and it was also very windy. Kites were flying, and I watched someone’s beach umbrella get loose and start tumbling. Amazingly, it managed to avoid hitting anything before getting stuck in the sand.
We also discussed art and AI here, which has nothing to do with birds. Overall, not a great amount of birds here, but it’s always a nice visit when you’re not getting assaulted by driving hail.
Tsawwassen Beach: After making the semi-treacherous sprint across the highway to the ferry terminal, we walked along the beach until I noticed a proper trail running next to it. We got all civilized by moving onto it and headed off, spotting herons, terns, tons of geese and near a pedestrian bridge, a lot of barn swallows (and possibly others) that were nesting underneath the bridge and hunting in the river and waterways nearby. There were also sandpipers and killdeer and–baby killdeer! They’re fluffy and adorable. We also came across a spot where dozens of seagulls were hanging out on a couple of pseudo-islands near the shore. The trail goes on for quite a way, so we made a note to return and park further up and not on the opposite side of the highway. We shall return!
We ended by getting dinner at the nearby Tsawwassen Mills mega-mall. This has nothing to do with birding, but I’d never been before. The place is so big you can rent out vehicles to drive around inside the mall. You could probably hang glide in there, like a bird.
The Shots
I made Nic pick photos from my batch to go into this gallery. He was openly uncomfortable doing this, which kind of delighted me. He selected 32 photos in total, which I further narrowed down to 10. I may add in a few more later. It’s my first “curated” gallery!
Sandhill crane grooming
Mallard demonstrating flapping technique to a fellow duck
Young blackbird getting cranky because no one will bring it food
Woodland skipper on a dandelion
Spider trundling along its webbing, bypassing a dandelion head that got snagged in it
A pair of long-billed dowitchers dunking in a pond
View of Centennial Beach with tide incoming
Savannah sparrow at Centennial Beach
Mystery shovel at Tsawwassen Beach. Was someone digging for treasure or burying it? Or was it aliens? Who can say?
In this case, the teen is a young blackbird at Reifel Bird Sanctuary, and it really wasn’t in a mood to get its own food. Here it is protesting and flapping in a tree after dad took off to a spot nearby. More birding shots from Saturday in a full gallery soon™.
Where: Iona Beach Regional Park and Terra Nova (Richmond)
Weather: Sunny, 23-27C
The Outing
Deferring our pilgrimage to the heron refuge in Chilliwack one more time, we stayed local and still saw herons, plus heron drama. It seems no body of water is big enough for some herons to share with others.
We started at Iona Beach and I had a plan–a second pair of sneakers to wear, so I could get them muddy and wet and still have a nice dry pair waiting in the car after. I also had bug spray to prevent a repeat of the Episode of Many Bites from the previous summer. Between the bug spray and sunblock, I was assured that every piece of sand would glue itself to my exposed skin. Which it did.
But no bites and no burn!
As is nearly always the case, the tide was extremely low and after going through the wooded area near the river, where we saw flycatchers, sand wasps, goldfinches, a bazillion dragonflies and more, we moved onto the tidal flats, where the sand was unusually firm1Obligatory “That’s what she said” joke here, affording us a sense of security that would later partly betray us as we did a big loop out into the area north of the jetty, only to encounter much muckier and slipperier sand as we approached the beach. We both stayed upright and my feet never got wet, though. I love it when a plan works.
At Terra Nova, the birds were fewer, including a few seagulls, distant herons and some more furtive goldfinches (Nic got nice shots, I got shots). I did get a decent pic of a seaplane, though! And the views are always nice.
I did some experimentation with adjusting ISO on the fly this time, and it looks like it somehow got stuck at a setting a few times that was way too high, blowing out several images (easily fixed in post, however). I may have to read the documentation.
Despite the heat (both areas offer little shelter from the sun), it was a perfectly pleasant outing. Who knows what setting on my camera I will next figure out how to sort of use?
The Shots
Mysterious ring of mystery
Cowbird ruffled by the breeze
Cowbird stare down
Cowbird taking a load off
Distant freighter in the heat haze
Northern flicker sitting atop a pine tree
Grasshopper in full camo gear
Dragonfly
Sand wasp, side view
Sand wasp showing exciting tongue action
Footprint in the mud of low tide
Ridges in the sand at low tide
Ridges in the sand, now with seaweed!
Exposed object at low tide
Young blackbird asking mom for something to eat
Young blackbird
Great blue heron flying over Iona Beach
Great blue heron flying over Iona Beach
Great blue heron flying over Iona Beach
Extremely low tide
View of the Fraser River from Iona Beach
Log booms and boat on the Fraser River
Tugboats on the Fraser River shepherding a log boom
Spotted towhee in among the branches
Spotted towhee making an announcement
Cowbird having a peek
See. Plane. (Apple ad)
A brief duck battle at a pond in Terra Nova
Anna's hummingbird hanging out at a community garden
