Where: Centennial Beach (Delta), Richmond Nature House (Richmond), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Fog and sun, 5-8°C
For the first time in five weeks, the schedule and weather cooperated and we went birding, woo.
Reifel has been closed for a few weeks due to some fairly significant flooding, so we opted to start at Centennial Beach, where things were not quite as expected.
Centennial Beach
Namely, there was very dense fog, so dense that we could barely see Boundary Bay at all.
Despite the fog, the area turned out to be chock-full of birds today, starting with a juvenile bald eagle chowing down on a snack in a tree right next to the parking lot. There were other eagles perched on various branches and nearby trees, as well. The kid eagle was regularly dropping bits of whatever ex-animal it was eating, which would be kind of a gross thing to land on you if you happened to be walking by underneath.
Golden-crowned Sparrows were in abundance, as were the somewhat more scarce but sexy Fox Sparrows.
The fog rolled back enough for us to see a short ways across the bay and we noticed a large gathering of waterfowl that did not look familiar. Checking later, we confirmed it was a gaggle of Brant Geese–the first time either of us have seen them locally. Neat! Too bad they were so far away.
Closer up were shorebirds, teals and plenty of gulls mixing, mingling and occasionally bathing.
The fog provided a nice spooky backdrop to the scenery and shots of broody herons and the like.
In all, we saw a lot more than II was expecting.
Richmond Nature House
Nic wanted to check out the Richmond Nature House, because you don’t have to find the birds, you just go to the feeders and the challenge is deciding which of the billion juncos to shoot. In addition to the juncos, there were squirrels fattening themselves on seed, along with towhees, finches and a Downy Woodpecker.
One of the hummingbird feeders, clothed in a knit sock to keep the nectar from freezing, saw business from a female Anna’s hummingbird. The hummingbird did not have socks.
Since you don’t need to go anywhere to get shots at the nature house, we got our supply in and headed out for Piper Spit, hoping it would not be foggy there as the light shifted into the golden hour.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
And it was not foggy! What it was, was busy. And there were bad people feeding the birds, because apparently nothing short of running around and poking them with a cattle prod will stop some people. And maybe not even that, who knows?
Likely due to the shifting depth of the lake, the dowitchers were much closer to the pier than usual, and seemed unperturbed by us pesky humans. A few were so close I had to pull back on the zoom, which happens approximately never.
The cormorants were not here this time, though, replaced by a lot of crows and gulls. The usual waterfowl were present, and the light presented both opportunities with shadow and reflection, as well as challenges with overexposure. But hey, it was actually sunny!
In all, a much better day of birding than I had expected. I’m probably good for fog for the rest of the year, though.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
Gallery soon™.
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American Robin
- Anna’s Hummingbird
- Black-capped Chickadee
- Dark-eyed Junco
- Downy Woodpecker
- Fox Sparrow
- Golden-crowned Sparrow
- House Finch
- Purple Finch
- Red-bellied nuthatch
- Red-winged Blackbird
- Song Sparrow
- Spotted Towhee
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- American Coot
- American Wigeon
- Brant Goose – lifer!
- Canada Goose
- Gadwall
- Great Blue Heron
- Greater Yellowlegs
- Green-winged Teal
- Killdeer (heard, not seen)
- Lesser Scaup
- Long-billed Dowitcher
- Mallard
- Northern Pintail
- Wood Duck
Common:
- American Crow
- Assorted gulls
Raptors:
- Bald Eagle
Non-birds:
- Squirrels!
