An outing mostly around Coquitlam / Port Coquitlam. There’s a lot to see in the boonies!
Blakeburn Lagoons Park
There are still grebes around! I wonder if it’s a remnant of the same family we saw earlier in the summer?
No Green Heron, though. Sadness.
DeBoville Slough Trail
After taking the north trail a bunch of times, we decided to take the south trail. In the end it gave us splendid views of the slough and Pitt River! Not really any more birds, unless you count the Turkey Vulture. Which you shouldn’t, I’ve seen those from the north trail too.
ƛ̓éxətəm (Tlahutum) Regional Park
A few birbs, but they were annoyingly shy. I had to settle for a single chickadee playing hide-and-seek near the community gardens, and a green grasshopper / cricket / something munching on some flowers.
Oh, and a very dead grasshopper being munched on (or possibly used as incubator) by a yellowjacket wasp. I don’t know what the story is there! Could it have been killed by this wasp, or another wasp? Possible, but then wouldn’t it have tried to drag off the prize, still alive, to some burrow? Because this guy seemed to be missing most of its head.
Piper Spit
Good news! Very few criminals and hoodlums trying to feed the birds while we were there, except for a few right near the end, and they were feeding the blackbirds. Which I feel is less bad somehow? Maybe because blackbirds already have terrible habits, so humans can’t really corrupt them any more.
I mean, I know it’s not just about the birds, it’s about discarded seeds and whatnot.
Anyhoo, we had a plethora of Long-billed Dowitchers napping (at first) and then giving us a variety of shows. The light was perfect, the distance wasn’t too bad, I was quite happy with the photo ops!
Plus, a couple of coots, eating and scratching and generally being coot-like. They amuse me to no end.
The photos
