Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Mostly sunny, 11°C
The Outing
The morning started with:
- A power outage
- The internet later going down
Followed by:
- A planned day-long lack of water due to repairs in my building
I decided to take my camera and walk it to Piper Spit for a bit of unplanned birding. It helped that the weather was mostly sunny and mild.
I opted to not take my camera out until I got to Piper spit itself, a decision I came to regret when I started to approach the bridge over Eagle Creek (this is near Piper Spit) and heard the unmistakable tapping of a woodpecker. I looked up and spotted it pecking away madly, as they are wont to do. The angle wasn’t ideal, but still, woodpecker! I unpacked my camera, put on the telephoto lens and got…a partial shot of its butt. Not even enough to identify it. Oh well.
To partly compensate, I turned around and there was an adorable bunny sitting behind me.
Early on a weekday morning there are far fewer people on the pier and initially no one had seed, so the waterfowl were mostly going about their business without paying too much attention to the humans. The lake’s water level is still up, so no island and no shorebirds. Most others were accounted for, and I got my first shot of a cowbird this year. Yeehaw, as they say.
A pair of sandhill cranes also showed up and made their way to the pier, walking around me so close I almost couldn’t shoot them with my telephoto lens. They are probably the most chill wild birds I’ve seen.
A couple of buffleheads were hanging out again, but were keeping away from the pier, so I couldn’t get good shots of them. Instead, I decided to take about 50 million shots of the swallows buzzing over the lake surface. Amazingly, I managed to get the swallow in every shot I took. Most of them were blurry, but still! A few actually turned out rather nicely, so it was worth the effort.
I missed getting good shots of a dramatic battle, though, because I just stood there watching with my jaw agape. A pair of geese decided to go at it, each one grabbing onto the other with their bills, then, circling tightly around, daring the other to let go first. Eventually, one did, and it got chased into the water by the other. The victor did the snaky head thing for a bit, then just stood there, looking ready to murder. You can see him post-fracas in the gallery.
The other birds were more in tune with the cranes, pretty relaxed, some snoozing, many poking about for seed. I also saw a pair of wood ducks higher up in a tree than I’ve ever seen them, like they thought they were crows or something. I also saw some crows.
Overall, this was a fine outing, helped by good light that never got overly harsh.
The Shots
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
- Black-capped chickadee
- Brown-headed cowbird
- Dark-eyed junco
- Golden-crowned sparrow
- Red-winged blackbird
- Song sparrow
- Spotted towhee
- Tree swallow
- White-crowned sparrow
- Woodpecker (unidentified)
Waterfowl:
- American coot
- Bufflehead
- Canada goose
- Green-winged teal
- Mallard
- Northern pintail
- Sandhill crane
- Scaup
- Wood duck
Common:
- American crow
- Rock pigeon
- Seagull
Raptors:
- None
Non-birds:
- A bunny!
