The darker green reeds on the right are new and completely block off the pond, which continues behind them.
Today was a shorter outing because Nic needs his beauty nap before volleyball tryouts tonight. As such, we only went to Reifel, which was bird-deficient across vast stretches of the ponds and trails. Still, there were birbs to be seen.
The weather was cooler and cloudy, so the sunblock stayed in the bottle as we hit the trails.
Among the regulars, we also spotted a Northern shoveller, lending credence to them not really migrating away, just lying low and hiding…somewhere nearby? We also saw some wigeons, so at least two of them are back. The coots can’t be far behind.
The cranes were dining near one of the ponds we don’t usually see them hanging out at, along with several groups of adorable ducklings, providing at least one target-rich environment.
The geese were strangely reserved, with minimal honking. It always unnerves me when they’re quiet.
The male mallards and wood ducks are looking increasingly ratty, as they no longer have to keep up the good looks, with mating season over. The female ducks must now tolerate their beer bellies and mullet-free heads.
The biggest change since the last visit a few weeks ago, other than the relative absence of birds, was the marshland given over to being almost completely green now. It is very lush. Speaking of lush, this new type of reed/grass seems to be growing all over the place now, including spots where it is now obscuring some views. It’s kind of weird. I wonder if it’s invasive.
Despite the smaller number of birds, we did get some fine shots and there were turtles at the end. And it was nice to not have to slop greasy goop all over my exposed flesh, even if it does make me smell pretty.
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
Today’s birding was X-rated, due to everything from dragonflies to swallows and sandhill cranes were getting it on. It was quite scandalous.
We started out at Reifel, where it seemed like most of the people there were Serious Birders and Their Very Gigantic Lenses. Even my 400 mm lens started feeling puny. On the other hand, I don’t have to stand 500 m away from a bird to get a shot.
We saw some baby ducks, which was fun, along with more goslings. Several male cowbirds were working it hard on the females, but the women were just not impressed.
In news both sad and horny, the Sandhill cranes have already abandoned their island nest, which has since been claimed by a goose as they expand their honking empire across the sanctuary. This likely means that any chicks they had did not survive. Undeterred, we witnessed them engage in a spontaneous (to us) mating ritual, so perhaps they are priming to try once again. Good luck, cranes!
Not to be left out, a pair of tree swallows did the nasty in a tree, which is the logical place for birds to make out. There was no fuss or muss here, just some very quick action, then each went about their business.
Shorebirds were finally spotted again in one of the big ponds–dowitchers, it looked like–but they were far off. Boo. And we only saw a single heron, which matches the number of turtles we saw as well.
In the cute department, apart from all the babbies, was a house sparrow fledgling, eating alongside a possible parent and looking delightfully scruffy.
Centennial Beach
Very low tide at Boundary Bay.
The tide was extremely low, so the odds of seeing shorebirds here were also extremely low, but we did see a single killdeer, more baby ducks and a crow amusing itself by dropping some manmade thingamabob from high up above the rocky beach.
We also saw a house sparrow nab a crunchy winged insect of some sort atop a concrete block near to us.
I actually can’t recall seeing much else. It was one of the least bird-filled visits to Centennial in recent memory.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
By the time we got to Piper Spit, the sky had grown dark and ominous.
We ended at Piper spit and by this time, the sun was mostly covered by clouds, the wind had picked up and the No Bird Feeding Due to Bear in Area sign was up, which everyone obviously ignored.
It was too late to visit the Nature House by the time we arrived, due to Google Maps sending us on a very indirect route from Centennial Beach, but we did see about a billion more goslings, the Sandhill crane was present yet again (though standing in bad light) and more cowbirds were trying to get it on.
The lake level was way up after recent showers, so shorebirds were absent yet again. We had to make due with pigeons, a squirrel and the usual waterfowl.
Overall, it was a fine outing, and I got some snazzy shots, particularly at Reifel, where I had my R7 out for the first time..
The Shots
Shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18-150 mm kit lens and 100-400 mm telephoto.
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Boundary Bay (Delta), Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) Weather: Sunny, windy 12-18°C
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Rusty the pipe in the slowly-greening marshland.
Reifel was mild, breezy and packed full of people. I think I saw more people than birds.
The geese were quiet until they weren’t. Once one starts honking, the GHM1Goose Hive Mind takes over and they all honk.
We saw a few pintails, so they haven’t all left yet, but chances are decent these may be the last we see until they return next migration. Goodbye, pointy-tailed butts!
We saw a few Sandhill cranes, two of them on their little “making babbies” island, until one departed for the shore where it hung out with the aforementioned geese. Among other winter refugees, we also saw a few scaups, though their numbers have dwindled, too.
Making up for it were swallows and plenty of them, including some that may have been barn swallows but might have been something else, but were probably barn swallows.
There were definitely others that were barn swallows.
And even though one of the bird signs at the sanctuary identifies them as a local (or at least regularly visiting) species, we saw cinnamon teals for the first time: a male and female pair in a pond near the viewing tower. The male is a very bright orange, with piercing red eyes. They each have big bills reminiscent of shovellers, but smaller. The male especially was in very serious dabbling mode, constantly dunking his head.
We also saw an adorable pair of Least sandpipers at one of the inner ponds, the first time I think we’ve seen them at Reifel.
We heard and saw marsh wrens again, underscoring that the best time to see a marsh wren is when he’s horny. Come summer, they’ll be nearly-impossible to spot again.
In all, a pretty good outing, though again, the number of people milling about was noticeable. Also, I felt inadequate with all the people carrying lenses half as long as I am.
Boundary Bay
Looking southeast toward the bay, with bonus chairs.
The main quest here was to find a common yellowthroat, with a side of Savannah sparrow. Mission accomplished on both, though most of the time they were far off and the shots were not great.
We did get a pair of nice matching burns on our necks, though, as I brought sunblock, then thought it was a good idea to just leave it in the car. I am very smart.
While we slowly burned, we observed a few other birds, mostly swallows, what seemed like an endless supply of herons flying overhead, bald eagles circling about or sitting on far-off logs, and a robin or two, which would usually move just as I was lining up a shot. I took photos of the golf course, instead, as I was fairly confident it would not suddenly fly off on me.
There was also construction equipment out and aboot as they are expanding the width and possibly the height of the dyke in one section for reasons. As it was the weekend, the equipment was idle. I took pictures. Again, the equipment was close and very still.
Piper Spit
A few errant lily pads showing. In a few months, nearly the entire surface will be covered in them.
Sufficiently burned, we ended as we do most times at Piper Spit. No pintails or coots here, and the scaup population was quite low. There were plenty of geese, a few gulls and the usual gangs of wood ducks and mallards. We saw one green-winged teal. Maybe there were more?
There were a lot of people here, too, including a very bossy little kid shouting orders to his family like, “Get your camera!” One kid decided to kind of play with his giant hat instead of wear it and dropped it off the pier. His father helped him get it out. He’s lucky there weren’t more gulls around. They’d totally go for a hat.
As it happened, this is where I learned the limits of the battery in Nic’s old Sony camera. After 691 shots, I got the “Battery exhausted” message and had to resort to taking scenery shots with my 107-year-old iPhone. Admittedly, we were close to wrapping up, so I didn’t miss out on much, really.
Overall, a nice day, with maybe bigger crowds than would be ideal, but with unexpected delights along the way, like the cinnamon teals and sandpipers.
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) Weather: Cloudy, some sun, 11-16°C
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Endless marshland and a hazy blue sky.
The weather was downright pleasant today. Nic wore shorts! I did not. Maybe next time the weather is nice.
We got to Reifel early and given the weather, it was pretty busy. Among the many people was local bird photographer Liron Gertsman, who I recognized as he and his groupies/friends walked past up and went to the top of the viewing tower. I spotted him due to his adorable baby beard. He probably won several awards while at the top of the tower for photography, these things just seem to happen to him.
Meanwhile, on the ground, we saw a good mix of birds. The shoveller numbers seem to be thinning, but we encountered many a YARG (Yet Another Random Goose) as they were scattered all over the place.
The tree swallows are back, looking like shiny little penguins and setting up home in assorted bird boxes. Marsh wrens were singing their little hearts out and a few of them appeared long enough for us to get some decent shots. The even harder-to-shoot golden-crowned kinglets were also flitting about and amazingly, several stopped long enough to make up for the hundred or so blurry or not-quite-there shots. It’s always nice to be reviewing your photos and encounter a good shot only a few photos in.
We saw two Sandhill cranes, though they were apart–one adult and one rather vocal juvenile. I wonder why the family is split up.
The drama this time came courtesy of a cantankerous coot, who took umbrage to a duck, stretched up to full height (and looking very chicken-like) and doing a kind of karate kick with one of its impressively freaky feet to a nearby mallard. It ended after that, but yeah, don’t mess with coots, I guess.
The geese were relatively well-behaved, and all of the ducks gave us good pose.
Burnaby Lake
Increasing green adjacent to Still Creek.
We weren’t at Burnaby Lake for too long for reasons, but the main objective–to find recently-sighted mountain bluebirds–eluded us. Instead, we came across a large murder of geese (that’s what I’m calling them) on the athletic field, except, upon closer inspection with both eyes and ears, these were not Canada geese, but the smaller and honk-free Cackling geese. We’d never seen a large group of them before. They’re kind of adorable with their short necks and stubbier beaks. And they don’t honk, they kind of peep-honk (it doesn’t sound like cackling to me).
There were chickadees here, too, but they were one of the birbs I failed to get any really good shots of today, alas. It was a fine outing otherwise.
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Everett Crowley Park (Vancouver), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) Weather: Sun and high cloud, 7-14°C
The Outing
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Moodly-looking marshland.
I missed the snow at Reifel in the sense that I was not there when the snow was. I did not otherwise miss it. Today it was mostly sunny and quite mild, with temperatures well above normal and little to no wind.
We didn’t have to go far to find the Sandhill cranes, as three of them milled around us right at the entrance. A sad note here, as one of the nearly adult-size babbies disappeared a few weeks and has not been seen, despite park volunteers looking for it, or signs of it. The others were wandering about in that nonchalant way of theirs. We also had our best view of the night heron, which was still not great.
The great blue heron were mostly seen from a distance, and one of their usual spots in the slough near the entrance had been taken over by the largest gathering of turtles I’ve seen there, spread out among the logs and basking in the sun.
After shooting the cranes, we headed up the East Dyke trail and saw a large blob of people ahead, gathered in the area where owls have been spotted. They had spotted an owl, specifically an adorable little Northern saw-whet owl (less adorable if you’re a vole or field mouse). Even better, I got probably my best owl shots ever, which is admittedly not a high bar, since almost all of my previous shots ranged from bad to “I swear there’s an owl there.”
Chickadees were in short supply, which seemed odd, but we did see a few wood ducks, the geese had returned and honked regularly to remind you they had done so. Towhees were once again out in large numbers. No sign of any spring migrants yet.
And eagles. Everywhere we saw eagles, flying in circles in groups of about six to eight, all over the place. Maybe a social thing? It was a good way to test the strength of my arms, as to get shots I had to point the camera straight up at the sky. The shots I got were okay, but Nic fared a bit better.
I got my first-ever shots of a trio of hummingbirds at one feeder, all drinking instead of fighting. Some of the shots were pretty decent, woo.
Reifel was also quite busy, which was not surprising given how mild it was. Overall, it felt like we moved through more quickly than usual, but we both got good shots, so that was OK.
Everett Crowley Park
Avalon Pond, where a few ducks were hanging out.
This was a new place for us and a rare bit of birding in Vancouver proper. The park is nice enough and has nice, wide trails and a cute little pond called Avalon Pond, where we saw a few mallards. However, many of the trails are off-leash for dogs and this is obviously a very popular spot for dog walkers, which is not great for birding, as birds and dogs do not normally act like best buds together. We did see a junco and a few robins, and one song sparrow. BUT…one of the robins was leucistic up in the hizzy, with a lot of white all over parts of its body that are normally not white, giving it a distinctive and snazzy look. This pretty much made the trip worthwhile. That said, we probably won’t come back, due to the dogs.
There were signs noting that No nuisance barking was allowed. I wonder where the line is between acceptable and nuisance barking is?
Also, it doesn’t state who shouldn’t dig, so I assume the rule applies to both dogs and people. Several large holes indicated this rule was not always being observed.
Barking your shin is allowed, but not recommended.
Piper Spit
View from Piper Spit, looking east.
The sun had mostly disappeared between high clouds at Piper Spit, which made us sad, and our trip to the rowing pavilion yielded no birds other than pigeons, though we did get some scenery shots.
At the spit itself, the usual gang was there, including a gull that was very proud of the golf ball it had procured. There was duck drama, but the coots seemed relatively well-behaved. The geese were honking and being weird and one on the pier got nippy, and also started showing its tongue, which is something you should never see or ever want to see.
In good news, the dowitchers were back. In less good news, they were on the west side of the pier, which is bad from a lighting perspective. Nothing some post-processing magic can’t fix, I suppose.
There were also quite a few people here, many holding out their hands to feed the blackbirds and one person bravely risking all of her fingers by letting a goose eat from her hand. I would only do this while wearing industrial gloves. And a welding mask.
In all, a nice mix of old and new, with perfectly pleasant weather that beat the ice and snow of our last outing a few weeks back.
The Shots
Soon?™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
It was a chilly but tolerable day of birding, thanks to little breeze, though it started getting a wee bit nippy toward the end at Piper Spit.
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Burnaby Lake Regional Park (Burnaby) Weather: Mostly sunny, 3-5°C
The Outing
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
A view over the marshland from the West Dyke, with Rusty the pipe mid-shot.
We started out a tad later than usual, thanks to my second-to-last IV therapy. Because my morning routine got disrupted, I also forgot to change into my trail runners for the outing, but my feet survived.
The parking lot was packed. There were people everywhere. There were chickadees everywhere. We started off by having an Anna’s hummingbird sit on a wire fence and pose in front of us, then got to mix and mingle up close with the Sandhill crane family (two adults, two kids, strutting around like dinosaurs of yore).
The east dyke provided a rare glimpse of a saw-whet owl, but it was all tucked in and hard to see. The first bird blind had a heron standing on a log right outside it, though, affording some nice backlit shots.
As mentioned, chickadees were flitting all over the place, but also a lot of towhees, perhaps being bolder due to the colder temperatures and scarcer food supplies.
The main pond was largely empty and the entire area was absent of all wood ducks and geese. Some geese were seen outside the sanctuary in nearby fields. I wonder if they don’t like mingling with the winter migrants. Maybe the shovelers scare them.
Many of the smaller ponds had thin layers of ice and I saw a few ducks landing, but they all proved fairly coordinated, so no slapstick opportunities to be had.
I managed to take photos with the IV in my arm, but my good-to-bad ratio is way off. I’m probably being a bit of a dope, since I’m not used to the camera, plus I was trying to be extra careful in how I loved my right arm. Anyway, I got some good shots, at least.
Piper Spit
Assorted waterfowl in front of the land mass at Piper Spit.
There were also people a-plenty at Piper Spit and by later in the afternoon, a bit of a breeze was picking up, so it was cooler, too, but not Fonzie cool1Kids, ask your parents. Or maybe even grandparents at this point.. The land mass seemed to be occupied mostly by crows and gulls. There were geese here, but not many, and they kept relatively quiet. Always unnerving.
Blackbirds were all over the place and the waterfowl were getting regular handfuls of seed, which makes it easy to get chaos shots of dozens of birds thrashing about, but less so for the “gliding serenely along the water by itself” ones. Most of the winter birds were accounted for. My best shot was probably one of a regular ol’ crow. But it was a nice shot.
We opted to not check the Butterfly Garden since it is currently bereft of butterflies or any real garden. Maybe in a few months!
We’ll see how the next outing goes. The last few have felt a bit weird due to various technology or health issues, not to mention the regularity has been very irregular due to bad weather and things. There might be a little SAD thrown in, too, though it was mainly sunny for the day, which was spiffy. But it was still nice to get out!
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
Golden-crowned sparrow
House sparrow
Red-winged blackbird
Song sparrow
Spotted towhee
Woodpecker (possibly a Downy, we couldn’t see its head)
Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) Weather: Mostly cloudy, some drizzle, 5-7°C
The Outing
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
Mashland, with Rusty in the center, and a distant ship on the strait.
The last time I was at Reifel was September 21. It was still summer! Last time it got to 19C. It was 5C when we arrived this morning, “but feels like 2C” as per the weather app. I renewed my yearly membership, more than a month after it had expired. This is why you don’t renew early on memberships affected by weather.
Since my camera decided to shuffle off its electronic coil, Nic generously loaned me his old camera, a Sony A7iii. The biggest difference is, well, it’s bigger. It’s a full-frame camera, but worked similarly enough to mine that only minor adjustments were needed. I only needed five shots to actually learn how focus was set up.
After that, I had a few fuzzy shots that I blame myself on, but also a lot of very nice shots. I had trouble with birds walking or swimming by, with motion blue or just plain old blur in most shots, something I generally didn’t find with my camera. I will experiment, while pondering what to do with my old and currently mostly-dead camera.
We quickly found at Reifel that it is now All Birds Love You season, as towhees and chickadees were bopping all over the place and being downright friendly, hoping we were carrying caches of seed. I’m pretty sure we had mallards occasionally following us.
Reifel actually had a surplus of both sparrows and waterfowl, though some that we rarely see there, like common mergansers and cormorants, were far off in one of the sloughs. A guy mentioned a green heron in one of the inner waterways, but we never saw it. We did accidentally spook a couple of great blue herons, though. Whoops!
Most of the winter migrants have arrived, though a few, like the ring-necked ducks, are still relatively few in number. Shovellers are starting their annual takeover, showing up pretty much all over the sanctuary, while the Canad geese vacated the place entirely. Instead of their constant honks, we got the adorable peeps of wigeons.
Piper Spit
Piper Spit, looking east. Gray all the way down. And up.
After lunch, we went to Piper Spit, and despite a relatively low water level (the land mass by the pier is quite large now), there were no shorebirds to be seen. We did see lots of gulls, which had largely claimed the land (when they were not pecking away at the dead salmon), plus mallards. Lots and lots of mallards. There were geese here, but only a handful, assuming you had giant goose-holding hands. They were quiet.
The wood ducks put on a good show and I got some spiffy shots of them. My attempt at capturing gulls in flight was no better with Nic’s camera than with mine, so I’m going to chalk that up to me not taking the time to shoot these kinds of shots properly. I am a lazy photographer.
Also, with the weather cool and dreary, we often had the entire pier to ourselves. I felt special! And the camera worked the whole time, which also felt special!
In all, a good outing.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare, rarely-seen or recently returned birds highlighted in bold.
We made good time heading out, though ominously a few light showers began as we travelled the highway. They didn’t last long and it ended up being mostly sunny for the rest of the day, which was also the last day of summer. Goodbye, summer, I’ll miss you!
It was a fair bit cooler at Reifel than last time, but still warm enough by the end to doff our jackets and hoodies.
Unlike our last visit, we got to see the Sandhill cranes, both on the ground and in the air. Also right up front was a healthy mix of shorebirds, including Greater Yellowlegs, some dowitchers and maybe a few others tucked in. Nic got some great shots of the yellowlegs flying (they were often flying in little spurts across the pond) and may post some of the photos in his store. BUY THEM ALL AND MAKE HIM RICH.
Chickadees were present, but elusive, while the first juncos, fox sparrows and golden crowns of the season made appearances. Yellow-rumped warblers were in numbers plentiful enough that even I got a few respectable shots.
Blackbirds did not seem as numerous as usual, so they may have gone off to wherever it is they go off to (it doesn’t seem to be far, because they always come back). In their place were a lot of house sparrows.
The geese were honking, but drama was on low. I got approached by several geese with mouths agape, but I think they were hoping I’d toss seed into their maws. I feel kind of bad when they do this, because I never have seed. I’m hoping they don’t have good memories.
After Reifel, we went to Blackie Spit in surrey, only to find a rowing event in progress and no parking. I suggested Boundary Bay, so we headed off there, and lo, there was parking.
Boundary Bay Dyke Trail
Have a seat and take in the bay.
The downside for me with Boundary Bay is the birds we see are usually never close. The upside is I can shoot prop planes up close basically forever. And I did.
We also saw some robins, which have been pretty rare in the places we’ve visited over the summer, plus a few remaining Savannah sparrows. We also saw a cute li’l bunny just as we started out, which I was not expecting, although if I think about it, I’m never really expecting bunnies.
Nic got weird and took a photo of people golfing. People! Like, humans, not birds. He rejected all of my suggestions for captions:
People with tiny balls
Swingers
The Last Putter
Foreplay
I mean, one of them wasn’t even dirty.
I also opted to put on sunblock here, which I think was both the right call, as well as my own final salute to summer. Tomorrow, I put on my parka.
In all, a good day for birbs, with multiple migrants returning, pleasant weather, and some good shotss all around.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare, rarely-seen or recently returned birds highlighted in bold.
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
American robin
Anna’s hummingbird
Bewick’s wren (heard, not seen)
Black-capped chickadee
Cedar waxwing
Dark-eyed junco (returned!)
Fox sparrow (returned!)
Golden-crowned sparrow (returned!)
House sparrow
Red-winged blackbird
Savannah sparrow
Song sparrow
Spotted towhee
White-crowned sparrow
Yellow warbler
Yellow-rumped warbler
Waterfowl and shorebirds:
American coot
Canada goose
Great blue heron
Greater yellowlegs
Hooded merganser (returned, though they allegedly don’t migrate)
Due to various circumstances, we made an unusual afternoon trip to Reifel, and on a Friday. Unsurprisingly, the gate was open when we arrived, due to a low number of bookings, so we drove over the speed bumps from hell and headed in.
To our delight, the Sandhill crane family was in the grassy area right near the gift shop at the entrance, preening and such, offering us plenty of opportunity to get good shots. The two babbies are now nearly as big as the adults, with their upper bodies and heads looking a lot more adult-like than even the last visit a few weeks ago.
We also saw our first Northern shovellers of the season, though of course, they don’t migrate, they just hide nearby, apparently, then come out of hiding at the same time every year, by coincidence!
Though there were shorebirds, most of them were farther out in the ponds, affording poorer opportunities for getting shots. Most were also snoozing, which made sense given the time of day and the relative warmth. Nic kept insisting it was hotter than the reported 23C, but it felt fine to me. Maybe my sunblock repels heat or something. It makes me smell pretty, so anything is possible.
Songbirds were in scarce supply, but the heat was probably a major factor there, too. We saw one spotted towhee and one chickadee. We each got a single shot of the chickadee before it took off, as if it had appeared specifically to tease us.
What was not in short supply were the Canada geese. They were legion and they were everywhere, their constant quiet honking (and sometimes less-than-quiet) created an atmosphere ripe with the tension of potential goose drama. The actual drama was minimal, with it mostly relegated to groups of geese suddenly flying from one end of a pond, then back to where they started, perhaps in an attempt to beat the heat. Or maybe they’re just weird.
We rounded out the trip with one look at the cranes, then headed off into rush hour hell to visit Piper Spit.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
View looking east from the pier.
Piper Spit started with what seemed a rare opportunity–a handsome garter snake right next to where we parked. But sadly, it turned out its tiny snake skull had been crushed, and it was deceased.
We moved on to the pier and happier sights, like the growing population of coots, pintails and teals. There were a lot of geese here, too, possibly coordinating through long-range honking with the ones at Reifel. The ones here were behaving themselves.
The light was on the right side today, affording us better shots than our last visit, and more male wood ducks are sporting full mullets now. Blackbirds were also plentiful, as were pigeons, which repeatedly swooped down from nearby trees, hung around on the pier for a bit, then went back to the trees.
And we saw several young song sparrows, to complement the handful of other songbirds we’d seen.
There were shorebirds here, too, but also farther away, much like the ones at Reifel. Boo.
Also, on a glitchy note, after changing the battery in my camera just after arriving, my camera started acting cray-cray, and I’m wondering if the battery was being goofy or something. Testing will be done. Also, the batteries I have are nearing four years old, so it’s probably time to look into getting some fresh back-ups, anyway. It made shooting quite annoying (constantly turning the camera off and on), but I still managed some decent shots.
In all, a not-unexpected quieter day for birbs, but as always there were still things to see, the weather was gorgeous (if perhaps a tad warm–I believe we broke records today) and everything is still very pretty.
The Shots
Soon™
The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
A rare day of Sunday birding, in which traffic seemed a lot busier than expected. Maybe people just wanted to get out in the sun after a few days of not-so-sunny weather.
Reifel Bird Sanctuary
A sea of yellow and green extending to the distant shoreline.
We quickly determined that jackets would not be needed as we arrived at Reifel and doffed them, dooming ourselves to get sunburn later in the day. But we had birds to shoot!
There were a fair number of people here, many of them with telephoto lenses that build muscles. We started out and observed the water level at the London slough was higher than previous, but there was a wood duck there to pose for us. As it turned out, it was the only wood duck we saw at Reifel, the rest presumably hiding with the shovellers, pintails and other “non-migratory” species that seem to disappear in the off-season, anyway.
Goose drama and general goose misbehaviour seems to be on the rise. Maybe after the kids have grown, they just plain lose all parental instinct and revert to their feral, demonic ways. Basically, a lot of hoking, some hissing and lots of that freaky neck stuff and chasing other geese.
Barn swallows are still hanging out, but it could be that they have kids that are newly on the wing and have to wait a bit longer before they have the strength to migrate to their winter home. We haven’t seen tree swallows in some weeks.
Also on the rise, in a much more delightful way: chickadees! They were all over the place, reclaiming their empire and daring us to capture them in the few moments they paused. One of the central trails also saw us encountering warblers, including some yellow-rumped ones. To the surprise of everyone, I got a few decent shots.
In one of the main ponds we spotted a rarely-seen red-necked pharalope. The only bummer is that it was not very close. Shorebirds were in relative abundance in several ponds, though.
Along the East Dyke trail we came up to a massive group of people all looking off to the east. Nic observed that they couldn’t be looking at an owl because they were all gazing ahead at eye-level.
They were looking at an owl.
It was a great horned owl, sitting with its back mostly to us, at eye-level, but a safe distance away from the trail. We didn’t get great shots, but we did get very owly shots and some of its face when it turned its head a bit. I haven’t done the math, but based on how often we’ve seen owls here, it feels like there’s maybe a 10% chance of seeing one, so this was a rare opportunity. It was also impossible to miss, thanks to the giant throng of people looking at it.
We also saw the crane family, twice. The first time was on the other side of a pond, kind of far away. Boo. The next time was as we were leaving, near the parking lot. Much better. The two babbies now have youth-sized bodies and adult-sized legs, so they look jacked up and dorky, just like an awkward teen should. It was a nice cap to the visit.
And we were still not yet burnt.
Centennial Beach
The tide was high at Boundary Bay.
That changed at Centennial Beach. I actually thought about putting on sunblock, but decided to be stupid and got signed on my arms and neck, just like nature had planned. On the other hand, this meant it was sunny and we had good light to shoot in!
For a change of pace, the tide was in, so we had no vast mud flats to shoot. We checked the pond, but it is still an exclusive mallard club for now.
An obliging cowbird posed for us on one of the beach trails, though, and there were a fair number of shorebirds, too, ranging from one very agile killdeer, to yellowlegs, sandpipers and more.
Away from the beach, goldfinches kept themselves busy tormenting Nic, as is their duty. We saw no bunnies and no raptors, though, which was mildly disappointing.
With our flesh singed (Centennial Beach has essentially no cover, even in the treed areas), it was time to head to our last stop.
Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake
Looking northwest from the pier at Piper Spit.
The big question here would be: Have any of the winter migrants returned? And the answer was yes, two of them, both of which were coots. The weird water hens are back.
Wood ducks were out in large numbers here, and several of the males were sporting their full, magnificent mullets again. Several male mallards were close to having their shiny green domes back, too. And we got an extra treat by having a female (or possibly immature) yellow-headed blackbird capering about the pier area, giving us numerous chances to get good shots.
Out further with the coots was a pied-billed grebe, which we don’t see often and that I don’t recall seeing at all before at Burnaby Lake.
Other than the two coots, no other winter migrants were in view, but it’s still early.
Overall, this an outing with unexpected pleasures: better weather than forecast, rare birds, and the first arrivals of the winter migration.
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.
These young ducks came charging down the path, then pecked eagerly around our feet.
This duck gang did not stay out of the water for long.
Anna's hummingbird on a feeder.
Blackbird lording over his stash of seed.
Canada geese being Canada geese.
A blue dragonfly. Maybe a blue damsel? I am not a dragonflyologist.
A red dragonfly.
A large dragonfly of species [future Wikipedia link here].
House sparrow near seed.
Mallard looking content.
One of several killdeer spotted near the East Dyke trail.
Bird condo amidst the very lush green marshland.
And enjoy.
A marsh wren dating around for a few moments in the open.
House sparrow snacking. I kind of like the angle, it's a bit different from the usual profile shot.
Barn swallow chicks waiting to be fed. And one that, uh, already ate.
Seaplane at Terra Nova, coastal mountains in the background.
Marshland at Terra Nova.
Cowbird stretch.
Ruffled crow at Piper Spit.
"Who are you calling scruffy?"
A pitiful blackbird teen begging to be fed.
Mom provides seed while thinking, "Kid, you're bigger than me."
A wood duck sitting pretty with proto-mullet slicked back.
Another Air Canada jet passing overhead.
Rock pigeon: "I can haz seed?"
Ring-billed gull sporting the classic "I am so done with everything" look.
Greater yellowlegs strutting around an unperturbed mallard.
Greater yellowlegs not actually on the back of a mallard.
Mmm, pollen.
Greater yellowlegs, cropped very tight and square, just to be whacky.
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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.
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.
These young ducks came charging down the path, then pecked eagerly around our feet.
This duck gang did not stay out of the water for long.
Anna's hummingbird on a feeder.
Blackbird lording over his stash of seed.
Canada geese being Canada geese.
A blue dragonfly. Maybe a blue damsel? I am not a dragonflyologist.
A red dragonfly.
A large dragonfly of species [future Wikipedia link here].
House sparrow near seed.
Mallard looking content.
One of several killdeer spotted near the East Dyke trail.
Bird condo amidst the very lush green marshland.
And enjoy.
A marsh wren dating around for a few moments in the open.
House sparrow snacking. I kind of like the angle, it's a bit different from the usual profile shot.
Barn swallow chicks waiting to be fed. And one that, uh, already ate.
Seaplane at Terra Nova, coastal mountains in the background.
Marshland at Terra Nova.
Cowbird stretch.
Ruffled crow at Piper Spit.
"Who are you calling scruffy?"
A pitiful blackbird teen begging to be fed.
Mom provides seed while thinking, "Kid, you're bigger than me."
A wood duck sitting pretty with proto-mullet slicked back.
Another Air Canada jet passing overhead.
Rock pigeon: "I can haz seed?"
Ring-billed gull sporting the classic "I am so done with everything" look.
Greater yellowlegs strutting around an unperturbed mallard.
Greater yellowlegs not actually on the back of a mallard.
Mmm, pollen.
Greater yellowlegs, cropped very tight and square, just to be whacky.
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The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.
