Where: Heron Cove, Pitt River, Grant Narrows Park at Pitt Lake, Sturgeon Slough (Pitt Meadows)
Weather: Partly cloudy, 17-22°C
It was a day of sloughs, creeks, rivers and lakes under a mostly sunny sky and temperatures that actually felt kind of like summer. Novel!
We started near Heron Cove and the name did not disappoint, as we saw two herons standing in a tree, an adult and a juvenile. The juvenile was acting strange and silly. You know how teens are.
From there we walked a trail that got more and more overgrown, showing a clear line on how far most people were willing to explore. We saw a ladybug on a frond of wild grass and after my camera refused to focus on it, I went manual and actually got a really nice shot. I’ll have to experiment more with manual mode on targets that are not madly flitting about.
Returning, we saw our first lifers, along with about a dozen other photographers with Very Big Lenses, namely a yellow warbler pair (you can probably guess what they look like) and a Bullock’s oriole.
Walking the other way, we saw our third (!) lifer, a black-headed grosbeak, which was sufficiently obscured that we never did see its face.
We later moved to Grant Narrows Park, at the south end of Pitt Lake. We didn’t have to pay for the pay parking because it was full, and parked with several dozen others alongside the road leading in. From here we got to see an osprey nest, which was just a little too far off the shore, even for a 400 mm lens. We could still see the baby dinosaurs in the nest, though.
Further up, a viewing tower was closed because it has been completely and utterly claimed by cliff swallows, who build these cute little cavity nests out of mud. Almost every nest was occupied and there were quite a few swallows flying around the tower and the general area. In fact, the only species we didn’t see that even shows up in this area were cave swallows.
Nic got an awesome set of shots of an adult feeding a giant bug to a younger swallow, which I totally missed because I was shooting scenery or something. The number of birds here surprised me.
We ended the tour of Pitt Meadows by walking along the Sturgeon Slough, where we saw a few kingfishers, including one trying to gulp down a large meal. We followed a pair of common yellowthroats for a bit, watched a big spider possibly catch a bug, watched a pair of butterflies getting it on, strolled past the inevitable golf course, and took many shots of the gorgeous scenery.
In all, a fine outing in which the lack of steady sun was probably a good thing, given we were in the open most of the 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
- Barn swallow
- Black-headed grosbeak (lifer)
- Brown-headed cowbird
- Bullock’s oriole (lifer)
- Cedar waxwing
- Cliff swallow
- Common yellowthroat
- Orange-crowned warbler
- Red-winged blackbird
- Rough-winged swallow
- Song sparrow
- Tree swallow
- Violet-green swallow
- White-crowned sparrow
- Yellow warbler (lifer)
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
- Canada goose
- Eastern kingfisher
- Great blue heron
- Mallard
Common:
- Some gulls
Raptors:
- American osprey
Non-birds:
- Dragonflies
- A damselfly
- Various bees
