birds

Centennial Beach, March 4, 2023

A few shots from Centennial Beach taken today. It was super windy and started to rain not long after we arrived, so we bailed early. But I shot a few birds before we bailed.

Golden-crowned sparrow thinking about seeds.
Common goldeneye. Not to be confused with the Bond movie.
Mallard mulling.
A pair of goldeneyes. Or two pairs of golden eyes.

Reifel Bird Sanctuary and Iona Beach, Feb.11, 2023

The day was gray, and the sun only poked out a few times, but it was nice as always to get out among the birds. While the light was not always great, the birds often gave good pose to make up for it.

Here are a few of the photos I took.

Goose pondering, plus bonus goose pondering
The stare of a spotted towhee burning through your soul
Bald eagle hanging out atop a favourite tree
A song sparrow seriously questioning what I’m doing
A black-capped chickadee with the weirdest expression I’ve ever seen on one
An American coot having a nice stretch

And for now, I leave you with two blackbird photos, each weird in its own way.

The motion blur on this one gives the blackbird a spooky, spectral quality
This is what a blackbird looks like head-on when it’s screeching. Terrifying.

Golf ball drama at Piper Spit

I went solo today for birding and managed an hour or so at Piper Spit, getting home just as the rain started. Timing!

Here are a few shots, including some action involving a fluorescent golf ball, some crows and seagulls.

This mallard declared himself King Duck, briefly.
The wind floofing a coot.
Two participants in the golf ball drama.
Pardon the blurriness. The golf ball drama.

A Bewick’s wren and other birbs

Yesterday at Burnaby Lake I managed to get some photos of a Bewick’s wren, which I’d never seen before. Spiffy! Plus chickadees and other assorted birds. Here are a few shots.

Bewick’s wren. Totally adorable.
Chickadee. Perfectly adorable.
Canada goose. Somewhat adorable when young, or not hissing at you.
Seagull, definitely not being adorable.
Coot adorably demonstrating water physics.
Lesser scaup adorably caught mid-preen.
Long-billed dowitcher, adorable in the shallows.

Soggy sojourn at Piper Spit, January 2023

A few images from a brief visit to Burnaby Lake on Saturday, January 7th. Brief mainly because it was pouring rain the entire time, but we were determined to get in some birding, dang it.

Off a mallard’s back
Coot contemplating
Lesser Scaup. This may be the only light where the light feathers don’t get blown out in my photos.
Soggy puffball spotted towhee
Extreme Northern pintail grooming

Starting the new year at Piper Spit (Jan 1, 2023)

Squirrel forgetting how to be a squirrel.
Ready for his close-up.
Coots are weird, even when they groom.

A few photos from my afternoon trek to Piper Spit. It was a pleasant day and a stat holiday, so it was kind of packed. But that was okay. Really!

Heron thinking deep thoughts.
Gull passing by the pier.
Feeding frenzy.

An eagle that won’t sue you

A bald eagle, that is, not Don “Grouchy Grandpa with 60 lawyers watching YouTube like the Eye of Sauron” Henley. Taken at Alaksen National Wildlife Area (next to Reifel Bird Sanctuary):

And a few more…

A robin, shot in terrible light, saved in post!

Herons brooding together in the marshland.

Spotted sandpiper

When I got my Canon EOS M50 camera in January 2021, the first place I took it to take bird pictures was Maplewood Flats. Unfortunately, it was a gray, misty day, so I didn’t get a lot of great shots. I did get a photo of a spotted sandpiper, but it wasn’t very close. That photo serves as the basis for this bird drawing. I re-interpreted the log to something more stylized because why not?

Maplewood Flats and Colony Farm birdapalooza, November 19, 2022

Another weirdly sunny and wind-free mid-November day for us to shoot birds with our cameras. Both places were teeming with songbirds looking for late season berries and seeds. Maplewood also had a lot of waterfowl along the shoreline.

Spotted sandpiper at the river, Maplwood Flats.
Chickadee, Maplewood Flats.
Killdeer on the seashore, Maplewood Flats.
A rare Cedar waxwing sighting, Maplewood Flats.
Robin in the golden hour, Colony Farm.