Photography

Photos I’ve taken of scenery, interesting objects and other things.

Birding, February 28, 2026: Big, beautiful and watery

Where: Surrey Bend Regional Park (Surrey), Brydon Lagoon (Langley), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Sunny, 9-10°C

With Reifel still weeks/months/eons away from re-opening, we decided to revisit a few places we hadn’t been to in some time, with some very mixed results.

The weather was consistently sunny and mild all day, which was a nice way to wrap up February.

Surrey Bend Regional Park

A lone piling on the Fraser River (it’s watery!)

I remembered this place having nice views of the river, but not a lot of birds, at least not the kind willing to show themselves.

Both memories were accurate. We heard and fleetingly saw a few birds, but I did not catch any photos of them. The river scenery was indeed nice, but I think this particular park is best left to the dog walkers and families enjoying barbecues in the picnic area, as the birding is rather…minimalist.

The sign at the entrance includes the phrase that also doubles as the title of this post. There is no denying the Fraser River is watery. There was quite a bit of it.

Brydon Lagoon

Visible in the background: The lagoon and large NO FUN sign.

This was an unexpected jackpot, with not only virtually every waterfowl we normally see in the Lower Mainland represented, but also a decent supply of songbirds and a couple of raptors thrown in for good measure.

The waterfowl ranged from Buffleheads to Common Mergansers and Goldeneyes, to a plethora of Mallards and a pair of Canada Geese that were not afraid to let you know when you invaded their personal space via a sudden loud honk, followed by death stare.

A large gathering of gulls in the central area of the lagoon (which is not really a lagoon, it’s a small lake or perhaps a pond with grand ambitions) were occasionally spooked by the appearance of a juvenile bald eagle. But then the eagle would fly off and land in a tree nearby–only to then be harassed by the same seagulls. Such is the circle of life.

A single coot was on hand, but without others, there was no coot drama to be had.

Songbirds included a few we rarely see, like a Yellow-rumped Warbler (I did not get a shot), as well as roving gangs of American Bushtits. I managed a few decent shots, which always feels like a major triumph with these spazzy little things.

We walked up a trail away from the lagoon and pondered exploring on through Hi-Knoll Park, which we did on our last visit, but elected to head elsewhere after not seeing much else away from the lagoon. Overall, though, this seems like a good sport to return to.

Tlahutum Regional Park

Mountains looming over Tlahutum.

We rounded off the afternoon at Tlahutum, but after seeing copious birds on the last visit, they seemed fewer this time, and most were farther back in the main pond, boo.

Nic suggested we go down the other trail we usually don’t take and this yielded some nice views of the mountains, the moon and while we did see some mergansers and wigeons in the waterways, it was tricky to get good shots due to angle/foliage and such.

But we got in a lot of steps, which will help boost our stamina for future birding. Yeah, that’s it.

In all, the birding was bad-great-meh, which is actually a perfectly cromulent average.

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 Bushtit
  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Chestnut-backed chickadee
  • Golden-crowned Kinglet
  • Golden-crowned Sparrow
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot
  • American Wigeon
  • Bufflehead
  • Canada Goose
  • Common Goldeneye
  • Common Merganser
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Green-winged Teal
  • Hooded Merganser
  • Mallard
  • Ring-necked Duck
  • Scaup
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • Seagulls aplenty

Raptors:

  • Bald Eagle
  • Mystery Hawk

Non-birds:

  • A black squirrel
  • Western Painted Turtle

Birding, February 14, 2026: All the buffleheads, all the left turns

Where: Iona Beach Regional Park, Richmond Nature House (Richmond), Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 7-8°C

The forecast was better than expected, with it being sunny right from the start. Nice! The start was a bit late due to two things: waiting to suss out the weather in the early morning, and when I got downtown, we found someone had parked in front of the parking garage of Nic’s apartment building, preventing us from leaving. Nic was just about to conclude the call with the people who would come tow the car when a guy came frantically running toward us, waving an arm and apologizing. He got in the car and left immediately.

We proceeded to Iona Beach, which we haven’t been to since June of last year!

Iona Beach

Looking across the Fraser River at Iona Beach.

The last stretch of road leading to the beach has been repaved, with new bike and pedestrian lanes added, completing the work started with the re-alignment last year of Ferguson Road. There is now full dedicated pedestrian and bike access stretching back to the airport, a huge improvement over what existed before.

We made our way through our usual loop and along the river saw a nice variety of waterfowl, including wigeons, common mergansers, a sunning cormorant and a couple of male buffleheads trying to impress a female. There was also a large congregation of gulls off in the distance. If we squinted our eyes, we could pretend they were snow geese, which we have yet to see this winter.

The main beach had a lot of ex-crabs, even more than usual. Maybe it was Crab Day.

In all, it was nice to be back at Iona Beach. I have no idea why we went over eight months between visits (as a birding duo–Nic has been more recently), but we’ll probably not wait another eight before returning.

Richmond Nature House

Emtpy feeders means no birds!

Nic has a new phone, a Pixel 10, and Google Maps was being rather odd, constantly telling us to make left turns. But then when it made sense to make a left turn (off Westminster Highway, to the nature house) it instead wanted us to go past it and make an illegal U-turn to get there. WTF, as the kids say.

After arriving, I joked that it would be funny if the bird feeders were empty.

The bird feeders were empty.

The trip wasn’t a complete bust, though, as Nic spotted an immature Red-tailed Hawk sitting up in a nearby tree. That, and an Anna’s Hummingbird that was very high up before mockingly flying away, were the only birds we saw.

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

A handsome Bufflehead at Piper Spit.

Piper Spit was our last stop, with the light starting to turn golden. There were multiple people feeding the birds. I’m usually pretty chill about this, because people gonna people, but I somehow got triggered by a little girl repeatedly running (and screaming) at the ducks while the nearby adults with her just stood there, talking among themselves. I expressed my thoughts using words that could be heard in a generous perimeter, if you know what I mean (no colourful metaphors, though, except maybe a few shared with Nic as we left).

As for the (well-fed) birds, there were most of the usual gang, along with more Buffleheads, who obligingly came up close, allowing for some great shots of their fuzzy, iridescent heads. Perhaps distracted by food, I observed little drama, though one crow had what appeared to be a generous chunk of pastry in its beak that was being coveted by others.

There were a few dowitchers, but they were mostly in shadow by this time of the day. I mostly shot the Buffleheads.

Overall, a pretty good day, with the weather being much nicer than expected. We’ll get back to Reifel eventually.

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
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Dark-eyed Junco
  • Golden-crowned Sparrow
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Ruby-crowned Kinglet
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot
  • American Wigeon
  • Bufflehead
  • Canada Goose
  • Common Merganser
  • Double-created Cormorant
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Green-winged Teal
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Pied-billed Grebe
  • Scaup
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • Rock Pigeon
  • Seagulls aplenty

Raptors:

  • Bald Eagle
  • Northern Harrier
  • Red-tailed Hawk

Non-birds:

  • A black squirrel

Some shots from around town, February 10, 2026

I was going to post these shots yesterday, but because I had a terrible sleep the night before, then somehow decided it was a good idea to walk 29,000+ steps the next day, I fell asleep instead.

Here they are, using FooGallery’s adorably kitschy Polaroid theme.

Building art and the sad wiener dog

I meant to post this the other day, this is art on the side of a building housing a daycare centre. The wiener dog1Yes, I know they are Dachsunds. They will always be wiener dogs to me. looks very sad, maybe because the other animals are riding a train and it has to walk on its stubby li’l legs.

Birding, January 31, 2026: The tide is high

Where: Blackie Spit/Crescent Beach (Surrey) and Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Cloudy, 8-10°C

Also known as All the Spits.

We got off to a late start, trying to work around the showers forecast for early and later in the day, so we began with lunch, then headed to Blackie Spit while it continued to shower.

Blackie Spit

American Wigeons flying away from Blackie Spit, misty landscape as backdrop.

Fortunately, by the time we arrived, the rain had stopped and the sun even cutely tried to come out for a few minutes before giving up. It was a bit breezy, but temperatures continue to be well above normal.

We saw cormorants, loons and buffleheads here, but they were all farther out, which is totally on brand for Blackie Spit. Some herons were a little closer, getting ruffled by the wind and looking displeased at the conditions (or everything, as they do). Several people promised us a kingfisher near the pump house, but all we got was the pump house.

The highlight was probably a pair of red-headed Eurasian wigeons, possibly off-course, but content to hang out with their American brethren.

There were a lot of giant puddles on the trails.

Piper Spit

Burnaby Lake, looking calm but darkity-dark.

With not a lot of light left on what was already a very dim gray dead, we opted to wrap things up at Piper Spit. Nic girded himself for the inevitable naughty people feeding the birds–and they were there. Bad people, no!

The pier itself was fairly sparse with people, though. Apparently the imminent threat of rain and the wind kept most people off it.

The land mass is still there, which surprised me after the recent deluge, so I assume most of the excess water is being fed through the gates at Cariboo Dam. The land itself was unoccupied, though, and the usual gang of seagulls was absent. The geese were also elsewhere, likely over on the sports fields to the west. Much of the shallows was filled with branches and other debris swept in by recent storms.

We did see dowitchers, but they were in full snorebird mode.

The current from Eagle Creek was unusually strong and a number of ducks were taking advantage, letting it sweep them down and past the pier. A few had to pedal furiously when they chose to return upstream, though.

There seemed to be more coots than before. Everywhere I looked there was a coot. No coot drama, though, which in itself is kind of unnerving.

The highlight here were some buffleheads, in particular a female that was diving and surfacing quite close to the pier, allowing for some good shots, notwithstanding the aforementioned dim, gray conditions.

We wrapped up about 15 minutes before sunset (if there had been sun) and escaped before the rains resumed. In all, not a bad outing, considering the forecast and the possibility of getting a wee bit drenched if the weather had shifted just a little.

The Shots

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

Blackbrid waiting for naughty people to feed him.
A Great Blue Heron hunkered down in the water.
American Wigeon stretching.
This plant thingie.

Gallery soon™.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Robin
  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Dark-eyed Junco
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot
  • American Wigeon
  • Bufflehead
  • Common Loon
  • Double-crested Cormorant
  • Eurasian wigeon
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Green-winged Teal
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern Pintail
  • Northern Shoveller
  • Scaup
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • Assorted gulls

Raptors:

  • Bald Eagle

Non-birds:

  • A black squirrel

Birding, January 24, 2026: Also know as Brr-ding

Where: DeBoville Slough, Blakeburn Lagoons Park (Port Coquitlam), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Sunny, -2-5°C

The temperature started out below freezing, but thanks to sun, little wind and warm pockets, it didn’t feel too cold as we headed north and east for today’s birding. We had planned on going to Reifel, but they remain closed after a boat struck the only bridge to Westham Island last week. It’s looking like we may have to explore other places for some time.

DeBoville Slough

The frozen slough.

The first spot was a return to DeBoville Slough, on the north trail. We were here last summer, so the scenery is a lot more austere now. The freezing temperatures did help make things pretty, with vegetation and trees in shaded areas covered in frost and some of the waterways iced over.

And birds. We saw more birds than I expected, with towhees especially well-represented. The main item on the menu for them and others were berries that survive and grow in the winter. There is nothing quite like a towhee sitting on a naked branch, its red eye staring out, while it clutches a full, round berry in its bill. And I got that shot!

Other than the birds, a lot of people were out, too. Again, sunny weather in January is probably enough for most, regardless of temperature.

Some of the birds we spotted were deeper in the trees and proved elusive, like a Steller’s Jay and a Marsh Wren that Nic managed to get one shot of, but we still had lots of scenery to shoot as backup.

We did not see any bears because they are sleeping, and the osprey nest on the Pitt River is understandably empty, but it was nice to return and see the slough in a different mood.

Blakeburn Lagoons Park

A frozen lagoon.

We next went back to Blakeburn Lagoons, which remains a nicely compact pair of water bodies you can walk around fairly quickly if you need to just bird ‘n go. A lot of the water here was frozen, but in a few spots we did see some mallards and a surprise Northern Shoveller. While a Green Heron remained elusive, we were treated to a Varied Thrush a couple of times, allowing us to get some good shots, along with an Anna’s Hummingbird that was claiming half the place, and a single but very vocal chickadee.

Tlahutum Regional Park

Golden hour over the Coquitlam River.

By the time we got to Tlahutum, the light was turning golden and it was very golden when we left, shortly before sunset. Again, the waterways here were a mix of open and frozen, though most of the main pond was frozen. The open part was at the far end, alas, so the waterfowl were all gathered there because they aren’t going to walk all over the icy surface for our amusement and pleasure.

We saw a lot of the usual birds here and a couple of odder sights, such as an appropriately-named murder of crows harassing a bald eagle, a flock of Canad geese flying in a classic V-formation, then shifting into more of a Silly String formation, without any particular goose leading them. But mostly, voles.

Tlahutum is the kind of spot where voles–small rodents related to hamsters–are likely to hang out, as it has a number of large, grassy expanses. It’s also why we often see eagles or raptors here, as voles are bite-sized snacks for them. But I had never seen an actual vole until today. Then I saw all of them.

Along the first trail into the park, there is a tall wild grass on both sides. Right now it is yellow and flattened down for the winter, but on the trail edges, shorter green grass and vegetation is still growing. And it seems that a whole pile of Meadow Voles know this. We spotted one, then another, then an entire platoon, or whatever you call a bunch of voles. Each would have its own little burrow in the tall grass and would dash out to the trail edge to eat the green grass, then dash back under cover. They did not seem especially perturbed by people, waiting mere moments for someone to pass before returning to nibble. And they may have felt safer with the crows deciding the best use of their time was to pester and chase the one eagle in the area.

They are also very cute, if you find hamsters or hamster-like animals cute.

I wonder if we will see them as the weather warms and the wild grass grows tall again.

We stayed close until sunset and ended with some final shots of the sun going down.

In all, a fine day and an enjoyable alternative to Reifel.

The Shots

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

Gadwall quack (I actually couldn’t hear anything).
A Meadow Vole noshing away on grass.
Sunset at Tlahutum, with bonus plane.
A Spotted Towhee haz berry, as the kids say.

Gallery soon™.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Robin
  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Dark-eyed Junco
  • Fox Sparrow (maybe)
  • Golden-crowned Sparrow
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • Steller’s Jay
  • Varied Thrush

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Wigeon
  • Belted Kingfisher (probably)
  • Bufflehead
  • Canada Goose
  • Gadwall
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Hooded Merganser
  • Mallard
  • Marsh Wren
  • Northern Shoveller
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • Assorted gulls

Raptors:

  • Bald Eagle

Non-birds:

  • A million Meadow Voles