Brydon Lagoon

Where: Surrey Bend Regional Park (Surrey), Brydon Lagoon (Langley), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Sunny, 9-10°C

With Reifel still weeks/months/eons away from re-opening, we decided to revisit a few places we hadn’t been to in some time, with some very mixed results.

The weather was consistently sunny and mild all day, which was a nice way to wrap up February.

Surrey Bend Regional Park

A lone piling on the Fraser River (it’s watery!)

I remembered this place having nice views of the river, but not a lot of birds, at least not the kind willing to show themselves.

Both memories were accurate. We heard and fleetingly saw a few birds, but I did not catch any photos of them. The river scenery was indeed nice, but I think this particular park is best left to the dog walkers and families enjoying barbecues in the picnic area, as the birding is rather…minimalist.

The sign at the entrance includes the phrase that also doubles as the title of this post. There is no denying the Fraser River is watery. There was quite a bit of it.

Visible in the background: The lagoon and large NO FUN sign.

This was an unexpected jackpot, with not only virtually every waterfowl we normally see in the Lower Mainland represented, but also a decent supply of songbirds and a couple of raptors thrown in for good measure.

The waterfowl ranged from Buffleheads to Common Mergansers and Goldeneyes, to a plethora of Mallards and a pair of Canada Geese that were not afraid to let you know when you invaded their personal space via a sudden loud honk, followed by death stare.

A large gathering of gulls in the central area of the lagoon (which is not really a lagoon, it’s a small lake or perhaps a pond with grand ambitions) were occasionally spooked by the appearance of a juvenile bald eagle. But then the eagle would fly off and land in a tree nearby–only to then be harassed by the same seagulls. Such is the circle of life.

A single coot was on hand, but without others, there was no coot drama to be had.

Songbirds included a few we rarely see, like a Yellow-rumped Warbler (I did not get a shot), as well as roving gangs of American Bushtits. I managed a few decent shots, which always feels like a major triumph with these spazzy little things.

We walked up a trail away from the lagoon and pondered exploring on through Hi-Knoll Park, which we did on our last visit, but elected to head elsewhere after not seeing much else away from the lagoon. Overall, though, this seems like a good sport to return to.

Tlahutum Regional Park

We rounded off the afternoon at Tlahutum, but after seeing copious birds on the last visit, they seemed fewer this time, and most were farther back in the main pond, boo.

Nic suggested we go down the other trail we usually don’t take and this yielded some nice views of the mountains, the moon and while we did see some mergansers and wigeons in the waterways, it was tricky to get good shots due to angle/foliage and such.

But we got in a lot of steps, which will help boost our stamina for future birding. Yeah, that’s it.

In all, the birding was bad-great-meh, which is actually a perfectly cromulent average.

The Shots

Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

American Bushtit
Anna’s Hummingbird
Black-capped Chickadee
Chestnut-backed chickadee
Golden-crowned Kinglet
Golden-crowned Sparrow
Song Sparrow
Spotted Towhee
Yellow-rumped Warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

American Coot
American Wigeon
Bufflehead
Canada Goose
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser
Great Blue Heron
Green-winged Teal
Hooded Merganser
Mallard
Ring-necked Duck
Scaup
Wood Duck

Common:

American Crow
Seagulls aplenty

Raptors:

Bald Eagle
Mystery Hawk

Non-birds:

A black squirrel
Western Painted Turtle

Where: Blackie Spit, Crescent Beach (Surrey), 1001 Steps (Surrey), Brydon Lagoon, Hi-Knoll Park (Langley), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Cloudy, 6-14°C

The Outing

The weather forecast was a lying liar again, promising “mostly sunny” and delivering the opposite. We did have some blue sky, but the sun was mostly blotted out. On the plus side, less harsh light to deal with.

We started out at Blackie Spit, delighting in the ease of parking on a weekday morning. It was perhaps a bit cooler than expected. The water was low, which bode well for shorebirds, and we saw…a few. A couple of greater yellowlegs were poking about. We also saw some cormorants, a few loons (the bird kind, not the people kind), and a horned grebe. The herons were on the pilings instead of their usual spot in the marshland. It seems the herons everywhere have shifted locations. Spring fever, maybe.

We also saw a pair of juvenile bald eagles on other pilings, with an adult in a nearby tree. Maybe a parent watching the kids? You know what trouble kids can get up to.

The bird boxes offshore usually used by purple martins appear to have been taken over by starlings, as Nic got shots of them all over the boxes, with some bringing in nesting material.

After wrapping up there, we made a quick return trip to 1001 Steps to see if we might spot more Harlequin ducks or birds of paradise or something. We saw a couple of cormorants flying off and a distant heron. I shot a lot of rocks. We moved on after working out our thighs on the trip back up the staircase.

Next we hit a new location, Brydon Lagoon in Langley, as Nic had seen reports of a rare Black Phoebe in the area (Black Phoebe sounds like a goth YA novel to me, but what do I know about naming birds?). While we did not see the rare bird, we did see birds. The lagoon itself, with a fountain in the middle, was actually well-represented by many species, sort of a mini Reifel or Piper Spit. We ventured south into Hi-Knoll Park, which consists of meandering trails, which offered pleasant views of creeks and things, but few birds. We saw a robin. I took blurry photos.

It was nice to check out new scenery, though.

We rounded off the afternoon with our usual last stop at Piper Spit and lo, a lifer¹ appeared in the form of a tree sparrow, which is a small birb with great camo. The water at the lake is still high, so no shorebirds to be seen, but most everything else was around, including the buffleheads, which seem to be at least semi-regulars now. The cowbird population is also much higher than it was from even a few days ago, when I was last here. When it comes to photos, cowbirds are still like migrant robins for me.

As expected, the sun started coming back out as we wrapped up. But it didn’t rain, we saw a lifer and got to see some new sights, so that was all right.

The Shots

Soon™

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