This was a busy weekend, as I went out with my birding bestie to a couple spots in Port Coquitlam and Pitt Meadows. Then on Sunday, I returned to one of those PoCo spots, followed by a quick visit to ƛ̓éxətəm. Both days were partly cloudy and started out fairly cool, but warmed up nicely (though not excessively).
DeBoville Slough Trail
With the sun shining, Pitt River looked a lot better than last time. Funny how that works! Sadly, there weren’t a whole lot of birds around — and, even more sadly, the big piling that housed an Osprey nest last year appears to still be vacant — but there were tons of butterflies and assorted bugs, including a darling one sitting on a pile of bear poop. I admit I felt a bit self-conscious kneeling in front of the “honourable bear dump” (thank you, stranger walking by, for giving me the title for this post)… but also whatever, randos don’t get to second-guess my art.
Blakeburn Lagoons Park
Anytime we come here we keep an eye open for the resident Green Heron. It was nowhere to be seen, which might be good news for the two families of Pied-billed Grebes hanging around the place. They definitely wouldn’t want to share a pond with a predator!
Also, pollinators! So many pollinators I couldn’t even name, in this one little patch of flowers right by where we parked. And a bunch of dragonflies around the ponds! Hey, ’tis the season for bugs.
Alouette River Trail
Because it’s been a while, I proposed we cap off the day exploring the kilometre-ish of trail along the Alouette River between Harris Road and Pitt River. It’s a nice little spot with lovely scenery though, from what I’ve seen, not that great in terms of birds. Still, it was close by, and I shot a White-crowned Sparrow and a horsie in addition to aforementioned lovely scenery, so I’d say it was time well spent.
Blakeburn Lagoons Park (again)
Because I wasn’t super happy with my grebe photos (the light wasn’t ideal and the birds kept their distance) I went back on Sunday for another try. This time the light was better and the grebes much more cooperative! I got my best Pied-billed Grebe photos ever, and my first shots of juveniles.
Oh, and a handsome flicker! Seems I hadn’t had a good flicker photo op in a hot minute.
ƛ̓éxətəm (Tlahutum) Regional Park
Since I was kind of in the neighbourhood, why not swing by Tlahutum? I didn’t stay long, but did witness a faraway confrontation between a crow and an Eastern Kingbird, which I sort of managed to badly capture. What was really interesting is (1) I’d never seen this particular combination of opponents before, and (2) I’d never seen a kingbird’s gold / orange crest before! Yes, just like kinglets (to which they’re not closely related), kingbirds have a crest that pops out when they’re fighting or courting and so on.
I also spied a Willow Flycatcher near the community gardens. It was up a tree and seemed to pay me no mind, so I kept shooting until at one point it disappeared behind the tree. But: I know how these birds work! Flycatchers tend to go on very brief flights when hunting, then return to their perch. So I waited a little bit, and sure enough my Willow Flycatcher was back! And with a juicy… hoverfly? I’m not really sure. The antennae seen too long for a fly, but it looks like it only has 2 wings. Well, it looks delicious, whatever it is.
The photos
