It seems kind of obvious, but in this case it’s actually kind of weird!
For the last year, there’s been a large chunk of exposed land to the east of Piper Spit that was previously underwater. Today, I went there to take some photos because it was sunny and warm(ish), and lo, the water has somehow surged enough to almost completely submerge the land once more:
It was also windy as heck, hence the ripply waves. I’ll have more photos soon™.
Let’s try something new! And by “let’s” I mean me because ain’t no one else writing this.
Most Saturdays I go birding with Nic. Starting with this post, I’ll recount each birding outing: Where we went, the conditions, some photos (of course), and what we saw.
And now, the inaugural entry:
Where: Piper Spit (Burnaby Lake Regional Park), Colony Farm Regional Park Weather: Cloudy, occasional drizzle, around 8ºC
The Outing
The forecast was not looking great–about a 50-60% chance of showers, but apart from a few drops here and there, the rain held off, and the sun even tried to come out a few times. It was breezy both at Piper spit and Colony Farm, so it felt a little cooler than the actual 8ºC.
We encountered a fairly significant number of birds heading from the dam to Piper spit, including a rare sighting of a varied thrush dining out on a tree stump normally occupied by squirrels. We also saw some kinglets, but alas, I was unable to get any shots beyond “this blurry butt is definitely on some kind of feathered creature.”
At the spit, we saw the usual crowd, but also what might have been a hermaphrodite mallard, showing both female and male characteristics. The giant flocks of seagulls were down to just a few this time, though I’m unsure why, and the number of dowitchers was also down, though they were in their usual (current spot) just west of the pier.
At Colony Farm we observed blackbirds possibly gathering nesting material, but the biggest surprise there came at the very end, in one of the small creeks: a muskrat. I can’t remember the last time I saw one.
The Shots
The Birds (and other critters)
All birds seen at Piper spit unless otherwise noted.
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
Waterfowl:
Common:
Non-birds:
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.
On June 25, 2022, I went to Burnaby Lake to shoot photos, then never posted any of them. Oops.
Today, while pruning out my photos on OneDrive, I came across these photos and found one of a frog–the only frog I’ve taken a photo of at Burnaby Lake (or anywhere). so here is the frog, seven months late.
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.
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.
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!
Snow is not in the forecast, and it’s mostly washed away (again) due to heavy rain, but here’s a last few photos to look over before the year comes to an end. Taken on December 26th.
Fun fact: I regularly mistype “Burnaby” as “Burnbaby.”
This morning, I donned my running clothes and headed out to Burnaby Lake, though I didn’t actually intend to run. I did want to see how much snow was still on the trail, to get a sense of how long I might need to wait until running becomes viable again.
Technically, I did run a little, as a test, about 20 meters or so. The trail is certainly walkable, but for running, the compact snow is that yucky combination of uneven and slippery. I could run, but only very slowly, in order to maintain my footing.
Conveniently, I got a newsletter from Running Room today with tips for running in the winter, which included wearing something like these to keep from landing on your face:
On the one hand, if I was faced with a a long layoff from running due to snow, this might be tempting, though I can’t imagine it makes for a very pleasurable running experience. On the other hand, based on my assessment today and assuming we don’t get a pile of new snow, I am assuming I’ll be able to run possibly by this Monday (five days from now). That means I will miss one more run and a total of five runs (two last week, three this week). This makes me sad, but at least it won’t be the multiple months of the 2016-17 snowpocalypse.
This is what the trail looked like near the Avalon parking lot. The snow looks shallow, but that’s mainly due to it being compacted. The darker bits are slippery.
There’s a tiny chance that if we get a lot of rain tomorrow (Thursday) a run could be viable on Friday, but I am not expecting this. What I might do in lieu of a run is walk to Piper Spit (weather permitting–the last time I tried this, it started snowing hard) and shoot birbs with my camera. I saw a heron at the lake today, but with my stinky phone camera, the best I could do was this cropped image (which isn’t too bad, I suppose; it definitely captures the overall gray/blue quality of the day):
Back to Piper Spit, as Nic sought out the elusive white-throated sparrow.
We did not see a white-throated sparrow (though Nic saw it today when he went back on his own).
First, the weather was crazy–25C and sunny, so sunny that if I hadn’t put on sunblock I’m sure I would have burned. This is very strange for the second week of October.
We hit Burnaby Lake and Colony Farm, but did extended tours of each and saw plenty of birds and other assorted critters, including a snake and coyote (alas, we could not get shots of either in time).
Here are a few shots of the million (well, 500+) I took.
After reaching 60 posts, I realized that if I posted 62 it would be the most ever in a month, and I’ve been blogging since 1897 2005! So naturally I had to do it.
This is Post #62.
Here’s a photo I took at Burnaby Lake back on September 2 showing a pair of dead trees next to a pile of plywood. I wanted to say something clever or profound about this juxtaposition, but couldn’t come up with anything good, so never posted it.
UNTIL NOW.
Enjoy.
(And think of your own clever or profound observation on this.)
