Serene and bird-free pond. (Technically, there were a few birds.)
For the first time since we began visiting Reifel, we got stopped as the bridge to Westham Island was rotated to allow a sailboat to pass through. It was kind of neat for the first few seconds, then it was just mostly waiting for it to swing back so we could actually get to the birds.
Once there, I noticed the gusting wind of the last few visits was mostly being absent. It cleared up earlier than perhaps expected, and I slapped on sunblock midway through. I only got a little bit of a burn where the camera strap tugs near the top of my t-shirt. I blame a lack of mirror during application.
The wood ducks have vacated the sanctuary again, though I have no idea where they go, because they always come back at some point. This meant most areas were dominated by mallards. The geese seemed to have claimed the main pond by the west dyke and were disturbingly quiet, most of them spending their time napping, like they’re conserving energy for an invasion or something. I don’t think I heard a single honk. Eerie!
There were cowbirds on hand, and they were acting weird–something we would see again at Piper Spit, as the guys were showing off to each other and the women. None seemed particularly impressed. But they persevered, puffing up their feathers, arching their heads back and making lots of weird little peeps and calls.
The freaky catfish have returned to the London Slough, affording us some delightfully hideous shots of them, as they congregate near the surface and directly below the railing overlooking the slough.
We did not see any marsh wrens this time, but Nic managed a few photos of a Bewick’s wren. There were a few chickadees around, but only a few, and I could only get butt shots. But they were nicely detailed butt shots.
They couldn’t touch the robin butt shot that Nic got. That one was truly spectacular, hall of fame material.
The other highlights:
A juvenile killdeer! Cute! But a little too far away to get great shots.
Ducklings! Several groups, one quite close to us, still fairly young, so very fuzzy and adorable. We also saw some juveniles, which look more like mini adult ducks now. Strangely, we did not see any goslings.
Several small groups of greater yellowlegs hanging out in the main pond by the outer dyke. There’s been a bit of a paucity of shorebirds lately, so this was nice.
We saw a mysterious sooty-coloured bird sitting up in a tree between two of the inner ponds. It looks like an all-black swallow. Merlin suggested a Northern rough-winged swallow, which is a clear miss, and even a brown-headed cowbird, also a million miles off. It’s rare to stump Merlin when you have pretty clear shots of the bird in question, but we did! We debated whether it might be a purple martin, but to me the beak did not have quite the right shape. I declare it Sooty Swallow.
The sandhill crane couple that is nesting on a small island in an inner pond has had babbies! Only about a week old, there are two of them, and we went to the viewing area (the central trail is temporarily closed to keep pesky humans away), where the “maximum 6 people” rule was, shall we say, loosely enforced. To everyone’s credit, people were quiet and letting them just do their thing. In the case of the babies, this was mostly just sitting, occasionally lifting a head up, or walking a very short distance before repeating the first two. Nic got a shot of a worm-feeding. Who doesn’t like a fresh yummy worm hand beak-delivered?
I had some issues with my camera that prompted me to use my new PACK1Portable Awesome Cleaning Kit, which consists of a repurposed earbuds case filled with cotton swabs and a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol, but troubles persisted, as you will see.
Centennial Beach
The usual very low tide at Boundary Bay.
Centennial Beach was fairly busy for a Friday afternoon. It was the last day of school, and I’m guessing they still do the half day thing, so the kids were taking advantage of the sunny weather. The pond had a few mallards, but we got some great shots of assorted dragonflies, including a couple that were…coupling. I’m not going to judge by saying the way dragonflies reproduce is freaky and terrifying, but.
We unlocked the Savannah sparrow achievement. Centennial is a pretty reliable place for seeing them, you just have to hope one lands close enough to get some good shots. In this case, we had one perch atop a sign post, which was very considerate on his part.
There were a lot of crows around, for some reason. We saw one cooling off on the ground by spreading its wings and “panting”, a few others bully some starlings out of the topmost branches of a tree, and another harassing a Northern harrier who probably got too close to some hideously rotten something-or-other the crow had down on the mudflat waiting for him.
We also saw two bunnies, the first of which gave us several excellent cute bunny poses and didn’t seem overly fussed by our presence. We aren’t raptors, so I guess that checks out.
I used the “level” feature in my iPhone’s camera app to see if it would help with my often-titled scenery shots–and it did!
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Looking east from the pier, toward the towers around Lougheed.
We ended at Piper Spit, where the wood ducks were not at all absent, though the males in particular are looking quite scruffy in some cases. The geese here were also very eerily quiet, and the cowbirds were just as weird as at Reifel. Blackbirds were more plentiful, and a bunch of rock pigeons were hanging out. The regular rains of June meant the land mass is completely submerged, and the overall higher water level also meant no shorebirds here. :sadtrombone:
It seemed to be nap time, so many of the ducks and others were napping, nestled in the shaded areas filled with comfy grass. Like Reifel, we saw no goslings here. Maybe they were over in the fields. Or gathering for the invasion I mentioned above.
Piper Spit has such a different vibe in the summer. It’s utterly pleasant and pretty, but strangely quiet compared to the height of migratory seasons in the spring and fall (roughly speaking). Still, we did get some nice shots of a chunky gray squirrel doing that classic cute squirrel pose. And we didn’t get stuck waiting behind a train.
Overall, a fine morning and afternoon of birding.
The Shots
Bumblebee on a flower.
Barn swallow hanging out.
A butterfly of species "I'm too lazy to look up."
Cowbird on a rail.
A week old Sandhill crane baby, looking fuzzy and adorable.
Ducklings.
Ducklings on the move.
A baby duck.
A great blue heron flies low over a slough.
Dragonfly on wood.
Bee on a wildflower.
A red soldier beetle getting its pollen on.
A song sparrow looking contemplative.
Song sparrow state.
A song sparrow sings.
A house sparrow having a dirt bath.
A mysterious sooty-coloured swallow.
A gathering of greater yellowlegs at one of Reifel's larger outer ponds.
A bunny praying for carrots, perhaps.
Bunny in the grass. It seemed relatively unperturbed by our presence.
Look back and caw.
A crow beating the heat.
Dragonfly on dirt.
A killdeer exploring along the shoreline.
Cowbird shining in the sun.
A blackbird ponders.
What lurks in the mind of a Canada goose?
A Canada goose extreme grooming.
A mallard resting in the grass.
A mallard gliding off Piper Spit.
A pigeon observes activities from above.
The lighting and scenery almost make this squirrel shot look like a diorama.
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The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
American goldfinch
American robin
Anna’s hummingbird
Barn swallow
Bewick’s wren
Black-capped chickadees
Brown-headed cowbird
Cedar waxwing
House sparrow
Mysterious dark swallow
Red-winged blackbird
Rufous hummingbird
Savannah sparrow
Song sparrow
Spotted towhee
Tree swallow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
Canada goose
Great blue heron
Greater yellowlegs
Killdeer
Mallard
Northern pintail (one!)
Sandhill crane
Wood duck
Common:
American crow
European starling
Seagull
Raptors:
Bald eagle
Northern harrier
Non-birds:
A chunky squirrel
Catfish (probably brown bullhead, though I am not a fishologist)
Where: Rocky Point Park, Old Orchard Park, Inlet Park, Old Mill Site Park (Port Moody) Weather: Sunny, 27-28°C
The Outing
Be very quiet, we’re despatrely searching for herons
While it looks like we covered all of Port Moody’s parks, these are all clustered along the north shore of Burrard Inlet along a several km stretch, so it’s actually quite compact. Handy, considering the unusually high heat.
Due to my annoyingly slow recovery from my current cold, I passed on the early part of the birding in Pitt Meadows, but it was mostly out in the open under a cruel sun (ie. hot), though pretty, based on Nic’s pics (plus my recollection of being there last summer). Nic’s quest to see a Bullock’s Oriole paid off, and he didn’t even know it until he was looking at his photos later, which is like getting just the prize you wanted in the bottom of the Cracker Jack box1I dimly recall the prizes being small, plastic and unremarkable, so a Bullock’s Oriole is even better. He also saw a red-winged blackbird with a white tail, which is decidedly weird, as well as cliff swallows tending to their nests, which are reminiscent of something you’d have H.R. Giger design for an Alien film (the nests, not the swallows).
I joined in the next stage of the quest in mid-afternoon: To find the heron rookery at Rocky Point Park before all the baby herons left their nests. We were aided in several ways:
Helpful signs on the path saying, “You’re in a heron colony, be quiet, you clumsy loud human!”
Some directions given to us weeks ago by people who knew of the rookery when we were last at Rocky Point.
It turns out the directions were off probably by a factor of two and the heron nests, which they said would be at or near eye-level, were only at eye level if you were 10–20 metres tall. Which I am not.
But after wandering the lower trail several times (twisty, dirt-packed and filled with enough exposed tree roots to give me PTSD), we opted to try the path higher up, which is paved, civilized and also available for cyclists. This gave us the vantage point we needed, and we saw plenty of nests up (way up) in the trees. Yay! Most of them were empty. Boo. The ones that weren’t had nearly full-grown herons, so we totally missed on the goofy baby dinosaur stage of development. But we will know where to look during the next nesting season.
Although we did see more birds than we normally do at Rocky Point, there still weren’t a lot, and most of my shots were mediocre at best. Even my scenery shots taken with the camera were crooked (I fare much better with the camera than the phone). I blame everything on my cold. At least I never coughed while taking a photo, though that might have at least looked artsy.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold. I have omitted birds from the Nic-exclusive part of the birding, otherwise the list would have been much longer and more interesting.
Good news: My favourite season has arrived. Yay! Yes yes, climate change, heat domes, etc. I don’t care, summer is still my favourite season.
Bad news: I am still sick, though improved. I was able to go out and aboot without any issue. At home, I was coughing occasionally, mostly when sitting in certain specific positions that told my body, “Now is the time to cough.” They were all the most comfortable positions, too. 🙁
Neither good nor bad news: The weather today was very summer-like, with a high temperature of 28°C and “felt like 32”. It was pretty warm compared to what we’ve been getting. We’ll get one more day of sun before YMS (Yet More Showers). I don’t think I’ve ever seen grass so lush and green on June 20th before.
Anyway, here is another shot of Hume Park, this time the lower part.
It was actually a pleasantly sunny day for the last day of Spring 2024, with a high of 26°C (not a record). The not-fine part is related to the allergies/cold/flu/alien incubation I currently have. I slept horribly last night, but I think I am on the mend now and will hopefully at least be back to somewhat normal by tomorrow, the first day of summer.
I will frolic about if that’s the case.
In the meantime, here is a wide-angle photo of Hume Park, with the grass unusually green for mid-June:
This is at the pool at Hume Park. The pool was filled a few days ago, and it being filled is one of the imminent signs of summer (the pool usually opens near the end of June).
The additional commentary is, well, let’s see. As best as I can tell, the first line is:
HUME PARK SHIRTS OFF JACZ
The second, clearly in reference to the “no trespassing” part, is more easily identified as:
IF They catch You, Especially
Both suggest interesting tales, the latter one of people being chased out of the pool during off hours, the former being less clear. I mean, one would assume shirts would be off in a swimming pool, so maybe “JACZ” is advising people on how to dress appropriately. Maybe JACZ is a perv who likes ogling naked chests. I don’t know. All I know is it’s summer tomorrow, and I better feel better than I do now.
Also, while on the same walk, I saw this historically accurate depiction of a dinosaur battle:
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Shirley's Walk, South Arm Marshes Wildlife Management Area (Delta) Weather: Sunny, 18-23°C
The Outing
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
View looking toward the western dyke.
It was all Delta all the time with today’s abbreviated birding trek.
This was the first time this year that Reifel actually felt warm. Almost of the marshland is now green, thanks to a generous amount of rain through May. It was also apparent mono/tripod day, as it seemed like every other person was carrying a camera with a ludicrously large telephoto lens attached.
Several people told us about an oriole in the area, which would have been hard to miss, as it’s bright yellow, but alas, we did not see it. What we did see were a lot of scruffy wood ducks and mallards.
There was also a Sandhill crane up close and personal right near the entrance, then a Rufous hummingbird at the nearby feeders, so a good start.
Goose drama was nearly absent, save for one brief incident that took place in eerie silence. The lack of honking was pleasant, yet disturbing.
A pair of cranes later made their presence known to everyone in the sanctuary with a very loud call/answer routine. It turned out they were parents-to-be on a small island in the middle of one of the inner ponds. We later encountered the presumed dad on the trail and he seemed skittish, which is not the way cranes usually roll. We also witnessed an idiot literally running after him with her phone out, causing it to move briskly away. Nothing like coming to a bird sanctuary and chasing the birds around. Hopefully, some geese pooped on her car, which would probably cause irreparable damage.
We saw some cedar waxwings this time, but they were far off and up in a tree (imagine!), so our shots were not great. Maybe they will be more forthcoming next time.
One not-exactly-a-highlight was in the canal running alongside the East Dyke, where a bunch of unidentified fish, or possibly small sea monsters, were thrashing about all over. Several ducks hanging out were suitably disturbed and moved away from them. I have never seen this sort of display before, and the fish were doing this in probably a half dozen separate spots, if not more. Maybe there was something in the water.
Overall, it was rather quiet, save for the crazy fish and cranes, but we did get treated to yet more marsh wrens showing themselves and singing. The swallows were also all over the place, being shiny and zippy. I tried a few action shots, then decided it was better to just imagine the great shots that existed in my vivid imagination instead. Nic got some very nice swallow shots, though.
Shirley’s Walk
View of the marshland along Shirley’s Walk.
This is a trail in Delta that skirts the marshland and is about 1 km long. It had some nice view, nice benches, two sturdy footbridges, but no birds to be seen.
South Arm Marshes Wildlife Management Area
One of many carved wood figures alongside the trails.
This is a series of trails that go through woods, with a viewing tower at the end of one, and a view looking over the Fraser River toward Deas Island at the end of another. It was pleasant, and the shade was nice, though the abundant tree roots invoked mild PTSD. Has it really been eight years since I caught my foot on a tree root while jogging and came to a stop by having my body skid across the gravel? Yes, it has. A series of odd wood carvings featuring bearded men, owls and…things…also dotted the trails, giving it a unique vibe. Yes, unique, that’s it.
We did not climb the tower, as it was occupied by two other people, one of whom seemed to be delivering an extended monologue to the silent other.
We did see a few birds here, like a song sparrow, some bushtits, and a robin, which I got my usual fuzzy shots of.
And that was it!
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
