Shot mid-afternoon. It may not look like it’s 30°C, but I assure you it was!
Brunette River, July 15, 2025
Photography
Photos I’ve taken of scenery, interesting objects and other things.
Birding, July 12, 2025: The Blackbird and the Lily Pad
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Richmond Nature House, Terra Nova Park (Richmond), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 20-28°C
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
We started bright ‘n early at Reifel, where the clouds quickly burned off and it was actually kind of warm. You know it’s warm at Reifel when the breeze feels pleasant.
There was some incipient goose drama, but for the most part, it was pretty quiet, with many of the ponds and waterways absent of waterfowl. Several ponds were also looking quite slimy, including the London Slough1Dictionary Fun Fact: It can be pronounced sloo or slow, but not sluff, where it means something that can be shed or cast off, which gave us slimy mallards and equally slimy turtles. Everyone seemed pretty chill with the green slime. And speaking of the slough, one of the logs there was, as Nic put it, a veritable United Nations of waterfowl, with mallards, wood ducks, wigeons and mergansers all sharing space, a turtle at the end keeping an eye on them.
The vast marshlands are looking pleasantly green and verdant now, with wildflowers providing ample opportunities for the billion types of pollinators buzzing about. The first of the main ponds on the Outer Dyke (approaching from the north) appeared to have a lot of birds over yonder in the eastern end, so we went to the secret third bird blind and indeed, the area was replete with dowitchers and lesser yellowlegs. They were a little too far away, alas.
We encountered a pair of Sandhill cranes and they were in a restful mood, probably due to the heat. One even folded down on its legs in a comfy patch of shaded grass.
There were goldfinches and yellowthroats, but they mostly remained elusive, as is their way. Herons were more present than in other recent trips, on the ground, in the water and in the air (but not pooping).
We saw more beetles going at it. I’m ready to declare them the horniest bugs of summer, though the dragonflies are putting in a good effort, too.
In all, a perfectly pleasant tour of the sanctuary, with a few birds we haven’t seen lately sneaking back in, like a few mergansers and pintails.
Richmond Nature House
Next was the Richmond Nature House. I did not take any photos here, but Nic shot a rufous hummingbird and a furtive chickadee that came out briefly to check one of the feeders that still had seed in it. Actually, I did take one photo–of a fire hydrant surrounded by flowers. And Nic took photos of me. Or at least my left arm, which had a ladybug on it.
Terra Nova Park
We moved on to Terra Nova and for me, it was all planes planes planes! There were only a few birds here–again, probably staying in the shade to avoid the mid-afternoon heat. Terra Nova always offers nice scenery, though. And planes.
The tide was the lowest here I can recall seeing. A collection of herons were gathered south of the Iona Beach jetty, noodling about in an area that would normally be under water. And when I say noodling, I mean standing, because that’s what herons do.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
We ended our birbing at Piper Spit and by now it was up to 28C, but the breeze meant it didn’t actually feel that hot. The spit is still a no-feeding area (though a few people were doing that and will end up in bird hell or something. Actually, the birds like the seed, so it would probably be some other kind of hell, like, uh, the no bird feeding hell, where you are waist deep in seed no matter where you go, constantly slogging through), so while there are birds, they don’t hang around the pier itself as closely as usual. We didn’t see anything unusual here and did not magically summon the crane this time. We did observe at length a blackbird on the lily pads giving itself a good bath, though. There were also pigeons acting like red soldier beetles, if you know what I mean. The ladies (or men? I am not a pigeonologist) seemed unimpressed.
As a special bonus, we did not have to wait for a train to pass when leaving.
In all, a good outing.
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 goldfinch
- Anna’s hummingbird
- Barn swallow
- Black-capped chickadee
- Brown-headed cowbird
- Cedar waxwing
- Common yellowthroat
- European starling
- House sparrow
- Red-winged blackbird
- Rufous hummingbird
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
- Tree swallow
- Yellow warbler
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
American coot(not yet!)- American wigeon
- Canada goose
- Great blue heron
- Hooded merganser (!)
- Lesser yellowlegs
- Long-billed dowitcher
- Mallard
- Northern pintail (!)
- Sandhill crane
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Rock pigeon
- A few gulls
Raptors:
- Bald eagle
Non-birds:
- Western painted turtle
- Bugs and insects:
- Red soldier beetle
- Great blue skimmer (dragonfly)
- Eight-spotted skimmer (dragonfly)
- Blue damselfly
- Hover fly
- Paper wasp
- Sand wasp
- A billion others I could not classify or have forgotten
Birding, July 5, 2025: The horny world of bugs
Where: Centennial Beach, Beach Grove, Boundary Bay Dyke Trial (Delta)
Weather: Partly sunny, 17-19°C
My suggestion to start out at Crescent Beach/Blackie spit was thwarted a few km short of the target when traffic mysteriously came to a standstill. There were a lot of dump trucks and other vehicles ahead of us and they seemed to be turning around for some reason. We could see little flags on the road, but not enough to quite discern what had happened or was happening. We pondered taking another route in, but couldn’t be sure it wouldn’t also be blocked, so we headed to our original destination of Centennial Beach.
The weather was pleasant enough, with partly sunny conditions, but the wind was gusting regularly, which brought a delightful (?) challenge to shooting bugs and birds on bobbing branches.
This time, the raptor trail delivered a Northern raptor right up front and it swooped over the area numerous times, often while being harassed by blackbirds, because the area is clearly not big enough for all of them.
The tide was way out, so we got obligatory shots of the vastness of Mud Bay, while mostly avoiding the mud. Mostly.
House sparrows were out everywhere, as were various swallows, but shorebirds were in short supply at Centennial, which was perhaps understandable, because the shore was effectively about an extra km out.
The behaviour of bugs was notable on this outing. We observed what appeared to be a BC miner bee (which looks like a bumblebee with “pollen pants”) being regularly assaulted in the sand by another bee. Examination of the shots left me uncertain what exactly was going on. The beat-up bee didn’t seem to be interested or perhaps capable of flying off, and a few of the rasslin’ poses were of the variety that would make young, uncertain bees uncomfortable, if you know what I mean.
The promised afternoon sun did not really materialize, but the hazy clouds still allowed decent illumination. We moved on to Beach Grove and the Boundary Bay Dyke Trail, which we haven’t visited in a while.
We saw more insects getting it on, specifically a pair of amorous red solider beetles, and a couple of mud dauber (?1Nic did extensive interweb research to ID the various insects and what we discovered is that a) there are a lot of types of insects, like way too many and b) this makes them very challenging to ID) wasps that were connected in a way that suggested love was in the air and in even closer proximity to them.
But what we mostly saw were Savannah sparrows, and plenty of ’em. I got some of my best shots of these pretty boys, along with more horny bugs, some elusive common yellowthroats, and an American goldfinch sitting atop a tree, which I pointed out to Nic. I had my kit lens on the camera at the time and it took off before I could switch lenses, but Nic got some shots, thus ending his curse. For now.
I also had a red soldier beetle climb onto my shoe (the shots didn’t turn out, but I tried) and despite being very aware of the copious horse poop on the trail, managed to step in it twice. Still, if there is any poop you must step in, horse poop is probably the least offensive.
One of the ponds near(ish) to the trail had attracted no less than four different types of shorebirds, so we got our shorebird fix in a concentrated burst, with a few killdeer, lesser and greater yellowlegs and a least sandpiper, which was being mostly shy and keeping partly hidden in the grass.
In all, I was surprised at how many birds we saw, particularly on the dyke trail. And having the 400 mm lens definitely made for a better experience for me, as the birds are often not near the trail, so the extra reach is handy. Also, I remembered sunblock and despite the hazy conditions, probably would have burned otherwise, so yay for that.
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 goldfinch
- Barn swallow
- Brown-headed cowbird
- Cedar waxwing
- Common yellowthroat
- European starling
- House finch
- House sparrow
- Red-winged blackbird
- Rough-winged swallow (maybe?)
- Savannah sparrow
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
- Tree swallow
- White-crowned sparrow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- Canada goose
- Great blue heron
- Greater yellowlegs
- Killdeer
- Least sandpiper
- Lesser yellowlegs
- Mallard
Common:
- Shore crows
Raptors:
- Northern harrier
Non-birds:
- A brown bunny, but briefly
- An orgy of various horny insects:
- Red soldier beetle
- Mud dauber wasp
- BC miner bee
- Woodland skipper
- Grasshoppers
- Other butterflies and things
Various early summer photos, July 3, 2025
Like the title says, everything from flowers to (toy) bombs.
The toy bomb was kind of weird.
Birding, June 28, 2025: All the lifers, plus all the swallows
Where: Heron Cove, Pitt River, Grant Narrows Park at Pitt Lake, Sturgeon Slough (Pitt Meadows)
Weather: Partly cloudy, 17-22°C
It was a day of sloughs, creeks, rivers and lakes under a mostly sunny sky and temperatures that actually felt kind of like summer. Novel!
We started near Heron Cove and the name did not disappoint, as we saw two herons standing in a tree, an adult and a juvenile. The juvenile was acting strange and silly. You know how teens are.
From there we walked a trail that got more and more overgrown, showing a clear line on how far most people were willing to explore. We saw a ladybug on a frond of wild grass and after my camera refused to focus on it, I went manual and actually got a really nice shot. I’ll have to experiment more with manual mode on targets that are not madly flitting about.
Returning, we saw our first lifers, along with about a dozen other photographers with Very Big Lenses, namely a Yellow Warbler pair (you can probably guess what they look like) and a Bullock’s Oriole.
Walking the other way, we saw our third (!) lifer, a Black-headed Grosbeak, which was sufficiently obscured that we never did see its face.
We later moved to Grant Narrows Park, at the south end of Pitt Lake. We didn’t have to pay for the pay parking because it was full, and parked with several dozen others alongside the road leading in. From here we got to see an osprey nest, which was just a little too far off the shore, even for a 400 mm lens. We could still see the baby dinosaurs in the nest, though.
Further up, a viewing tower was closed because it has been completely and utterly claimed by Cliff Swallows, who build these cute little cavity nests out of mud. Almost every nest was occupied and there were quite a few swallows flying around the tower and the general area. In fact, the only species we didn’t see that even shows up in this area were cave swallows.
Nic got an awesome set of shots of an adult feeding a giant bug to a younger swallow, which I totally missed because I was shooting scenery or something. The number of birds here surprised me.
We ended the tour of Pitt Meadows by walking along the Sturgeon Slough, where we saw a few Kingfishers, including one trying to gulp down a large meal. We followed a pair of Common Yellowthroats for a bit, watched a big spider possibly catch a bug, watched a pair of butterflies getting it on, strolled past the inevitable golf course, and took many shots of the gorgeous scenery.
In all, a fine outing in which the lack of steady sun was probably a good thing, given we were in the open most of the time.
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
- Barn swallow
- Black-headed grosbeak (lifer)
- Brown-headed cowbird
- Bullock’s oriole (lifer)
- Cedar waxwing
- Cliff swallow
- Common yellowthroat
- Orange-crowned warbler
- Red-winged blackbird
- Rough-winged swallow
- Song sparrow
- Tree swallow
- Violet-green swallow
- White-crowned sparrow
- Yellow warbler (lifer)
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- Canada goose
- Eastern kingfisher
- Great blue heron
- Mallard
Common:
- Some gulls
Raptors:
- American osprey
Non-birds:
- Dragonflies
- A damselfly
- Various bees
Birding, June 22, 2025: Daring duck and cautious coyote
Where: Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Cloudy, 16-19°C
We switched things up by starting at Piper Spit and the signs warning people not to feed the birds are all over the place, and it seems people are actually following the request for the most part (we did see some seed on a picnic table near the dam being nommed on by a song sparrow). This, along with the recent showers leading to the water level of the lake rising again, meant that most of the waterfowl were not hanging near the pier and shorebirds were completely absent.
I arrived early, shot some song sparrows, a robin, and a mom with a lone baby duck near the dam. After Nic arrived, we saw another female mallard, sans family, hanging around the dam. She jumped onto the edge of the fish ladder, then…jumped into the fish ladder itself, which is basically a series of rapids descending into the river. She seemed to enjoy letting the foaming water swirl around her and occasionally jammed her head in, sometimes coming up with strands of yummy (?) vegetation.
At the lake, a group of cinnamon teals and a blue-winged teal made an appearance, which was spiffy. Also, seemingly moments after I noted the absence of the sandhill crane, it flew in and landed in its usual area. Next, I will use my powers to win $10 million in the lottery.
Among the birds that hang out at Piper Spit, the “friendliest” are probably the blackbirds, as they will happily eat seed from your hand. The absence of seed seems to have made them all a little deranged, as we had them attempting to, and in some cases, succeeding in landing on us, even though we were seed-free. Maybe they thought that if they stuck to the routine, the seed would just manifest.
And while I did not get a shot, because it was hopping madly deep inside the branches of a tree, we spotted a warbling vireo, which for mew is a lifer. Neat.
There are a couple of stumps on the way to the pier that someone always covers in seed for the Douglas squirrels. These were cleaned up and a cute little sign placed on one. This will make getting shots of squirrels eating in that adorable pose more challenging.
The weather began to warm up a bit at Tlahutum, though it remained cloudy and dim. It’s been like this since summer officially began, so the people who complain about the heat should be pleased.
We saw a mix of swallows and sparrows in the community garden, along with an ever-elusive American goldfinch, which helpfully sat atop a pole. But the pole was set against a bright cloudy sky, making the goldfinch a very darkfinch. It no doubt chuckled to itself, then flew off.
The surprises here were the four-legged kind. As we crossed the bridge over the Coquitlam River, we spotted an otter out for an afternoon snack. It appeared to catch some kind of fish or something. My shots were not great, but you can see its whiskers and adorable little ears.
And as we were returning from The Big Pond a coyote came up behind us and then scooted rapidly past, ambling at a decent gait until it was a safe distance away. It then stood and looked across the river, giving us some fine profile shots. We wondered if it would cross the bridge (which we would be doing) but as it neared, a cyclist approached, so it jogged past. The cyclist, by coincidence, was heading the same way and the coyote booked it at that point.
In all, it was a comfortable day, weather-wise (no sun beating down on us) but with iffy lighting (no sun beating down on us).
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
Shots coming soon, but here are two as a preview. The first is the American goldfinch, which was post-processed up the wazoo–I cranked exposure way up, cranked highlights way down and then added a bit of sharpening to get something resembling a goldfinch.
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- American robin
- Black-capped chickadee (heard?)
- Brown-headed cowbird
- Red-winged blackbird
- Rufous hummingbird
- Spotted towhee
- Song sparrow
- Tree swallow
- Violet-green swallow
- Warbling vireo (lifer!)
- White-crowned sparrow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- Blue-winged teal
- Canada goose
- Cinnamon teal
- Gadwall
- Great blue heron
- Mallard
- Sandhill crane
- Wood duck
Common:
- Rock pigeon
Raptors:
- Some kind of hawk
Non-birds:
- Coyote
- Otter
- A turtle in the Nature House
Windows 11: Making photo editing weirdly laggy since 2025
The other night I thought to myself that I’ve been taking photos with my new camera, but hardly ever post any of them. So I went through and tagged a bunch I took on Saturday and found I had 51 apparently worth considering. That’s way too many, but it was a starting point. I did the tagging in Linux Mint, but photo editing is still a bit iffy there, so I switched back to Windows 11 and my main photo editing software, Affinity Photo.
I edited one raw image of a barn swallow, then loaded a second image, of a house sparrow. After doing this, Windows 11 turned into this weird, laggy mess. The mouse cursor would slowly drift across the screen on its own, as if it weighed several tons, never fully stopping, never responding to any clicks, though I could get it to slowly move in other directions. The keyboard was also non-responsive, so I could not invoke task manager by using CTRL-ALT-DEL to see what program had gone rogue., or if it was Windows itself.
In the end, I rebooted the PC. It was such an unpleasant experience I even briefly thought of switching over to the Mac, then remembered the security hell of trying to install mouse drivers on it that led me to abandoning it for what has now been multiple weeks, because I am done with modern computers constantly throwing obstacles in the way of a pleasant, or even just nondescript, user experience.
Windows 11 has been behaving so far since the reboot, but I’ve only edited a single photo. I’ll have the full batch of selected photos from last Saturday posted sometime in 2028, probably.
In the meantime, here is that one photo, of a barn swallow.
Walk 132: A late spring stroll, with bonus photos
I decided to go out for a walk on the river trail, and so I wouldn’t be bothered getting hot ‘n sweaty, I dressed to run. I even pondered a short run, but it was mid-afternoon on a Sunday and opted not to.
I walked to the lake but stopped to take a few photos, so did not record it as exercise. The walk back I did record, the stats are below.
Here are the photos:
Stats:
Walk 132
Average pace: 9:09/km
Location: Brunette River trail
Distance: 4.02 km
Time: 36:43
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 22°C
Humidity: 50%
Wind: light
BPM: 109
Weight: 168.1 pounds
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255
Total distance to date: 939.01 km
Birding, June 14, 2025: No sunblock required
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta)
Weather: Cloudy, 15-17°C
Today was a shorter outing because Nic needs his beauty nap before volleyball tryouts tonight. As such, we only went to Reifel, which was bird-deficient across vast stretches of the ponds and trails. Still, there were birbs to be seen.
The weather was cooler and cloudy, so the sunblock stayed in the bottle as we hit the trails.
Among the regulars, we also spotted a Northern shoveller, lending credence to them not really migrating away, just lying low and hiding…somewhere nearby? We also saw some wigeons, so at least two of them are back. The coots can’t be far behind.
The cranes were dining near one of the ponds we don’t usually see them hanging out at, along with several groups of adorable ducklings, providing at least one target-rich environment.
The geese were strangely reserved, with minimal honking. It always unnerves me when they’re quiet.
The male mallards and wood ducks are looking increasingly ratty, as they no longer have to keep up the good looks, with mating season over. The female ducks must now tolerate their beer bellies and mullet-free heads.
The biggest change since the last visit a few weeks ago, other than the relative absence of birds, was the marshland given over to being almost completely green now. It is very lush. Speaking of lush, this new type of reed/grass seems to be growing all over the place now, including spots where it is now obscuring some views. It’s kind of weird. I wonder if it’s invasive.
Despite the smaller number of birds, we did get some fine shots and there were turtles at the end. And it was nice to not have to slop greasy goop all over my exposed flesh, even if it does make me smell pretty.
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
- American wigeon
- Anna’s hummingbird
- Barn swallow
- Black-capped chickadee
- Brown-headed cowbird
- House finch
- House sparrow
- Marsh wren (heard)
- Rufous hummingbird
- Savannah sparrow
- Spotted towhee
- Song sparrow
- Tree swallow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- Blue-winged teal
- Canada goose
- Gadwall
- Great blue heron
- Mallard
- Northern shoveller
- Sandhill crane
- Wood duck
Common:
- Rock pigeon
Raptors:
- Bald eagle
Non-birds:
- Black squirrel
- Beetles
- Turtles
Trains and trees and water, June 11, 2025
Posted a day late due to other things taking up my time.
Birding, June 7, 2025: Shoot the bear, shoot the poop
Where: Rocky Point Park (Port Moody), Blakeburn Lagoons Park (Port Coquitlam), Traboulay PoCo Trail (Port Coquitlam)
Weather: Sunny, 20-27°C
Rocky Point
Today was expected to get quite warm–and it did. We were very smart and most of our birding today took place on trails with no canopy, because we love the sun.
We started at Rocky Point, where the heron babies are growing up oh-so-fast. They seemed a bit more visible this time, due to being larger and more willing to hang out on the edges of the nests, yearning to escape from the yoke of their parents’ tyranny.
We ventured a bit down the trail, but didn’t see much else, other than a lot of people, because the place was packed. Who knew a warm, sunny Saturday in June would draw people out?
Blakeburn Lagoons Park
We next moved onto Blakeburn Lagoons Park, which is a fairly compact pair of lagoons reclaimed from an old wastewater site. We got some good views, a bit of goose drama, and Nic felt compelled to shoot some bird poop. One must not question the muse. The muse poops for thee, not me. Or something.
The highlight, strangely, was a butterfly that stopped long enough to allow us to get some very nice shots of it. After a quick trip around the lagoons, we needed more sun, so off we went!
Traboulay PoCo Trail/DeBoville Slough
We’ve been in this area before, but along the southern trail. This time we took the northern, which parallels the slough and eventually leads to the Pitt river, which is where we saw a nesting osprey (neat) and then turned around and headed back. We saw a few birds along the way, too–a robin, a waxwing and a Northern flicker–but most of the views were of the slough, the verdant fields and mountains. And one shirtless jogger.
Although by this point it was getting quite warm, the breeze kept it from getting sticky and awful.
And we also saw a bear, trundling casually through the crops on a field. There was a slough between us and the bear and even though bears can swim, it was not close and seemed pretty mellow. I got a few iffy shots, but it’s definitely bear.
After that, we wrapped up early, as Nic has to help out a theatre full of gay men. As one does.
Although the birds were not out in copious numbers today, the change of scenery was pleasant, as was the weather.
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
- Cedar waxwing
- Common yellowthroat (heard)
- Northern flicker
- Spotted towhee
- Song sparrow
- Violet-green swallow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- Canada goose
- Gadwall
- Great blue heron
- Mallard
Common:
- American crow
- Assorted gulls
Raptors:
- American osprey
- Bald eagle
- A hawk?
Non-birds:
- Butterflies
- Dragonflies
- Other flies
- A black bear
A daisy
Like the title says, shot yesterday with my iPhone 12.
