Birding, October 26, 2024: Duck drama

Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 16°C

The Outing

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

The view from Piper Spit, looking west, with bonus coot.

It took 26 days before circumstances and weather finally allowed us to go birding again. With the forecast looking a bit iffy, we opted for a repeat of last time.

We arrived at Burnaby Lake and watched a couple of salmon at the top of the fish ladder at Cariboo Dam swimming oh-so-close to the gate into the lake, but not quite making the push through. They looked old and tired.

After that, we arrived at The Stump, where the scary old fungus face is all but gone now. However, there were chickadees all over, a nuthatch (again!) and a Steller’s Jay. A good start. We moved on to Piper Spit. Nic realized then that he only had a tiny bit of charge left in his camera battery, swapped it out for the spare to find the spare was dead. The third battery was fully charged, however! and back at his apartment. So I stayed at Piper Spit and shot birds, while Nic took the roughly 90-minute round trip back to his place to get the fresh battery.

He was duly mocked.

As for Piper spit, no new arrivals, but the teals were more plentiful, as were the pintails. And the was drama all around, with pretty much all species, save for the dowitchers, going mental on each other at one point or another. The mallards seemed especially mad. Maybe this is just how they entertain themselves when it’s not mating season.

The dowitchers could have been closer, but at least they’re still hanging out in the area.

In all, it was fine, with conditions being milder than expected and the light, especially earlier on, being not bad at all.

Tlahutum Regional Park

An example of the pondscape at Tlahutum. I have no idea what the guy was shooting.

We next went to Tlahutum and there’s not much to report. The clouds had thickened, so it was darker and a few drops feel a couple of times. The community gardens were largely impassable due to giant ponds that formed after last wee’s atmospheric river. We hoped for more along the trails, but only saw a few distant wood ducks and even more distant robins and crows. :sadtrombone: Ironically, after the battery drama (not to be confused with the duck drama) earlier, Nic ended up taking no photos at all at Tlahutum.

For me, the best part may have been that I took 489 photos and somehow had not a single issue with my camera. Weird. But nice!

The Shots

Soon™

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

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American robin
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Red-breasted nuthatch
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Steller’s jay

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot
  • Canada goose
  • Green-winged teal
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Northern shoveller
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Assorted gulls
  • Rock pigeon

Raptors:

  • None!

Non-birds:

  • Several very weary-looking salmon
  • A non-living salmon
  • A Douglas squirrel
  • A millipede

Run 895: Stinky river

Brunette River, pre-run. Back to normal levels, looking evermore fall-like.

I started out quite late today because a) I wasn’t really feeling it and b) I wrapped up a treadmill workout last night around 9:30 p.m. and didn’t want to head out for a run only 12 hours or so later.

But I did head out and remembered that I only had to do the “other half” of the 5K I started on Monday. I opted to do this on the river trail to save time.

I felt fine for the first km, and nearly hit the 2K mark at the other end of the trail. I zipped just past the gate, then turned around and wrapped things up. It was in this final 500 m or so that I began experiencing some mild cramping in my lower abdomen, but I felt something similar before getting up this morning, so I think it was not directly related to the running.

As for the running part, it went well! I finished with a very zippy pace of 5:31/km, a full 11 seconds improvement over Monday, so I am clearly improving in my recovery from the cold or whatever it is I had. I never pushed too hard, but I did try to maintain pace. My BPM was also lower than Monday, as befits the river trail, at 148, so that was nice to see, as well.

I wore my heavier long-sleeved MEC t-shirt, which proved to be more than needed. I think the lighter Nike shirt would have been fine, or even a short-sleeved shirt, as it was warmer than expected, and not windy.

Overall, though, a nice wrap-up for the week.

Oh, and the stinky river was due (I believe) to the increasing number of dead trout and salmon that have tried, but failed, to make it up to Burnaby Lake to spawn. I noticed several fishy corpses in the water, and there’s probably more along the shore I couldn’t see.

Trees no longer in the water.

Stats:

Run 895
Average pace: 5:31/km
Training status: Maintaining
Location: Brunette River Trail
Start: 3:01 p.m.
Distance: 2.50 km
Time: 13:49
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 13°C
Humidity: 70%
Wind: light
BPM: 148
Weight: 167.1
Total distance to date: 6,330 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (115/224/339)

Treadmill workout: Mid-evening penance

Come 9 p.m. and I only had about 8,000 steps on the day. Inadequate! And I had just gotten another monthly badge for getting at least 10,000 steps per day. I could not break my streak and live in internal shame.

So I got on the treadmill and did a workout just like the last one, except for two things:

  • I did 3K, rather than 4K
  • I ramped up to 7.0 speed much faster

As a result, I burned nearly as many calories as the previous longer workout, got about 4,000 more steps and had a much higher overall BPM at 138, which is similar to a slow jog (which is kind of what this was, in a way).

The weather was fine, as it always is on the treadmill, so not much else to report. The shuffled music seemed to lean into a mix of R.E.M. and TMBG, which was fine by me.

And now I shower and sleep. But not at the same time.

Stats:

Speed: 6.5-7.0
Incline: 1

Pace: 8:45/km (8:47/km)
Time: 26:25 (35:17)
Distance: 3.02 km (4.02 km)
Calories burned: 299 (323)
BPM: 138 (121)

Atmospheric river + actual river = River++

This past weekend, October 19 and 20th, an atmospheric river passed through the area, bringing a whole lotta rain and the attendant issues that accompany a whole lotta rain, like flooding and such.

Over both days I went through Lower Hume Park and the Central Valley Greenway that follows the trail next to the Brunette River, getting shots of local flooding and water, water everywhere.

I’ve collected the most interesting shots below.

For the record, I prefer my rain light.

Run 894: Post-storm, post-cold, post-tree

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run. Calm and cool.

Stuff happens and suddenly it’s been 12 days since I last ran.

Just hours after posting my best pace in two years, I felt a scratchiness in my throat and then got a full-blown cold, with all attendant symptoms. I pondered running this past Friday but decided I wasn’t ready.

Today, I was, but not quite fully ready. I opted to do a mini-run of 2.5 km to get back into it and it went well, but I can feel my lungs are still not back to 100%. I think I could have done 5 km, but didn’t want to push it and feel miserable after. My pace was 5:42/km, which is pretty decent after such a long layoff and not yet fully recovered.

Conditions were decent, with clouds and a few bits of blue sky poking out here and there. There was little wind, which helped, with the temperature being down to only 10C when I started. I wore a long-sleeved shirt and two layers, more concerned about not getting cold than I was being overdressed. I may have been fine with the long-sleeved shirt, but I was definitely not too warm.

Signs of the storm that swept through the last two days were everywhere, with twigs and other tree bits scattered all over the trail, some almost too big to move by hand (but which were not directly in the way). One exception came when I approached the intersection of the main trail and then turnoff to the Piper Mill Trail. A barricade was in place closing off the main trail due to “hazard tree”. Presumably, “hazard tree” being down and not yet cut up and moved out of the way.

TRAIL HAZARD CLOSED TREE

I am pretty sure I know which tree came down and if I’m right, it was a huge old tree that has been leaning over the trail at a 45-degree angle for many years. Every time I’ve walked under it, I’ve always thought it was one big storm away from coming down.

I’ll probably be able to confirm in the next few days.

Overall, though, the run went decently, particularly with so many days off. I’ll do the other 2.5 km next time, then go back to my regular routine. Here’s hoping I catch a few more breaks in the weather.

View from Piper Spit, post-run. Light and dark, with ducks.

Stats:

Run 894
Average pace: 5:42/km
Training status: Strained1
Location: Burnaby Lake
Start: 10:50 a.m.
Distance: 2.50 km
Time: 14:17
Weather: Cloudy
Temp: 10-11°C
Humidity: 89%
Wind: light
BPM: 151
Weight: 166.5
Total distance to date: 6,327.5 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Music, iPhone 12, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: HOKA Speedgoat 6 (112.5/220/332.5)

Posthaven: Initial thoughts

I decided to give Posthaven a shot. You can view my extensive archive of (as of this writing) one post here: https://stanwjames.posthaven.com/

As a WordPress alternative, it strips blogging down to its basics. Is this good? Is this bad? Let’s make a list (or two)!

The Good

  • It’s very easy to use. I was able to jump in and have things set up in a few minutes.
  • It’s affordable! At $5 U.S. per month, it gives you up to 10 blogs (!) and as far as I can tell, you can only pay $5 per month, which means no year-long commitments. Want out after the first $5? Easy-peasy!
  • It has a few nice themes to get you started.
  • Editing posts is simple.
  • Adding images is easy, and it automatically lets you click to expand on them. Other embeds (YouTube, etc.) are also straightforward.
  • It has tags. I like tags. Maybe too much.
  • People can easily upvote, comment or subscribe to your blogs.
  • An RSS feed is available.

The Not So Good

  • A large part of the ease of use is found through its limited options. You get some basic formatting options, and that’s about it.
  • It only has five themes. If you want to create new ones, you can, but have to dive into HTML and CSS.
  • It has no spelling checker, and LanguageTool does not seem to work in its text editor. This led me to editing my one post about seven times as I kept finding typos. I make a lot of typos.
  • Images are not displayed in any kind of WYSIWYG way and they are sized based on the theme.
  • Its feature request page only has two features as “planned”: more themes and markdown support.

The site describes itself as a work in progress, so I don’t ding it too much for being a bit barebones. The UI is simple, but very easy to use, and it’s one of the few blogging platforms I’ve been able to jump into and get posts out of that both look good and are easy to write/edit.

Still, I’m not ready to go all-in. I must continue to experiment before leaving WordPress behind.

There’s something in the air

Specifically, an atmospheric river. It seems like just a few short years ago I’d never heard the term, now it pops up every fall. I live in a region known as temperate rainforest. Rain is right in the description, so rain is not unexpected.

But rivers of rain? In the sky? That come down to be with the land I walk upon?

I do not like this.

But until U.S. Democrats can perfect their weather machines (topical joke), there’s not much I can do but put on my big boy booties, jacket and suck it up. Well, not literally suck it up. That would be a lot of water. And it would probably taste funny, too.

Here are cats in the rain:

Experimental squirrel

This is a shot of a Douglas squirrel I took on September 30, 2204. I used the online photo editor Photopea to crop, brighten and sharpen the image. I exported it as a JPG file at 100% quality. Let’s see how it looks!

Treadmill workout: Treadmill workout!

It’s been a while, but the weather is gross today (raining, around 9C) and I’m not 100% recovered, so I figured I’d do a nice ol’ walk on the treadmill. And I did!

I did 4 km and started at a speed of 6.5, but ramped up to 7.0 by the end, as I felt I was getting ahead of the machine. I even thought about ramping up to running speed. Maybe next time.

My training status is still Strained due to lack of proper sleep, which is affecting my HRV status (as has the last week of non-exercise). These things should right themselves soon™.

Stats:

Speed: 6.5-7.0
Incline: 1

Pace: 8:47/km (8:14/km)
Time: 35:17 (33:09)
Distance: 4.02 km (4.03 km)
Calories burned: 323 (387)
BPM: 121 (142)

Why is there a bear in Hume Park?

I do not know, but these signs went up yesterday.

Also, this seems weirdly specific, like there’s one particular bear visiting.

Note: Hume Park is not really that big. It also has a giant Amazon warehouse nearby, as well as laser tag place. This bear has options.

The forest area is along a ravine, not very handy, even for a bear.