Specifically, last night I found I could sleep OK if I laid on my back, with the covers pulled away from my chest, like if I was an Egyptian mummy, except not ancient, mummified and in a sarcophagus. On my side was still uncomfortable. The covers on my chest were uncomfortable. But on my back, like a mummy, was OK.
While my energy and general wellness continue to improve, sleep has been, by far, the most vexing part of my recovery. I don’t know if this is typical, abnormal or somewhere in-between. I suspect it’s pretty normal. After 22 days it’s also now pretty annoying.
At least in a few more days I should be able to roll onto the side that got cut up without risk of opening anything up.
I make this sound kind of terrible, but it’s not, it’s just what it is. I think writing about it helps me to manage the bother. Also knowing the surgery may have staved off something much worse down the line helps, too!
In the meantime, I took a walk to Sapperton Landing today to get some exercise in. I’m up to 103 intensity minutes for the week, woo. Next week I could theoretically hit the minimum, 150.
The weather was quite nice. Here are a few shots I took on my Galaxy S26.
Looking east across the Fraser River, Port Mann Bridge in the background.A plaque-free stone, plus an old boat with baby boats on the river behind it.A fish mosaic embedded in the ground, by J. McConnell.Enjoy the view while also feeling important.
And an internet pal has informed me that in Portugal this means I have money coming my way. I kind of doubt that, but would welcome it!
The spider is hanging just above the soap tray. We’re leaving it be for now, since it’s not in the way or anything. I do wonder what sort of meals it gets from the tub, though.
Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam) Weather: Cloudy with some sun, 15-16°C
This was my first birding since the surgery and it went fine. The only thing I noticed is getting a tiny bit tired holding the camera up for an extended period of time. But that can also happen without surgery.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Looking west, with a Wood Duck photobombing the shot.
We were a bit boxed in by weather (showers in the morning) and fabulousness (Nic had to help with a VMC show in the early evening) so we dropped our initial plan to check the heron rookery in Port Moody and went with the Piper Spit/Tlahutum split.
We didn’t see anyone feeding birds at Piper Spit–in fact, there were few people there, likely because of the earlier showers–but the ground and pier were absolutely festooned with seed. Perhaps the Bird Police had been occupied eating artisanal organic donuts.
The recent showers meant the water level was quite a bit higher, with the island completely submerged and no chance of shorebirds. Initially, it was mostly just Goosetown, with geese arrayed across where the island would normally be. The geese were disturbingly well-behaved, perhaps because their dominance was unchallenged.
Some other waterfowl did show up, and the wood ducks and mallards are both starting to look quite scruffy, now that spring fever/mating/babby-making is largely over. I did not observe any migrant waterfowl, it’s just the locals for now.
One blackbird was acting weird, fanning its wings in a show of…something. Most of the other birbs were indulging in the plentiful seed.
We did not stay too long, because there really wasn’t much activity.
Tlahutum Regional Park
For a change of pace, the creek adjacent to the Coquitlam River.
We started at the community garden, wary of the showers creating mini-lakes here, but it was fine and we saw collections of cowbirds, swallows posing, robins acting rascally and what appears to be a Willow Flycatcher, which I’ll have to check if it’s a lifer or not (I can never keep my flycatchers straight). As usual, I kept my eye out for kitschy decorations in the plots.
The trails netted us a pair of Eastern Kingbirds and a guy claimed to see a seal in the river, though maybe it was an otter, which would make more sense. A lot of pigeons were flying overhead–in both directions. No idea what was going on there.
Bonus shot: The mostly empty big pond, with patchy blue sky overhead.
The big pond had a few ducks and a number of swallows darting overhead, but it seemed quieter than usual, a recurring theme through the afternoon. Still, by this time the weather was pretty decent, it was pleasantly mild, and it was one of the first “normal” activities I’ve engaged in since the surgery, so overall, a perfectly cromulent bit of birding.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto. Some scenery captured on a Samsung Galaxy S26.
Zen goose.
Canada Goose contemplating drama.
Male Brown-headed Cowbird, up close.
Fluffed out female Cowbird looking for seed.
Female Red-winged Blackbird vamping or…something.
A scruffy-looking male Wood Duck, losing his breeding plumage.
A male Wood Duck with mullet intact.
Female Wood Duck cruising along.
Female Wood Duck, posing.
Song Sparrow preparing to belt it out.
Song Sparrow belting it out.
A different Song Sparrow doing its thing.
Coquitlam River running high.
A ruffled crow atop a bench at Tlahutum Regional Park.
A fly on a daisy.
A ladybug checking things out.
Big-eyed fly of some kind.
Eastern Kingbird perched.
On the same tree, another Eastern Kingbird, with a freshly-caught bumblebee.
It’s cloudy today, but a few days ago I went for my first “real”1 post-surgery walk and touched trees and such along the Brunette River. Here are a few shots, taken on my Samsung Galaxy S26.
I have again used the cheesy Polaroid theme from FooGallery because I like cheese.
River shore
Looking east
Looking west
View from the trail
I’m not sure why I put “real” in quotes. I was definitely, actually walking. Maybe because I was less than 2 km from home. ↩︎
Where: Brydon Lagoon, Blackie Spit (Surrey), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) Weather: Cloudy with some sun, 11-16°C
Unlike recent outings, the weather was unseasonably cool today. I still wore shorts.
Brydon Lagoon
Brydon Lagoon, under a brooding sky.
The last time we were at Brydon, we saw a bounty of birds or BOB. Today, the bounty mostly came in the form of every kind of swallow, gulls and Mallards. Except for a few Ring-necked Ducks still noodling around, the winter migrants are gone. We are cootless again.
The wind was quite brisk and it started out only around 11C. This may not sound cold, but we’ve had summer-like weather just long enough to get used to it.
That same wind provided a benefit in trying to shoot swallows, though, as they slowed noticeably when pushing against the wind. Nic took about a billion shots, adjusted his camera’s settings and regularly cleaned stuff from the sensor, which is apparently cursed by black magic to always mysteriously attract stuff to it. But this all paid off, as he got several very spiffy shots.
I only tried a few times, my camera mostly refused to lock on, but I did grab a few where you could look at the photos and say, “That’s a swallow.”
The highlight here, though, was the normally unassuming Song sparrow, as a young and fuzzy one was sitting in a bush, demanding to be fed, and a parent was obliging, stuffing seed and whatnot down its gullet. We both got very nice shots of the feedings. Once sated, it flew off.
As did we. Well, we didn’t fly, we had to drive.
Blackie Spit
Another Xtreme low tide at Blackie Spit.
Here I added a light hoodie to my other light hoodie, as Blackie Spit is on the ocean and even though there was another extreme low tide, the wind was still kicking up high enough to threaten sweeping the cap off my head.
We saw an Anna’s Hummingbird sitting atop a small tree, looking even more like it was ready to kill than usual, but it was likely just leaning forward into the wind to avoid being blown off the tree.
Blackbirds were out and about, some festooned with crumbs and seed all over their bills, as is their way. And we saw our first ducklings, though they were in the south creek, which is mostly obscured by bushes. Nic got one so-so shot, I did not get any, sadly. The ducks seem to be lagging behind the geese in making babbies. This does not bode well in saving us from goose domination.
Although I didn’t get shots, Nic managed to capture some Hudsonian Whimbrels, which are shorebirds with long bills that hook down. Maybe we’ll see them again when the tide is not a kilometre away.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Sun and clouds, with a grooming Sandhill Crane.
This was our first visit with the Nature House open for the season. We did not go in, but I took a photo of the sign. We observed no Bird Police on the pier, but also didn’t see anyone feeding the birds. There was a pile of seed on the ground, though. To be fair, it looked like healthy seed, not like half a loaf of stale Wonder Bread.
It was still windy as all heck, but had finally warmed up to 16C. With winter migrants gone, I focused mainly on cowbirds, wood ducks and the Sandhill Crane, which was back and very into grooming itself.
There was word of a Red-necked Phalarope at Piper Spit and lo, there she was! We got plenty of photos, but the phalarope stayed conspicuously away from the pier, so they were not great. The phalarope did not drive a monster truck or shout “Yeehaw.”
The one goose nest near the pier now looks empty and we did see a group of rapidly growing goslings by Eagle Creek, with a protective parent going ape on every other bird in the vicinity. The other birds seemed nonplussed.
Nic also took another billion shots of swallows. I took a few. I’ll be more motivated when it’s warmer (and harder to shoot them).
In all, a decent outing, with the weather actually being a tad better than expected.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto. Some scenery captured on a Samsung Galaxy S26.
NOTE: Normally I present the photos in the same order as they were taken, but for this gallery I opted to end with the young Song Sparrow sequence because it’s adorable.
House sparrow at Brydon Lagoon.
Female wood duck at Brydon Lagoon.
Northern Flicker atop a pump station at Blackie Spit.
Anna's Hummingbird showing off his gorget at Blackie Spit.
Anna's Hummingbird, looking sassy.
A female cowbird standing on a block of wood at Piper Spit.
Sandhill Crane getting down.
The classic Sandhill Crane profile shot.
A male Mallard having a bath.
The mallard, clearly pleased with the results.
A gosling in the bright sun at Piper Spit.
An older gosling with a parent freaking out behind it at Piper Spit.
Male Wood Duck on alert.
A pigeon strutting its stuff on the pier.
Rock Pigeon up close. Coo coo.
A rare Red-Necked Phalarope at Piper Spit. It kept its distance from the pier.
Cityscape looming in the background at Burnaby Lake.
A Northern Rough-winged Swallow taking a break at Brydon Lagoon.
A young Song Sparrow demanding to be fed.
The parent arrives to feed the kid.
Down the hatch.
The young Song sparrow grumpily awaiting moar food.
Delivered straight to your beak.
The parent and kid hanging out briefly, post-feeding,
Where: Rocky Point Park (Port Moody), DeBoville Slough (Port Coquitlam) Weather: Mostly sunny, 21°C
Today the weather was more seasonal, but still a bit warmer than normal. It was warm enough for a lot of birds to go bathing, however.
Rocky Point Park (and environs)
Looking west across the inlet.
Our first stop was the heron rookery just past Old Orchard Park. We did see plenty of nests and plenty of adult herons, variously grooming, snoozing and staring out, but no baby dinosaurs were visible–yet. We may have to return in a few weeks. Or rent a drone or something. Or a Great Blue Heron costume, along with tree-climbing skills, the latter of which I’m fairly certain you can’t rent.
Bottom line: no baby herons on this trip.
We headed along the trail to Rocky Point Park and along the way spotted a number of Killdeer and out and about and bobbing, along with a flock of seagulls enjoying the cool of the water flowing in from nearby creeks, as well as a murder or two of crows doing the same. The crows would carefully (and sometimes trippingly) make their way to a shallow spot in the water suitable for bathing, then energetically splash about before hopping out to let the next one in. Very civilized. The gulls, being swimmers, were just bathing wherever, or snoozing in the shallows while cooling their butts.
We also saw a number of herons variously stalking, flying or creeping under the pier and disappearing. A bird condo out in the water had what appeared to be at least one Purple Martin couple shacking up.
And as always, the lower number of birds is compensated for in part by some pretty nice scenery.
DeBoville Slough
The DeBoville Slough, sloughing along.
The last time we were at the DeBoville Slough, we were shooting icy fronds. Today I wore sunblock. Apparently there was enough sun to scare off most of the birds, as we saw even fewer than normal, but we did see a peppy spider and a bee both working their way along the trail (unsure why the bee wasn’t, you know, flying). There were also geese honking here and there and the mountains and the slough providing scenic views, but the piling that previously had an osprey nest is nest-free this spring, boo.
Sadly, there wasn’t much activity here, so I can’t really elaborate more. Pretend there are a few paragraphs below detailing birds of paradise or something.
But despite the relative lack of birds, it was still a perfectly pleasant outing.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
Heron in a nest
Ship off of Rocky Point, Port Moody.
A crow ponders bathing.
A crow taking a bath.
Rinse cycle engaged.
Profile shot of a seagull in flight.
Seagull sipping from a freshwater puddle.
A Mallard taking a drink.
Walk like an Egyptian, Killdeer edition.
A killdeer acquiring something.
A killdeer stepping through a small stream on the mudflats.
Still strolling.
A killdeer doing...I'm not sure what. Bowing? Stretching? Passing gas?
I love the graphic on this sign.
You can practically feel the futility of this guy trying to pull his leg out of the quicksand-like mud.
Where: Piper Spit/Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam) Weather: Sunny, 28°C
The weather today was more like what you would expect in about two months, when it’s, you know, summer. Crazy climate change. But this time II wore sunblock and even reapplied it!
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Clear skies, no birds. Well, a few birds.
It was a shorter and simpler day of birding, which was just as well, because it seemed the unusually warm temperatures were keeping a lot of birds tucked out of view, no doubt in cooler places.
But it started with adorable goslings, still fuzzy and not yet ready to hiss or honk. I even caught one in an adorable, fuzzy little yawn.
After the geese and a robin, we did not see many other birbs on the way to Piper Spit, but we did come across one fuzzy caterpillar.
At the pier, it was strangely quiet, with few people around. We speculated that all the naughty bird feeders were in church confessing their sins. And also, we didn’t even see anyone feeding them today, though there were a few piles of seed scattered around (and few takers).
Despite low water levels, no shorebirds were around, boo. Well, unless you count seagulls, in which case there were two.
With the relative lack of birds, we focused on some of the regulars, like the ever-fabulous wood ducks and teals. Some geese were nesting, while others were watching over their broods. No baby ducks yet, but soon™.
Before we left, a very orange Sandhill Crane flew in to pose and preen. They are quite good at both.
The butterfly garden yielded no butterflies, but it did contain one garden, just as the signs promised.
We took advantage of the water fountain to hydrate, then headed back to the car for the next and final stop of the day.
Tlahutum Regional Park
Classic shot of Coquitlam River, looking a bit low today.
Tlahutum proved to be teal-rich. On the way in, we saw a Cinnamon Teal in one of the creeks, but the shrubbery proved our nemesis, and we were unable to get shots before it went…elsewhere.
The main pond had a pair of Blue-winged Teals, with their fancy diagonal white racing stripes, but they were both fairly distant and were so busy dunking their heads most of my shots make them appear headless.
Tree swallows were abundant in the community garden, and we heard yet again the taunting calls of Yellowthroats, who proved even more elusive than Marsh Wrens or Virginia Rails. Well, maybe not more than Virginal Rails. But close!
Among more visible avians were some Brown-headed Cowbirds, more robins, and a few Anna’s Hummingbirds, one of which was sitting on a branch that was bouncing so much from the wind that the hummingbird has motion blue, even though it was sitting still.
The sky yielded both a Red-Tailed Hawk and an Osprey. I got a few decent shots of the Osprey, but the hawk mostly eluded me. I had better luck with an Air Canada jet, and managed to sneak in a Tree Swallow in the same shot by accident.
In all, it was a rather quiet day, but also kind of nice. A breeze at Tlahutum kept the heat from being horrible, which is not a thing I’d expect to say a few days into May, but here we are!
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto. Some scenery shots taken on a Samsung Galaxy S26.
A small gallery of shots:
A goose on a log.
A twitchy squirrel.
Sandhill Crane, resplendent in orange.
A gosling, adorably yawning.
A juvenile Great Blue Heron striking a pose.
Tree Swallow on house.
An Osprey showing off his impressive wingspan. And terrorizing voles.
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
American Goldfinch
American Robin
Anna’s Hummingbird
Brown-headed Cowbird
Common Yellowthroat (heard repeatedly, tauntingly)
Here’s four of them all next to each other in New Westminster, shot a few days ago from a pier on the Fraser River1Not on my ancient Phone 12!.
From front to back:
SkyBridge. This is only used for our SkyTrain ALRT system and opened in 1990.
Pattullo Bridge. 89 years old at the time of death, scary to drive across because of narrow lanes and no centre barrier. Closed permanently in February of this year. It’s now being dismantled.
Rail bridge. For your traditional train needs. It swings!
Bridge, which replaces the Pattullo. It opened in December 2025 but off-ramps and pedestrian access are still being finished, in part because the old bridge is in the way and they had to chop the ends off of it to allow construction of the new bridge to continue. Named by the local Musequem and Kwantlen bands, it means “a place where you can view the river.” (Apologies for the weird-looking name, which is presented as an image. My blog can’t interpret the special characters due to some old database shenanigans I’ve never figured out because I am neither a web developer nor a database expert. I don’t even touch type, for pete’s sake.)
The weather was once again fabulous. I once again got sunburn. I even had my sunblock, I just didn’t put it on. I’ll learn by the next outing, I swear.
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
This is the main pond, reflecting the general absence of birds.
This was my second trip back to Reifel after the Barge and Bridge Incident™, with all trails save the North Dyke Trail now re-opened, though a few are still in pretty rough shape.
Three things stood out this day:
There was a lot of bird drama (here and elsewhere) and it wasn’t just mad geese, though they figured prominently, as always.
Most of the birds were absent, either nesting, hiding or visiting their pocket dimensions due to the unseasonably warm weather, perhaps.
Poop.
Let me start with the poop. We had just entered and had barely made it past the entrance when some birds flew overhead, one depositing a load on both my left and right wrists. I was wearing a long-sleeved light hoodie, so it could have been worse. It could also have been a heron pooping, which would have been much worse. Still, it was an annoying way to start the day and despite being reassured by Nic and Jeff that getting pooped on by a bird is good luck, I was not convinced. I didn’t win the lottery later that evening, so there.
After cleaning up in the washroom, we got to touring the open trails and as mentioned, many of the ponds were strangely bereft of birds Even the sparrows seem to be reduced in numbers. It was odd and a wee bit disappointing.
We saw three Sandhill Cranes, one by itself, the other two (a couple) strolling around together. At one point it seemed one of the pair may have landed on a small island possibly already occupied with a goose nest. And goose. Drama ensued and the other half of the crane couple called out in its weird, loud trilling croak for quite a while after.
The Killdeer family was nowhere to be seen, alas.
The geese were strategically placed all over the sanctuary, asserting their dominance, one even perching itself magnificently on the railing of the platform with the sign that assures you if you are very quiet, you might see a Virginia Rail. Sure, that could happen, if you didn’t have a Canada Goose literally standing there, lording over the area, ready to start blatting out its war cry on a moment’s notice.
At the viewing platform, we saw two wasps doing something. I’ve looked at my photos and I’m still not sure. Were they making out? Was one eating the other? They eventually separated and one flew off, so I guess it was mutual something or other. Still not as strange as dragonflies copulating.
A number of swallows were in a nest-building mood, and were gathering bits of straw, down and other nest-building material. Soon, the babbies, with their giant mouths and endless cries of, “FEED ME! FEEEEEED ME!”
By early afternoon, we completed our circuit and freshly sunburnt, headed off to our next stop: Centennial Beach.
Centennial Beach
Very low tide, with Mt. Baker in the background.
We started at the entrance near to the pump station and saw some herons stalking about, spied some gulls way out with the extremely low tide and got shots of Mt. Baker, which was standing against a bright blue sky.
And there were shorebirds! Specifically, Least and Western Sandpipers. We watched them scamper along the shoreline, take off in brief bursts of flight and repeat until they decided to fly off.
We saw our only shovelers here, what was likely a mated pair, in the small pond near the other entrance to the beach.
And the Raptor Trail delivered, with what turned out to be a fight or exchange between a male and female Northern Harrier. The male had caught a bird and made it an ex-bird. The female showed up, the male dropped it and the female apparently made off with it. I have no idea if this was planned or just one harrier shaking down another.
Back out on the bay, a young Bald Eagle was standing on a distant sandbar and would occasionally fly off to another. At one, he appeared to be noshing on something that turned out to be a large crab. He got the crab to go, and flew off. The eagle, not the crab. Well, the crab flew off too, but was in the talons of the eagle and was an ex-crab at that point.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Look at all the birds that might be here, but aren’t!
Still sunburnt, we went to our last stop: The Piper Spit Bird Hangout and Illegal Seed Sharing Site. Here we saw a lot of Wood Duck drama, for some reason, with males flapping, chasing and flaring out their mullets. Cowbirds and pigeons were both looking unsuccessfully for love and there were shorebirds here, too.
Most of the winter migrants have departed–we saw no Scaups, Buffleheads or Ring-necked Ducks (a single pair of the latter were at Reifel), but we still have coots.
The butterfly garden proved to have no butterflies or fancy spiders this time, but at least we didn’t have to wait for a train to pass before leaving.
In all, a decent day of birding, though I was a bit disappointed by the lack of birds and also the overall quality of my shots. I got some good ones, but there were a lot of misses, too. And I wasn’t even trying to shoot flying swallows.
But at least the weather was again faboo.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto. Some scenery shots taken on a Samsung Galaxy S26.
A few shots, gallery pending:
A Sandhill Crane, sitting on the grass near the Reifel entrance.Watching and waiting…I don’t know what this Wood Duck was reacting to. They were all a bit weird.
Bridge, which replaces the Pattullo. It opened in December 2025 but off-ramps and pedestrian access are still being finished, in part because the old bridge is in the way and they had to chop the ends off of it to allow construction of the new bridge to continue. Named by the local Musequem and Kwantlen bands, it means “a place where you can view the river.” (Apologies for the weird-looking name, which is presented as an image. My blog can’t interpret the special characters due to some old database shenanigans I’ve never figured out because I am neither a web developer nor a database expert. I don’t even touch type, for pete’s sake.)
