Photography

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

The cat came back

Or rather, I came back and the cat was there. The last few times I saw this cat, it demanded extensive scratches and belly rubs before letting me pass. Apparently tonight it was on patrol, so it demanded affection, but was willing to let me go my way, since it had important duties to tend to.

Scracth behind my ears, human, then I must return to guarding this street.

Birding, September 6, 2024: Thank you for not hissing

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 23-31°C

The Outing

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

View of bird condo from the northwest bird blind.

Due to various circumstances, we made an unusual afternoon trip to Reifel, and on a Friday. Unsurprisingly, the gate was open when we arrived, due to a low number of bookings, so we drove over the speed bumps from hell and headed in.

To our delight, the Sandhill crane family was in the grassy area right near the gift shop at the entrance, preening and such, offering us plenty of opportunity to get good shots. The two babbies are now nearly as big as the adults, with their upper bodies and heads looking a lot more adult-like than even the last visit a few weeks ago.

We also saw our first Northern shovellers of the season, though of course, they don’t migrate, they just hide nearby, apparently, then come out of hiding at the same time every year, by coincidence!

Though there were shorebirds, most of them were farther out in the ponds, affording poorer opportunities for getting shots. Most were also snoozing, which made sense given the time of day and the relative warmth. Nic kept insisting it was hotter than the reported 23C, but it felt fine to me. Maybe my sunblock repels heat or something. It makes me smell pretty, so anything is possible.

Songbirds were in scarce supply, but the heat was probably a major factor there, too. We saw one spotted towhee and one chickadee. We each got a single shot of the chickadee before it took off, as if it had appeared specifically to tease us.

What was not in short supply were the Canada geese. They were legion and they were everywhere, their constant quiet honking (and sometimes less-than-quiet) created an atmosphere ripe with the tension of potential goose drama. The actual drama was minimal, with it mostly relegated to groups of geese suddenly flying from one end of a pond, then back to where they started, perhaps in an attempt to beat the heat. Or maybe they’re just weird.

We rounded out the trip with one look at the cranes, then headed off into rush hour hell to visit Piper Spit.

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

View looking east from the pier.

Piper Spit started with what seemed a rare opportunity–a handsome garter snake right next to where we parked. But sadly, it turned out its tiny snake skull had been crushed, and it was deceased.

We moved on to the pier and happier sights, like the growing population of coots, pintails and teals. There were a lot of geese here, too, possibly coordinating through long-range honking with the ones at Reifel. The ones here were behaving themselves.

The light was on the right side today, affording us better shots than our last visit, and more male wood ducks are sporting full mullets now. Blackbirds were also plentiful, as were pigeons, which repeatedly swooped down from nearby trees, hung around on the pier for a bit, then went back to the trees.

And we saw several young song sparrows, to complement the handful of other songbirds we’d seen.

There were shorebirds here, too, but also farther away, much like the ones at Reifel. Boo.

Also, on a glitchy note, after changing the battery in my camera just after arriving, my camera started acting cray-cray, and I’m wondering if the battery was being goofy or something. Testing will be done. Also, the batteries I have are nearing four years old, so it’s probably time to look into getting some fresh back-ups, anyway. It made shooting quite annoying (constantly turning the camera off and on), but I still managed some decent shots.

In all, a not-unexpected quieter day for birbs, but as always there were still things to see, the weather was gorgeous (if perhaps a tad warm–I believe we broke records today) and everything is still very pretty.

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Bewick’s wren (heard, not seen)
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Cedar waxwing
  • House finch
  • House sparrow
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Yellow-rumped warbler (possibly)

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot
  • Canada goose (roughly one billion)
  • Cormorant (unable to verify which type)
  • Great blue heron
  • Greater yellowlegs
  • Green-winged teal
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Northern shoveller (the return!)
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Assorted gulls
  • Rock pigeon

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle
  • Northern harrier

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Western painted turtle
  • Fewer dragonflies and butterflies
  • Various spiders

Birding, August 31, 2024: Light and heat

Where: Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 22-29°C

The Outing

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

Piper Spit in mid-morning. Squint to see a coot on the right-hand side.

Today was a briefer outing, and we started at Piper Spit, which was perhaps a slight tactical error, as the sun was low and to the east, which is the opposite of where you want it, as most of the waterfowl at the spit hang out on the east side.

We made do with the conditions and were rewarded with the return of another migrant, or perhaps “migrant” since it allegedly doesn’t migrate, yet always disappears locally every summer. In this case, a couple of Northern pintails have returned, joining the growing coot population. No other migrants were spotted, but the geese kept honking and carrying on, as if to suggest why can’t we just be happy with them, huh? Huh? HONK HONK HONK.

Goldfinches proved elusive to shoot again, though we spotted a rare warbling vireo, so that was spiffy. We also saw some chickadees, one of which was especially generous and posed for quite a bit.

There were also some dowitchers, but today they were gathered farther away from the pier, boo.

More wood duck dudes are showing full mullet now. Soon the entire lake will radiate with their iridescent beauty. Or something.

We did not stay overly long, but took note that it was already quite warm by mid-morning. It would get hotter still!

Tlahutum Regional Park

Coquitlam River looking very shallow at Tlahutum.

Next up was Tlahutum. We did our usual circuit to the big pond before stopping at the community garden before leaving. The big pond was a big bust–no birds! We did see what Nic thinks was a swallow of some sort flying very high above, the only one we saw. The rest are probably relaxing in Mexico now, or wherever it is they go. I know, I am typing this on the internet and could just look it up, but I am lazy love a mystery.

We did see a number of cedar waxwings, including one that hung out atop a tree for quite a long while, occasionally preening, panting or poofing itself out. The others were not quite as close, but a few had their kids in tow.

A heron flapped into one of the side creeks, and we got some decent shots of it standing there, looking stabby, but birds were generally few, possibly because by this time it was around 29C and felt even hotter due to the humidity. At this point we’d also had our fill of walking in the open sun, with no shade at all, and leaded off. We wore sunscreen this time, so no burning!

In all, not a bad outing, but this definitely feels like the “between” season, where some migrants are about to depart, some are coming in, but everything is in flux.

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American goldfinch
  • Barn swallow (probably)
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Cedar waxwing
  • Downy woodpecker
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow (maybe?)
  • Spotted towhee
  • Warbling vireo

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot (three!)
  • Canada goose
  • Great blue heron
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail (the return!)
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon

Raptors:

  • None

Non-birds:

  • A fuzzy caterpillar that didn’t know how close it came to being smooshed by a bike
  • Assorted pollinators
  • Fewer dragonflies and butterflies

Birding, August 25, 2024: Burning and the eye-level owl

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Centennial Beach (Delta), Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Mostly sunny, 17-21°C

The Outing

A rare day of Sunday birding, in which traffic seemed a lot busier than expected. Maybe people just wanted to get out in the sun after a few days of not-so-sunny weather.

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

A sea of yellow and green extending to the distant shoreline.

We quickly determined that jackets would not be needed as we arrived at Reifel and doffed them, dooming ourselves to get sunburn later in the day. But we had birds to shoot!

There were a fair number of people here, many of them with telephoto lenses that build muscles. We started out and observed the water level at the London slough was higher than previous, but there was a wood duck there to pose for us. As it turned out, it was the only wood duck we saw at Reifel, the rest presumably hiding with the shovellers, pintails and other “non-migratory” species that seem to disappear in the off-season, anyway.

Goose drama and general goose misbehaviour seems to be on the rise. Maybe after the kids have grown, they just plain lose all parental instinct and revert to their feral, demonic ways. Basically, a lot of hoking, some hissing and lots of that freaky neck stuff and chasing other geese.

Barn swallows are still hanging out, but it could be that they have kids that are newly on the wing and have to wait a bit longer before they have the strength to migrate to their winter home. We haven’t seen tree swallows in some weeks.

Also on the rise, in a much more delightful way: chickadees! They were all over the place, reclaiming their empire and daring us to capture them in the few moments they paused. One of the central trails also saw us encountering warblers, including some yellow-rumped ones. To the surprise of everyone, I got a few decent shots.

In one of the main ponds we spotted a rarely-seen red-necked pharalope. The only bummer is that it was not very close. Shorebirds were in relative abundance in several ponds, though.

Along the East Dyke trail we came up to a massive group of people all looking off to the east. Nic observed that they couldn’t be looking at an owl because they were all gazing ahead at eye-level.

They were looking at an owl.

It was a great horned owl, sitting with its back mostly to us, at eye-level, but a safe distance away from the trail. We didn’t get great shots, but we did get very owly shots and some of its face when it turned its head a bit. I haven’t done the math, but based on how often we’ve seen owls here, it feels like there’s maybe a 10% chance of seeing one, so this was a rare opportunity. It was also impossible to miss, thanks to the giant throng of people looking at it.

We also saw the crane family, twice. The first time was on the other side of a pond, kind of far away. Boo. The next time was as we were leaving, near the parking lot. Much better. The two babbies now have youth-sized bodies and adult-sized legs, so they look jacked up and dorky, just like an awkward teen should. It was a nice cap to the visit.

And we were still not yet burnt.

Centennial Beach

The tide was high at Boundary Bay.

That changed at Centennial Beach. I actually thought about putting on sunblock, but decided to be stupid and got signed on my arms and neck, just like nature had planned. On the other hand, this meant it was sunny and we had good light to shoot in!

For a change of pace, the tide was in, so we had no vast mud flats to shoot. We checked the pond, but it is still an exclusive mallard club for now.

An obliging cowbird posed for us on one of the beach trails, though, and there were a fair number of shorebirds, too, ranging from one very agile killdeer, to yellowlegs, sandpipers and more.

Away from the beach, goldfinches kept themselves busy tormenting Nic, as is their duty. We saw no bunnies and no raptors, though, which was mildly disappointing.

With our flesh singed (Centennial Beach has essentially no cover, even in the treed areas), it was time to head to our last stop.

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

Looking northwest from the pier at Piper Spit.

The big question here would be: Have any of the winter migrants returned? And the answer was yes, two of them, both of which were coots. The weird water hens are back.

Wood ducks were out in large numbers here, and several of the males were sporting their full, magnificent mullets again. Several male mallards were close to having their shiny green domes back, too. And we got an extra treat by having a female (or possibly immature) yellow-headed blackbird capering about the pier area, giving us numerous chances to get good shots.

Out further with the coots was a pied-billed grebe, which we don’t see often and that I don’t recall seeing at all before at Burnaby Lake.

Other than the two coots, no other winter migrants were in view, but it’s still early.

Overall, this an outing with unexpected pleasures: better weather than forecast, rare birds, and the first arrivals of the winter migration.

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American goldfinch
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Barn swallow
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • House finch (probably?)
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Yellow-headed blackbird
  • Yellow-rumped warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot (the return!)
  • Canada goose
  • Great blue heron
  • Greater yellowlegs
  • Least sandpiper
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Killdeer
  • Mallard
  • Pied-billed grebe
  • Red-necked pharalope
  • Sandhill crane
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Ring-billed gull
  • Rock pigeon

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle
  • Great horned owl

Non-birds:

  • Western painted turtle
  • Assorted pollinators
  • Fewer dragonflies and butterflies