Where: Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Mundy Park (Coquitlam) Weather: Sunny, 19-27°C
The Outing
Burnaby Lake
Phillips Point at Burnaby Lake.
I suggested Burnaby Lake, not because I wanted to get a lot of steps, but because it has a lot of tree canopy and if we’re not going to see many birds because of the time of year, we may as well not see them while in the shade.
But we did see a few, including a brown creeper right near the bridge over Eagle Creek near Piper Spit. Unlike previous creepers, this one was hyperactive and was constantly flitting from tree to tree. This would prove to be the standard behaviour of nearly every bird we encountered, for reasons unknown to me.
Piper spit was again bereft of shorebirds, though the water level was a bit lower, so maybe they’ll be back again soon. We did spot a few yellowlegs near the dam, which is an odd place for them to hang out (they walked on the lily pads). Mostly it was geese (one of which clamped onto the tail of another in the water before they separated, because there must always be goose drama), mallards and wood ducks. We did see what must have been a late brood of baby wood ducks following mom around and chowing on one of the lily pad flowers.
The rest of the lake afforded a few nice views, but not much in the way of birds. There were barn swallows at the rowing club, but they were elusive as always, and a cormorant, but it was standing atop a distant pole.
Overall, though, it was a pleasant, if step-intensive outing.
Mundy Park
Lost Lake at Mundy Park.
Nic suggested the community garden at Tlahutum Regional Park after lunch, which would have meant minimal walking, but would be entirely out in the sun. I countered with Mundy Park, which we’d only been to once before.
It proved step-intensive as well, but there were a few birds, including some blue-winged teals (we think– some of the coloration didn’t seem to match up with what the Merlin app was offering). And there were turtles enjoying the sun and water at Lost Lake, which we totally found.
Mostly it was relatively cool and shady paths through wooded areas that were deep enough to actually get you away from traffic noise (unlike Burnaby Lake).
Despite the relative lack of birds (and the erratic behaviour of them), it was a fine day to be out, we didn’t get ankle-deep in black goo, and I set a new Garmin Forerunner record for steps, which stand at 36,199 as I type this.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
The vast and non-slimy part of the mudflats off Iona Beach.
We got out to a slightly later than usual start, in keeping with the casual BC Day vibe or something, our first destination, Iona Beach.
Good news, we still haven’t needed the Deep Woods Off! yet. Perhaps that one biting bug nightmare was just a one-time abberation.
Speaking of nightmares, stay tuned!
As usual during peak summer, we did not see a wide variety of birds, but groups of starlings and barn swallows were out and aboot, as well as some killdeer along the river bobbing their heads, and roughly a million dragonflies. The outing concluded with a ring-billed gull pulling worms out of the mudflats.
In-between, we got many shots of the vast low tide, which seemed even lower than normal. Some of the sand actually felt firm and was drying. This created the illusion that I had changed into my “I don’t care if they get wet” shoes for no reason. We made it almost all the way back to shore, within sight of the parking lot and my shoes were still keeping my feet dry. All that was left was a pile of kelp to stomp over to reach the sandy shore, maybe 10 or 12 feet of it. Easy peasy!
Except underneath the thin crust of bright green kelp was a black ichor that was deep enough to come up to our ankles. It also smelled like the fermented remains of The Old Ones. We were committed by the time we realized what we stepped in, so we trudged through the black oil-like goo, then made liberal use of the hose outside the washrooms to wash our shoes, our feet and maybe a little bit of our souls.
We then went to lunch, pretending we couldn’t smell anything.
Piper Spit
Some waterfowl, water and other water-related things at Piper Spit.
We made only one more stop, at Piper Spit. Good: We didn’t get stuck behind any trains. Bad: The water level of the lake was considerably higher, completely submerging the landmass and forcing the shorebirds to dine and snooze elsewhere.
We made do with the usual collection of mallards, wood ducks, poop monsters and blackbirds. The cowbirds seem to have left already, but the young green-winged teals were enthusiastically chasing each other around, testing out their not-quite-ready-for-flight wings.
Songbirds were generally scarce, though a few pigeons were cooing around, as they do. I tried to get a prize-winning shot, but alas.
Speaking of alas, my camera was giving me issues again and I am fairly certain it is the telephoto lens or the adapter. At one point I went to take a photo and could hear a sound coming from the camera. The connection between lens and adapter was a tiny bit loose, so I tightened it and the camera seemed to behave better after. We’ll see how it goes. Replacing the adapter would be relatively cheap, the telephoto lens, not so much (or at all).
In all, a low-key kind of outing as befits this time of year.
Some winter migrants should start showing up soonish. Perhaps the first coots will come calling. One can dream.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
I feel like it’s a miracle every time I complete a gallery these days. But I have incentive, because my OneDrive storage is starting to max out. Gotta clear out all those RAW images.
Three young ducks on the move.
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Also, I should note a weird and whacky workflow for this batch of shots in terms of post-processing:
I started with Affinity Photo 2, editing RAW images, then exporting them as WebP files. Yes, WebP!
I then switched to Luminar AI (it had the name before AI became associated with everything terrible in the world) and used that the rest of the way. This program lets you aggressively alter specific aspects of a photo using very simple sliders. I used the sliders a lot. I was actually impressed at how it “saved” a few iffy photos.
Anyway, I may use Luminar more in the future, especially if I want to add random giraffes, which it totally lets you do.
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Terra Nova (Richmond), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) Weather: Sunny and humid, 19-25°C
The Outing
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
High cloud scuds across the sky over the marshland.
We started at Reifel, where it was already fairly warm at 19C, but didn’t actually get much warmer during our time there. An Anna’s hummingbird greeted us to start, which seemed like a good sign, but given that it’s mid-summer, we still didn’t see many songbirds or waterfowl beyond the usual gang of ducks and geese. Also, whatever kept the geese quiet the last few visits has ended, as they were honking up all over the place.
The tree swallows seem to have left, but barn swallows were still plentiful, including a bunch that were diving around outside one of the bird blinds. Several seemed to come right at us before swooping away. We later saw a mom feeding babies in a nest by the warming hut, but also (I did not know this), collecting the babies’ poop and disposing of it outside the nest. The babies do this by presenting their butts to mom, pooping, and then mom grabs the poop with her beak and flies off. Gross! But better than having a poop-filled nest, I suppose. Nic caught a wonderfully detailed1horrifying series of shots documenting the process. This is almost as bad as how dragonflies mate. Almost.
One blackbird was indulging in some seed on a fence railing and we stopped to take some photos. It seemed we may have gotten within the “banquet perimeter” because it stopped eating, hopped along the railing toward us and stood there, peeping as if to say, “This is my pile of seed, get your own!” As we moved on, it hopped back over and continued to smear seed all over his face.
Speaking of dragonflies, they must be mating like the proverbial dickens, because they were everywhere.
The Auger Trail was no longer cordoned off because of the Sandhill crane babies. Yay! But we never saw the Sandhill cranes or their babies. Boo.
But we did some fairly rare red-necked pharalopes in one of the big ponds along the western dyke trail. They were quite far away and mostly hidden in the reeds, though. Less hidden were a couple of hundred dowitchers hanging out in the same area.
Overall, the barn swallow babbies and the copious shorebirds made for a better-than-expected mid-summer outing.
Terra Nova
The pond is re-acquiring its red “carpet” again.
Nic suggested Terra Nova next. I took my usual plane shots, then we headed off to the “natural area” of the park, which had a list of things you aren’t allowed that included flying drones, golfing (?!) and archery (?!!). The natural area was basically similar to the rest of the trails, but with no convenient playground for children. One of the trails abuts a row of homes, which kind of dampens the “natural” aspect. Still, it was new and different and we heard a Bewick’s wren. Nic also shot a goldfinch. The pond had a grebe, but it proved even more elusive than usual, and neither of us got very good shots of it.
Piper Spit
A little bit of everything at Piper Spit.
The land mass at Piper Spit draws ever closer to the pier as the dry weather continues, and the extension on the pier remains closed because it is rickety and dangerous. No one wants to have it collapse, end up in the same water as a Canada goose.
We were pleasantly surprised to see more dowitchers here, and on the same side of the pier as most of the waterfowl. A few yellowlegs were mixed in, and they obligingly got quite close, so we got lots of good shots on these guys as they bobbed, preened and flapped.
As at Reifel, blackbird teens were begging pitifully to be fed by mom, pop or probably anyone that would shove seed into their gaping maws.
The wood duck numbers seemed low, but I think most were just tucked away in the shade. The area before the pier was almost completely bird-free, so they may not have been the only ones hiding.
Still, the shorebirds once again added a little zest to an otherwise quiet afternoon at the spit.
The Shots
Three young ducks on the move.
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The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Maplewood Flats (North Vancouver) Weather: Sunny, 23-27°C
The Outing
Piper Spit
Still no turtles.
We broke tradition two ways: Going birding on a Sunday and hitting Piper Spit first. The outing got off to a near-calamitous start when Nic found he could not adjust the f-stop on his camera. He fixed it by doing a variation of the classic turn it off/on by removing his telephoto lens, then putting it back on. Electronics are weird!
Near the dam, we saw some baby wood ducks, but not exactly close-up. We continued on and at the stump with the freaky fungus we saw a pair of Douglas squirrels being simultaneously adorable. One sat on top of the stump, eating a large nut like a cob of corn. I like squirrels because they like to eat and when they eat, they don’t move, which means I can usually get good shots. This seems increasingly important now, as my camera, or parts of it, seem to be experiencing an increasing array of issues. More on this later.
Once at the spit itself, the land mass to the east has returned, after multiple weeks of very hot and dry weather. It was pretty much Goose Island.
As expected, there wasn’t much variety in the waterfowl–mostly mallards and wood ducks with their prim new mullets. However, even the songbird population seemed to be largely elsewhere, save for an errant song sparrow and a mass of blackbirds hopping and flying about, seed smeared on their beaks. We witnessed a surly kid blackbird demanding to be fed by a parent, then proving himself completely capable of feeding himself when the parent took too long. Kids!
We got intel on where to find a lazuli bunting at Tlahutum, which was conveniently our next stop.
Tlahutum Regional Park
Rusting fences, but no buntings.
By now it was still rather humid and clouds began gathering. Some of them looked moisture-laden, but I hadn’t seen any showers in the forecast. You can probably see where this is going.
The directions for the bunting took us outside the park proper, to a nearby grass labyrinth and the titular hidden driveway (also the name of the album by my country punk fusion band). We listened, we looked, we trod around, but we heard no buntings and we saw no buntings. We left, buntless.
At the community gardens, we noted an absence of swallows, which may have already started heading off on their fall migration. In their place, a few robins, towhees and one elusive American goldfinch (I got one shot before it flew off).
By now, my camera–which I had cleaned the night before–was starting to show issues, the most prevalent being an inability for the shutter to engage, also sometimes accompanied by an inability to change focus. I did some experimenting with my kit lens and have made a provisional diagnosis that the problem lies with the telephoto lens or the adapter it uses. Look, if I win the $30 million 6/49 jackpot, I promise I will donate oodles of money to good causes and be a level-headed millionaire. But I will also totes buy a new camera, because even repairing this one is probably not worth it.
We elected to skip the rest of Tlahutum this time and headed off for lunch.
The shower–intermittent and half-hearted, began with lunch, but ended before we got to Maplewood Flats. Traffic on the highway was so slow (it was Sunday, too, remember, not rush hour on Wednesday or something) that we lost the GPS signal on Google Maps while going through the Cassiar Connector.
Maplewood Flats
The very low tide at Burrard Inlet.
Maplewood Flats had better light than we expected, but birds were scarce, despite a whiteboard near the entrance showing off all kinds of semi-exotic species that had been sighted here in the last few weeks. We saw some seagulls and cormorants, as well as a mallard mom and her snoozing brood by an inner pond. There are now even more signs warning people to keep off the mudflats, and the tide was indeed very low, exposing much of the shoreline. We were good and did not venture out.
In the end, I only shot a little over 250 photos, or about 1.25 batteries’ worth. With the paucity of birds, the high humidity and my camera being weird, it was a fine day to be out and enjoy the views, but maybe not so great for actual birding.
And now I’m off to write tracks for Hidden Driveways.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Looking west across the marshland, the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island in the distance.
Another Friday birding adventure, but due to scheduling and not the weather, which continues to be sunny and warm (but thankfully not hot and gross). We first headed out to Reifel, hoping to see the pair of adorable Sandhill crane babies.
As we neared Westham Island, we got stuck behind a rather slow-moving car with a large lab-type dog stuffed in the rear window. It was panting. But don’t worry, the windows were open. I know this because people on both sides of the car occasionally stuck their arms out and waggled their hands. I’m not sure if they were signalling that it was OK for us to pass them–most of the road here is “no passing” and usually the driver does the signalling, as the driver is the one, well, driving. Maybe he had one hand on the wheel and one holding an extra hot cup of McDonald’s coffee1I know McDonald’s doesn’t do this anymore. Please don’t sue me, McDonald’s.. Whatever the case, we observed that dogs are not allowed at Reifel, but the car was passing every possible stop before Reifel, including the island hotspot of Emma’s Farm, which is so popular in the summer they have “No parking here” signs all around the property, so people won’t park just anywhere, desperate to get in and touch cows, or whatever it is you do there.
As it turns out, the car turned off at one of the last few houses before Reifel, which made me wonder, how often do any of the island residents actually go there? Do they ever go there? Do they even like birds?
In any event, we like birds and arrived to a flurry of barn swallows buzzing the main lagoon. Nic got some nice shots, I got one blurry shot that vaguely resembles a UFO.
We also discovered that the wood ducks are still here, when we came across a bunch of male wood ducks in one of the increasingly swampy-looking inner waterways. These young fresh fellows were just starting to develop their mullets. Apparently the wood ducks stay, but just move out of view during the summer. Maybe that’s what the shovellers and pintails do, too.
Chickadees remained scarce and elusive. I did not get any shots. We did see some towhees and a few errant song sparrows, but most of the birbs proved elusive. There were goldfinches, too, but either far off in the marshland or in deep shadow in the trees, taunting us to get good shots. I did not.
However, there were oodles of herons all over the place, lots of them flying around, plus bonus turtles outside the first bird blind.
One highlight began as a lowlight–the Sandhill crane viewing area was closed, meaning a large swatch of the inner ponds was inaccessible, and we wouldn’t see the adorable babies.
Fortunately, Sandhill cranes can’t read signs and pay no attention to human barriers. We were preparing to leave and lo, the entire family was right there in the picnic area near the entrance, casually strolling about as they do. The two kids are rapidly growing and already entering the “90% legs” phase.
The other item of note were my shoes. I have new HOKA Speedgoat 6s. They look like this:
We encountered the first of many sets of ducklings near the base of the viewing tower, and these duckings were very interested in my new shoes, with all of them coming up and pecking at them or pulling at the laces. Apparently this colour combination resembles either a food source or just something delightful to them (I mean, the colour is pretty delightful). One duckling even started following me as we left the area.
So now I know how to attract ducklings.
Canada geese were still ever-present, and still ominously quiet. One mom came by with her gaggle of kids, and they were in that prime gangly teen stage, still all downy, but showing adult colours, and 95% legs (even more so than the crane babies).
And we saw a most unusual sight: A single Eurasian wigeon. I think Nic and I took a combined 500 photos of the bird. It was very cooperative that way. I had to go for quantity, as my camera sees wigeons as robins, which is to say fuzzy and slightly out of focus (as a side note, I had some camera issues today, despite the camera being cleaned the night before. The only thing I can think is heat may have been a factor. The telephoto lens casing did feel pretty warm after some time in the sun). The wigeon was very handsome and helped cap a typical summer day at Reifel–pleasant, beautiful vistas, but overall quiet compared to migratory seasons.
Crescent Beach/Blackie Spit
Shell on a log at Blackie Spit.
Nic did not want to log 30,000+ steps, so suggested Crescent Beach next, which is relatively compact. Unlike Reifel, which was quiet both bird and people-wise, Crescent Beach was hopping–with people. Birds, not so much, and some of the ones we did see were off in the distance. We saw herons, some gulls, plenty of crows, but no killdeer (which had been reported in the area). Again, some nice scenery shots, but not much in the way of birbery. We did see a snail clinging upside down on a flower, with a large spider nearby. I’m not sure if there was drama there, or if they were both just avoiding the sun.
Speaking of, I once again avoided any sunburn. Then forgot my sunblock in the car.
Overall, not a bad day of birding, and the weather was just plain nice.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
I am writing this some five days later for reasons, so I’m doing my best to remember what we saw and where we saw it.
There were birds.
We started out, uncharacteristically, at Tlahutum Regional Park, hoping the morning would yield more birds and birbs. We passed a woman exiting with a giant, bone-crushing telephoto lens, and I asked her if she had seen anything exotic. She then offered some tips on seeing somewhat exotic birds, so we ventured from our usual route to lead west and north, roughly following the path of the Coquitlam River. We spotted a black-headed grosbeak! It was a little high up and the light was not great, but it gave us opportunity to get shots as it chirped noisily, before darting off. A pair of cyclists saw us and one actually turned back to report a bittern sighting in the adjacent creek. But they had apparently spooked it into hiding behind some tall grass and we never actually saw it.
But in the same creek was a mallard! But also a green heron. Being a heron, we were able to get a good number of shots before it flew off, though it was a little tricksy shooting down into the creek over all the nature in the way.
We continued on a bit further, spotting a few not-very-close cedar waxwings, an Eastern kingbird and more.
Overall, a pretty nice haul. Tlahutum is the one place where I wish I had a better than 250 mm telephoto lens. It’s fine for places like Reifel, where the birds are closer, but at Tlahutum the birds are rarely close. Alas, to dream.
After putting on more mileage than intended, we headed out to Iona Beach.
Iona Beach
I heard you like seaweed, so I put seaweed in your seaweed.
The Ferguson Road realignment was surprisingly complete, or complete enough to open. This isn’t directly related to birding, but it is a nice improvement for the area, taking a narrow road adjacent to the airport, moving it farther away, and expanding it to include multiple bike lanes (there were none before, nor even any shoulders on the old stretch of road), providing a wider, safer route to the beach. It should be fully finished in the next few months.
But then birds! But first, bugs. The sand wasps have returned and were busily digging and ducking into their burrows, where they do secret sand wasp things. Fortunately, they don’t seem fussed by nosy humans walking by (I also brought Deep Woods Off!, but we did not need it–yet!)
The pond area yielded a few birds, but mostly off in the distance.
We moved to the beach and took advantage of an especially low low tide to get into the gap in the jetty that allows fishies to now swim through (when the tide is not especially low). On the way back, we moved further away from the shore, always opting for a clear path that led us out more. This was inevitably going to end with us having to cross through muck at some point, and we did, gingerly stepping over slippery yellow mud, vast piles of vibrant green seaweed, and the occasional bit of flowing water. I got my shoes thoroughly mucky, which is how it goes at Iona.
The birding was a bit whelming here, though there are always nice vistas to shoot. I shot them all.
Strangely, the best bird shot I got of the day was not with my Canon EOS M50, but my creaky old iPhone 12, when we were getting ready to leave. We had both front doors open, and a blackbird landed first on the driver side door, then took off and landed on the passenger side. I managed to get four photos before it flew off. I don’t know if it thought there was secret seed in the car or something, but it definitely had that “I just might hop inside!” look to it, and that would have been quite interesting, I’m sure.
The best shot was one I got just as it began to take off. I present it here, gallery-free!
Red-winged blackbird demonstrating why it is named thus.
In the end, not a ton of great shots, but some nice rare sightings to compensate. Also, no sunburn, woo.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Serene and bird-free pond. (Technically, there were a few birds.)
For the first time since we began visiting Reifel, we got stopped as the bridge to Westham Island was rotated to allow a sailboat to pass through. It was kind of neat for the first few seconds, then it was just mostly waiting for it to swing back so we could actually get to the birds.
Once there, I noticed the gusting wind of the last few visits was mostly being absent. It cleared up earlier than perhaps expected, and I slapped on sunblock midway through. I only got a little bit of a burn where the camera strap tugs near the top of my t-shirt. I blame a lack of mirror during application.
The wood ducks have vacated the sanctuary again, though I have no idea where they go, because they always come back at some point. This meant most areas were dominated by mallards. The geese seemed to have claimed the main pond by the west dyke and were disturbingly quiet, most of them spending their time napping, like they’re conserving energy for an invasion or something. I don’t think I heard a single honk. Eerie!
There were cowbirds on hand, and they were acting weird–something we would see again at Piper Spit, as the guys were showing off to each other and the women. None seemed particularly impressed. But they persevered, puffing up their feathers, arching their heads back and making lots of weird little peeps and calls.
The freaky catfish have returned to the London Slough, affording us some delightfully hideous shots of them, as they congregate near the surface and directly below the railing overlooking the slough.
We did not see any marsh wrens this time, but Nic managed a few photos of a Bewick’s wren. There were a few chickadees around, but only a few, and I could only get butt shots. But they were nicely detailed butt shots.
They couldn’t touch the robin butt shot that Nic got. That one was truly spectacular, hall of fame material.
The other highlights:
A juvenile killdeer! Cute! But a little too far away to get great shots.
Ducklings! Several groups, one quite close to us, still fairly young, so very fuzzy and adorable. We also saw some juveniles, which look more like mini adult ducks now. Strangely, we did not see any goslings.
Several small groups of greater yellowlegs hanging out in the main pond by the outer dyke. There’s been a bit of a paucity of shorebirds lately, so this was nice.
We saw a mysterious sooty-coloured bird sitting up in a tree between two of the inner ponds. It looks like an all-black swallow. Merlin suggested a Northern rough-winged swallow, which is a clear miss, and even a brown-headed cowbird, also a million miles off. It’s rare to stump Merlin when you have pretty clear shots of the bird in question, but we did! We debated whether it might be a purple martin, but to me the beak did not have quite the right shape. I declare it Sooty Swallow.
The sandhill crane couple that is nesting on a small island in an inner pond has had babbies! Only about a week old, there are two of them, and we went to the viewing area (the central trail is temporarily closed to keep pesky humans away), where the “maximum 6 people” rule was, shall we say, loosely enforced. To everyone’s credit, people were quiet and letting them just do their thing. In the case of the babies, this was mostly just sitting, occasionally lifting a head up, or walking a very short distance before repeating the first two. Nic got a shot of a worm-feeding. Who doesn’t like a fresh yummy worm hand beak-delivered?
I had some issues with my camera that prompted me to use my new PACK1Portable Awesome Cleaning Kit, which consists of a repurposed earbuds case filled with cotton swabs and a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol, but troubles persisted, as you will see.
Centennial Beach
The usual very low tide at Boundary Bay.
Centennial Beach was fairly busy for a Friday afternoon. It was the last day of school, and I’m guessing they still do the half day thing, so the kids were taking advantage of the sunny weather. The pond had a few mallards, but we got some great shots of assorted dragonflies, including a couple that were…coupling. I’m not going to judge by saying the way dragonflies reproduce is freaky and terrifying, but.
We unlocked the Savannah sparrow achievement. Centennial is a pretty reliable place for seeing them, you just have to hope one lands close enough to get some good shots. In this case, we had one perch atop a sign post, which was very considerate on his part.
There were a lot of crows around, for some reason. We saw one cooling off on the ground by spreading its wings and “panting”, a few others bully some starlings out of the topmost branches of a tree, and another harassing a Northern harrier who probably got too close to some hideously rotten something-or-other the crow had down on the mudflat waiting for him.
We also saw two bunnies, the first of which gave us several excellent cute bunny poses and didn’t seem overly fussed by our presence. We aren’t raptors, so I guess that checks out.
I used the “level” feature in my iPhone’s camera app to see if it would help with my often-titled scenery shots–and it did!
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Looking east from the pier, toward the towers around Lougheed.
We ended at Piper Spit, where the wood ducks were not at all absent, though the males in particular are looking quite scruffy in some cases. The geese here were also very eerily quiet, and the cowbirds were just as weird as at Reifel. Blackbirds were more plentiful, and a bunch of rock pigeons were hanging out. The regular rains of June meant the land mass is completely submerged, and the overall higher water level also meant no shorebirds here. :sadtrombone:
It seemed to be nap time, so many of the ducks and others were napping, nestled in the shaded areas filled with comfy grass. Like Reifel, we saw no goslings here. Maybe they were over in the fields. Or gathering for the invasion I mentioned above.
Piper Spit has such a different vibe in the summer. It’s utterly pleasant and pretty, but strangely quiet compared to the height of migratory seasons in the spring and fall (roughly speaking). Still, we did get some nice shots of a chunky gray squirrel doing that classic cute squirrel pose. And we didn’t get stuck waiting behind a train.
Overall, a fine morning and afternoon of birding.
The Shots
Bumblebee on a flower.
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The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
American goldfinch
American robin
Anna’s hummingbird
Barn swallow
Bewick’s wren
Black-capped chickadees
Brown-headed cowbird
Cedar waxwing
House sparrow
Mysterious dark swallow
Red-winged blackbird
Rufous hummingbird
Savannah sparrow
Song sparrow
Spotted towhee
Tree swallow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
Canada goose
Great blue heron
Greater yellowlegs
Killdeer
Mallard
Northern pintail (one!)
Sandhill crane
Wood duck
Common:
American crow
European starling
Seagull
Raptors:
Bald eagle
Northern harrier
Non-birds:
A chunky squirrel
Catfish (probably brown bullhead, though I am not a fishologist)
Where: Rocky Point Park, Old Orchard Park, Inlet Park, Old Mill Site Park (Port Moody) Weather: Sunny, 27-28°C
The Outing
Be very quiet, we’re despatrely searching for herons
While it looks like we covered all of Port Moody’s parks, these are all clustered along the north shore of Burrard Inlet along a several km stretch, so it’s actually quite compact. Handy, considering the unusually high heat.
Due to my annoyingly slow recovery from my current cold, I passed on the early part of the birding in Pitt Meadows, but it was mostly out in the open under a cruel sun (ie. hot), though pretty, based on Nic’s pics (plus my recollection of being there last summer). Nic’s quest to see a Bullock’s Oriole paid off, and he didn’t even know it until he was looking at his photos later, which is like getting just the prize you wanted in the bottom of the Cracker Jack box1I dimly recall the prizes being small, plastic and unremarkable, so a Bullock’s Oriole is even better. He also saw a red-winged blackbird with a white tail, which is decidedly weird, as well as cliff swallows tending to their nests, which are reminiscent of something you’d have H.R. Giger design for an Alien film (the nests, not the swallows).
I joined in the next stage of the quest in mid-afternoon: To find the heron rookery at Rocky Point Park before all the baby herons left their nests. We were aided in several ways:
Helpful signs on the path saying, “You’re in a heron colony, be quiet, you clumsy loud human!”
Some directions given to us weeks ago by people who knew of the rookery when we were last at Rocky Point.
It turns out the directions were off probably by a factor of two and the heron nests, which they said would be at or near eye-level, were only at eye level if you were 10–20 metres tall. Which I am not.
But after wandering the lower trail several times (twisty, dirt-packed and filled with enough exposed tree roots to give me PTSD), we opted to try the path higher up, which is paved, civilized and also available for cyclists. This gave us the vantage point we needed, and we saw plenty of nests up (way up) in the trees. Yay! Most of them were empty. Boo. The ones that weren’t had nearly full-grown herons, so we totally missed on the goofy baby dinosaur stage of development. But we will know where to look during the next nesting season.
Although we did see more birds than we normally do at Rocky Point, there still weren’t a lot, and most of my shots were mediocreat best. Even my scenery shots taken with the camera were crooked (I fare much better with the camera than the phone). I blame everything on my cold. At least I never coughed while taking a photo, though that might have at least looked artsy.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold. I have ommitted birds from the Nic-exclusive part of the birding, otherwise the list would have been much longer and more interesting.
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Shirley's Walk, South Arm Marshes Wildlife Management Area (Delta) Weather: Sunny, 18-23°C
The Outing
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
View looking toward the western dyke.
It was all Delta all the time with today’s abbreviated birding trek.
This was the first time this year that Reifel actually felt warm. Almost of the marshland is now green, thanks to a generous amount of rain through May. It was also apparent mono/tripod day, as it seemed like every other person was carrying a camera with a ludicrously large telephoto lens attached.
Several people told us about an oriole in the area, which would have been hard to miss, as it’s bright yellow, but alas, we did not see it. What we did see were a lot of scruffy wood ducks and mallards.
There was also a Sandhill crane up close and personal right near the entrance, then a Rufous hummingbird at the nearby feeders, so a good start.
Goose drama was nearly absent, save for one brief incident that took place in eerie silence. The lack of honking was pleasant, yet disturbing.
A pair of cranes later made their presence known to everyone in the sanctuary with a very loud call/answer routine. It turned out they were parents-to-be on a small island in the middle of one of the inner ponds. We later encountered the presumed dad on the trail and he seemed skittish, which is not the way cranes usually roll. We also witnessed an idiot literally running after him with her phone out, causing it to move briskly away. Nothing like coming to a bird sanctuary and chasing the birds around. Hopefully, some geese pooped on her car, which would probably cause irreparable damage.
We saw some cedar waxwings this time, but they were far off and up in a tree (imagine!), so our shots were not great. Maybe they will be more forthcoming next time.
One not-exactly-a-highlight was in the canal running alongside the East Dyke, where a bunch of unidentified fish, or possibly small sea monsters, were thrashing about all over. Several ducks hanging out were suitably disturbed and moved away from them. I have never seen this sort of display before, and the fish were doing this in probably a half dozen separate spots, if not more. Maybe there was something in the water.
Overall, it was rather quiet, save for the crazy fish and cranes, but we did get treated to yet more marsh wrens showing themselves and singing. The swallows were also all over the place, being shiny and zippy. I tried a few action shots, then decided it was better to just imagine the great shots that existed in my vivid imagination instead. Nic got some very nice swallow shots, though.
Shirley’s Walk
View of the marshland along Shirley’s Walk.
This is a trail in Delta that skirts the marshland and is about 1 km long. It had some nice view, nice benches, two sturdy footbridges, but no birds to be seen.
South Arm Marshes Wildlife Management Area
One of many carved wood figures alongside the trails.
This is a series of trails that go through woods, with a viewing tower at the end of one, and a view looking over the Fraser River toward Deas Island at the end of another. It was pleasant, and the shade was nice, though the abundant tree roots invoked mild PTSD. Has it really been eight years since I caught my foot on a tree root while jogging and came to a stop by having my body skid across the gravel? Yes, it has. A series of odd wood carvings featuring bearded men, owls and…things…also dotted the trails, giving it a unique vibe. Yes, unique, that’s it.
We did not climb the tower, as it was occupied by two other people, one of whom seemed to be delivering an extended monologue to the silent other.
We did see a few birds here, like a song sparrow, some bushtits, and a robin, which I got my usual fuzzy shots of.
And that was it!
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Where: Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Como Lake (Coquitlam), Rocky Point Park (Port Moody), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam) Weather: Sunny, 12-20°C
The Outing
With a rare day of sun, we headed off for a day of Friday birding.
Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Everywhere you go, it’s gonna be lily pads.
We started at Burnaby Lake–but with a twist! We would start at the Avalon parking lot, walk to Piper Spit, then continue around the entire 10.3 km loop back to the parking lot.
We had barely begun our trek when, sitting on a railing on the footbridge over Silver Creek, we saw a Swainson’s thrush–a lifer. This is the same spot we also saw a brown creeper, so apparently it’s a favourite hangout for Birds You Almost Never See. After grabbing a few shots before it flew off, we continued on to Fungus Face™, where several Douglas squirrels were dashing about, stopping occasionally to sit on their haunches, nibble on food and look adorable. After a few moments, it became apparent that there were more than just a couple squirrels. Several were taking to higher branches and chittering in a vaguely disturbing way, perhaps as a territorial display. As the vibe shifted from “aw, cute!” to “be prepared to run” we opted to move on.
We’ve had quite a bit of rain recently, and this was evident at Piper Spit, where the land mass to the east of the pier–which had been getting larger–was now completely submerged. The lone coot was absent, but in its place was a single green-winged teal. The male mallards and wood ducks are rapidly shedding their mating colours, and letting themselves go, as men do in the summer. The pier was dominated by geese and their rapidly-growing goslings, some of whom are entering that awkward teen phase where they have tiny heads but giant legs. It was apparently morning nap time, so there wasn’t a lot of activity, though the geese were being weird, as usual.
We moved to the viewing platform next door and appreciated the scenery and sun before heading back down. This is where we encountered Sarcasto. He had a BTL1Big Telephoto Lens, identifying him as a likely birder. He was on the trail leading to the viewing platform and aiming at some kind of bird. Apparently as we approached the bird took off. Someone else nearby wondered what it was, to which Nic responded likely a house finch. Sarcasto turned around to us and said, in a clearly sarcastic tone, “Thank you.” Like we had done a terrible thing by possibly and unintentionally scaring off a finch.
Sarcasto would follow us for much of the rest of the way, probably thinking of new sarcastic things to say the whole time.
We continued on encountered two more lifers (for me, at least, Nic can confirm if both were lifers for him as well): a dusky flycatcher and a willow flycatcher. It was a liferpalooza.
Other highlights from around the lake:
An osprey circling above Piper Spit
A heron flying close overhead, then perching in a nearby tree and looking all stabby-faced for us
the water fountains (yes, these count as highlights)
Several pretty views of the lake, which is already in its lily pad-covered glory
Swallows buzzing low over the water at the rowing club and then hanging out on the marshy shore nearby
A surprise killdeer hanging out with them that we didn’t see until Nic spotted it in one of his photos afterwards
A coyote wandering the trail right near the 10 km mark. It moved off onto one of the horse trails before we could get photos, alas
With over 20,000 steps already logged on my watch, we moved on.
Como Lake (Coquitlam)
Como Lake was the smallest and calmest body of water we visited. Plus baby ducks!
I suggested Como Lake, because it is small and easy to walk around and we might see ducks or something. And we did! We also saw ducklings, which were cute and fuzzy and seemed to enjoy snarfing up the copious amounts of cottonwood dander floating on the lake surface (cottonwood dander was everywhere). This was the place that had famously netted off access points to the water to get rid of the geese and on last visit it had been a 100% success–no geese to be found.
This time they were legion, complete with goslings. But it was worth it for the baby ducks. Maybe they’ll put the netting back once everyone is all grown up.
There are also ping pong tables here now, and playing ping pong on a bright summer day strikes me as both weird and appealing.
Rocky Point Park (Port Moody)
The supports indicating the height of the previous bordwalk can be seen on the right.
The last time we went to Rocky Point Park, we never actually got there, because there was no place to park, and we left without ever stopping.
Being that it was a weekday this time, we actually did manage to park.
On the downside, there were few birds to be seen, mostly just crows. But the scenery was nice–what we could see of it. We hit the Shoreline Trail and discovered that since our last visit they have been replacing the boardwalk at the end of the inlet (the new boardwalk is being raised significantly higher “to accommodate rising sea levels due to climate change”, which is both a good thing to plan for, but also yikes, because the new boardwalk is going to be a lot higher). This meant we had to go around on the street to get to the other side, where a man showed Nic photos of a local bear (the furry kind that lives in the forest and hibernates, not the furry kind that hits on cubs in bars). I shot a few of the crows, then as we headed back, we encountered two people from Environment Canada (?) that identified us as birders thanks to our BTLs. They let us know about a heron rookery that will still have its hideously cute fledglings for about another month before they leave the nest, so we may venture back to catch some shots before then. We didn’t immediately go because at this point we’d walked about 5 million steps.
While the views were nice, Rocky Point ended up being a bit of a disappointment. I mean, even a couple of seagulls dropping clams from the sky would have been something. Alas.
Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
An orange-belted bumblee in the communmity garden.
The people above also mentioned a kind of bunting at Tlahutum, which was our next and last destination. Unfortunately, neither of us could remember their general directions on where to go, but it seemed to be two spots: one in a grove of trees near the first and smaller parking lot (which we never park at), and the other past a pond by the forensic psychiatric hospital. We tried the area near the smaller parking lot first, but did not see any buntings–or any other birds. Merlin stayed mum.
We moved to the main parking lot and noodled around near the entrance to the hospital, discovering a grassy labyrinth (complete with signpost identifying it as such), leading to a debate over labyrinth vs. maze. We saw no sign of any pond. Nic wondered if it might be near the gazebo, but it appeared occupied, and it just felt creepy to wander the grounds of a psychiatric hospital, so we agreed to do more research and try again at a later date.
With the aforementioned 5 million steps in mind, we stuck to the community gardens, and only certain parts of it, as all the rain had resulted in big ol’ puddles forming again at key junctions. We saw a lot of swallows, including a violet green swallow. We briefly saw some goldfinches and Nic managed a single shot before they flew away, possibly forever, satisfied at their taunting of us.
The day ended with me grabbing a couple of slightly fuzzy shots of a robin. I didn’t use manual focus because it looked fine through the EVF. One day I’ll learn.
Overall, though, a fine day of birding, with multiple rare sightings, pleasant weather, no sunburn and plenty of lush, green scenery. 9/10 black-capped chickadees (which we did not see, sad face).
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
American bushtit
American goldfinch
American robin
Anna’s hummingbird
Barn swallow
Brown-headed cowbird
Dusky flycatcher
House finch
Marsh wren (heard, not seen, at Burnaby Lake)
Northern flicker
Red-winged blackbird
Song sparrow
Spotted towhee
Swainson’s thrush
Tree swallow
Violet green swallow
Willow flycatcher
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
Canada goose
Great blue heron
Killdeer
Mallard
Western seagull
Wood duck
Common:
American crow
Rock pigeon
Raptors:
Osprey
Non-birds:
Douglas squirrel (a veritable gaggle of them)
Butterflies: Tiger swallowtail, Milbert’s tortoiseshell and a Celestrina echo (yes, Nic looked up the latter two)
Bumblebees of various sorts, including orange-belted
