Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) Weather: Sunny, 18-19°C
The Outing
It was sunny and warm, so I took the camera out for a bit of solo birding at Piper Spit.
Piper Spit has a very different vibe on weekday afternoons. A group of schoolkids were being shepherded off the pier as I arrived, and after that there was never more than half a dozen people there–half of them with a gigantic telephoto lens.
Likewise, without lots of people feeding the birds, the number of birds is also much lower. This was further compounded by more of the winter migrants heading off to other parts. A few scaups and coots were still hanging around, but their numbers are greatly reduced. Even the blackbirds (which don’t migrate) were far fewer in number.
It both made it easier to frame shots (fewer birds to photobomb the one handsome duck you’re shooting), while giving you less to shoot at. But it made for a very relaxing afternoon.
One Sandhill crane was also present, and it obligingly did a nice big stretch while I was getting shots of it. There were also several squirrels on the trail, mugging delightfully for me. One even came running right up to me, taking a moment to sniff my sneakers for possible seed/nuts, before hopping away.
I also got a few “But is it art?” shots. I’ll know soon if they’re also “But are they any good?” shots. EDIT: They were not good.
In all, a perfectly pleasant outing.
The Shots
Squirrel up close and being cute
Squirrel, different angle
Song sparrow stare
This gull likes where the crow is standing. 1/4
The gull advances, the crow is wary. 2/4
The crow decides it wants to go somewhere else. 3/4
The gull enjoys the other end of the log. 4/4
"Together, we can annoy everyone else here with our song of despair."
Not a bird
Song sparrow mid-song
Green-winged teal paddling along
Wood duck in light and shadow
Wood duck on the dock
One of the last coots, perhaps pondering where the other coots are.
Brown-headed cowbird on a railing.
Sandhill crane in profile
Sandhill crane in yoga pose
Sandhill crane working the kinks out
Goose in the face
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The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
This time the weather forecast panned out. It was sunny all day, though it was also rather windy, especially close to the shore, and this made mid-morning at Reifel a bit chilly (10C felt like 7C). But we had birbs to shoot.
With spring migration underway, we’ve observed a few changes at Reifel, the main being that the migratory waterfowl are way down in terms of numbers, with fewer wigeons, scaups and ring-necked ducks. Coots, on the other freaky foot, still seem to be in relative abundance. Northern shovellers, which allegedly do not migrate, have also seen a reduction in numbers. Birds are mysterious!
Equally mysterious is why we suddenly came across not a ruby-crowned kinglet, but multiple kinglets that capered about in nearby trees long enough for us to get pretty decent shots (I have never before gotten a decent shot of a kinglet). That was spiffy. But the spiffiness continued, when we also got good shots of a marsh wren, which chose to stop specifically hiding from Nic long enough for him to get a few good photos before disappearing back into the reeds, to mock us with its song for the rest of the season.
The snow geese were gone, which would normally have made it quieter, but the Canada geese were still around, so there was always honking somewhere. And hissing and chasing. One goose apparently convinced itself my camera bag was full of seed and started pecking at it. When I turned to face it, it gave me the closest a goose can come to a look that says, “What? I didn’t do anything.”
Sated by our kinglet and wren shots, we headed to Centennial Beach, where the tide was out about a hundred km. If it hadn’t been so windy and if we could have guaranteed seeing something, it might have been fun to see just how far we could have wandered out. Maybe in the summer.
In the meantime…more kinglets! Yes, there was a kinglet hopping around in a tree near the pond. Because of the extreme low tide, shorebirds were pretty much absent, apart from a few gulls and a couple of ducks in the pond.
What we did see were raptors: bald eagles young and old, and multiple harriers that were fighting/courting or both.
We saw plenty of swallows at both locations and our final stop, Piper Spit. Nic made it his BirdQuest to shoot swallows in flight. I did this with exactly one swallow at Piper Spit and of four shots, three were bad. Nic also got lots of “look for the blob that is the swallow” shots, but also some very good pics, too.
I missed the Sandhill crane at Piper getting all flappy and stretchy, though, because I was focused on a goose going berserk. The good news is I actually got some good (terrifying) shots of said goose, with some serious tongue and neck action.
My camera started glitching a bit at Piper, which was odd, since I’d cleaned it the night before. I gave it a bit of an on-the-spot cleaning, and it mostly behaved afterwards. Maybe the wind was blowing junk into it. It was very windy.
In all, a good day of birding, with the kinglet and marsh wren shots being nice bonuses.
The Shots
For me, a rare in-focus shot of a junco feeding on the ground
A multi-banded golden-crowned sparrow on the fence
A house sparrow grabbing a snack
Tree swallow on a bird box
A pair of tree swallows having a conversation
Rusty the pipe, off the West Dyle Trail at Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Chickadee hanging out
Male cowbird looking ruffled in the sun
Not perfect focus, but getting a full shot of a marsh wren is one of those "just take it" things
Marsh wren among the branches
Marsh wren singing
Twin butts
A ruby-crowned kinglet in an extremely rare moment of repose
A kinglet holding still for just a moment
I only realized all the turtles in the shot after it was pointed out (I was shooting the herons).
Mt. Baker, with the low tide of Boundary Bay in the foreground
Northern harrier soaring above the marsh
Heron in the tall grass
Death metal eagle and moon
Female mallard getting splashy
Gull on a log
Blackbird between two branches
Blackbird on a seed-dotted fence
A wood duck and Northern pintail gliding alongside each other
A scaup cruising toward the pier
Sandhill crane strutting through the shallows
A resplendently orange-hued Sandhill crane
Terrifying goose cruising the lake surface
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The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
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 lifer1This is what fancy birder people call a bird they’ve never seen before. It has nothing to do with serving prison time. 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.
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
A bunny behind me
Blackbird on a branch
Gull perched on the surface of the lake
Heavily processed image of a flower. But is it art?
Smooth stones and reflections in Eagle Creek
Black-capped chickadee on a branch
A goose thinks. I mean, it's possibly thinking.
After the goose fight, the victor stands, ready to take on other challengers. HISS.
The first cowbird I've caught a photo of this year
Male scaup gliding
Female scaup gliding
A shiny male mallard
Mallard in the grass
A coot stretching mightily
Song sparrow looking ruffled
Song sparrow singing its song
Pretty pintail
Northern pintail in the marshy shallows off the pier
A pair of sandhill cranes making their way across the shallows
Sandhill crane close-up
Green-winged teal
Wood duck
Wood duck ponders
Tree swallow darting low over the lake
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The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Where: Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) Weather: Mostly sunny, 13-15°C
The Outing
With the weather expected to be nice today, we decided to take advantage and get in a bonus round of birding. I was a bit pooped after two days of activity, so we opted for a simple plan to hit Tlahutum Regional Park, then Piper Spit.
It’s Easter Sunday and a holiday weekend. Combine that with the weather actually being genuinely pleasant, and there were a fair number of people out. Unlike the bad old days when the pandemic was in full swing, parking was not an issue. At Tlahutum we opted to check out the community gardens first, carefully avoiding the paths that were still filled with mini (or sometimes) maxi ponds from the rains. The area is dotted with bird boxes for swallows and they were making good use of them. We got plenty of shots of them hanging out on them and, in some cases, coming in or taking off (more on this later).
After getting our supply of swallow shots, we moved onto the trails and actually did not see many birds. The main pond did have a mix of mallards, buffleheads, coots and gadwalls, which sounds great, but they tend to stay farther away from the edges–security for them, a test of our telephoto lenses for us. A few blackbirds were flapping about as well.
We moved on to Piper Spit, getting much better light than yesterday–initially almost too harsh (not that I’m complaining about the sun). We parked at the Avalon parking lot and walked the 2 km to Piper Spit, which turned out to be a good choice, not just because we’d get heart points, steps and generally healthy exercise. Nic spotted a brown creeper (which looks way more adorable than the name would suggest) and there were a few Steller’s jays eating seed off a signpost farther along the trail. Spiffy.
At the pier, there were again a lot of people, but no Sandhill cranes today. Nic did get some shots of a turkey vulture (!) flying overhead. I never even saw it. They’re sneaky like that.
Initially a lot of the waterfowl were spread out beyond the pier, snoozing and such, but a few people started throwing seed into the water and that brought most propelling madly toward us for the free food.
I practised my technique for tracking birds in motion (with limited success), using fine focus on trickier shots (more successful), while Nic was determined to get some boffo shots of swallows in flight. And he did indeed get several very nice shots. He also got enough shots of just the sky to create a skyscapes gallery. But you only need one great shot to make it worthwhile, as some photographer person said one time, probably.
My robin curse renewed itself today. The light was good, so I can’t even blame that. I don’t know what the deal is with robins. I kind of hate them now. Or maybe I hate my camera. Or something that happens between my camera and any robin I aim at.
Still, it was a good bonus afternoon of birding, with good shots, some nice sightings and the pleasant weather we had been teased with yesterday actually materializing.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rare birds highlighted in bold.
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Mud Bay Park (Surrey), Piper Spit. Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Cloudy, 4-11°C
The Outing
We were promised mostly sunny skies, but it was cloudy most of the day, with a reasonably cool breeze blowing at times just to rub it in. Lousy Smarch weather.
We started at Reifel and had a migrant sighting almost immediately–a rufous hummingbird! It didn’t stick around long. The night heron, which has gradually been revealing slightly more of itself, was gone. Will it be back? Who knows. C13 and C19, two geese wearing radio devices on their necks were on hand, as was Radar1This is its official name as far as I’m concerned, a golden-crowned sparrow who is not only sporting multiple bands on its legs, but also has a wire for more technologically-accurate tracking. It’s kind of weird to think that with all the birds we encounter, that we would see the same ones multiple times. But birds have favourite hangouts, just like people. And who wouldn’t like Reifel?
Speaking of, despite the crowds, it wasn’t that bad. We went our more-or-less usual route through and these are the things I noticed:
Several areas were mostly empty that would otherwise be replete with waterfowl. I have no explanation for this.
Related to the above, the herons seem to have moved away from the large slough near the entrance to the marshy ponds closer to the western dyke (outer perimeter of the sanctuary).
The wood ducks are back! After seeing none or just one, we saw multiple wood ducks this time, engaged in courtship or…something. It got a little weird at times (hence the title of this blog post). The numbers are still tiny compared to before, but it seems some of them have returned for spring shenanigans.
The shoveller empire continues, with shovellers dotted all over the place, though it felt to me their overall numbers were down. Or maybe they were just hiding.
Wigeons still sound adorable.
Shortly after pondering if the snow geese had moved on, hundreds (possibly thousands) of them began flying in and landing along the shoreline at the edge of the sanctuary (where people can’t go). They seemed closer than previous times, which made for somewhat better shots. We would hear them all get Very Excited occasionally as we continued moving around the trails.
The Canada geese on hand were relatively well-behaved. Maybe love has a calming effect. Or whatever it is that geese feel in the spring.
We saw a few other rare birbs, like the marsh wren (Nic wants it noted that the marsh wrens or maybe just a particular marsh wren) is specifically taunting him. It did offer up its butt for one shot, so it at least knows what Nic likes.
A ruby-crowned kinglet also appeared, briefly, and did its usual spastic hopping inside layers of branches. Amazingly I got a shot–but didn’t have time to focus, so it’s really just a blob I can tell people is totally a kinglet.
After Reifel we headed to Mud Bay Park, which we had not been to in almost exactly three years. I donned an extra layer as by this point the weather forecast had revealed itself to be a sham. Mud Bay Park offered very nice views of Mud Bay. And really, not much else. We saw a couple of ducks, a robin and lots of highway traffic. We got a good number of steps in, I got a few bad shots of planes, and we moved on.
We rounded off the afternoon at Piper Spit, where someone had dumped copious amounts of seed all over. When I say copious, I am not exaggerating. Most of the birds were wearing the stuff, particularly the geese and blackbirds, who are never the neatest eaters at the best of times. We saw multiple buffleheads, which was neat–they seem to be showing up regularly here now–and there were swallows darting about, daring you to capture them mid-flight. Nic has made it his mission this year to do so, right after or possibly right before getting the ultimate marsh wren shot.
A couple of Sandhill cranes were back at Piper, but the crowds made it tricky to shoot them. Being Sandhill cranes, they didn’t care at all about all the people finding them neat and/or adorable.
The sun even came out a bit at the end, allowing us to get a few shots in decent light. We paid by having to wait for not one, but two trains, as we left,. I took pictures. When life gives you lemons and all that.
Taking advantage of the switch to Daylight Saving Time, we hit four spots today and I ended with over 24,000 steps and am now tired.
First up: Reifel, where even a breeze in the morning didn’t feel too chilly, as the temperature rose fairly quickly. While we did not see owls or the legendary mallard/pintail hybrid, we did get our best shots ever of the night heron, sleeping as always. This is not to say the shots were great, but they were the best we’ve taken! Or the best I’ve taken, at least.
We noticed perhaps a few more shovellers than usual and came to realize that there were dozens of them everywhere, including spots we never usually see them, because there were so many they were crowding themselves out of the usual spots. It had me wondering if their huge numbers and omnipresence may have pushed other waterfowl out. We saw a single wood duck, for example, and normally their numbers are decently represented at Reifel.
We took a bit of a haphazard route through the sanctuary, as there were quite a few more people than you might expect for a Friday, including a tour group from exotic Washington state! This meant we probably missed a few little bits here and there, but we got our shots and had more to do!
Next was the feeders at the Richmond Nature House. The area here was dominated by juncos and to a lesser extent, chickadees. Two squirrels showed up, but neither was quite as dedicated as others we’ve seen when it came to tackling the feeders. The smaller squirrel established a peace treaty with a pair of mallards that arrived (which in itself is unusual). No fancy woodpeckers or jays, though.
We moved onto Iona Beach, where the tide was so far out (how far was it?) we were able to walk the shoreline without getting our feet soaked. Birds were in lesser supply here, though we did see crows, gulls and some others. No yellow-headed blackbirds, alas. I also shot at least eight different boats and ships, which I think is a personal record and will inevitably lead to my first aquatic vehicle gallery, which I may call Holy Ship! With the sun out, we were still able to get plenty of nice scenery shots.
But wait, there’s more! Nic’s phone died while giving us directions from Iona Beach to Piper spit, and it did so while we were on a route we’d never taken before. We switched to my phone and the last update had switched from the sassy Australian voice I know and love to some weird American accent that sounded like, I don’t know, about four regional accents all smushed together. Yuck. I switched back to the Aussie, and we got to Piper spit just in time to wait for the long, long train to go by so we could park.
Songbirds were a bit scarce here, though blackbirds were well-represented. There was also a single pigeon representing all of pigeondom. And also a single seagull. Maybe some bird species were out of town at a convention.
There were again more people than usual here, probably because of the unusually pleasant weather, and several were feeding the waterfowl. Since these people were often at opposite ends of the pier, this had the effect of causing dozens of ducks to move en masse from one end to the other, then back again. They earned their seed today.
And the buffleheads were back! Buffleheads are adorable, as determined by science.
There was some goose drama, but they were reasonably calm today. Maybe it’s because it’s early in mating season, and they need to behave. Behave, relative to being a Canada goose, that is.
By the end I was on my third battery (they are getting old) and I was having intermittent issues with focusing/shutter activation, but I only missed a few shots and no error messages. More importantly, I got some rather nice shots to boot.
Overall, despite a bumpy start1Private joke. You had to be there., it was a good day for birding.
Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Cloudy, light showers, 4°C (felt like 1C)
The Outing
Good news: After cleaning my camera (again) it behaved, even in cold temperatures and light rain. It probably behaved better than I did!
Bad news: The weather was frigid and windy and wet and generally awful (spring in 16 days!) but we made the best of the abbreviated window we had for birding. Ironically, we passed on yesterday because of the forecast, and it turned out to be the better day. You win this time, Mother Nature!
I got to Burnaby Lake a bit early and shot one of two buffleheads near the turtle nesting area. I think I spotted a hooded merganser, which we rarely (ever?) see at the lake, but wasn’t able to get any shots before it disappeared.
Near the pier, a few people had left seed, attracting oodles of towhees, juncos, song sparrows and chickadees–including a rarely-seen chestnut-backed chickadee. Alas, I did not get more than a couple quick chances for shots, and they are Not Good™. Maybe next time!
We did see several chonky squirrels. I swear they get bigger every time I see them. I’m not judging, I’m just saying they might start waddling soon.
Up to this point the weather had been mediocre but tolerable. We moved onto the pier and it was like stepping through a portal into OH YEAH IT’S STILL WINTER, as the wind picked up, the rain started and it was not fun. But we persevered and eventually the wind settled, the sun even poked out for a few minutes, and the showers eased (somewhat). But it was still icy cold. Do not like. I am ready for summer.
The water was lower than last visit–quite low, in fact–which meant the shorebirds were closer, allowing us to better capture their preening, bathing, flapping and head-bobbing. Geese and gulls were in abundance, but drama was minimal. Too cold, maybe. Even two coots started something, then just kind of gave up after a few seconds.
In all, not bad for a quick trip, given the conditions, but I will not object to temperatures with two numbers in the near future.
Where: Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Piper Spit and environs, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Cloudy, some sun, 7-10°C
The Outing
Another Friday of birding, as the weather once more was looking not-great for Saturday.
The weather today was generally fine, with some actual sun at times, though it got a bit worse by the time we wrapped up at Piper Spit.
We started at Tlahutum and did our usual loop, then diverted right where we would normally go left and did a big ol’ loop around the park. Except you can’t actually do that, so what we really did was exit the park, head out into the suburbia of Port Coquitlam, then eventually reach another entrance to Tlahutum past the Red Bridge (which is red). We ventured forth from there and eventually reconnected to near our starting point. We got a lot of steps in1By the time we wrapped up for the day I had over 28,000 steps and Nic had 116 heart points, which mysteriously dropped to 115 later, as if Google decided it had overcompensated..
In terms of birds, Tlahutum always has the issue of birds never being super close, but we ended up seeing a pretty decent variety in the various ponds, river and other waterways. Songbirds were less common, though a song sparrow did thoughtfully pose and sing for us. We also saw some common mergansers, hooded mergansers, buffleheads, Northern flickers and even a few coots.
A couple of geese flew overhead and as you will see below, my camera had issues. It apparently got filthy over the last few weeks and some of my shots, such as the sequence showing the geese flying, then landing in the river, have the feel of semi-abstract art. If all of my photos had been like this, I would have been upset, but the image quality mostly cleared up after this bit, so I can appreciate the unintended artiness.
The filth my camera had accumulated, however, led to a lot of technical glitches, so I must solemnly vow to clean it after every use or else. Or else it will glitch again.
After our very long trip around Tlahutum, we went to Burnaby Lake, but instead of going to Piper Spit, we went to the area around the rowing pavilion, where we saw more common mergansers (they seem to be finally living up to their name), along with some herons, pigeons and lots of scenery. They also had a new boardwalk connecting to the remodelled pier. It was so new, I felt a bit naughty just being out there on it.
At Piper Spit, there was much bird drama to be had:
Gulls chasing crows (the gulls were back)
Crows chasing gulls (the crows were still there)
Pintails locking lips bills
Gulls coveting each other’s strange foreign objects
Canada geese going berserk in front and around us, repeatedly
The coots were actually some of the well-behaved waterfowl this time.
Speaking of waterfowl, most were present and in abundant numbers, but songbirds were scarcer. I only saw a few towhees (no pictures, boo) and a single junco, which rudely did not stop long enough for me to get a shot. Also boo.
By this point my camera was behaving quite badly and no amount of scolding would fix it. Fun symptoms included:
Images with weird artifacts and blurring
The EVF freezing
Exposure going completely off the chart in the EVF
Refusing to focus on anything
Focusing but the shutter refusing to work
Error messages about the contacts (they were quite yucky on inspection)
On top of this, the camera again got confused by complex backgrounds and would at times focus on the background instead of a bird, even when it appeared to be focusing on the bird in the EVF.
Still, I did get some shots that were acceptable, it was mild, and it didn’t rain, so I consider the day pretty good, despite the camera being a goof.
The Shots Soon™. But here’s the Canada goose as art photo I mentioned above to start.
A rare-ish weekday round of birding, thanks to sunny weather. We hit Reifel first and soon discovered that school was out today, as the place was chock-full of kids. They were fairly well-behaved, though.
We got off to a nice start with a pair of Anna’s hummingbirds sharing a drink at a feeder.
Surprisingly, there was a thin patina of ice on a lot of the ponds. I suspect most of it melted by mid-afternoon, but we did see one wigeon land on the ice, then sink into it as it waddled forth. This apparently displeased it, as it then flew just enough to land ahead where the water was clear. We also saw some shovelers hanging out like cool kids on the ice (geddit?)
And speaking of shovelers, they were all over the place and in large numbers, save, oddly enough, in one of the spots they usually hang out. We saw what seemed to be a couple of scruffy-looking juveniles.
And speaking of juveniles (I am master of segues in this post), we saw a bunch of juvenile bald eagles circling overhead multiple times. One pass apparently spooked some of the shovelers and they took off, only to land back where they’d flown from a minute later.
The Chickadee Empire was somewhat in retreat, as we saw fewer than normal, and the ones we did see seemed even less interested in sitting still for a moment.
Herons were dotting the landscape like broody sentinels, and we got to see the Sandhill cranes before exiting. Several of them even flew overhead, giving us a chance to behold their gangly forms in the air.
We even saw a common goldeneye, which I don’t think we’ve spotted at Reifel before, though I only got a single shot of it, as it flew away almost as soon as we saw it.
On the way out, an older man told Nic about all the owls we never see. He was still going on and adjusting the onion on his belt as we left. We did not see any owls, alas.
Next up was Centennial Beach. We actually didn’t see many birds here, but the tide was out, so we strolled offshore and took photos of Mt. Baker. We did some gadwalls, more herons and golden crowns. And Nic got a lot of heart points.
With the sun setting at the late hour of 5:34 p.m. we had enough time to visit Piper Spit. By this time the clouds had moved in, so the light went from good to so-so, but you work with what you’re given. Fortunately, the bufflehead was back and diving all over the place. The seagulls that have been occupying the land mass near the pier were completely gone, replaced by hundreds of crows, preparing for their nightly mini-migration. There were making a lot of crow noises, which complemented (?) the blackbird noises.
After seeing no wood ducks at Reifel and only a single coot (or two? It was only one or two), we saw plenty of both at Piper Spit. But mostly it was crows, crows and more crows. And the bufflehead. And actually, a lot more scaups than I remember normally seeing here.
In all, a good outing, even if the clouds made the shots at Piper Spit a bit more challenging at the end.
The Shots Soon™. But here’s a shot of two hummingbirds as a start:
