Iona Beach

Birding, June 1, 2025: Eagles in chips, blurry ships and snails between lips

(Technically, the snails were between beaks)

Where: Douglas Park (Vancouver), Iona Beach Regional Park, Terra Nova (both in Richmond), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Sunny, 13-18°C

Douglas Park

We began with a brief detour to Douglas Park in Vancouver, where a mated pair of barred owls and several large but still fluffy babbies have been seen. We did see an adult and a baby, but my shots of the latter were not much beyond “fuzzy thing in tree”. The adult is clearly an owl, though. We moved on, as there’s not really much to Douglas Park than an open field.

Iona Beach

View of the Fraser River, looking west.

It was windy as heck at Iona Beach, to the point where Nic pointed out a Savannah sparrow and I shot it, only hearing the sparrow part and thinking it was a song sparrow.

We actually saw a surprising number of birb species at Iona Beach, everything from hummingbirds to towhees, goldfinches and more. The birds were often a bit obscured by vegetation, but you take what you can get.

We also saw a bald eagle sitting atop the wood chips on one of the parked barges. It seemed quite content. I later spotted another eagle doing the same on an adjacent barge, but it left before Nic could see it and now he probably thinks I just hallucinate eagles on barges.

We also got some shots of Western tiger beetles, which are shiny and iridescent, and later spotted a couple of them doing the nasty. It’s still that time of year.

I have yet to see a live crab at Iona, and that didn’t change today, either. We did see several ex-crabs on the beach, including the shell of one that had been flipped over and looked reminiscent of an ashtray, filling with sand. An inglorious end.

Terra Nova

Buttercup field at Terra Nova.

It was still quite windy at Terra Nova. I shot planes, even while my camera was still in animal subject detection mode. It worked reasonably well on planes. We did not see too many birds here. Even the pond that reliably has one or two grebes in it was empty. The scenery is always nice, though. Nic shot many swallows. I think I shot one? It was blurry.

We saw a Cybertruck in the parking lot advertising AI slop on its side. Fitting. For some reason, we saw four Cybertrucks today, which made me wonder if the Apocalypse was nigh or something.

Before we could be raptured, we left and headed to our final destination (!), Tlahutum.

Tlahutum Regional Park

Coquitlam River, on a gorgeous late spring afternoon.

We saw more Eastern kingbirds here than I’ve ever seen before, and got plenty of snazzy shots. Cedar waxwings were in abundance, too, including a pair doing that adorable mating ritual where they hand off gifts to each other, usually berries. I guess there were no berries handy, as this pair was swapping the remains of a snail. Not quite as cute as a big berry, but still kind of cute!

We also saw a single Canada goose in the main pond, which is unusual. They don’t seem to like Tlahutum, probably due to its marshy nature.

The community gardens did not yield too much today, but there were swallows and the odd crow. Maybe by mid-afternoon it was too hot, and the birds were hiding in the shade. This is probably where my ears got burned (I put sunblock on everything but my ears, which I forgot).

At my suggestion, we opted out of Piper Spit. I was at 20,000+ steps at this point and didn’t expect to see much new at Burnaby Lake, though there is always the chance to see more babbies. Next time!

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 robin
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Cedar waxwing
  • Cliff swallow
  • Common yellowthroat
  • Eastern kingbird
  • Flycatcher (?)
  • Goldfinch
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Rufous hummingbird
  • Spotted towhee
  • Savannah sparrow
  • Song sparrow
  • Tree swallow
  • Violet-green swallow
  • White-crowned sparrow
  • Yellow warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Canada goose
  • Double-crested cormorant
  • Gadwall
  • Great blue heron
  • Mallard
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Assorted gulls
  • Rock pigeon (?)

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle
  • Northern harrier (?)

Non-birds:

  • Bees and beetles. So many beetles.
  • Specifically, the Western tiger beetle
  • A satin moth caterpillar
  • Dragonflies
  • Ladybug

Birding, January 25, 2025: Towhee Town, Junco Junction

Where: Richmond Nature House, Iona Beach Regional Park (Richmond)
Weather: Mostly sunny, 3-6°C

The Outing

Richmond Nature House

Some of the feeders, squirrel gorging at the central one.

The nice thing about Richmond Nature House is the birds gather nicely together for you, thanks to a bunch of feeders arranged behind a fence just north of the house itself. It’s like a birding buffet.

Despite the cooler temperatures, there was no wind here, so it felt fine. As before, juncos were very well-represented, and towhees were also rather abundant. We did see a nuthatch, but it didn’t stay around long, though a hairy woodpecker gave us plenty of opportunity for photos. Squirrels of various types were back gorging themselves in the feeders and even the rat was back, nibbling at seeds on the ground with its creepy yet cute forepaws, which kind of look like little human hands.

A number of Anna’s hummingbirds were present, too, and I actually got some decent shots of them in flight (albeit with blurred wings, since I was letting the camera do all the heavy lifting).

In all, we got a very nice set of birb photos here.

Iona Beach

Shot as we were leaving, with the tide starting to go out. The foam at the bottom-right is frozen.

I wasn’t expecting to see a lot of birds at Iona, and the wind picked up, so it was a tad cold. The tide was also in, which meant the opportunities for seeing shorebirds was greatly reduced–or so we thought!

There were a bunch of herons ringing the main pond, like silent stabby sentinels. Unfortunately, most were a little too far away, but at least they don’t jump all over the place when you’re shooting them.

Our trek past the pond and through the wooded area yielded no birds, but we did see a pair of bald eagles land on a log boom as we swung by the river. Further up were a trio of cormorants resting on some pilings, along with some gadwalls and wigeons (to be clear, the gadwalls and wigeons were not on the pilings with the cormorants, though that would have made for some very interesting shots).

There was also a crow standing on top of a sign, acting very dramatic. We took pictures, it seemed satisfied, then flew off.

Just before heading out, we saw a very round song sparrow, which are probably the birbiest of birbs around here. We thought we were done, but as we started driving off, we saw the tide was now beginning to go out and lo, there were shorebirds!

We got some shots of dunlins and killdeer tooling around along the shore, as well as a look at probably hundreds of pintails gathered in one of the ponds adjacent to the sewer/water plant. Most were snoozing. Presumably it doesn’t smell that bad in there. Or pintails have a lousy sense of smell.

The biggest surprise, though, was an area of bushes and trees along the pipe leading to the jetty, where a surprisingly large number of ruby-crowned kinglets were flitting about. We both managed to get some decent shots of them, which is normally something of a miracle, especially for me.

I seemed to have better luck with Nic’s camera this time. I’m not sure what I did differently, though maybe having full use of both arms and hands helped. Whatever it was, it was nice to not have a giant boatload of blurry photos to sort through (I had a smaller boatload of blurry photos, but most were pretty decent!)

The Shots

Soon™

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

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Dark-eyed junco
  • Fox sparrow
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • Hairy woodpecker
  • House finch
  • Purple finch
  • Red-breasted nuthatch
  • Ruby-crowned kinglet
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Steller’s jay

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American wigeon
  • Common merganser
  • Double-crested cormorant
  • Dunlin
  • Gadwall
  • Great blue heron
  • Green-winged teal
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail

Common:

  • American crow
  • Assorted gulls
  • Rock pigeon

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle
  • Northern harrier

Non-birds:

  • Gray squirrel
  • Black squirrel
  • Douglas squirrel
  • A rat. An American rat? I am not an expert on rat types.

Birding, August 5, 2024: Shadow over Iona Beach

Where: Iona Beach (Richmond), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 18-25°C

The Outing

Iona Beach

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.

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American robin
  • Barn swallow
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • House sparrow
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Canada goose
  • Great blue heron
  • Mallard
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • European starling
  • Rock pigeon
  • Ring-billed seagull

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle (immature)

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Dragonflies all up in the hizzy
  • Grasshoppers (it’s that time of year)

Birding, July 6, 2024: The best camera is the one in your hands

Where: Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Iona Beach (Richmond)
Weather: Sunny, 23-27°C

The Outing

Tlahutum Regional Park

Coquitlam River, aka the desktop background shot.

I am writing this some five days later for reasons, so I’m doing my best to remember what we saw and where we saw it.

There were birds.

We started out, uncharacteristically, at Tlahutum Regional Park, hoping the morning would yield more birds and birbs. We passed a woman exiting with a giant, bone-crushing telephoto lens, and I asked her if she had seen anything exotic. She then offered some tips on seeing somewhat exotic birds, so we ventured from our usual route to lead west and north, roughly following the path of the Coquitlam River. We spotted a black-headed grosbeak! It was a little high up and the light was not great, but it gave us opportunity to get shots as it chirped noisily, before darting off. A pair of cyclists saw us and one actually turned back to report a bittern sighting in the adjacent creek. But they had apparently spooked it into hiding behind some tall grass and we never actually saw it.

But in the same creek was a mallard! But also a green heron. Being a heron, we were able to get a good number of shots before it flew off, though it was a little tricksy shooting down into the creek over all the nature in the way.

We continued on a bit further, spotting a few not-very-close cedar waxwings, an Eastern kingbird and more.

Overall, a pretty nice haul. Tlahutum is the one place where I wish I had a better than 250 mm telephoto lens. It’s fine for places like Reifel, where the birds are closer, but at Tlahutum the birds are rarely close. Alas, to dream.

After putting on more mileage than intended, we headed out to Iona Beach.

Iona Beach

I heard you like seaweed, so I put seaweed in your seaweed.

The Ferguson Road realignment was surprisingly complete, or complete enough to open. This isn’t directly related to birding, but it is a nice improvement for the area, taking a narrow road adjacent to the airport, moving it farther away, and expanding it to include multiple bike lanes (there were none before, nor even any shoulders on the old stretch of road), providing a wider, safer route to the beach. It should be fully finished in the next few months.

But then birds! But first, bugs. The sand wasps have returned and were busily digging and ducking into their burrows, where they do secret sand wasp things. Fortunately, they don’t seem fussed by nosy humans walking by (I also brought Deep Woods Off!, but we did not need it–yet!)

The pond area yielded a few birds, but mostly off in the distance.

We moved to the beach and took advantage of an especially low low tide to get into the gap in the jetty that allows fishies to now swim through (when the tide is not especially low). On the way back, we moved further away from the shore, always opting for a clear path that led us out more. This was inevitably going to end with us having to cross through muck at some point, and we did, gingerly stepping over slippery yellow mud, vast piles of vibrant green seaweed, and the occasional bit of flowing water. I got my shoes thoroughly mucky, which is how it goes at Iona.

The birding was a bit whelming here, though there are always nice vistas to shoot. I shot them all.

Strangely, the best bird shot I got of the day was not with my Canon EOS M50, but my creaky old iPhone 12, when we were getting ready to leave. We had both front doors open, and a blackbird landed first on the driver side door, then took off and landed on the passenger side. I managed to get four photos before it flew off. I don’t know if it thought there was secret seed in the car or something, but it definitely had that “I just might hop inside!” look to it, and that would have been quite interesting, I’m sure.

The best shot was one I got just as it began to take off. I present it here, gallery-free!

Red-winged blackbird demonstrating why it is named thus.

In the end, not a ton of great shots, but some nice rare sightings to compensate. Also, no sunburn, woo.

The Shots

Soon™

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

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American goldfinch
  • American robin
  • Barn swallow
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Black-headed grosbeak
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Cedar waxwing
  • Eastern kingbird
  • House finch
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Tree swallow

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American bittern (allegedly)
  • Great blue heron
  • Green heron
  • Mallard
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • European starling
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • None

Non-birds:

  • Sand wasps
  • Assorted pollinators

Birding, May 11, 2024: It burns

Where: Tsawwassen Beach Trail (Tsawwassen), Iona Beach (Richmond), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 15-25°C

The Outing

Today was kind of a weird birding day, with maybe the greatest number of steps to the smallest number of birds seen. Part of that is due to migrants having left for the warmer months, but we also didn’t see a number of the usual birbs, like black-capped chickadees. Also, the last coot at Piper spit has apparently finally joined its brethren to make more freaky-footed offspring elsewhere.

I logged just over 30,000 steps and despite putting on sunblock (twice!), still managed to get a bit burned in a few spots. Not too bad, really, and the second application was too late to help (I kind of knew this as I put it on, but put it on, anyway). As you might suspect, it was sunny and quite warm, rising to at least 25C by mid-afternoon. We started out at Tsawwassen Beach Trail, or more accurately, the gargantuan Tsawwassen Mills mall, where we parked. We walked to the beach trail from there (only a few blocks) and covered probably around 11 km there alone, looking for shorebirds or any birds. And we did see some, including killdeer, some gulls, barn swallows and some smaller shorebirds that were too far off to positively ID (I did not get shots). And that was the main issue I had with Tsawwassen–we didn’t see much, and what we did see tended to be well off the shore (the tide was extremely low). Nic did get multiple chances to shoot Savannah sparrows, but they regularly foiled him by having their backs turned, or the lighting was bad and whatnot. Also, the kelp was really stinky.

I got some good shots of tires, though. And also some nice pics of a couple of cute marmots and a juvenile heron who wasn’t fully-developed yet, but already had perfect stabbyface eyes. And I would be remiss to not mention a trio of female buffleheads in a pond that apparently decided migrating isn’t for them. They were diving and swimming and having a good ol’ time without any pesky men ducks around.

We next went to Iona Beach, hoping to find a yellow-headed blackbird that has been seen in the area. We did not see it. We did see more swallows and regular blackbirds, but again, not much in the way of shorebirds. The tide was so low that the first cut in the north jetty (so the fishies can swim through) was passable by just walking across it. The most abundant creature was probably crabs and, well, they were all dismembered and dead.

Undaunted, we moved on to Tlahutum and its community gardens. We were teased by one crow, who almost let us shoot it up close, then flew off, probably doing the crow equivalent of a Nelson “Ha ha1”, but other than that it was mostly swallows again. I’m not complaining. Swallows are pretty and fabulous, but a little more variety would have been nice. We only went as far as the bridge over the Coquitlam River, as by this time we had walked about 5,000 km.

We made our last stop at Piper Spit and got a nice treat there–a Wilson’s pharalope, which could have been a bit closer, but gave us plenty of time to capture it on virtual film as it waded through the shallows, often with a smaller shorebird in tow (a least sandpiper, apparently). We’re outside the pharalope’s breeding range, so they are considered rare here. Neat! There was also goose drama, of course, but even fewer bird species than the last time. The remaining coot decided to scoot, I didn’t see any Northern pintails, even though they allegedly don’t migrate, but the one Sandhill crane was still hanging around. And several geese families had their new broods in a fenced off area adjacent to the park, which is a pretty smart way to keep the goslings clear of twerpy little kids (and adults).

In all, it wasn’t a bad day of birding, but the variety and quality of my shots were both a bit lacking. At least I know the extra spots to apply sunblock for next time.

The Shots

Soon™

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
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • Marsh wren
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Savannah sparrow
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Tree swallow

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Bufflehead duck
  • Canada goose
  • Great blue heron
  • Killdeer
  • Least sandpiper
  • Mallard
  • Sandhill crane
  • Wilson’s pharalope
  • Western seagull
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle

Non-birds:

  • Several squirrels
  • Two marmots or one teleporting marmot
  • Butterflies!
  • A fat bumblebee
  • Those weird beetles again at Iona Beach
  • Tires (more than you’d think)

Birding, April 20, 2024: The Wire (Spotted Towhee Edition)

Where: Iona Beach, Terra Nova (Richmond), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sun and cloud mix, 14-20°C

The Outing

The day promised sun, with increasing cloud in the afternoon and a chance of showers by around 6 p.m., so we were good for birding. The forecast was…mostly right. It clouded up earlier than expected, and the first few drops came just as we were wrapping up at Piper Spit, but it was very mild–shorts weather, even, though I didn’t wear mine, because I thought it might be cool by the water, which was not the case. And because I don’t think of April as being a big sunblock weather month, I didn’t wear any sunblock and got a little sunburned. I’ll learn to wear sunblock in April eventually.

We started at Iona Beach, where the sky stayed clear for most of our visit. The highlights included a massive congregation of dunlins along the shoreline of the Fraser River, just east of the barge parking lot. They have black patches on their bellies when in their breeding colours (most were), which are equally cute and weird. The tide was very low, but on this day we opted to not go way out wandering the flats. We did observe what was perhaps the largest collection of crab parts I’ve seen at Iona. I mean, there are always crab parts, but today it was like the remnants of a crabfest.

Right near the start we noticed some bright yellow flowers that seemed odd, given their placement, and the flowers turned out to be a goldfinch, which promptly took off once we successfully identified it. The goldfinch thus became Nic’s white whale for the rest of the time we were at Iona. They thwarted him at every turn.

I shot a lot of planes. Like, a lot.

We next went to Terra Nova, where, thanks partly to people leaving strategically-placed deposits of seed along the trails (which you are not supposed to do), we saw a lot more birbs than usual, including another banded golden-crowned sparrow (not the same as Bandy at Reifel, as the bands were different. And yes, we checked.) We also saw a spotted towhee sporting bands and a wire (one golden crown also had a wire). They don’t seem to mind the wires. Maybe they pipe in soothing music through them in the evening. A rarely-seen Bewick’s wren could be heard singing in the trees, and we spotted it, though the angles were not great. Still, it’s always nice to see birbs you don’t come across that often. Unless they are goldfinches mocking you.

Next we went to the Richmond Nature House. Actually, we went to the parking lot, which was full, turned around and left. They have construction going on there, so the already-small parking lot is currently even smaller. Worse, the final spot was taken by a Tesla. Boo hiss. But maybe they have stopped filling the feeders, so we didn’t miss anything. That’s what I’m telling myself, anyway.

We wrapped up at Piper Spit, which felt a bit weird to me on this day. A lot of the winter migrants have left, so the overall population is down, and while there are new arrivals like cowbirds and swallows, the place still feels quieter (the migratory waterfowl tend to be in greater numbers than the songbirds). By now it had clouded over, so the light was not great, but the change in conditions did seem to scare off a lot of people, because it wasn’t that crowded. A young couple were on a bench at the end of the pier making out, perhaps not realizing they were not at home on the sofa. If I’d had any bird seed, I would have gently sprinkled it around them, so the blackbirds could have joined in on their fun.

Even the Canada goose drama was at a minimum. There was still some, though, because you can’t have Canada geese without drama. Speaking of drama, I just missed getting a shot of a heron in flight taking a poop. This may be the most dramatic midair pooping in the world, at least in terms of volume. I witnessed it through my viewfinder, I just wasn’t quick enough to get the shot. Maybe it’s better that way.

Just as we headed out, the first few drops of rain began to fall, so our timing was pretty much spot-on as we wrapped up.

The Shots

Soon™

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

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American goldfinch
  • American robin
  • Bewick’s wren
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Chipping sparrow
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Ruby-crowned kinglet
  • Rufous hummingbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Tree swallow
  • White-crowned sparrow
  • Yellow-rumped warbler

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American coot
  • Canada goose
  • Cormorant
  • Dunlin
  • Green-winged teal
  • Great blue heron
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Sandhill crane
  • Scaup
  • Western sandpiper
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • European starling
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle

Non-birds:

  • Several squirrels
  • A wasp
  • A weird little beetle that Nic found adorable

Birding, March 15, 2024: Shoveller? I hardly knew her!

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Richmond Nature House, Iona Beach (Richmond), Piper Spit. Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Mostly sunny 4-12°C

The Outing

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.

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American robin
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Dark-eyed junco
  • Fox sparrow
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • House sparrow
  • Marsh wren
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Tree sparrow

Waterfowl:

  • American coot
  • American wigeon
  • Bufflehead
  • Canada goose
  • Dowitcher
  • Great blue heron
  • Green-winged teal
  • Hooded merganser
  • Killdeer
  • Mallard
  • Night heron
  • Northern pintail
  • Northern shoveller
  • Ring-necked duck
  • Sandhill crane
  • Scaup
  • Trumpeteer swan
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle
  • Northern harrier

Non-birds:

  • Squirrels big and small

Birding, January 26, 2024: A window of opportunity

Where: Iona Beach, Richmond Nature House, Terra Nova (Richmond)
Weather: Cloudy, 7-10°C

The Outing

We opted for a rare weekday outing this week because the weather otherwise looked to be more of The Rains (which turned out to be accurate). We seized our window of opportunity and actually had pretty decent light for much of the day and zero precipitation, woo.

It was an all-Richmond outing today, and that meant planes. And helicopters. And then more planes. I shot more planes than chickadees. To be fair, planes travel in nice, predictable paths, which makes them a lot easier to shoot.

Iona Beach had an unusually dense population of herons nestled in the reeds around the main pond, all of them sleeping or looking stabby. A few flew off, and I managed to capture one pooping in flight. Herons are fairly large birds, so the volume they dispense is…impressive.

Elsewhere, we saw song sparrows, a finch and various waterfowl, including a merganser that was a little too far away to get good shots of. We also fell yet again into the Iona Beach trap of “walk back along the beach, run out of beach, then figure out how to keep going without getting your feet wet.” We got our feet wet.

Along the way, we saw a lot of gulls diving for goodies and got some good action shots there.

Next up was the Richmond Nature House, where we actually found parking. Yay. The feeders were doing good business, with approximately one million juncos dominating. At least until the towhees wanted some seed. We were pleasantly surprised by the appearance of a female and male downy woodpecker, both of whom went for the suet. We watched the fame stuff the suet into little holes in a nearby tree. That woodpecker is probably more organized than I am.

One squirrel was present and managed to squeeze itself into a feeder where it gorged on and off. It would sometimes come out and wade around in the water (most of the area around the feeders was a bit flooded from the recent snowmelt) to find soggy but easy-to-access seeds there.

We ended at Terra Nova, where we saw more planes than birds. I was happy, Nic less so. But we did get a nice treat, as the pond where we usually see a grebe or two not only had a grebe, it was much closer than usual, allowing for our best, grebiest shots yet.

I experienced some issues with my camera after swapping batteries, which may have been a coincidence, or it could be the camera just needed to be cleaned. Or both. It wasn’t due to the cold, though, as it got up to a downright mild 10C, a sharp contrast to recent outings. I’ll be thinking of spring now, which means more snow is on the way, probably.

Terra Nova is also where we saw this weirdly yellowish looking bank of cloud along the horizon, out on the strait, the kind you’d see in a horror movie, with ships full of undead pirates sailing out if. We just saw the cloud, though.

Overall, a fine outing, despite said glitches, with better than expected weather and light that was largely better than expected.

The Shots
Soon™

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Dark-eyed junco (x 1 million)
  • Fox sparrow
  • Downy woodpecker
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • House finch
  • Northern flicker
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee

Waterfowl:

  • American coot
  • American wigeon
  • Great blue heron
  • Hooded merganser
  • Mallard
  • Ring-necked duck
  • Pied billed grebe
  • Snow goose
  • Surf scoter
  • Trumpeter swan

Common:

  • American crow
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle

Non-birds:

  • One very robust squirrel

Birding, October 22, 2023: Snow geese in the mushroom kingdom

Where: Iona Beach, Terra Nova, Richmond Nature House, Garry Point (all in Richmond)
Weather: Overcast, 12-13C

The Outing

It was our first truly fall bird outing of the season. I wore pants! I needed them. And not just for the sake of decency.

We had a quest: to find snow geese. We knew they are in the area, but wanted to see them up close and honking. Our first stop was Iona Beach and voila–snow geese! A small group was snoozing and milling about just north of the parking lot. We got our shots in early, but more is always better. We did an abbreviated tour of the beach, as this was not our usual birding day, and saw a lot more snow geese on the far side of the Fraser River, along with cormorants, various gulls and ducks. Also, a lot of giant mushrooms, no doubt benefiting from all the recent rain.

When we circled back, more snow geese had arrived, forming two groups, so we did indeed get more shots.

The tide was in again for the second time in a row at Iona, and it was cold and windy, a big change from our last visit.

We next ventured to Terra Nova, but alas, no snow geese. We did find some solace in a pair of grebes dunking around in a pond covered in red slimy gunk, apparently changing colour for the season. They didn’t seem to mind. Also, there was an assortment of juncos, golden crowns and song sparrows near…the washrooms. Probably just a coincidence.

I shot a few jets taking off and disappearing into the clouds, which looks kind of eerie. The stuff from which bad horror stories are made.

After Terra Nova, we popped by the Richmond Nature House. The feeders were full and the joint was jumping. There were chickadees, both black-capped and chestnut-backed, juncos, towhees, house finches, song sparrows, golden crowns, a Steller’s jay (neat!) and probably every squirrel in Richmond. Everyone was flitting about, diving into the feeder boxes or grabbing seed to go from the hanging feeders. One squirrel actually squeezed inside the cage surrounding a hanging feeder and proceeded to gorge itself.

We ended with a very cooperative Anna’s hummingbird sitting in a nearby tree, singing and showing off its gorget.

Our final destination (not to be confused with the clever/terrible horror movies) was Garry Point. Here we did see more snow geese–but they were off in the distance, beyond where we could go without being able to fly ourselves. Which we cannot do.

But we did round out the afternoon with a few more scenery shots, and a few robins and shorebirds.

In all, it was a good outing, with plenty of birbs, birds, and snow geese, just as we’d hoped. And it didn’t rain!

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American robin
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Chestnut-backed chickadee
  • Dark-eyed junco
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • House finch
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Steller’s Jay

Waterfowl:

  • Cormorant
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Pied-billed grebe
  • Mallard
  • Snow goose

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • Northern harrier

Non-birds:

  • Black, gray and Douglas squirrels
  • Kites and various fixed-wing birds in and around YVR

I did it, I made a photo gallery!

Yes, I finally got off my lazy butt and actually went through the photos I took on Saturday (October 7) and put together a gallery, which you can observe by looking right below:

Birding, October 7, 2023: Wet feet and The Chickadee Empire

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Iona Beach (Richmond)
Weather: Sunny, 12-21C

The Outing

The day started bright and early at Reifel, and it was indeed bright–a clear and ultimately warm (possibly record-setting) sunny day.

We immediately got shots of hummingbirds as several duelled or took turns going to the feeders, then moved on to find a lot of the usual birds not in the usual spots, or just absent altogether. We only saw a single pair of wood ducks, which is kind of weird, and the Canada geese were keeping themselves confined to several specific areas instead of going wherever they wanted, as they usually do.

And Chickadee Country was now Chickadee Empire. I have never before and may never again take so many shots of chickadees. To say it was a target-rich environment would be an understatement–they were everywhere, and in large numbers, so large that they seemed unconcerned by our stinky human presence, making it possible to get some very close-up shots.

The blackbirds were also ever-present, and eating seeds in their usual “wear all the food on your face” manner, which makes for great pics.

The four avocets were still in the big main pond, but were a little too far from shore to get good shots, alas. We did have better luck with the mostly-snoozing yellowlegs near the entrance, plus one that had again gone rogue and was looking for food along the shore of an inner pond, mingling with the ducks and geese.

We also saw a turtle, and for a time were confused about which end was its butt. This happens when you can pull your body parts into a shell.

Some new arrivals included fox sparrows and a ring-necked duck, plus the snow geese are back, though we only saw them far off in the distance.

After wrapping up at Reifel, we headed to Iona Beach, where the tide was…in! This was very unusual for us, and it meant the odds of seeing shorebirds were low and the odds of walking out on the tidal flats were zero, unless you wanted to wade in up to your hips (spoiler: I did a variation on this later in our visit).

The pond area did not yield much, save for some b;blackbirds, but we saw a nice selection of sparrows along the trail that leads toward the north jetty. Feeling saucy due to the summer-like weather, we pressed on farther than usual, to the first cut in the jetty that was put in to allow salmon and other fish to pass through.

After getting shots of gulls and scenery and things, we turned around for our long journey back to the car. Because the tide was in, we only had a narrow strip of shore to walk along. I walked a little close to the tide washing up a few times, getting my feet a little damp, then grossly miscalculated one stretch and got my feet just plain soaked.

In a way, it was a relief, because it meant I no longer had to be careful and could just stomp through the tide like a little kid. Which I did. We reached one area where we had to ascend up and over bramble and logs to continue through, and this is where Nic’s leg met a sharp thorn for the second bird outing in a row. The blood sacrifice made, we ventured on without further injury.

In the end, we both got some very nice shots, equally struggled with focus issues (with the cameras, not with what we were doing), but enjoyed being out on what was really a glorious early fall day.

The Shots

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American blackbird
  • American robin
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Fox sparrow
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • House finch
  • House sparrow
  • Northern flicker (probably)
  • Savannah sparrow
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • White-throated sparrow
  • Yellow-rumped warbler

Waterfowl:

  • American avocet
  • American coot
  • American wigeon
  • Canada goose
  • Cormorants (a pair flying overhead)
  • Great blue heron
  • Greater yellowlegs
  • Green-winged teal
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Northern shoveler
  • Ring-necked duck
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Glaucous-winged gull
  • Ring-billed gull
  • Rock pigeon

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle
  • Northern harrier

Non-birds:

  • Black squirrels
  • Various aircraft
  • Wasps