There are three seasons in fall, and this first one is the best because you get to see things like this:
Photography
Photos I’ve taken of scenery, interesting objects and other things.
Birding, October 4, 2025: Coots canoodling
Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Clouds and sun, 17°C
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
We had an abbreviated day of birding because Nic was occupied with escaping a gay haunted house earlier. I like to think the ghost of Paul Lynde was constantly sassing the people trying to get out.
The later start, combined with fall, meant golden light and plenty of it!
We had barely (bearly?) left the Avalon parking lot before a woman advised us of a mother bear and two cubs near the equestrian area, which is…right next to the parking lot. Fortunately, we were heading the other way and our visit remained bear-free.
At the dam, we observed a heron that was acting a bit odd, exchanging its usual statue-like state for twisting its head and looking up, as if beseeching the sky to rain little fishies on it, or something.
Along the trail, we saw some towhees and song sparrows, and as a special bonus, some ruby-crowned kinglets. I got several terrible shots, but if you’re a bird expert, you might be able to ID them as ruby-crowned kinglets.
Alas, we did not see any new migrants at Piper spit, but the coot population has grown. We saw coot conflict, coot love and coots just being coots. A lone Northern shoveller and hooded merganser were in attendance, and the dowitchers actually came closer, which was nice of them. We saw a kingfisher as it was flying (way) off, and Nic has several blurry photos to prove it! The mallards have now mostly caught up to the wood ducks, looking shiny and iridescent again.
Despite a lot of shadow and only intermittent sun, it was a pleasant return to the lake.
Tlahutum Regional Park
Golden hour was seriously kicking in by the time we left Tlahutum, only about 15 minutes before sunset. We saw some gadwalls, mallard, crows and a very golden golden-crowned sparrow sitting by itself in a lone tree. I spotted a rare sight–a Northern harrier in plain view, sitting on a post by a canal. Just as I started to focus on what would have been a very spiffy shot, it took off, but I did get a few decent shots of it in low flight.
The main pond is showing distinct signs of fall, with the lily pads in full retreat. The ducks there still tend to gather at the far side, though.
As we left, we wrapped up with our first sunset-adjacent shots of the year, which will be increasingly easier to do over the next few months. Hooray for short days1Note: I do not actually like short days.
Our next birding may be back at Reifel, where we will hopefully see some of these so-far shy migrants. If not, I’ll write a stern letter to The Birb Migratory Committee to complain.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
A few shots:
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- Black-capped chickadee
- Red-winged blackbird
- Ruby-crowned kinglet
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
- Golden-crowned sparrow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- American coot
- Belted kingfisher
- Canada goose
- Gadwall
- Great blue heron
- Green-winged teal
- Hooded merganser
- Long-billed dowitcher
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- Northern shoveller
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Rock pigeon
Raptors:
- Bald eagle
- Northern harrier
Non-birds:
- A few pollinators
- A whole bunch of caterpillars
Early October clouds
Ominous!
The weather has been pretty typical of early October so far, though. Summer was also surprisingly normal, not too hot or humid. I do wonder if we’re being set up for an extended period of The Rains or lots of snow (boo, hiss). For now, though…it’s fine!
Birding, September 27, 2025: Pretty boys
Where: Blackie Spit/Crescent Beach (Surrey), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Clouds and sun, 18°C
Blackie Spit/Crescent Beach
We have had issues with parking at Blackie Spit before, but figured with the weather looking rather gray, that would not be a problem today. We were wrong! But it wasn’t just the regular crowd, there was a rowing event and the boats were hogging up a chunk of the main parking lot and the entire secondary lot, so we ended up parking near the Sunflower Café, just like the last time we had problems finding parking here.
This turned out to be a good thing, as it led us to discovering a lifer! Blackie Spit itself did not yield many birds, though we did see some juncos, chickadees and a house cat strolling the beach like it owned the place.
We also thought we saw the first massive flock of snow geese for the season. Nic gave a man and his kid a rundown on them. They were quite far off, but even across the bay we could hear them. When we looked at our photos later, we discovered they were actually Canada geese, just in super large numbers. Whoops!
The star, though, was as we were leaving, through a different-than-usual route. We heard some very loud chattering that Nic first thought was a squirrel, because they can sound weirdly bird-like when they want to. But no, this was an actual bird, blue and white, and with a jay vibe happening. Merlin confirmed it was a California scrub-jay. It was very pretty, as well as loud, and posed a fair bit before flying off. Technically it was north of its usual range, though we later found they have been seen before in the Lower Mainland and some parts north. Neat!
As an added bonus, the weather was much better than expected, with some sun and mild temperatures.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
We did not see any new arrivals at Piper spit and by the time we got there, the sky had clouded over again and while the reported temperature was 18C, it did not feel like 18C.
Still, we did see multiple coots, a pair of wood ducks with the male doting on the female, a pile of snoozing dowitchers (a little too far off, boo), a twisty heron, and a bush packed full of blackbirds. The butterfly garden is pretty much done for the season, so no pollinators there. The male mallards are looking shiny again.
And only one family was feeding the birds this time, which is actually an improvement.
In all, not bad for the first birding of the fall. The lifer–and the excellent shots we got of it–made it totes worthwhile.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
A few shots:
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- Black-capped chickadee
- California scrub-jay (lifer!)
- Dark-eyed junco
- Red-winged blackbird
- Song sparrow
- White-crowned sparrow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- American coot (Three!)
- Canada goose (one billion)
- Great blue heron
- Green-winged teal
- Long-billed dowitcher
- Mallard
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Rock pigeon
- Ring-billed gull
Raptors:
- None
Non-birds:
- A ton (probably several) of sea lions (!)
- A hover fly
- Several squirrels
- A sassy house cat
Some black and white stairs
At Hume Park, shot a few days ago, then processed (up in the hizzy) using Pix on Linux Mint.
I’ll get around to actually writing posts again soon™.
Fall shmall
Taken this afternoon. It was sunny (as you can see) and got up to 24C, like it was still summer!
(If the forecast is accurate, this may change soon, but I’ll hang onto it for now.)
I would have shot the view to the east as well, but there was a guy sunbathing on a chaise on the river’s exposed gravel.
The last day of summer 2025, in portrait
It was 20C and sunny, so I went out and touched trees.
A few photos from Sapperton Landing, September 16, 2025
Also, it was weirdly hot for the middle of September, getting up to 28 or 29C today and feeling like 30C or higher. There was a pleasant breeze down at Sapperton Landing, so it actually didn’t feel too bad there.
I was going to take some scenery shots with my camera, but I brilliantly left both of my SD cards on my computer desk, so a couple of phone photos will suffice now1.
- Speaking of my phone, with the recent introduction of the iPhone 17 series, I am now officially five generations behind. Take that, Tim Apple, you would-be-dictator appeaser! ↩︎
Birding, September 13, 2025: Real gardens and fake herons
Where: Van Dusen Botanical Gardens, Deering Island Park (Vancouver), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Clouds in morning, clearing in afternoon, 17-24°C
Van Dusen Botanical Gardens
It was cloudy in the morning, so light was sometimes tricksy, especially in the more woody areas, but the Van Dusen Botanical Gardens provided a nice change of pace. There were many exotic plants and birds and rocks and things. There was a waterfall that looked nice and was being sketched/painted by multiple people. You could even climb to the top of it, where the illusion was shattered by a very conspicuous pipe feeding the water to the falls. Oh well.
Birds were not as plentiful, but I did get a good workout on using manual focus on several spiders hanging around (a theme that would prevail throughout the day). We did see some chickadees, flickers and a few others, so it was not a total bust or anything.
We also saw busts–of historical botanists!
Nic defied the odds and managed to find our way out of the hedge maze before the maniac with an axe could get us (seasonal, winter-only). We went to the Heron Pond, but it only had two fake herons. We did not see any real ones the entire day, a sharp contrast to All Herons All The Time last week.
Overall, it was enjoyable to finally check out the place (I’ve lived in the Lower Mainland since 1986 and have never been), even if the birb count was low.
Deering Island Park
After shooting all the spiders, Nic suggested we check out a quaint little place called Deering Island Park. It looks like this in Apple Maps:
Technically we saw a bird or birds, but it was mostly more spiders. But by this time, the sky was clearing up and that meant two things: Better light for when we saw (hopefully) saw birds and sunburn, because neither of us wore sunblock.
The area is a curious mix of horse stables and swanky homes. The sign for the non-official trail near the actual park basically said, “We rich folks will let you, the poors, use this short trail, but don’t do anything funny or unseemly while here because we are just barely tolerating your presence as it is.”
If you keep going past the end of the trail, there is an even more unofficial one that connects to what seems to be a service road to the nearby golf course. In Kerrisdale, there is always a nearby golf course.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
We ended our afternoon at Piper Spit, where we saw actual birds in multiples! Seasonal migrants are still a bit slow to arrive (The weather? Alignment of the planets?) and in some cases we only saw a single representative of a particular species, like what was probably the same coot we saw last time. There was also a single blackbird.
But the lack of new migrants was offset by oodles of dowitchers, who were even closer than normal to the pier, thanks to the ever-more shallow water and a landmass that is now the size of a small town. There were even a few killdeer splashing about. Neat!
In all, it was a pleasant wrap-up to a summer of birding. We’ll see how many more migrants fly in over the next few weeks.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
A few shots:
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- Anna’s hummingbird
- Bewick’s wren
- Black-capped chickadee
- House sparrow
- Northern flicker
- Red-winged blackbird
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- American coot (One! Again!)
- Blue-winged teal
- Canada goose
- Great blue heron (but fake)
- Green-winged teal
- Hooded merganser
- Killdeer
- Long-billed dowitcher
- Mallard
- Northern shoveller
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Rock pigeon
- Some gulls (?)
Raptors:
- None
Non-birds:
- Assorted pollinators
- One black squirrel
- A lot of spiders
A cute jumping spider in the kitchen sink
Exactly what the title says. After taking its picture, the spider disappeared…somewhere.
Two round objects, September 11, 2025
One natural:
One not natural:
Some local photos, September 9, 2025
What the title says.
