The vast and non-slimy part of the mudflats off Iona Beach.
We got out to a slightly later than usual start, in keeping with the casual BC Day vibe or something, our first destination, Iona Beach.
Good news, we still haven’t needed the Deep Woods Off! yet. Perhaps that one biting bug nightmare was just a one-time abberation.
Speaking of nightmares, stay tuned!
As usual during peak summer, we did not see a wide variety of birds, but groups of starlings and barn swallows were out and aboot, as well as some killdeer along the river bobbing their heads, and roughly a million dragonflies. The outing concluded with a ring-billed gull pulling worms out of the mudflats.
In-between, we got many shots of the vast low tide, which seemed even lower than normal. Some of the sand actually felt firm and was drying. This created the illusion that I had changed into my “I don’t care if they get wet” shoes for no reason. We made it almost all the way back to shore, within sight of the parking lot and my shoes were still keeping my feet dry. All that was left was a pile of kelp to stomp over to reach the sandy shore, maybe 10 or 12 feet of it. Easy peasy!
Except underneath the thin crust of bright green kelp was a black ichor that was deep enough to come up to our ankles. It also smelled like the fermented remains of The Old Ones. We were committed by the time we realized what we stepped in, so we trudged through the black oil-like goo, then made liberal use of the hose outside the washrooms to wash our shoes, our feet and maybe a little bit of our souls.
We then went to lunch, pretending we couldn’t smell anything.
Piper Spit
Some waterfowl, water and other water-related things at Piper Spit.
We made only one more stop, at Piper Spit. Good: We didn’t get stuck behind any trains. Bad: The water level of the lake was considerably higher, completely submerging the landmass and forcing the shorebirds to dine and snooze elsewhere.
We made do with the usual collection of mallards, wood ducks, poop monsters and blackbirds. The cowbirds seem to have left already, but the young green-winged teals were enthusiastically chasing each other around, testing out their not-quite-ready-for-flight wings.
Songbirds were generally scarce, though a few pigeons were cooing around, as they do. I tried to get a prize-winning shot, but alas.
Speaking of alas, my camera was giving me issues again and I am fairly certain it is the telephoto lens or the adapter. At one point I went to take a photo and could hear a sound coming from the camera. The connection between lens and adapter was a tiny bit loose, so I tightened it and the camera seemed to behave better after. We’ll see how it goes. Replacing the adapter would be relatively cheap, the telephoto lens, not so much (or at all).
In all, a low-key kind of outing as befits this time of year.
Some winter migrants should start showing up soonish. Perhaps the first coots will come calling. One can dream.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
I feel like it’s a miracle every time I complete a gallery these days. But I have incentive, because my OneDrive storage is starting to max out. Gotta clear out all those RAW images.
Three young ducks on the move.
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Also, I should note a weird and whacky workflow for this batch of shots in terms of post-processing:
I started with Affinity Photo 2, editing RAW images, then exporting them as WebP files. Yes, WebP!
I then switched to Luminar AI (it had the name before AI became associated with everything terrible in the world) and used that the rest of the way. This program lets you aggressively alter specific aspects of a photo using very simple sliders. I used the sliders a lot. I was actually impressed at how it “saved” a few iffy photos.
Anyway, I may use Luminar more in the future, especially if I want to add random giraffes, which it totally lets you do.
I am determined to exercise in some way every day, so late this morning I went out for walkies.
The summer weather has returned after a few days of intermittent showers and clouds, so it was already 26C when I headed out, and a bit humid. I kept up a brisk pace for the 4K walk to Burnaby Lake. When I got there, I decided to walk the approximate 2 km up the trail to find the nefarious tree root that I tripped on in a recent run. I set off, knowing the approximate location.
As I approached the area, I slowed and started scrutinizing the ground. At one point I even caught my toe on something. A-ha! I looked intently at the ground and could not find what I had snagged my toe on. I guess it was just a bump or something. It felt like it was too early for the tree root, so I pressed on. I observed that this area is perfect for nefarious tree roots, as there is a lot of canopy–ergo, shade–but the sun also pokes through in lots of areas, creating a dappled pattern that makes the ground hard to read.
I could not find the root.
I did find a large, smooth stone protruding a bit out of the trail, so it’s possible my foot happened to snag on it at just the right angle, but it feels like it’s a little too close to the middle of the trail, and I always run on the right. But maybe.
I walked to the bridge with the 8K marker and headed back, completing a second walk of 6 km and a very brisk pace of 9:01/km. I sweated a bit! It was nice to be out and touch trees, but not trip on them.
Foot bridge at the 8K marker.
Stats:
Walk 118 and 119 Average pace: 9:09 and 9:01/km Location: Brunette River trail/Burnaby Lake Distance: 4.02 and 6.02 km Time: 36:43 and 54:15 Weather: Sunny Temp: 26-28°C Humidity: 59-55% Wind: light BPM: 118 and 119 Weight: 166.6 pounds Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Total distance to date: 865.86 km
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Terra Nova (Richmond), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) Weather: Sunny and humid, 19-25°C
The Outing
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
High cloud scuds across the sky over the marshland.
We started at Reifel, where it was already fairly warm at 19C, but didn’t actually get much warmer during our time there. An Anna’s hummingbird greeted us to start, which seemed like a good sign, but given that it’s mid-summer, we still didn’t see many songbirds or waterfowl beyond the usual gang of ducks and geese. Also, whatever kept the geese quiet the last few visits has ended, as they were honking up all over the place.
The tree swallows seem to have left, but barn swallows were still plentiful, including a bunch that were diving around outside one of the bird blinds. Several seemed to come right at us before swooping away. We later saw a mom feeding babies in a nest by the warming hut, but also (I did not know this), collecting the babies’ poop and disposing of it outside the nest. The babies do this by presenting their butts to mom, pooping, and then mom grabs the poop with her beak and flies off. Gross! But better than having a poop-filled nest, I suppose. Nic caught a wonderfully detailed1horrifying series of shots documenting the process. This is almost as bad as how dragonflies mate. Almost.
One blackbird was indulging in some seed on a fence railing and we stopped to take some photos. It seemed we may have gotten within the “banquet perimeter” because it stopped eating, hopped along the railing toward us and stood there, peeping as if to say, “This is my pile of seed, get your own!” As we moved on, it hopped back over and continued to smear seed all over his face.
Speaking of dragonflies, they must be mating like the proverbial dickens, because they were everywhere.
The Auger Trail was no longer cordoned off because of the Sandhill crane babies. Yay! But we never saw the Sandhill cranes or their babies. Boo.
But we did some fairly rare red-necked pharalopes in one of the big ponds along the western dyke trail. They were quite far away and mostly hidden in the reeds, though. Less hidden were a couple of hundred dowitchers hanging out in the same area.
Overall, the barn swallow babbies and the copious shorebirds made for a better-than-expected mid-summer outing.
Terra Nova
The pond is re-acquiring its red “carpet” again.
Nic suggested Terra Nova next. I took my usual plane shots, then we headed off to the “natural area” of the park, which had a list of things you aren’t allowed that included flying drones, golfing (?!) and archery (?!!). The natural area was basically similar to the rest of the trails, but with no convenient playground for children. One of the trails abuts a row of homes, which kind of dampens the “natural” aspect. Still, it was new and different and we heard a Bewick’s wren. Nic also shot a goldfinch. The pond had a grebe, but it proved even more elusive than usual, and neither of us got very good shots of it.
Piper Spit
A little bit of everything at Piper Spit.
The land mass at Piper Spit draws ever closer to the pier as the dry weather continues, and the extension on the pier remains closed because it is rickety and dangerous. No one wants to have it collapse, end up in the same water as a Canada goose.
We were pleasantly surprised to see more dowitchers here, and on the same side of the pier as most of the waterfowl. A few yellowlegs were mixed in, and they obligingly got quite close, so we got lots of good shots on these guys as they bobbed, preened and flapped.
As at Reifel, blackbird teens were begging pitifully to be fed by mom, pop or probably anyone that would shove seed into their gaping maws.
The wood duck numbers seemed low, but I think most were just tucked away in the shade. The area before the pier was almost completely bird-free, so they may not have been the only ones hiding.
Still, the shorebirds once again added a little zest to an otherwise quiet afternoon at the spit.
The Shots
Three young ducks on the move.
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The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Maplewood Flats (North Vancouver) Weather: Sunny, 23-27°C
The Outing
Piper Spit
Still no turtles.
We broke tradition two ways: Going birding on a Sunday and hitting Piper Spit first. The outing got off to a near-calamitous start when Nic found he could not adjust the f-stop on his camera. He fixed it by doing a variation of the classic turn it off/on by removing his telephoto lens, then putting it back on. Electronics are weird!
Near the dam, we saw some baby wood ducks, but not exactly close-up. We continued on and at the stump with the freaky fungus we saw a pair of Douglas squirrels being simultaneously adorable. One sat on top of the stump, eating a large nut like a cob of corn. I like squirrels because they like to eat and when they eat, they don’t move, which means I can usually get good shots. This seems increasingly important now, as my camera, or parts of it, seem to be experiencing an increasing array of issues. More on this later.
Once at the spit itself, the land mass to the east has returned, after multiple weeks of very hot and dry weather. It was pretty much Goose Island.
As expected, there wasn’t much variety in the waterfowl–mostly mallards and wood ducks with their prim new mullets. However, even the songbird population seemed to be largely elsewhere, save for an errant song sparrow and a mass of blackbirds hopping and flying about, seed smeared on their beaks. We witnessed a surly kid blackbird demanding to be fed by a parent, then proving himself completely capable of feeding himself when the parent took too long. Kids!
We got intel on where to find a lazuli bunting at Tlahutum, which was conveniently our next stop.
Tlahutum Regional Park
Rusting fences, but no buntings.
By now it was still rather humid and clouds began gathering. Some of them looked moisture-laden, but I hadn’t seen any showers in the forecast. You can probably see where this is going.
The directions for the bunting took us outside the park proper, to a nearby grass labyrinth and the titular hidden driveway (also the name of the album by my country punk fusion band). We listened, we looked, we trod around, but we heard no buntings and we saw no buntings. We left, buntless.
At the community gardens, we noted an absence of swallows, which may have already started heading off on their fall migration. In their place, a few robins, towhees and one elusive American goldfinch (I got one shot before it flew off).
By now, my camera–which I had cleaned the night before–was starting to show issues, the most prevalent being an inability for the shutter to engage, also sometimes accompanied by an inability to change focus. I did some experimenting with my kit lens and have made a provisional diagnosis that the problem lies with the telephoto lens or the adapter it uses. Look, if I win the $30 million 6/49 jackpot, I promise I will donate oodles of money to good causes and be a level-headed millionaire. But I will also totes buy a new camera, because even repairing this one is probably not worth it.
We elected to skip the rest of Tlahutum this time and headed off for lunch.
The shower–intermittent and half-hearted, began with lunch, but ended before we got to Maplewood Flats. Traffic on the highway was so slow (it was Sunday, too, remember, not rush hour on Wednesday or something) that we lost the GPS signal on Google Maps while going through the Cassiar Connector.
Maplewood Flats
The very low tide at Burrard Inlet.
Maplewood Flats had better light than we expected, but birds were scarce, despite a whiteboard near the entrance showing off all kinds of semi-exotic species that had been sighted here in the last few weeks. We saw some seagulls and cormorants, as well as a mallard mom and her snoozing brood by an inner pond. There are now even more signs warning people to keep off the mudflats, and the tide was indeed very low, exposing much of the shoreline. We were good and did not venture out.
In the end, I only shot a little over 250 photos, or about 1.25 batteries’ worth. With the paucity of birds, the high humidity and my camera being weird, it was a fine day to be out and enjoy the views, but maybe not so great for actual birding.
And now I’m off to write tracks for Hidden Driveways.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
View of Burnaby Lake just west of Cariboo Dam, between walks.
A little slower today, but also a fair bit warmer and drier. I surprised myself by doing as much running as I did on the second walk.
Mr right ankle felt a bit stiff/janky at times when running, probably from lack of use. I did remember to stretch before heading out, though!
Being a Saturday, there were oodles of people at Hume Park, enjoying the pool, the shade and possibly alcohol, which can now be consumed in specific areas. Kids on swing sets on one side, drunk adults belching creatively on the other.
The river trail was relatively quiet, though, probably due to the heat (I did not pick an optimal time to go out), with no other joggers and no dogs at all. It was kind of nice.
Anyway, my steps are complete for another day.
Stats:
Walk 116 and 117 Average pace: 9:32 and 8:30/km Location: Brunette River trail/Burnaby Lake Distance: 4.02 and 4.04 km Time: 38:17 and 34:19 Weather: Sunny Temp: 29-30°C Humidity: 45-42% Wind: light BPM: 113 and 121 Weight: 167.0 pounds Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Total distance to date: 855.82 km
After missing yesterday’s run due to a toothache, I decided I needed some kind of exercise today, even though the tooth is still kind of hurting (I go to the dentists tomorrow).
I left late morning to avoid Xtreme Heat, and it was fine, with a nice breeze blowing. There were some off-leash dogs on the river trail, but fortunately well-behaved. There were no other incidents of note, and the walks were much like the previous–strictly walking on the way to the lake, with a good mix of walking and running on the way back. I felt fine and my mouth cooperated enough that it didn’t distract me.
And that’s about it!
The ever turtle-free Turtle Nesting Area, before starting back from Burnaby Lake.
Stats:
Walk 114 and 115 Average pace: 9:13 and 8:19/km Location: Brunette River trail/Burnaby Lake Distance: 4.02 and 4.03 km Time: 37:01 and 33:32 Weather: Sunny Temp: 23-25°C Humidity: 60-62% Wind: light BPM: 121 and 129 Weight: 167.4 pounds Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Total distance to date: 847.76 km
I’m counting this as two walks, as I clocked them separately, due to the gap in between them.
I have been getting my daily steps in, but haven’t been doing a lot of capital “e” Exercise lately. It’s Sunday, so I didn’t want to run, but I do have my new orange and purple Speedgoat 6 trail runners, so I put them on and walked to the lake and walked/ran on the way back.
It was fairly warm at 28C, but most of the trek is in the shade or out of direct sunlight, so it wasn’t that bad. I didn’t experience any issues, and I got to watch two Douglas squirrels chase each other around a tree at Burnaby Lake. In all, a good excursion and test of my shoes.
The two Douglas squirrels referenced above.
Stats:
Walk 112 and 113 Average pace: 9:01 and 8:41/km Location: Brunette River trail/Burnaby Lake Distance: 3.02 and 4.02 km Time: 27:14 and 34:56 Weather: Sunny Temp: 28°C Humidity: 56% Wind: light BPM: 120 and 121 Weight: 167.2 pounds Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Total distance to date: 847.76 km
Serene and bird-free pond. (Technically, there were a few birds.)
For the first time since we began visiting Reifel, we got stopped as the bridge to Westham Island was rotated to allow a sailboat to pass through. It was kind of neat for the first few seconds, then it was just mostly waiting for it to swing back so we could actually get to the birds.
Once there, I noticed the gusting wind of the last few visits was mostly being absent. It cleared up earlier than perhaps expected, and I slapped on sunblock midway through. I only got a little bit of a burn where the camera strap tugs near the top of my t-shirt. I blame a lack of mirror during application.
The wood ducks have vacated the sanctuary again, though I have no idea where they go, because they always come back at some point. This meant most areas were dominated by mallards. The geese seemed to have claimed the main pond by the west dyke and were disturbingly quiet, most of them spending their time napping, like they’re conserving energy for an invasion or something. I don’t think I heard a single honk. Eerie!
There were cowbirds on hand, and they were acting weird–something we would see again at Piper Spit, as the guys were showing off to each other and the women. None seemed particularly impressed. But they persevered, puffing up their feathers, arching their heads back and making lots of weird little peeps and calls.
The freaky catfish have returned to the London Slough, affording us some delightfully hideous shots of them, as they congregate near the surface and directly below the railing overlooking the slough.
We did not see any marsh wrens this time, but Nic managed a few photos of a Bewick’s wren. There were a few chickadees around, but only a few, and I could only get butt shots. But they were nicely detailed butt shots.
They couldn’t touch the robin butt shot that Nic got. That one was truly spectacular, hall of fame material.
The other highlights:
A juvenile killdeer! Cute! But a little too far away to get great shots.
Ducklings! Several groups, one quite close to us, still fairly young, so very fuzzy and adorable. We also saw some juveniles, which look more like mini adult ducks now. Strangely, we did not see any goslings.
Several small groups of greater yellowlegs hanging out in the main pond by the outer dyke. There’s been a bit of a paucity of shorebirds lately, so this was nice.
We saw a mysterious sooty-coloured bird sitting up in a tree between two of the inner ponds. It looks like an all-black swallow. Merlin suggested a Northern rough-winged swallow, which is a clear miss, and even a brown-headed cowbird, also a million miles off. It’s rare to stump Merlin when you have pretty clear shots of the bird in question, but we did! We debated whether it might be a purple martin, but to me the beak did not have quite the right shape. I declare it Sooty Swallow.
The sandhill crane couple that is nesting on a small island in an inner pond has had babbies! Only about a week old, there are two of them, and we went to the viewing area (the central trail is temporarily closed to keep pesky humans away), where the “maximum 6 people” rule was, shall we say, loosely enforced. To everyone’s credit, people were quiet and letting them just do their thing. In the case of the babies, this was mostly just sitting, occasionally lifting a head up, or walking a very short distance before repeating the first two. Nic got a shot of a worm-feeding. Who doesn’t like a fresh yummy worm hand beak-delivered?
I had some issues with my camera that prompted me to use my new PACK1Portable Awesome Cleaning Kit, which consists of a repurposed earbuds case filled with cotton swabs and a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol, but troubles persisted, as you will see.
Centennial Beach
The usual very low tide at Boundary Bay.
Centennial Beach was fairly busy for a Friday afternoon. It was the last day of school, and I’m guessing they still do the half day thing, so the kids were taking advantage of the sunny weather. The pond had a few mallards, but we got some great shots of assorted dragonflies, including a couple that were…coupling. I’m not going to judge by saying the way dragonflies reproduce is freaky and terrifying, but.
We unlocked the Savannah sparrow achievement. Centennial is a pretty reliable place for seeing them, you just have to hope one lands close enough to get some good shots. In this case, we had one perch atop a sign post, which was very considerate on his part.
There were a lot of crows around, for some reason. We saw one cooling off on the ground by spreading its wings and “panting”, a few others bully some starlings out of the topmost branches of a tree, and another harassing a Northern harrier who probably got too close to some hideously rotten something-or-other the crow had down on the mudflat waiting for him.
We also saw two bunnies, the first of which gave us several excellent cute bunny poses and didn’t seem overly fussed by our presence. We aren’t raptors, so I guess that checks out.
I used the “level” feature in my iPhone’s camera app to see if it would help with my often-titled scenery shots–and it did!
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Looking east from the pier, toward the towers around Lougheed.
We ended at Piper Spit, where the wood ducks were not at all absent, though the males in particular are looking quite scruffy in some cases. The geese here were also very eerily quiet, and the cowbirds were just as weird as at Reifel. Blackbirds were more plentiful, and a bunch of rock pigeons were hanging out. The regular rains of June meant the land mass is completely submerged, and the overall higher water level also meant no shorebirds here. :sadtrombone:
It seemed to be nap time, so many of the ducks and others were napping, nestled in the shaded areas filled with comfy grass. Like Reifel, we saw no goslings here. Maybe they were over in the fields. Or gathering for the invasion I mentioned above.
Piper Spit has such a different vibe in the summer. It’s utterly pleasant and pretty, but strangely quiet compared to the height of migratory seasons in the spring and fall (roughly speaking). Still, we did get some nice shots of a chunky gray squirrel doing that classic cute squirrel pose. And we didn’t get stuck waiting behind a train.
Overall, a fine morning and afternoon of birding.
The Shots
Bumblebee on a flower.
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The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
American goldfinch
American robin
Anna’s hummingbird
Barn swallow
Bewick’s wren
Black-capped chickadees
Brown-headed cowbird
Cedar waxwing
House sparrow
Mysterious dark swallow
Red-winged blackbird
Rufous hummingbird
Savannah sparrow
Song sparrow
Spotted towhee
Tree swallow
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
Canada goose
Great blue heron
Greater yellowlegs
Killdeer
Mallard
Northern pintail (one!)
Sandhill crane
Wood duck
Common:
American crow
European starling
Seagull
Raptors:
Bald eagle
Northern harrier
Non-birds:
A chunky squirrel
Catfish (probably brown bullhead, though I am not a fishologist)
I pondered what to do today in terms of activity. Last week, I did not run due to a head/chest cold, which continues to linger on into this week. It came down to one of three options:
Take the camera and walk to Piper Spit. Round trip: 12 km.
Do a casual walk to the lake and back. Round trip: 8 km.
Do a walk to the lake, then another back, but dressed for a run and treating the walks as exercise. Round trip: 8 km.
I opted for option #3 and in fact ran a great deal of the second walk back. The weather was pleasant, with a light breeze and a mix of sun and cloud. I experienced no issues during the run part (but forgot to stretch before, whoopsie). When I first got to the lake, I briefly contemplated an actual run (even just 2.5 km) but ultimately decided I was not quite ready.
You can see a clear difference in the two walks, though, with average paces of 9:25/km and 7:39/km when I kicked it up the proverbial notch.
My Garmin watch was not overly impressed. After the walk to the lake, my training status went from Detraining to, well, it stayed at Detraining. But after the second walk (which involved a lot of running), it improved to…Unproductive. I suppose the next time it will get nudged, possibly, to Recovery.
It was nice to at least get out and get moving again.
Turtle Nesting Area at Burnaby Lake, where I have still yet to see a turtle.
Stats:
Walk 111 Average pace: 9:25 and 7:39/km Location: Brunette River trail/Burnaby Lake Distance: 4.02 and 4.04 km Time: 37:48 and 30:54 Weather: Sun and cloud Temp: 20°C Humidity: 53% Wind: light BPM: 116 and 130 Weight: 170.1 pounds Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Total distance to date: 840.71 km
I did remember to stretch before heading out, though!
