For this outing, we decided to go along the whole 10km-and-a-bit of the Burnaby Lake trail, starting at Cariboo Dam at the extreme east end of the lake. Haven’t done that in a while, and I had a hankering! There’s some quite nice scenery, and I was hoping to catch some rarer birds — like maybe a White-throated Sparrow, which I’ve seen one time six years ago somewhere on the south trail.
Spoiler: I did not see a White-throated Sparrow today. Boooo.
Burnaby Lake Loop
Our first encounter was this little pear-shaped acrobat. You don’t often see them do this move, it’s more common with birds that hang out in reeds, such as wrens and blackbirds.
Then, around Piper Spit, the usual collection of loud birds begging for food, and being fed even though you’re not supposed to, and visitors have to walk past at least two very prominent signs explaining in detail all the reasons why it’s a bad idea to feed the birds and the squirrels around here. Grrr.
I love visiting Piper Spit, it’s always a fun time especially during Weird Duck Season, but it’s really testing my inner Zen and I don’t want to be the Bird Feed Cop.
I think the Nature House will reopen for the May long weekend, so at least park employees will get to lecture visitors.
Pintails are always a fave subject, so let’s do a cool off-centre composition!
As with every spring and summer, I swear a mighty and solemn oath to take good photos of swallows in flight before they head south again. As it happened, there were a number of Violet-green Swallows zipping hither and yon and… okay, I may be a little rusty. Swallows are hard, you know!
Still, I wonder if I could sell this photo to UFO nuts, or other conspiracy theorists. You think it might look good as evidence of visiting aliens, or the US Air Force reverse-engineering pyramid technology from Ancient Egypt to build hypersonic planes, or whatever else they go on about?
Why is there water dripping from her bill? She’s coming to the water! Or maybe she’s drooling. Or maybe she just finished preening a few yards away and decided to take the faster route to get here. They do get impatient like that sometimes.
One last look at a red-wing judging all the people feeding birds. Oh, who am I kidding? She was totally waiting her turn.
A few juncos and chickadees were foraging in the Butterfly Garden, alas so far empty of butterflies or indeed any pollinators, or indeed any flowers.
Now there’s a view I don’t see much, even though it’s just a couple minutes’ stroll from Piper Spit. I love this shot of the lake under dramatic clouds!
Looking southwest-ish, the cluster of towers around Metrotown.
And in the little bit linking Cottonwood Trail and the Nature House, we found lots of Golden-crowned Sparrows.
And way at the western end of the park, beyond the lake itself, is this little bridge over the extremely aptly named Still Creek. As far as I can tell it really is always this mirror-smooth.
The soccer field by the sports complex is a favourite hangout of Canada Geese, but occasionally we’ll see a whole flock of Cackling Geese — close cousins, but smaller and cuter.
I’m pretty sure this is Deer Lake Brook. There are so many brooks and creeks, both big and tiny, feeding into Burnaby Lake, but it does seem to point straight to the Metrotown neighbourhood, past Highway 1 and past Deer Lake.
(And as you might guess, this brook connects, or maybe used to connect, with Deer Lake.)
This is one of many, many side ponds on the south side of the lake. It might be the one where I saw my first gadwalls, many years ago? I don’t think so, but I’m really not sure anymore.
And here’s another Song Sparrow, all matchy-matchy with its perch and the decor.
In this little pond by the trail we saw a bunch of water striders. It took me a while to realise that, yes, this one did have way more legs than expected…
Como Lake Park
Como Lake is not big, but its scenery is pretty enough. What I look for here is the wildlife. For example, these two Mallard drakes swimming in tandem like the bros they are. I’m just really into this composition, and the balance of colours. This particular tight edit focuses on their gorgeous green heads and their quiet togetherness. Love it love it, and I’ve put it up on my store.
Apparently this thing I saw in the parking lot is not some alien spore waiting to colonise my brain, but a cottonwood catkin. Thank you to my plant expert friend! And according to the internet, they’re edible! Maybe not this exact one, though.
It’s pretty, and weird, and a fun cap to a lovely day of birding.
