Birding

Birding, September 5, 2025: I heard you like herons

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Richmond Nature House, Terra Nova (Richmond), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Hazy sun, 19-23°C

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

Hazy cloud on the horizon, past the still lush marshland.

For the second visit in a row, the gate was open at Reifel, meaning bookings were so low they opened the sanctuary to walk-ins. Er, drive-ins, I guess.

For the first half it was very quiet, apart from hardcore birders and their immense lenses, but more people filtered in later. As for birds, we did not see any coots here, or any other new migrants. Boo. But soon™.

We did a few more shovellers, so they are slowly coming out from wherever they hide in the off-season. The geese were plentiful, but were generally in an odd state of serenity, some of them looking downright relaxed, or even content. Very un-goose. Down on the bill was the fashion accessory of note.

Sadly absent were the Sandhill cranes. Hopefully we just missed them and they haven’t just flow off.

In place of the cranes were herons. Herons on the ground. Herons in the water. Herons in the air. Herons in trees. Herons on logs. Everywhere you looked, there was a heron.

The visibility of songbirds is increasing as we move close to the fall, and chickadees in particular are making themselves more known, though they continue to be manic and hard to photograph. We also saw some bushtits (heh heh), which we don’t spot too often here.

Everything is still looking lush and summer-like, but some of the leaves are coming down in a distinctly fall-like manner, and this may be one of our last t-shirt visits for the year. Still, it was perfectly pleasant, as always.

Richmond Nature House

Nic wanted to gamble on the Nature House, but other than the hummingbird feeders, the others are still bereft of seed, so birds were scarce. We did see a hummingbird, though! Then we walked the Bog Trail and Time Trail, but I observed neither a bog nor experienced any time travel. Disappointing!

Terra Nova

The main pond, home of at least one pied-billed grebe (not seen from this angle).

Other than pollinators and fixed-wing birds, we didn’t see much avian action here, other than some waterfowl way off on the shoreline and a grebe hanging out in the pond, which is their usual haunt (and also too far away to get shots without an arm-breakingly huge lens). The views are always worth checking, though. And we were encouraged to go walking and exploring to get away from an ice cream truck that had “Happy Birthday” playing on a loop near the entrance.

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

Visible haze looking across the lake to the east.

The weather rapidly began turning after we got to Piper Spit and by the time we left, the sky was quite dark for late afternoon as fat shower clouds rolled in. Several groups of Bad People were again feeding the birds. Boo and hiss. I opted not to shoot any of the birds gorging themselves on the illicit seed. They don’t know, but I do!

Apart from that, the land mass is now quite gigantic and is encroaching farther toward the pier. The increasingly shallow water meant some yellowlegs were poking about a bit closer than usual, which was fun. Multiple wood ducks are now in their full breeding colours and demonstrating that they are the prettiest boys around, with male mallards not too far behind in getting their iridescent green back.

We did see a green-winged teal, so the slow arrival of migrants continues. The one coot was still present, swimming about drama-free for now.

Shortly after leaving, the sky opened up, and we got a big, if brief, dump of rain. The day of birding remained dry and with mild temperatures, however, and the sporadic arrival of migrants bodes well for more sightings in the near-future.

The Shots

Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.

A few shots:

A spotted towhee striking a dramatic pose in very yellow light.
A Canada goose trying on facial hair.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American bushtit
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Dark-eyed junco (says Nic)
  • House sparrow
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot (One! Possibly the same one.)
  • American wigeon (one!)
  • Canada goose
  • Double-crested cormorant
  • Great blue heron
  • Greater yellowlegs
  • Green-winged teal
  • Hooded merganser
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Northern shoveller
  • Pied-billed grebe
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Various gulls

Raptors:

  • None. Maybe?

Non-birds:

  • Copious pollinators
  • One black squirrel, one gray squirrel

Birding, August 30, 2025: Merry Cootmas!

Where: Maplewood Flats (North Vancouver), Blakeburn Lagoons Park (Port Coquitlam), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 21-24°C

Maplewood Flats

View looking east over Burrard Inlet.

It was birding all over the place today. The only thing missing was the birbs. We heard a few and eventually saw a few, but it was mostly waterfowl and the like as songbirds seemed to prefer hiding away on what was a very humid day.

We began at Maplewood Flats and saw and heard a few chickadees, spotted some cormorants offshore, and a few gulls, but a promised sandpiper remained elusive. The scenery is always nice here, though.

Blakeburn Lagoons Park

One of the two lagoons. They were replete with ducks, some herons (none green) and a single goose.

We went to Blakeburn Lagoons to search for the elusive green heron. It remained elusive. We did see several great blue herons as compensation.

Otherwise, it was ducks and plenty of them, along with a solitary Canada goose, the only one we saw today (I think).

Tlahutum Regional Park

Coquitlam River, looking rather full on this day.

There were ducks in the main pond at Tlahutum and a couple of bald eagles flapping high overhead, but very few other birds were making themselves visible, so we made do with shooting flowers and the many pollinators tending to them.

Piper Spit

Oddly, I forgot to take any scenery shots at Piper Spot, so enjoy this wood duck stretching instead.

The land mass at Piper Spit is not only back, but fairly massive. A few small shorebirds were darting about on it, but most birds preferred the water. In the water, we saw the usual mix of mallards and wood ducks, along with a pair of hooded mergansers, but no geese. And lo, there was the first coot of the season, swimming about by itself and looking glorious and weird. It’s as much a sign of fall coming as the proliferation of pumpkin spice in everything from muffins to school supplies (probably).

Several people were stupidly feeding the birds again. Having recently seen bears up close and personal here, I feel comfortable in calling their actions stupid.

But we also saw a song sparrow. Just one, but it stopped hopping just long enough to let us get some decent shots. A few wood duck males were also back to near-full, resplendent mullets.

In all, a fine day of birding, even with the scarcity of birbs.

The Shots

Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.

A few shots:

A bee loving its job.
The first coot of the season. Coming soon: more coots and coot drama.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • Bewick’s wren (heard, not seen)
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Purple martin
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee (heard, not seen)
  • White-crowned sparrow (heard, not seen)

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot (one!)
  • Canada goose
  • Common merganser
  • Double-crested cormorant
  • Great blue heron
  • Hooded merganser
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Pied-billed grebe
  • Western sandpiper
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Various gulls

Raptors:

  • Red-tailed hawk

Non-birds:

  • Copious pollinators
  • Raccoons (actually after birding, and in my neighbourhood. I think they were having a meeting over lunch)

Birding, August 23, 2025: Snow (geese) in August

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Centennial Beach (Delta)
Weather: Sunny, 20-28°C

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

It almost feels like you can see the curve of the Earth.

It was warm today and maybe that made a lot of birds shy about coming out, because sparrows and sparrow-adjacent birds were in relatively short supply. We did see some chickadees, a few blackbirds and a lone cowbird, though.

Mostly it was mallards (being jerks by hogging seed) and wood ducks, with the males still looking snazzy with their proto-mullets, along with the re-emergence of geese in most parts. The air was full of honks.

We even saw some swallows still hanging out in the main pond, though I wasn’t able to tell what kind they were, as they were in full flitting mode.

Others must have known this is the birding lull, because we were able to drive straight into the sanctuary and the number of people around was definitely down for a sunny, pleasant summer Saturday.

Still, it was fine. Can one have too many glamour shots of mallards?

Centennial Beach

Mt. Baker looms over Boundary Bay and the tidal flats.

We had some better luck at Centennial Beach, with multiple types of shorebirds prowling the streams left in the wake of the extremely low tide, including yellowlegs, killdeer, semipalmated sandpipers and a lifer–a long-billed curlew. At least I think it’s a lifer, I don’t remember seeing one before and it has an extremely distinctive (and gigantic) bill that curves down. A couple of them were strolling about farther out. We ventured onto the tidal flats for a bit, but were wary of spooking them.

There were also a ton of grasshoppers basically everywhere. I was tempted to title this post “Day of the Locusts.” I got some decent shots.

The other surprise was three snow geese in amongst a bunch of Canada geese. I did not have snow geese in August on my bingo card.

The raptor trail was raptor-deficient, however.

In all, the shorebirds made the trip worthwhile.

The Shots

Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.

A few shots:

Blackbird up close and personal at Reifel.
Snow goose in August.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Cliff swallow
  • European starlings
  • House sparrow
  • Red-winged blackbird

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot (still not yet)
  • Canada goose
  • Killdeer
  • Great blue heron
  • Greater yellowlegs
  • Long-billed curlew (lifer)
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Northern shoveller
  • Semipalmated sandpiper (lifer, at least per Merlin)
  • Snow goose (new!)
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon

Raptors:

  • Northern harrier

Non-birds:

  • Copious pollinators
  • A black squirrel
  • One turtle

Birding, August 16, 2025: Bees, not birds

Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Sun and clouds, 19-22°C

Piper Spit

View from the turtle nesting area. Not seen: turtles, as always.

Although several naughty humans were feeding seed to the birds, which has been banned all summer (and reinforced my many signs all over the place), there were still relatively few around. We did not see geese, blackbirds or any fall migrants. It is also true it is not fall yet. Perhaps the migrants know this, too.

But we did see a scruffy little young song sparrow and an even more adorable baby cedar waxwing, which still had a lot of down, but already sported a proto face mask. It was kind of hiding in the bushes, which is probably a wise thing for its age.

The waterfowl largely consisted of mallards and wood ducks, and they mostly stayed well away from the pier. If it hadn’t been for one very splashy duck, I might have taken more shots of butterflies and bees.

But the trip was worth it for the babby waxwing.

Tlahutum Regional Park

Coquitlam River, fuller than last week thanks to heavy rain the day before.

There were even fewer birds at Tlahutum, though we did see some kind of raptor flying way overhead, and a lone female northern shoveller in the main pond. I shot a lot of flowers here, which have the bonus of not flitting around, unless it’s really windy.

And that was about it! Our outing was shortened by foul (not fowl) weather in the morning and by an event Nic was attending in the early evening, yet I somehow still managed over 25,000 steps as I type this.

I think there is a decent chance we’ll see at least one fall migrant the next time we are out. Coots are imminent.

The Shots

Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.

A few shots:

Northern shoveller in the main pond at Tlahutum Regional Park.
One of many pollinators seen in the community garden.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Cedar waxwing (babby)
  • Eastern kingbird
  • Song sparrow (babby)
  • Spotted towhee
  • White-crowned sparrow (heard)

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot (not yet!)
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern shoveller
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon

Raptors:

  • Some kind of raptor, yes

Non-birds:

  • Copious pollinators

Birding, August 9, 2025: Bear-y trees and catchers of the fly

Where: Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Blakeburn Lagoons Park (Port Coquitlam), Traboulay PoCo Trail/DeBoville Slough (Port Coquitlam)
Weather: Sunny, 25°C

Tlahutum Regional Park

Coquitlam River.

For a change of pace, we started at Tlahutum and Nic managed to get a shot of what might be a Calliope hummingbird. Merlin was not sure and neither are we.

Despite being morning, it was already fairly warm, but also kind of muggy. This would be the unofficial theme of the day. Also the official theme of the day.

The other official theme of the day was yet to come–more on that below.

We actually did not see a lot of birds at Tlahutum, but we shot many pollinators, giant, scary sunflowers and the scenery.

The highlights were a pair of raptors, an osprey that generously flew right overhead, and a turkey vulture, which is a bird I rarely see. It did not fly directly overhead, but if you zoom in, you can clearly see its turkey-like head.

Blakeburn Lagoons Park

One of the Blakeburn Lagoons, possibly with a green heron hiding somewhere in it.

We went to Blakeburn because a green heron has been seen there, and we wanted to get award-winning photos of it. We did see it, briefly, flying across a lagoon, never to be seen again. The animal signs at each viewpoint tease a number of species we’ve never seen, though to be fair, most of them are not birds. We consoled ourselves with scenery, some ducks and then headed out again.

Traboulay PoCo Trail/DeBoville Slough

Mountains and fields to the north and west of the Pitt River.

Today we ventured all the way up the trail and hooked a right to the viewing platform at the end overlooking the Pitt River, before heading back.

It was here that we encountered the other official theme of the day: flycatchers, and plenty of them! They were in abundant numbers and often surprisingly close, so we had no issue getting good shots. There were also multiple kingbirds showing themselves, too.

At one point, a goldfinch appeared and briefly landed on tall grass right in front of us–so close that I didn’t have time to focus on it before it thought better of where it was and took off. Alas.

At one point we saw several people, including someone with a VLL1very long lens, all looking off to the side of the trail toward some trees. We approached, wondering what exotic birds had captured their attention. But surprise twist, it was actually a young black bear, well up a tree and looking somewhat unsure of itself, or maybe very sure of itself. I can’t read bear faces well. It was gone by the time we returned, so I assume it was just exploring and having some fun. We also saw a significantly larger back bear, but it was trundling along in a field and was not interested or really close enough to eat tasty humans. Note to future bears: I am not tasty.

We saw more ospreys here, along with a good number of purple martins, so it proved to be a fruitful, if long and sweaty trek. Plus, the scenery is always nice, especially when the jet skis get out of hearing range.

The Shots

Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.

A sand wasp, to prove I took more than just scenery shots!

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Goldfinch
  • American robin
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Black-headed grosbeak
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Calliope hummingbird (?)
  • Cedar waxwing
  • Eastern kingbird
  • House finch
  • Purple martin
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Willow flycatcher

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot (not yet!)
  • Great blue heron
  • Green heron
  • Mallard
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • European starling

Raptors:

  • Osprey
  • Turkey vulture

Non-birds:

  • A small black bear and a very large black bear
  • A fuzzy caterpillar
  • Woodland skippers and cabbage butterflies
  • Copious other pollinators
  • Humans on noisy jet skis

Birding, August 2, 2025: Hot pigeons in love (or not)

Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 24°C

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

A bit of a breeze kept it from feeling too warm.

It was a shorter birding trip today as I did a rare run/birding double header. I have over 38,000 steps as I type this.

It was a sunny and pleasant mid-afternoon at Piper Spit, and with the no feeding rule still in effect, two things can be observed:

  • Far fewer people on the pier
  • The waterfowl tend to hang out farther away from the pier because no free snacks

We are still yet to see any new migrants arriving, but soon™. We did see several ducks that appeared to be hybrids of mallards and whatever else a mallard finds sexy (and vice versa).

But the variety and, in some cases, numbers were way down. Pigeons? Plenty! And some of them quite frisky. Blackbirds? We saw one. Gulls? Also, only one. Geese? Multiple gaggles.

Still, we shot what we could, and some birds cooperated by getting all showy with flapping and splashing and scooting across the water.

In all, not a bad little outing and none of my photos were accidentally overexposed, hooray.

The Shots

Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.

Here is an unedited shot of a pigeon (except for cropping) to prove I took photos, while I go through all of my shots.

A pigeon possibly staying away from one very amorous male.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American robin
  • Barn swallow
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot (not yet!)
  • Canada goose
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Great blue heron
  • Mallard
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeons (in love)
  • A ring-billed gull

Raptors:

  • None!

Non-birds:

  • A squirrel
  • Some pollinators

Birding July 26, 2025: Everywhere you go, it’s gonna be goose

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Boundary Bay Dyke Trail (Delta), Blackie Spit, Crescent Beach (Surrey)
Weather: Sunny, 20°C

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

The marshland appears endless from the West Dyke Trail.

The day took a weird turn, camera-wise, as I managed to change the exposure on-the-fly without realizing it until I was looking at the photos later. Whoops. The change was subtle enough that I didn’t pick it up in the EVF. I’ve set it back and think I know how I did it, so hopefully this won’t happen again without me doing it on purpose.

But it was also a day when I shot a lifer–a Peregrine falcon!

Reifel started with a paucity of birds in the entrance pond, but there were signs of others we haven’t seen much, like chickadees. Sort of pond-adjacent was an abundance of barn swallows grooming in nearby trees, including what appeared to be a bunch of juveniles. Cute! The geese were everywhere, but didn’t seem overly interested in trying to eff each other (or anyone else up). Summer doldrums, maybe. We were reacquainted with C21, a goose that has a rather clunky-looking neck collar. No sign of C19 or C20, though. We also saw a towhee wearing a wire. We’re being tracked, the birds are being tracked, everyone is being tracked.

There were a few shorebirds in one of the west dyke ponds, but again very far away, boo. The blind that faces one of the ponds had a special “treat”, though–a growing wasp nest on the inside of one of the wooden flaps, which was left in the open position (for obvious reasons). The honeycomb had probably a few dozen pockets in it, with wasps canoodling around it, probably adding more using their secret wasp techniques. We took our photos and scrammed.

And upon seeing a raptor flying way up overhead, I took a bunch of shots that were mostly mediocre, but were good enough to identify the bird as a Peregrine falcon–a lifer! It seemed to just be passing by.

I experimented more with shooting scenery (and some bugs) using manual focus, which may have had repercussions revealed later (which I will also reveal later).

Boundary Bay Dyke Trail

I have never seen horses out here before. Now I have seen three.

For Boundary Bay, we started near the golf course (there’s always a golf course) and went to the little pump house near 80th Street, probably a few km or so. The trail was very dry and bright. There were basically no birds, except an errant robin and a bald eagle sitting atop a telephone pole. The eagle was “panting” but when Nic crossed to the other side of the trail, it immediately stopped and looked precisely in our direction. And kept looking. We got some very nice shots, then scrammed (at a leisurely pace. An eagle would probably not be able to carry us off. Probably).

The main highlight here were planes, if you’re into planes, the scenery, and bugs, specifically grasshoppers of various colours, and butterflies.

We decided to round out the day with a risky trip to Blackie Spit.

Blackie Spit/Crescent Beach

Distant kayakers make land off Blackie Spit.

This is risky only in the sense that a sunny Saturday afternoon is likely to find the parking lot full. And it was. But we went to the second, smaller parking lot further in, the one with the curiously square roundabout (a squareabout?) and lo, there was a single spot! We parked a short distance from a Cybertruck, which seemed to have parked in a handicapped spot without apparent reason[Cybertruck joke here].

The tide was way out and Blackie Spit itself is now restricted to a single straight trail that doesn’t really get close to the water, so it’s a bit of a bust now. The scenery is still nice.

We ventured onto the other trails, saw more shorebirds (still kind of far away), but again, not too many birds venturing out into the mid-afternoon sun, apart from some song sparrows, a crow and a seagull that Nic and I both managed to capture pooping in mid-flight. You take the wins where you can.

And that was the day! The weather was perfectly cromulent, the lack of birds not surprising, and the rare gems all the more precious because as birding goes, we are also in the summer doldrums.

Soon, though, there will be coots.

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 goldfinch
  • American robin
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Barn swallow
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • European starling\House finch
  • House sparrow
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Rufous hummingbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • White-crowned sparrow

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot (not yet!)
  • Belted kingfisher
  • Canada goose
  • Great blue heron
  • Greater yellowlegs
  • Hooded merganser
  • Mallard
  • Sandhill crane
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • A few gulls

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle
  • Northern harrier (most likely)
  • Peregrine falcon

Non-birds:

  • A black squirrel
  • Bugs and insects:
    • Dragonflies
    • Hover flies
    • Honey bees
    • Bumblebees
    • Killer bees (wasps)
    • And more

Birding, July 12, 2025: The Blackbird and the Lily Pad

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Richmond Nature House, Terra Nova Park (Richmond), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 20-28°C

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

South pound at Reifel: Mostly empty, a little slimy.

We started bright ‘n early at Reifel, where the clouds quickly burned off and it was actually kind of warm. You know it’s warm at Reifel when the breeze feels pleasant.

There was some incipient goose drama, but for the most part, it was pretty quiet, with many of the ponds and waterways absent of waterfowl. Several ponds were also looking quite slimy, including the London Slough1Dictionary Fun Fact: It can be pronounced sloo or slow, but not sluff, where it means something that can be shed or cast off, which gave us slimy mallards and equally slimy turtles. Everyone seemed pretty chill with the green slime. And speaking of the slough, one of the logs there was, as Nic put it, a veritable United Nations of waterfowl, with mallards, wood ducks, wigeons and mergansers all sharing space, a turtle at the end keeping an eye on them.

The vast marshlands are looking pleasantly green and verdant now, with wildflowers providing ample opportunities for the billion types of pollinators buzzing about. The first of the main ponds on the Outer Dyke (approaching from the north) appeared to have a lot of birds over yonder in the eastern end, so we went to the secret third bird blind and indeed, the area was replete with dowitchers and lesser yellowlegs. They were a little too far away, alas.

We encountered a pair of Sandhill cranes and they were in a restful mood, probably due to the heat. One even folded down on its legs in a comfy patch of shaded grass.

There were goldfinches and yellowthroats, but they mostly remained elusive, as is their way. Herons were more present than in other recent trips, on the ground, in the water and in the air (but not pooping).

We saw more beetles going at it. I’m ready to declare them the horniest bugs of summer, though the dragonflies are putting in a good effort, too.

In all, a perfectly pleasant tour of the sanctuary, with a few birds we haven’t seen lately sneaking back in, like a few mergansers and pintails.

Richmond Nature House

My arm with a ladybug on it, photo courtesy of Nic.

Next was the Richmond Nature House. I did not take any photos here, but Nic shot a rufous hummingbird and a furtive chickadee that came out briefly to check one of the feeders that still had seed in it. Actually, I did take one photo–of a fire hydrant surrounded by flowers. And Nic took photos of me. Or at least my left arm, which had a ladybug on it.

Terra Nova Park

Vast marshlands at Terra Nova, looking north toward the coastal mountains.

We moved on to Terra Nova and for me, it was all planes planes planes! There were only a few birds here–again, probably staying in the shade to avoid the mid-afternoon heat. Terra Nova always offers nice scenery, though. And planes.

The tide was the lowest here I can recall seeing. A collection of herons were gathered south of the Iona Beach jetty, noodling about in an area that would normally be under water. And when I say noodling, I mean standing, because that’s what herons do.

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

A pair of poop monsters with urban towers in the distance.

We ended our birbing at Piper Spit and by now it was up to 28C, but the breeze meant it didn’t actually feel that hot. The spit is still a no-feeding area (though a few people were doing that and will end up in bird hell or something. Actually, the birds like the seed, so it would probably be some other kind of hell, like, uh, the no bird feeding hell, where you are waist deep in seed no matter where you go, constantly slogging through), so while there are birds, they don’t hang around the pier itself as closely as usual. We didn’t see anything unusual here and did not magically summon the crane this time. We did observe at length a blackbird on the lily pads giving itself a good bath, though. There were also pigeons acting like red soldier beetles, if you know what I mean. The ladies (or men? I am not a pigeonologist) seemed unimpressed.

As a special bonus, we did not have to wait for a train to pass when leaving.

In all, a good 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 goldfinch
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Barn swallow
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Cedar waxwing
  • Common yellowthroat
  • European starling
  • House sparrow
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Rufous hummingbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Tree swallow
  • Yellow warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot (not yet!)
  • American wigeon
  • Canada goose
  • Great blue heron
  • Hooded merganser (!)
  • Lesser yellowlegs
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail (!)
  • Sandhill crane
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • A few gulls

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle

Non-birds:

  • Western painted turtle
  • Bugs and insects:
    • Red soldier beetle
    • Great blue skimmer (dragonfly)
    • Eight-spotted skimmer (dragonfly)
    • Blue damselfly
    • Hover fly
    • Paper wasp
    • Sand wasp
    • A billion others I could not classify or have forgotten

Birding, July 5, 2025: The horny world of bugs

Where: Centennial Beach, Beach Grove, Boundary Bay Dyke Trial (Delta)
Weather: Partly sunny, 17-19°C
Boundary Bay: Sometimes it’s a bay, and sometimes it’s this.

My suggestion to start out at Crescent Beach/Blackie spit was thwarted a few km short of the target when traffic mysteriously came to a standstill. There were a lot of dump trucks and other vehicles ahead of us and they seemed to be turning around for some reason. We could see little flags on the road, but not enough to quite discern what had happened or was happening. We pondered taking another route in, but couldn’t be sure it wouldn’t also be blocked, so we headed to our original destination of Centennial Beach.

The weather was pleasant enough, with partly sunny conditions, but the wind was gusting regularly, which brought a delightful (?) challenge to shooting bugs and birds on bobbing branches.

This time, the raptor trail delivered a Northern raptor right up front and it swooped over the area numerous times, often while being harassed by blackbirds, because the area is clearly not big enough for all of them.

The tide was way out, so we got obligatory shots of the vastness of Mud Bay, while mostly avoiding the mud. Mostly.

House sparrows were out everywhere, as were various swallows, but shorebirds were in short supply at Centennial, which was perhaps understandable, because the shore was effectively about an extra km out.

The behaviour of bugs was notable on this outing. We observed what appeared to be a BC miner bee (which looks like a bumblebee with “pollen pants”) being regularly assaulted in the sand by another bee. Examination of the shots left me uncertain what exactly was going on. The beat-up bee didn’t seem to be interested or perhaps capable of flying off, and a few of the rasslin’ poses were of the variety that would make young, uncertain bees uncomfortable, if you know what I mean.

The promised afternoon sun did not really materialize, but the hazy clouds still allowed decent illumination. We moved on to Beach Grove and the Boundary Bay Dyke Trail, which we haven’t visited in a while.

We saw more insects getting it on, specifically a pair of amorous red solider beetles, and a couple of mud dauber (?1Nic did extensive interweb research to ID the various insects and what we discovered is that a) there are a lot of types of insects, like way too many and b) this makes them very challenging to ID) wasps that were connected in a way that suggested love was in the air and in even closer proximity to them.

But what we mostly saw were Savannah sparrows, and plenty of ’em. I got some of my best shots of these pretty boys, along with more horny bugs, some elusive common yellowthroats, and an American goldfinch sitting atop a tree, which I pointed out to Nic. I had my kit lens on the camera at the time and it took off before I could switch lenses, but Nic got some shots, thus ending his curse. For now.

I also had a red soldier beetle climb onto my shoe (the shots didn’t turn out, but I tried) and despite being very aware of the copious horse poop on the trail, managed to step in it twice. Still, if there is any poop you must step in, horse poop is probably the least offensive.

One of the ponds near(ish) to the trail had attracted no less than four different types of shorebirds, so we got our shorebird fix in a concentrated burst, with a few killdeer, lesser and greater yellowlegs and a least sandpiper, which was being mostly shy and keeping partly hidden in the grass.

In all, I was surprised at how many birds we saw, particularly on the dyke trail. And having the 400 mm lens definitely made for a better experience for me, as the birds are often not near the trail, so the extra reach is handy. Also, I remembered sunblock and despite the hazy conditions, probably would have burned otherwise, so yay for that.

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 goldfinch
  • Barn swallow
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Cedar waxwing
  • Common yellowthroat
  • European starling
  • House finch
  • House sparrow
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Rough-winged swallow (maybe?)
  • Savannah sparrow
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Tree swallow
  • White-crowned sparrow

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Canada goose
  • Great blue heron
  • Greater yellowlegs
  • Killdeer
  • Least sandpiper
  • Lesser yellowlegs
  • Mallard

Common:

  • Shore crows

Raptors:

  • Northern harrier

Non-birds:

  • A brown bunny, but briefly
  • An orgy of various horny insects:
    • Red soldier beetle
    • Mud dauber wasp
    • BC miner bee
    • Woodland skipper
    • Grasshoppers
    • Other butterflies and things

Birding, June 28, 2025: All the lifers, plus all the swallows

Where: Heron Cove, Pitt River, Grant Narrows Park at Pitt Lake, Sturgeon Slough (Pitt Meadows)
Weather: Partly cloudy, 17-22°C
One of the many waterways in and around Pitt river/Pitt Lake.

It was a day of sloughs, creeks, rivers and lakes under a mostly sunny sky and temperatures that actually felt kind of like summer. Novel!

We started near Heron Cove and the name did not disappoint, as we saw two herons standing in a tree, an adult and a juvenile. The juvenile was acting strange and silly. You know how teens are.

From there we walked a trail that got more and more overgrown, showing a clear line on how far most people were willing to explore. We saw a ladybug on a frond of wild grass and after my camera refused to focus on it, I went manual and actually got a really nice shot. I’ll have to experiment more with manual mode on targets that are not madly flitting about.

Returning, we saw our first lifers, along with about a dozen other photographers with Very Big Lenses, namely a yellow warbler pair (you can probably guess what they look like) and a Bullock’s oriole.

Walking the other way, we saw our third (!) lifer, a black-headed grosbeak, which was sufficiently obscured that we never did see its face.

We later moved to Grant Narrows Park, at the south end of Pitt Lake. We didn’t have to pay for the pay parking because it was full, and parked with several dozen others alongside the road leading in. From here we got to see an osprey nest, which was just a little too far off the shore, even for a 400 mm lens. We could still see the baby dinosaurs in the nest, though.

Further up, a viewing tower was closed because it has been completely and utterly claimed by cliff swallows, who build these cute little cavity nests out of mud. Almost every nest was occupied and there were quite a few swallows flying around the tower and the general area. In fact, the only species we didn’t see that even shows up in this area were cave swallows.

Nic got an awesome set of shots of an adult feeding a giant bug to a younger swallow, which I totally missed because I was shooting scenery or something. The number of birds here surprised me.

We ended the tour of Pitt Meadows by walking along the Sturgeon Slough, where we saw a few kingfishers, including one trying to gulp down a large meal. We followed a pair of common yellowthroats for a bit, watched a big spider possibly catch a bug, watched a pair of butterflies getting it on, strolled past the inevitable golf course, and took many shots of the gorgeous scenery.

In all, a fine outing in which the lack of steady sun was probably a good thing, given we were in the open most of the time.

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
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Barn swallow
  • Black-headed grosbeak (lifer)
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Bullock’s oriole (lifer)
  • Cedar waxwing
  • Cliff swallow
  • Common yellowthroat
  • Orange-crowned warbler
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Rough-winged swallow
  • Song sparrow
  • Tree swallow
  • Violet-green swallow
  • White-crowned sparrow
  • Yellow warbler (lifer)

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Canada goose
  • Eastern kingfisher
  • Great blue heron
  • Mallard

Common:

  • Some gulls

Raptors:

  • American osprey

Non-birds:

  • Dragonflies
  • A damselfly
  • Various bees

Birding, June 22, 2025: Daring duck and cautious coyote

Where: Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Cloudy, 16-19°C

We switched things up by starting at Piper Spit and the signs warning people not to feed the birds are all over the place, and it seems people are actually following the request for the most part (we did see some seed on a picnic table near the dam being nommed on by a song sparrow). This, along with the recent showers leading to the water level of the lake rising again, meant that most of the waterfowl were not hanging near the pier and shorebirds were completely absent.

I arrived early, shot some song sparrows, a robin, and a mom with a lone baby duck near the dam. After Nic arrived, we saw another female mallard, sans family, hanging around the dam. She jumped onto the edge of the fish ladder, then…jumped into the fish ladder itself, which is basically a series of rapids descending into the river. She seemed to enjoy letting the foaming water swirl around her and occasionally jammed her head in, sometimes coming up with strands of yummy (?) vegetation.

At the lake, a group of cinnamon teals and a blue-winged teal made an appearance, which was spiffy. Also, seemingly moments after I noted the absence of the sandhill crane, it flew in and landed in its usual area. Next, I will use my powers to win $10 million in the lottery.

Among the birds that hang out at Piper Spit, the “friendliest” are probably the blackbirds, as they will happily eat seed from your hand. The absence of seed seems to have made them all a little deranged, as we had them attempting to, and in some cases, succeeding in landing on us, even though we were seed-free. Maybe they thought that if they stuck to the routine, the seed would just manifest.

And while I did not get a shot, because it was hopping madly deep inside the branches of a tree, we spotted a warbling vireo, which for mew is a lifer. Neat.

There are a couple of stumps on the way to the pier that someone always covers in seed for the Douglas squirrels. These were cleaned up and a cute little sign placed on one. This will make getting shots of squirrels eating in that adorable pose more challenging.

A sign saying “No wildlife feeding.” Squirrels are sad.

The weather began to warm up a bit at Tlahutum, though it remained cloudy and dim. It’s been like this since summer officially began, so the people who complain about the heat should be pleased.

We saw a mix of swallows and sparrows in the community garden, along with an ever-elusive American goldfinch, which helpfully sat atop a pole. But the pole was set against a bright cloudy sky, making the goldfinch a very darkfinch. It no doubt chuckled to itself, then flew off.

The surprises here were the four-legged kind. As we crossed the bridge over the Coquitlam River, we spotted an otter out for an afternoon snack. It appeared to catch some kind of fish or something. My shots were not great, but you can see its whiskers and adorable little ears.

And as we were returning from The Big Pond a coyote came up behind us and then scooted rapidly past, ambling at a decent gait until it was a safe distance away. It then stood and looked across the river, giving us some fine profile shots. We wondered if it would cross the bridge (which we would be doing) but as it neared, a cyclist approached, so it jogged past. The cyclist, by coincidence, was heading the same way and the coyote booked it at that point.

In all, it was a comfortable day, weather-wise (no sun beating down on us) but with iffy lighting (no sun beating down on us).

The Shots

Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.

Shots coming soon, but here are two as a preview. The first is the American goldfinch, which was post-processed up the wazoo–I cranked exposure way up, cranked highlights way down and then added a bit of sharpening to get something resembling a goldfinch.

Max exposure, min highlights, one American goldfinch against a very bright sky.
A coyote on the ground, where the light is much more cooperative.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American robin
  • Black-capped chickadee (heard?)
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Rufous hummingbird
  • Spotted towhee
  • Song sparrow
  • Tree swallow
  • Violet-green swallow
  • Warbling vireo (lifer!)
  • White-crowned sparrow

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Blue-winged teal
  • Canada goose
  • Cinnamon teal
  • Gadwall
  • Great blue heron
  • Mallard
  • Sandhill crane
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • Rock pigeon

Raptors:

  • Some kind of hawk

Non-birds:

  • Coyote
  • Otter
  • A turtle in the Nature House

Windows 11: Making photo editing weirdly laggy since 2025

The other night I thought to myself that I’ve been taking photos with my new camera, but hardly ever post any of them. So I went through and tagged a bunch I took on Saturday and found I had 51 apparently worth considering. That’s way too many, but it was a starting point. I did the tagging in Linux Mint, but photo editing is still a bit iffy there, so I switched back to Windows 11 and my main photo editing software, Affinity Photo.

I edited one raw image of a barn swallow, then loaded a second image, of a house sparrow. After doing this, Windows 11 turned into this weird, laggy mess. The mouse cursor would slowly drift across the screen on its own, as if it weighed several tons, never fully stopping, never responding to any clicks, though I could get it to slowly move in other directions. The keyboard was also non-responsive, so I could not invoke task manager by using CTRL-ALT-DEL to see what program had gone rogue., or if it was Windows itself.

In the end, I rebooted the PC. It was such an unpleasant experience I even briefly thought of switching over to the Mac, then remembered the security hell of trying to install mouse drivers on it that led me to abandoning it for what has now been multiple weeks, because I am done with modern computers constantly throwing obstacles in the way of a pleasant, or even just nondescript, user experience.

Windows 11 has been behaving so far since the reboot, but I’ve only edited a single photo. I’ll have the full batch of selected photos from last Saturday posted sometime in 2028, probably.

In the meantime, here is that one photo, of a barn swallow.