Tlahutum Regional Park

Birding, July 20, 2024: Hidden driveways

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.

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American goldfinch
  • American robin
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Purple martin (maybe?)
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

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

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • None

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Douglas squirrels

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 31, 2024: Sun, Sarcasto and a surprise selection of lifers

Where: Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Como Lake (Coquitlam), Rocky Point Park (Port Moody), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Sunny, 12-20°C

The Outing

With a rare day of sun, we headed off for a day of Friday birding.

Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)

Everywhere you go, it’s gonna be lily pads.

We started at Burnaby Lake–but with a twist! We would start at the Avalon parking lot, walk to Piper Spit, then continue around the entire 10.3 km loop back to the parking lot.

We had barely begun our trek when, sitting on a railing on the footbridge over Silver Creek, we saw a Swainson’s thrush–a lifer. This is the same spot we also saw a brown creeper, so apparently it’s a favourite hangout for Birds You Almost Never See. After grabbing a few shots before it flew off, we continued on to Fungus Face™, where several Douglas squirrels were dashing about, stopping occasionally to sit on their haunches, nibble on food and look adorable. After a few moments, it became apparent that there were more than just a couple squirrels. Several were taking to higher branches and chittering in a vaguely disturbing way, perhaps as a territorial display. As the vibe shifted from “aw, cute!” to “be prepared to run” we opted to move on.

We’ve had quite a bit of rain recently, and this was evident at Piper Spit, where the land mass to the east of the pier–which had been getting larger–was now completely submerged. The lone coot was absent, but in its place was a single green-winged teal. The male mallards and wood ducks are rapidly shedding their mating colours, and letting themselves go, as men do in the summer. The pier was dominated by geese and their rapidly-growing goslings, some of whom are entering that awkward teen phase where they have tiny heads but giant legs. It was apparently morning nap time, so there wasn’t a lot of activity, though the geese were being weird, as usual.

We moved to the viewing platform next door and appreciated the scenery and sun before heading back down. This is where we encountered Sarcasto. He had a BTL1Big Telephoto Lens, identifying him as a likely birder. He was on the trail leading to the viewing platform and aiming at some kind of bird. Apparently as we approached the bird took off. Someone else nearby wondered what it was, to which Nic responded likely a house finch. Sarcasto turned around to us and said, in a clearly sarcastic tone, “Thank you.” Like we had done a terrible thing by possibly and unintentionally scaring off a finch.

Sarcasto would follow us for much of the rest of the way, probably thinking of new sarcastic things to say the whole time.

We continued on encountered two more lifers (for me, at least, Nic can confirm if both were lifers for him as well): a dusky flycatcher and a willow flycatcher. It was a liferpalooza.

Other highlights from around the lake:

  • An osprey circling above Piper Spit
  • A heron flying close overhead, then perching in a nearby tree and looking all stabby-faced for us
  • the water fountains (yes, these count as highlights)
  • Several pretty views of the lake, which is already in its lily pad-covered glory
  • Swallows buzzing low over the water at the rowing club and then hanging out on the marshy shore nearby
  • A surprise killdeer hanging out with them that we didn’t see until Nic spotted it in one of his photos afterwards
  • A coyote wandering the trail right near the 10 km mark. It moved off onto one of the horse trails before we could get photos, alas

With over 20,000 steps already logged on my watch, we moved on.

Como Lake (Coquitlam)

Como Lake was the smallest and calmest body of water we visited. Plus baby ducks!

I suggested Como Lake, because it is small and easy to walk around and we might see ducks or something. And we did! We also saw ducklings, which were cute and fuzzy and seemed to enjoy snarfing up the copious amounts of cottonwood dander floating on the lake surface (cottonwood dander was everywhere). This was the place that had famously netted off access points to the water to get rid of the geese and on last visit it had been a 100% success–no geese to be found.

This time they were legion, complete with goslings. But it was worth it for the baby ducks. Maybe they’ll put the netting back once everyone is all grown up.

There are also ping pong tables here now, and playing ping pong on a bright summer day strikes me as both weird and appealing.

Rocky Point Park (Port Moody)

The supports indicating the height of the previous bordwalk can be seen on the right.

The last time we went to Rocky Point Park, we never actually got there, because there was no place to park, and we left without ever stopping.

Being that it was a weekday this time, we actually did manage to park.

On the downside, there were few birds to be seen, mostly just crows. But the scenery was nice–what we could see of it. We hit the Shoreline Trail and discovered that since our last visit they have been replacing the boardwalk at the end of the inlet (the new boardwalk is being raised significantly higher “to accommodate rising sea levels due to climate change”, which is both a good thing to plan for, but also yikes, because the new boardwalk is going to be a lot higher). This meant we had to go around on the street to get to the other side, where a man showed Nic photos of a local bear (the furry kind that lives in the forest and hibernates, not the furry kind that hits on cubs in bars). I shot a few of the crows, then as we headed back, we encountered two people from Environment Canada (?) that identified us as birders thanks to our BTLs. They let us know about a heron rookery that will still have its hideously cute fledglings for about another month before they leave the nest, so we may venture back to catch some shots before then. We didn’t immediately go because at this point we’d walked about 5 million steps.

While the views were nice, Rocky Point ended up being a bit of a disappointment. I mean, even a couple of seagulls dropping clams from the sky would have been something. Alas.

Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)

An orange-belted bumblee in the communmity garden.

The people above also mentioned a kind of bunting at Tlahutum, which was our next and last destination. Unfortunately, neither of us could remember their general directions on where to go, but it seemed to be two spots: one in a grove of trees near the first and smaller parking lot (which we never park at), and the other past a pond by the forensic psychiatric hospital. We tried the area near the smaller parking lot first, but did not see any buntings–or any other birds. Merlin stayed mum.

We moved to the main parking lot and noodled around near the entrance to the hospital, discovering a grassy labyrinth (complete with signpost identifying it as such), leading to a debate over labyrinth vs. maze. We saw no sign of any pond. Nic wondered if it might be near the gazebo, but it appeared occupied, and it just felt creepy to wander the grounds of a psychiatric hospital, so we agreed to do more research and try again at a later date.

With the aforementioned 5 million steps in mind, we stuck to the community gardens, and only certain parts of it, as all the rain had resulted in big ol’ puddles forming again at key junctions. We saw a lot of swallows, including a violet green swallow. We briefly saw some goldfinches and Nic managed a single shot before they flew away, possibly forever, satisfied at their taunting of us.

The day ended with me grabbing a couple of slightly fuzzy shots of a robin. I didn’t use manual focus because it looked fine through the EVF. One day I’ll learn.

Overall, though, a fine day of birding, with multiple rare sightings, pleasant weather, no sunburn and plenty of lush, green scenery. 9/10 black-capped chickadees (which we did not see, sad face).

The Shots

Soon™

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

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American bushtit
  • American goldfinch
  • American robin
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Barn swallow
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Dusky flycatcher
  • House finch
  • Marsh wren (heard, not seen, at Burnaby Lake)
  • Northern flicker
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Swainson’s thrush
  • Tree swallow
  • Violet green swallow
  • Willow flycatcher

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Canada goose
  • Great blue heron
  • Killdeer
  • Mallard
  • Western seagull
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon

Raptors:

  • Osprey

Non-birds:

  • Douglas squirrel (a veritable gaggle of them)
  • Butterflies: Tiger swallowtail, Milbert’s tortoiseshell and a Celestrina echo (yes, Nic looked up the latter two)
  • Bumblebees of various sorts, including orange-belted
  • A coyote

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)

Bonus birding, March 31, 2024: Sparrow through my heart

Where: Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) Weather: Mostly sunny, 13-15°C

The Outing

With the weather expected to be nice today, we decided to take advantage and get in a bonus round of birding. I was a bit pooped after two days of activity, so we opted for a simple plan to hit Tlahutum Regional Park, then Piper Spit.

It’s Easter Sunday and a holiday weekend. Combine that with the weather actually being genuinely pleasant, and there were a fair number of people out. Unlike the bad old days when the pandemic was in full swing, parking was not an issue. At Tlahutum we opted to check out the community gardens first, carefully avoiding the paths that were still filled with mini (or sometimes) maxi ponds from the rains. The area is dotted with bird boxes for swallows and they were making good use of them. We got plenty of shots of them hanging out on them and, in some cases, coming in or taking off (more on this later).

After getting our supply of swallow shots, we moved onto the trails and actually did not see many birds. The main pond did have a mix of mallards, buffleheads, coots and gadwalls, which sounds great, but they tend to stay farther away from the edges–security for them, a test of our telephoto lenses for us. A few blackbirds were flapping about as well.

We moved on to Piper Spit, getting much better light than yesterday–initially almost too harsh (not that I’m complaining about the sun). We parked at the Avalon parking lot and walked the 2 km to Piper Spit, which turned out to be a good choice, not just because we’d get heart points, steps and generally healthy exercise. Nic spotted a brown creeper (which looks way more adorable than the name would suggest) and there were a few Steller’s jays eating seed off a signpost farther along the trail. Spiffy.

At the pier, there were again a lot of people, but no Sandhill cranes today. Nic did get some shots of a turkey vulture (!) flying overhead. I never even saw it. They’re sneaky like that.

Initially a lot of the waterfowl were spread out beyond the pier, snoozing and such, but a few people started throwing seed into the water and that brought most propelling madly toward us for the free food.

I practised my technique for tracking birds in motion (with limited success), using fine focus on trickier shots (more successful), while Nic was determined to get some boffo shots of swallows in flight. And he did indeed get several very nice shots. He also got enough shots of just the sky to create a skyscapes gallery. But you only need one great shot to make it worthwhile, as some photographer person said one time, probably.

My robin curse renewed itself today. The light was good, so I can’t even blame that. I don’t know what the deal is with robins. I kind of hate them now. Or maybe I hate my camera. Or something that happens between my camera and any robin I aim at.

Still, it was a good bonus afternoon of birding, with good shots, some nice sightings and the pleasant weather we had been teased with yesterday actually materializing.

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rare birds highlighted in bold.

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American robin
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Barn swallow
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Brown creeper
  • Dark-eyed junco
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Steller’s jay
  • Tree swallow
  • Violet-green swallow

Waterfowl:

  • American coot
  • Bufflehead
  • Canada goose
  • Gadwall
  • Green-winged teal
  • Hooded merganser
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Ring-necked duck
  • Scaup
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • Turkey vulture

Non-birds:

  • A squirrel

Birding, February 23, 2024: Poopmonsters rustling their jimmies

Where: Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Piper Spit and environs, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Cloudy, some sun, 7-10°C

The Outing

Another Friday of birding, as the weather once more was looking not-great for Saturday.

The weather today was generally fine, with some actual sun at times, though it got a bit worse by the time we wrapped up at Piper Spit.

We started at Tlahutum and did our usual loop, then diverted right where we would normally go left and did a big ol’ loop around the park. Except you can’t actually do that, so what we really did was exit the park, head out into the suburbia of Port Coquitlam, then eventually reach another entrance to Tlahutum past the Red Bridge (which is red). We ventured forth from there and eventually reconnected to near our starting point. We got a lot of steps in1By the time we wrapped up for the day I had over 28,000 steps and Nic had 116 heart points, which mysteriously dropped to 115 later, as if Google decided it had overcompensated..

In terms of birds, Tlahutum always has the issue of birds never being super close, but we ended up seeing a pretty decent variety in the various ponds, river and other waterways. Songbirds were less common, though a song sparrow did thoughtfully pose and sing for us. We also saw some common mergansers, hooded mergansers, buffleheads, Northern flickers and even a few coots.

A couple of geese flew overhead and as you will see below, my camera had issues. It apparently got filthy over the last few weeks and some of my shots, such as the sequence showing the geese flying, then landing in the river, have the feel of semi-abstract art. If all of my photos had been like this, I would have been upset, but the image quality mostly cleared up after this bit, so I can appreciate the unintended artiness.

The filth my camera had accumulated, however, led to a lot of technical glitches, so I must solemnly vow to clean it after every use or else. Or else it will glitch again.

After our very long trip around Tlahutum, we went to Burnaby Lake, but instead of going to Piper Spit, we went to the area around the rowing pavilion, where we saw more common mergansers (they seem to be finally living up to their name), along with some herons, pigeons and lots of scenery. They also had a new boardwalk connecting to the remodelled pier. It was so new, I felt a bit naughty just being out there on it.

At Piper Spit, there was much bird drama to be had:

  • Gulls chasing crows (the gulls were back)
  • Crows chasing gulls (the crows were still there)
  • Pintails locking lips bills
  • Gulls coveting each other’s strange foreign objects
  • Canada geese going berserk in front and around us, repeatedly

The coots were actually some of the well-behaved waterfowl this time.

Speaking of waterfowl, most were present and in abundant numbers, but songbirds were scarcer. I only saw a few towhees (no pictures, boo) and a single junco, which rudely did not stop long enough for me to get a shot. Also boo.

By this point my camera was behaving quite badly and no amount of scolding would fix it. Fun symptoms included:

  • Images with weird artifacts and blurring
  • The EVF freezing
  • Exposure going completely off the chart in the EVF
  • Refusing to focus on anything
  • Focusing but the shutter refusing to work
  • Error messages about the contacts (they were quite yucky on inspection)

On top of this, the camera again got confused by complex backgrounds and would at times focus on the background instead of a bird, even when it appeared to be focusing on the bird in the EVF.

Still, I did get some shots that were acceptable, it was mild, and it didn’t rain, so I consider the day pretty good, despite the camera being a goof.

The Shots
Soon™. But here’s the Canada goose as art photo I mentioned above to start.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American robin
  • Black-capped chickadee (heard but not seen)
  • Dark-eyed junco
  • European starling
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • Northern flicker
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee

Waterfowl:

  • American coot
  • American wigeon
  • Bufflehead duck
  • Canada goose
  • Common merganser
  • Dowitcher
  • Gadwall
  • Great blue heron
  • Green-winged teal
  • Hooded merganser
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Ring-necked duck
  • Scaup (Lesser and Greater)
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • None!

Non-birds:

  • A squirrel

Birding, February 6, 2024: What does quack mean?

Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam) Weather: Sunny, 8°C

The Outing

Today was a surprise edition of birding. The weather predicted some rare sunshine, so we took advantage with a trip to Piper Spit and Tlahutum Regional Park.

First, my camera: Closer examination revealed a lot of carbon build-up on the contacts of the lenses that my previously gentle cleaning had not touched. Using a brass brush and isopropyl alcohol, these were cleaned much more thoroughly. The contacts sparkled!

And the good news is it worked. The telephoto lens worked without any issues at all. It was nice to go back to blaming myself and not the equipment for lousy shots.

Fortunately, I got some good shots, with several chickadees and squirrels fighting for the “most adorable” award.

Piper Spit presented an unusual case of light that was at times too bright, but better still than rain. A woman teased us about a possible owl sighting, but we were not precisely sure of the location, and no owls were sighted. We were sad.

On the other hand, a bufflehead showed up in the mix, and we got some nice shots of his shiny iridescent head. The gulls seem to have taken up semi-permanent residence now, claiming the landmass off the pier as their kingdom. Or gulldom. It’s also the place where they gather and collect weird things like golf balls and other stuff we probably don’t really want to identify.

And a surprise appearance by barn swallows! We’ve seen them in March, but I don’t recall ever seeing them in February before, and especially not the first week of the month, so that was a neat treat. The albino pigeon was back, too, easily identified by, well, being pure white. But also by being banded. I’ve seen one other albino here, but it is not banded.

There was some avian drama to be had and the pecking order (heh) appears to be:

  • Crows > coots
  • Goose > crows

Coots, of course, mostly terrorize themselves.

Tlahutum presented a surprising number of birds, but they tended to be farther away, and by then the light was getting low and golden. Still, we saw some mergansers, gadwalls and yet more swallows (way up high). The fields of tall yellow grass did look rather pretty in the golden light of late afternoon.

Overall, this was a fine shorter outing, and I was pleased that my camera is back to behaving normally again.

The Shots
Soon™

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Dark-eyed junco
  • Fox sparrow
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Ruby-crowned kinglet
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • White-crowned sparrow

Waterfowl:

  • American coot
  • American wigeon
  • Bufflehead duck
  • Canada goose
  • Dowitcher
  • Green-winged teal
  • Hooded merganser
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Ring-necked duck
  • Scaup
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • Crows (multiple murders)
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • Northern harrier

Non-birds:

  • Several Douglas squirrels

Birding, January 20, 2024: Towhee in the snowhee

Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Overcast and foggy, 3-5°C

The Outing

After last week’s deep freeze, we got snow on Wednesday and oodles of snow, at that. Some light rain followed on Friday, but not enough to diminish the snow much, so we donned our metaphorical snowshoes and headed to Piper Spit, which we felt would be the most accessible birding spot this weekend.

Unexpectedly, it was also foggy, which provided a spooky ambience to Burnaby Lake and, later, Tlahutum Regional Park.

The land mass that formed off the pier at Piper Spit had been extended by a combination of the lake freezing and the snow on top, proving a vast plain for a copious number of gulls and poop monsters.

Songbirds were also in abundance, standing out against the bright snow, though this also made for trickier shooting.

It actually went better than expected, and we both got nice shots with the bonus of the above-freezing temperatures meaning no camera glitches, just people glitches. Speaking of people, both places, but especially Tlahutum, were surprisingly busy. I guess people like trudging in the snow. Or maybe everyone was just delighted to go outside and not have every exposed part of their body go numb within seconds.

The gulls were busy splashing about or taking off in great flocks and circling around before coming back and landing in the exact spot they left from (stretching their legs–er, wings?) Meanwhile, a patootie1Yes, this is what I’m caling them of pigeons settled along the railings at the end of the pier, posing for some nice shots before departing back to nearby trees.

And while there were song birds aplenty, we didn’t see any chickadees, which made the outing slightly less delightful. I also didn’t spy any squirrels, but I wouldn’t blame them for holing up in the trees with their nuts and seeds until the snow is gone.

The highlight at Piper Spit was probably a bald eagle that dramatically emerged from the mist, swooped down, caught a fish or something fish-like, then carried it off and back into the mist. Neat!

Tlahutum had no highlights. We saw two song sparrows. One flew off before we could take photos, the other was far away. Oh, and I think we saw a crow flying overhead, too. But the frozen waterways and fog made for some cool (heh) scenery shots, and Nic got enough heart points to lift the meter from Couch Potato to Outdoor Potato.

In all, it went better than anticipated, and it was amazing how any temperature above freezing suddenly felt all balmy.

The Shots

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • Dark-eyed junco
  • Fox sparrow
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • Northern flicker (heard)
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee

Waterfowl:

  • American coot
  • Canada goose
  • Green-winged teal
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Ring-necked duck
  • Scaup
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle

Non-birds:

  • Lots of people, weirdly
  • The fish or whatever it was the bald eagle caught

Birding, January 6, 2024: New year, strange birds

Where: Centennial Beach (Delta), Piper Spit (Burnaby) and Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Partly sunny, 3-8°C

The Outing

Our first birding outing for 2024 started at a rather chilly Centennial Beach, with a brisk wind and the tide in, so shorebirds, while present, were not nearby for good photo opportunities.

But we did see a bunch of golden-crowned sparrows, a northern harrier we didn’t have time to get shots of, and a bald eagle in a tree by the parking lot. Unfortunately, the perspective meant all I could do was catch a shot of its butt. I also got a shot of a robin’s butt. It was a butt kind of day.

After rounding out our trip there with shots of some good peeps (wigeons), we headed off to Richmond Nature House, where there was no parking at all, and two other cars waiting for a spot. Sadly, we had to move on, and went next to Piper Spit.

As compensation, we got a visit from a handsome Steller’s jay, and also a bufflehead that, rather than hanging back like they usually do, actually came in close to the pier, allowing us to get our best bufflehead shots ever. There were also a lot of gulls hanging around, trying to pull unspeakable things out of the water when they were not strutting around, proudly showing off the golf balls and other spherical objects clutched in their bills. Gulls are weird. We also saw our first Canad geese in a while. They are also weird and we have the pictures to prove it.

Even though it was already golden hour-y by the time we finished up at Piper Spit, we still went to Tlahutum, where we did see more golden crowns, some mergansers and another bufflehead (!) Generally the number of birds was small, so we mostly took shots showing off the setting sun.

In all, a decent outing to start the year, with cool but mostly sunny weather.

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American blackbird
  • American robin
  • Black-capped chickadee (briefly seen)
  • Dark-eyed junco
  • European starling
  • Fox sparrow
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Steller’s jay

Waterfowl:

  • American coot
  • American wigeon
  • Bufflehead duck
  • Canada goose
  • Gadwall
  • Great blue heron
  • Greater yellowlegs
  • Green-winged teal
  • Hooded merganser
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Northern shoveler (seen but not shot)
  • Ring-necked duck
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle
  • Northern harrier (seen but not shot)

Non-birds:

  • None! Unless you count people and dogs.

Birding shots from November 11, 2023 are up

The light was often not great, but you do what you can, then fix in post.

A highlight:

Steller's jay perched on a branch
Steller’s jay perched on a branch

The gallery:

Birding, November 11, 2023: In before the rain

Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby) and Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Overcast, 10°C

The Outing

Considering the forecast for the day was heavy rain, we got lucky! It was actually reasonably decent for the first few hours and when the rain did come, it was when we were basically done and heading back to the car–and it only started raining heavily once we were inside. Thank you, Mother Nature.

And as an extra bonus, we actually saw a surprising number and variety of birds at both locations.

The area between the Nature House and Piper Spit was replete with sparrows and sparrow-adjacent birds, all hopping around the one cool spot that coincidentally had a lot of seed. We saw plenty of towhees and chickadees, some of the seasonal migrants like juncos and as an extra treat, a pair of Steller’s jays. Neat! Also, a lot of squirrels were darting about, prepping for the winter. The grey squirrels seem to be massive now. One of them even looked a little surly. It would probably beat me in a fight.

We saw what Merlin (the app, not the bird or wizard) claims is an Iceland gull, but neither of us was 100% confident in its identification. Gulls have about a billion variations. Even the gulls probably couldn’t tell you which they are.

On the waterfowl front, there were bursts of duck drama, but also duck and seagull bathing, coots causing commotion and plenty of gulls, which always seem to take refuge at the spit after a big storm.

Speaking of storms, we had a big storm last night, with winds up to 70-90 km/h. The trails were carpeted with fresh leaves, twigs and other debris, and I counted multiple large sections of trees down, along with an entire tree itself alongside the main trail.

Tlahutum didn’t offer as many birds, but it did offer some we didn’t see at Piper: mergansers, buffleheads and a kingfisher. Sadly, my kingfisher shots were fuzzy and out of focus. Boo. Nic’s were better, so at least one of us got some decent ones. We also saw the birbiest golden-crowned sparrow I’ve seen in a while.

The weather started to turn just as we were wrapping up at Tlahutum, which was convenient. We saw the kingfisher on the way out, so that was a nice treat to end the birding, even if my photos didn’t quite turn out (also, don’t ask about my junco shots).

In all, this was an unexpectedly good day, both for the number and variety of birds, and also in the weather holding back long enough for us to fully check out the two places we had planned to visit.

The Shots

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American blackbird
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Dark-eyed junco
  • Golden-crowned sparrow
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Steller’s Jay

Waterfowl:

  • American coot
  • American wigeon
  • Bufflehead duck
  • Canada goose
  • Green-winged teal
  • Hooded merganser
  • Long-billed dowitcher
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • Merlin (?)

Non-birds:

  • Black, grey and Douglas squirrels

October 12 birb, bird and squirrel pics now up

A small 12-image gallery of photos taken on Thursday, October 12, 2023, at Piper Spit (Burnaby Lake) and Tlahutum Regional Park:

Original post available here: Birding, October 12, 2023: Forget it, Jake, it’s Squirreltown