Photography

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

Birding, October 31, 2026: Chick(adee) or treat

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 11–14°C

A spooky Halloween day of birding! Except it wasn’t spooky, it was sunny and pleasant.

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

Ducks in a pond.

We started at Reifel, where the entrance pond had some Mallards and two small groups of Northern Shovellers doing that weird spiral thing they do, following each other in a tight circle to stir up the muck and enjoy the mucky spoils.

The various ponds were a bounty of colours, ranging from green to very green, brown, kind of yellow and in a few cases, blue! None of the waterfowl seemed to mind, even the very green water.

In the very green water of the London Slough, we noticed a duck with odd black and white colouring. A volunteer suggested it might be a hybrid consisting of part Swedish Blue, a domestic duck, and part Mallard, because Mallards will mate with anything. How it arrived at Reifel is unknown, perhaps a secret portal.

After getting shots of the interloper, we headed up the first trail and a family ahead of us had bird seed, which brought out approximately five million chickadees, plus two Red-breasted Nuthatches. The chickadees were darting past so close we could feel them whipping by. I had met my chickadee quota in the first ten minutes.

In one of the inner ponds, we saw our first Ring-necked Ducks of the season, woo. We still have yet to see any Scaups or Buffleheads, though.

I had a Canada Goose hiss hello at me. I assume they hiss to say hello. It didn’t do anything else. Speaking of geese, we saw flocks of Canada geese flying in formation multiple times–some of them migrating through rather than staying put year-round as most here do. We also saw flocks of Cackling geese and finally, a cacophony of honking informed us that the Snow geese had arrived, landing in their usual spot west of the sanctuary. So many geese, so much pooping potential. We never saw any up close, but that is normal for Reifel.

Along the same Outer Dyke Trail where we saw the Snow geese we also saw a number of herons, both in the marshland and flying overhead. One flew fairly low just over us and let out one of its loud croaks as it passed over. Legit, the only time a bird at Reifel has actually startled me. And especially Nic.

We also saw a solitary Greater Yellowlegs in one of the ponds not far from the viewing platform and lo, it caught a fish! But not just any fish, a stickleback. They are small, but have spiny fins, which make them a bit of a project to consume whole. The Yellowlegs worked on one for a fair bit, but finally got its prickly meal down. This is why I prefer ordering out.

I was a little disappointed with my shots, but I got some good ones here, too.

Tlahutum Regional Park

A serene Coquitlam River.

The community garden did not yield many birds overall, so we made do with a whole lotta crows.

The clear sky yielded some nice scenery shots and we saw a decent variety of birds in the Big Pond™, including a heron doing an excellent statue impression. Also, some kid on a bike with fat wheels rode past us like a million times.

There really wasn’t much else to see here this time, not even a rogue vole. But perhaps next time!

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

Looking east from the pier, with clouds refusing to cross a line.

Yes, people were feeding the birds. The blackbirds were appreciative, as always.

The water level of the lake was up, which meant the landmass was smaller and the shorebirds moved over to the west side of the pier, against the light and farther away, not making for the best shots. Boo.

Instead, we got seagulls grabbing golf balls on the other side, along with a variety of coots pulling up green slimy stuff they love scarfing down, and a lot of Mallards. As previously noted, Mallards will mate with anything, but especially like mating with other Mallards. There were also geese, Wood Ducks and a few others around, but not in great numbers. And still no new migrants here, either.

I wonder if the (reduced) feeding will change their habits over time and ultimately cause many to abandon Piper Spit for other areas of the lake. I guess we’ll see.

In all, the weather was faboo, and I did get a few nice shots, even if my miss (and in many cases, literally a shot with no bird in it) ratio was a lot higher than normal.

The Shots

All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto. Some landscape shots captured with a Samsung Galaxy S26.

Gallery soon™.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Goldfinch
  • American Robin
  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Dark-eyed Junco
  • Golden-crowned Sparrow
  • Northern Flicker
  • Red-breasted Nuthatch
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Ruby-crowned Kinglet
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot
  • American Wigeon
  • Cackling Goose
  • Canada Goose
  • Gadwall
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Greater Yellowlegs
  • Green-winged Teal
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern Pintail
  • Northern Shoveller
  • Pied-billed Grebe
  • Ring-necked Duck
  • Sandhill Crane
  • Snow Goose
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • A few Ring-billed Seagulls

Raptors:

  • Bald Eagle
  • Northern Harrier

Non-birds:

  • A black beetle
  • A black squirrel

Gallery for October 10, 2026 birding is up

The gallery is below.

Highlights:

  • Geese, ducks, a towhee and a shoveller all staring directly at you
  • A deceased dragonfly
  • Harrier close-ups!
  • A billion birds, all in the same spot
  • A very pretty Dark-eyed Junco
  • Assorted bugs that aren’t dragonflies

You can also view the gallery in the original post here:

Birding, October 10, 2026: The Harrier the better

Birding, October 17, 2026: A scurry of scampering squirrels

Where: Terra Nova Rural Park, Richmond Nature House (Richmond), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 15–17°C

We’re in the second half of October and still wearing shorts! Also: So many squirrels, a group of which can be known as a scurry. :themoreyouknow:

Terra Nova

View looking toward the North Shore mountains.

We started at Terra Nova and I quickly made my airplane shot quota, then took a few more. Some distant clouds, mountains, and good light actually made a few of the shots pretty decent.

But onto birbs: We saw birbs. There were towhees, but they were coy enough that the best I could manage was one blurry shot that can’t even pass off as artsy, it’s just out of focus. We also saw some fleeting bushtits, Ruby-crowned Kinglets and Golden Crowns, but the area was dominated by Song Sparrows, who were all over the place, singing, posing, and hiding behind berries.

We watched as a woman with bird seed gathered together a crow army that followed her as she passed by.

There was a heron in the pond (which sounds like the name of a 19th century romance novel), but the lighting here was a bit weird, so despite being close, the shots were not great. Likewise for a pair of grebes, who love to hang out in the exact middle of the pond. I don’t blame them, I like to stay away from people, too.

Even though I wore my hoodie, it was warm enough, even on the dyke trail, that a t-shirt alone would have been fine. A bit wacky for October 17th.

Richmond Nature House

The new feeder setup, with attendant squirrels.

This was my first chance to see the new design of the bird feeders, which are once again stocked and thus, attracting birds. It took a few minutes before any arrived, but eventually we got chickadees, juncos, a House Finch and the highlight, a Downy Woodpecker going all-in on the suet.

The new design puts five “squirrel-proof” feeders over a large rectangular area box filled with dirt. Birds get a bit messy at feeders, which results in a lot of seed falling into this area. This suited the juncos, who prefer to peck along the ground, but also worked out well for the Douglas Squirrels that showed up–and they were legion. At one point I counted six eating/gorging on seed, and there were probably more lurking just out of view in the trees. It was impossible not to get good “cute squirrel eating” shots.

Eventually, bird dinner hour passed and we were left with just squirrels trying to become chonky boys, so we moved on.

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

Part of the growing landmass next to the pier, plus Dowitchers and plenty of them!

Our final stop was Piper Spit and surprise: No one was feeding the birds!

The landmass continues to expand, though, curiously, as it gets bigger, it seems to get fewer birds on it, so it was largely empty.

This meant that we once again had plenty of Dowitchers hanging out near to the pier (on both sides, even). Several people with VBLs1Very Big Lenses were appreciative.

Once again we did not see any other new arrivals (Scaups, Ring-necked Ducks, etc.) but the coots and mallard were both weird and shiny, helping to compensate. A quartet of Canada geese stood near the edge of the landmass, then flew off, ceding the territory to the likes of a couple of seagulls.

It was here that the wind started to pick up and began to feel a bit cool, but overall, this could have passed for a late summer day, which is both nice and somewhat unsettling.

But it made for a fine day of birding.

The Shots

All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto. Some landscape shots captured with a Samsung Galaxy S26.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Bushtit
  • American Robin
  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Dark-eyed Junco
  • Downy Woodpecker
  • Golden-crowned Sparrow
  • House Finch
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Ruby-crowned Kinglet
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot
  • American Wigeon
  • Canada Goose
  • Double-crested Cormorant
  • Gadwall
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Green-winged Teal
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Pied-billed Grebe

Common:

  • American Crow
  • European Starling
  • A few seagulls

Raptors:

  • None!

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • A living dragonfly
  • A black beetle
  • A scurry of hungry, twitchy Douglas Squirrels

Birding, October 10, 2026: The Harrier the better

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Centennial Beach (Delta)
Weather: Partly sunny, 11–14°C

Last week’s birding felt like an extension of summer, with clear skies and warm temperatures. This week we got the clear skies (to start, at least), but the temperatures were decidedly fall-like. We still wore short, though!

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

The marsh, looking a lot less summery now.

The news out of Reifel is that the assorted geese migrations were underway and we did indeed see geese flying in formation–but no snow geese. It was a combination of Canada and Cackling Geese. As for the land-based variety, it was the same mix, with geese alternately hissing (Canada Goose exclusive) at us or standing there doe-eyed, hoping we’d produce a variety of yummy foods for them to peck out of our hands.

The sanctuary was also quite busy, with a mix of families and people with Very Big Lenses, perhaps drawn by the prospect of seeing the snow geese or other winter migrants.

Speaking of migrants, the coot population is slowly expanding and there are now multiple American Wigeons paddling about in the ponds. We still have yet to see any Buffleheads, Ring-necked Ducks or Scaups. The Sandhill Cranes were absent again, stalking about in parts unknown.

At one point the feeders outside the entrance/gift shop had three Anna’s Hummingbirds gathered on one of them, perhaps a sign of the diminishing number of natural nectar sources available. A wasp kept them a bit skittish around the closer feeder (imagine if you were in close proximity to a wasp that was about two feet long).

There was a complete absence of Wood Ducks and the London Slough remains in a weird state. Instead of being ringed by herons, it is now bereft of them (though we saw them elsewhere) and the logs were mostly empty or had a mix of Mallards and shorebirds on them. Maybe there’s something in the water.

The water is generally starting to look less mucky now with the cooling of the season.

In terms of sparrows, the towhees were much more visible today and chickadees were all over the place, in some cases getting too close for my Somewhat Big Lens. They are in full “seek seed from hairless bipeds” mode. We also saw some House Sparrows, who had disappeared on the last visit.

In all, a perfectly fine outing.

Centennial Beach

Low tide on the bay.

The tide was low at Centennial Beach and that meant most shorebirds were going to be a long way away. Sad. We did see a bald eagle standing on one of the sandy shoals, though, along with multiple herons.

Golden crowns dotted the paths, along with a dead but seemingly intact dragonfly that was laying on the trail as if it had just touched down for a moment before flitting off. But it would flit no more, as it was very dead. I wonder how it met its end. Do dragonflies have heart attacks?

There were two main highlights at Centennial. The first was hundreds of birds in the water near to the pump station–a mix of wigeons, Green-winged Teals, Northern Pintails and probably some miscellaneous others. And when I say hundred, that is no exaggeration. Occasionally, a bunch would take off and fill the sky, sometimes leaving, sometimes circling back. A smaller but still large group of seagulls also hung out nearby, getting in on the mass gathering. And among them all was a small group of Greater Yellowlegs just bobbing along, doing their thing.

A sampling of the birdapalooza at Centennial Beach.

The other highlight was a Northern Harrier that took an unusual flight path down fairly low and on a line roughly parallel to us over the nearby shoreline. She was also in hunter mode, and they can move surprisingly slow as they survey the ground below them for targets. This worked to our benefit and we got some really fine shots of the face and not just the butt, as is often the case with harriers. As we had seen some earlier at Reifel, it served to point out the stark difference between bird close and bird far away.

About midway through our shooting in and around the beach the sky began clouding up and it became clear (ho ho) that we were unlikely to see sun for the rest of the afternoon. Combined with me already being a bit tired from Xtreme Exercise the day before, we opted to end there. Nic still got over 1,100 shots, only 300 of which were the dead dragonfly.

The Shots

All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto. Some landscape shots captured with a Samsung Galaxy S26.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

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

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot
  • American Wigeon
  • Belted Kingfisher
  • Cackling Goose
  • Canada Goose
  • Gadwall
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Greater Yellowlegs
  • Green-winged Teal
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern Pintail
  • Northern Shoveller

Common:

  • American Crow
  • Various seagulls

Raptors:

  • Bald Eagle
  • Northern Harrier

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • A dead dragonfly
  • A furtive black squirrel

Birding, October 3, 2026: Coots without drama

Where: Blakeburn Lagoons Park, DeBoville Slough (Port Coquitlam), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Burnaby Lake Regional Park (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 17–22°C

intro text

Blakeburn Lagoons Park

The view from the “main” viewing platform.

I suggested Blakeburn Lagoons to see if we could spot the Green Heron again.

We did not see any the Green Heron. Or any herons that were green.

Some patience at what I think of as the main viewing platform paid off, as a Pied-billed Grebe eventually emerged. It caught a large fish and gobble it down. The babbies have grown, so it was able to do so without being harassed by hungry kids.

There were also some Gadwalls, plenty of Mallards and even more Mallards. Blakeburn Lagoons is relatively small, so we moved on after not too long.

DeBoville Slough

Boathouses along the slough.

We moved on to the DeBoville Slough and this time took the south trail. This allowed us to observe a number of multi-storey private homes, some of which seemed…odd, with lots of dodgy-looking artificial turf and side houses of unknown purpose. We also saw a flock of seagulls on the river (not the band), but not much else in the way of birds. The river scenery was quite nice, though, better than the north trail, I’d say.

Tlahutum Regional Park

Coquitlam River, looking full and ripply against a clear blue sky.

We started to see more birds here, along with a very dead grasshopper on the trail being noshed on by a wasp. So if you were wondering what wasps nosh on, there you go.

There was another grebe in the big pond, along with yet more Mallards. Several things were splashing in the Coquitlam River, but we never saw what they were, only the conspicuous splashes. Rather odd. Someone reported a seal sighting, which would also be odd in a river that doesn’t even directly connect to the ocean, but we lie in strange times.

The community gardens yielded a few sparrows and fleeting glimpses of Goldfinches, Yellow-rumped Warblers and chickadees. I surprised myself by getting a fairly decent shot of a warbler. Nic could also hear American Bushtits but they did not show themselves.

The garden is still looking fairly lush in the first week of October. We’ll see how it looks next time as we head into a fall that will be dominated by a Super El Nino™.

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake Regional Park

Just some of the many Long-billed Dowitchers at the spit.

Some people were allegedly feeding blackbirds right at the end of our visit to Piper Spit, but I didn’t see it, so for me, it was a crime-free outing.

The landmass adjacent to the pier is currently quite huge, bringing the shallows in close. This meant that the Long-billed Dowitchers present were pretty close. Nice. And there were a billion of them, more than I’ve ever seen here. Most were snoozing when we arrived, but a few woke up and stalked about, looking for yum yums.

There were only two geese present and both were snoozing, so no goose drama. Multiple coots are here, though, so potential for coot drama was high. In fact, we saw one coot standing on a sunken log and another swam up to it, surely spoiling for a fight. Instead, they briefly nuzzled, then swapped places. Coots, as always, are weird.

Most of the Mallards and Wood Ducks are now back to their shiny breeding colours, and blackbirds were flitting all over, including one that briefly landed on my head, despite my head being completely seed-free (to my knowledge).

In all, a decent outing, with gorgeous, summer-like weather and no sunburn as a bonus.

The Shots

All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto. Some landscape shots captured with a Samsung Galaxy S26.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Bushtit (heard)
  • American Goldfinch
  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Golden-crowned Sparrow
  • Red-winged Blackbird
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • White-crowned Sparrow
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot
  • Canada Goose
  • Gadwall
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Pied-billed Grebe
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • Various seagulls

Raptors:

  • Turkey Vulture

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • A dead grasshopper
  • A living grasshopper
  • Some things splashing in the Coquitlam River

Birding, September 19, 2026: Birthday birds and freaky insects

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Centennial Beach (Delta), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Mostly sunny, 18–21°C

It was my birthday and what better way to celebrate than going out and getting lightly sun burnt while watching freaky insects and pooping birds?

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

The main pond at Reifel.

We started at Reifel and were immediately rewarded with multiple Anna’s Hummingbirds darting to and fro around the feeders, which were bathed in very nice sunlight. There was also a plethora of shorebirds in the main pond by the entrance.

Also by the entrance, around the warming hut and gift shoo: a whole bunch of spiders. I’ve never seen so many. What do they know that we don’t?

The London Slough, normally ringed by herons, was now full of shorebirds, standing in lines on the logs, mixed in with geese, ducks, and turtles. Why can’t we all just chill out and hang out on logs together like that?

The eastern dyke trail gave us our best shots of chickadees, though we did see them flitting about in other areas. We also caught a roving band of American Bushtits, but alas, I was not able to get any shots good enough to post other than to prove they were there.

And we saw coots. They are back, with their glorious feet and cooty ways.

We saw goose drama, of course, but the Sandhill Cranes were off elsewhere. Making up for their absence was a rare sighting of a Barred Owl, snoozing away in a tree just off of one of the bird blinds. Neat! I’m not sure they still exist, though. Maybe it was a group hallucination.

And the trails have been mostly repaired now, so no more navigating lumpy rocks, it’s also fine gravel or cushiony loam.

Centennial Beach

The goose peninsula.

Whatever was happening at Centennial Beach was not happening this time, so parking was easy. We saw a Northern Shoveller at the pond. Their numbers should start increasing significantly soon.

The tide was in, so we did not see much in the way of shorebirds, apart from some distant Killdeer and the like. If you count Canada Geese as shorebirds, then we saw plenty, as they were colonizing a peninsula not far off the shore.

The highlight, strange as it sounds, was an insect, specifically a praying mantis, which I’ve never seen in person before. It started by Nic nearly stepping on it, as it plopped right down on the trail, seemingly oblivious to us. At first I thought it was a walking stick, but no, it was a praying mantis in all its freaky glory.

It was very graceless, appearing to have trouble both flying and walking. The flying was a series of short belly hops, the walking was like, “These legs are not made for this.” Kind of strange. We took many photos, then left it to hopefully find some way off the trail.

Tlahutum Regional Park

A different view of the Coquitlam River.

We ended at Tlahutum, but birds were hard to come by, for some reason. We did see a few sparrows, but most seemed tucked away somewhere. We spotted a Turkey Vulture flying overhead, but it was very high up. And there was a crow that was molting so conspicuously around its head that it looked a bit like a vulture.

This is also where I’m pretty sure I got sunburned. There is essentially no shaded places at Tlahutum.

In all, a fine birthday outing, with some rare sightings, returned migrants and terrifying goose drama.

The Shots

All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto. Some landscape shots captured with a Samsung Galaxy S26.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Bushtit
  • American Goldfinch
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Dark-eyed Junco
  • Gadwall
  • Golden-crowned Sparrow
  • House Finch
  • Northern Flicker
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • White-crowned Sparrow
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American Coot
  • Canada Goose
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Greater Yellowlegs
  • Hooded Merganser
  • Killdeer
  • Lesser Yellowlegs
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern Pintail
  • Northern Shoveller
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • European Starling
  • Various seagulls

Raptors:

  • Northern Harrier
  • Turkey Vulture

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Spiders
  • Two squirrels in a box
  • Western painted turtles
  • A praying mantis!

Birding, September 12, 2026: The return of (some) migrants, surprise shorebirds, plus a billion butterflies

Where: Serpentine Fen, Blackie Spit (Surrey), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Partly sunny, 19–21°C

20,000 steps and four locations later, we wrapped up the penultimate summer birding outing for 2026 under partly sunny skies.

Serpentine Fen

Rare instance of the Serpentine River not lined with people fishing.

First up was Serpentine Fen, which had a weirdly large number of people fishing along it, like there was a contest or something. And that contest was Insure No Waterfowl Will Hang Out Because of Everyone Fishing. Despite that, we did see some herons, and assorted seagulls over the river.

We also spotted some Yellow-rumped Warblers in a stand of trees, but my camera failed to properly focus on any of the four shots I managed, as the warblers tend to move around a lot. It was confused, I was sad.

This is the best I got, as example:

Note the branch behind in perfect focus. 😛

However, the best stuff would come later, not when we discovered they had finally patched the scarily huge hole in the floor of the second viewing tower, though that was nice to see:

I did not test the sturdiness of the caution-taped plank.

But rather, one of the ponds that had not dried up was host to not just some Northern Shovellers, back from wherever they hide during the summer, but also multiple varieties of shorebirds capering about, both in and out of the water. Neat.

We also observed a plump spider feasting on a grasshopper caught in its web, and another one making a web using its butt spinneret. It was quite an elaborate show.

There were also the aforementioned billions of butterflies, mainly the West Coast Lady, a predominately orange butterfly that is tricksy to shoot.

In all, Serpentine Fen proved better than I expected. The abundance of fishers was still weird, though.

Blackie Spit

Looking north. Blackie Spit already has an early fall look to it.

With everyone fishing at Serpentine Fen, fewer people were at Blackie Spit, which made parking easier. We did not see any Savannah Sparrows, so they may be gone for the season, which will make Nic sad. Seeing some (distant) Caspian Terns helped to mollify, though.

The highlights here were Black-capped Chickadees, more shorebirds in the creek adjacent to the trail to the pump station and about 20 million Mallards, who were in such plentiful numbers there was a constant set of them flying over and landing in the water. We also caught a glimpse of a Belted Kingfisher darting overhead.

We also saw probably the last of the sad wasps, and some of the sparkly beetles previously seen at Iona Beach.

I also got a blurry shot of a Mallard pooping mod-flight, which I will share here:

If you gotta go, you gotta go. Also remember this when a duck is flying over you.

Combined with the usual nice scenery, Blackie Spit was perfectly cromulent.

Piper Spit

View from the pier, looking east. Not shown: Bad people feeding good birds.

But Nic was not sated, so we went to Piper Spit. And yes, there were people feeding the birds. Not just feeding them, but feeding them from a honking huge bag of seed:

The bears means it will attract bears, too, probably.

But once we looked past the people feeding the birds, we noted the presence of Green-winged Teals, Common Mergansers and some Northern Pintails, newly arrived (or back from wherever they hide). There was also a group of Killdeer capering about on and around the island area, along with some Long-billed Dowitchers and yellowlegs. It was a very Shorebirdy day.

A few male Mallards are close to being back to their breeding colours, but multiple Wood Ducks are already sporting their shiny mullets again and looking pretty.

Tlahutum Regional Park

The classic view of the Coquitlam River from the Millennium Bridge.

We wrapped up with a trip to the community garden because the number of sparrows and sparrow-adjacent birds we’d seen up to this point was a bit low and Nic wanted MOAR.

However, the garden proved nearly bird-free. We did see a few fleeting Golden-crowned Sparrows, confirming they’re back, as well as a White-crowed Sparrow or two, but that was it.

I got some nice shots of flowers and the river.

In the end, a busy and pretty good day of birding. We didn’t see any coots, but the fall migration has definitely begun, so coot time is coming.

The Shots

All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto. Some landscape shots captured with a Samsung Galaxy S26.

Gallery soon™.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • House Finch
  • Northern Flicker
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • White-crowned Sparrow
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Belted Kingfisher
  • Caspian Tern
  • Common Merganser
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Greater Yellowlegs
  • Green-winged Teal
  • Killdeer
  • Lesser Yellowlegs
  • Long-billed Dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern Pintail
  • Northern Shoveller
  • Pectoral Sandpiper (a lifer, I think?)
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • European Starling
  • Various seagulls

Raptors:

  • Northern Harrier

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Several ladybugs
  • Spiders spinning webs and noshing on grasshoppers
  • A squirrel with an acorn

Birding, September 5, 2026: Random objects, plus some birds

Where: Burnaby Lake Regional Park (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Sunny, 21-23°C

The first birding of September, which yielded no fall migrants (boo), but some photogenic locals (yay) and no tree frogs.

Looking north across the lake from the rowing pavilion.

Burnaby Lake Regional Park

We checked out the west end of Burnaby Lake again and it started with the flash of promise–a fleeting Savannah Sparrow. Then we saw no birds, but did catch some nice scenery. When we got to a view of the lake (something that may surprise a lot of people: on the 10 km loop around the lake, there aren’t actually many clear views of the lake itself) we saw a Great Blue Heron holding vigil in a tree far above us. It started to ruffle its feathers and I figured this meant one of two things: imminent flight, or pooping. But it tricked us and stayed put, even doing the one-legged thing.

As always we saw Canada Geese, both on the ground and in flight, with and without dander stuck to their bills. No Xtreme molting this time, though.

At the bridge over Deer Lake Brook we watched a Song Sparrow bouncing from lily pad to lily pad, thinking it was drinking, but further examination revealed the lily pads were festooned with bite-sized bugs perfect for noshing on (if you’re a Song Sparrow).

Nic opted to not try to shoot a Barn Swallow at the rowing pavilion. I was a little surprised some are still hanging around. Maybe it felt bad for us, since there were no fall migrants to be seen. Maybe they are waiting until actual fall starts.

We crossed over the new pedestrian bridge again, and with the better light, I got some semi-artsy shots of it.

In all, it was a nice trek, even if birds were scant.

Tlahutum Regional Park

The big pond at Tlahutum, now with water again.

There were a few more birds at Tlahutum, but being mid-afternoon, they proved a bit elusive, often chirping and singing from the trees, but not venturing out into the sun. We did catch sightings of House Finches and American Goldfinches. One goldfinch even cooperatively landed on a railing not far ahead of us, but my camera inexplicably refused to focus on it and it flew off. The goldfinch, not my camera. I was a but peeved, but technology, amirite?

We had better luck with pollinators, including a hover fly, another freaky sweat bee (?!) that was a shiny green, unlike the previous shiny blue one we saw. Or maybe they change colours. I don’t know how they work.

We saw a spider on the trail and got some shots, but looking at them later, we discovered the spider was carrying a whole load of babies on its back. Both delightful and terrifying.

We also saw a White-crowned Sparrow that had something very wrong with its face, though we couldn’t determine what it was–a mess of feathers on its right side that seemed to be obscuring the eye. It seemed to be faring all right, but was annoyed by whatever it was.

With birds keeping to themselves, I shot more kitsch than usual and experimented more with composition and just taking weird shots of things. I amused myself.

In the end, not a lot of bird shots (or shots, period) but it was nice to be out and the weather was a lot better than the original forecast, so hooray for that.

The Shots

All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto unless otherwise noted.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Goldfinch
  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Barn Swallow
  • Black-capped Chickadee (heard)
  • House Finch
  • Savannah Sparrow
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee (heard)
  • White-crowned Sparrow
  • Yellow-rumped Warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Canada Goose
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Mallard
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • Rock Pigeon

Raptors:

  • None!

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • A ladybug
  • A fuzzy caterpillar
  • A spider and her brood
  • The promise of frogs, but no actual frogs (again)

August 22 2026 birding gallery is up (finally)

A wee bit late with this one. It’s a kooky mix of snoozing ducks, weird shots of random objects and pigeons.

Original post here: Birding, August 22, 2026: When life gives you mallards…

Blahgust

The more I try to think what to write, the more the thoughts run away, nimble and free.

But I remain hopeful that I’ll find my way back to waxing poetic/inanely on whatever wanders into my mind.

In the meantime, here’s a photo I took of a pile of gravel, with all kinds of filters applied to punch it up, a reflection of the artificial times we live in.

And for fun, the original as it looked straight from my phone (what a weird thing this would have been to write in 1980):