Photojournal
- 26 May
2005
Morning
song
On the 26th of May,
I woke up quite early. I decided to take advantage of this by
heading out to see if I could find some good birds; after all,
they're supposed to be up and about a lot more in the early morning,
aren't they?
I went to Burnaby-Fraser
Foreshore Park, arriving at about 5:45. Burnaby-Fraser Foreshore
Park has two parts: a long part along the river, and a squarish
part with trails around a meadow and small pond. I went to the
meadow side. The sun was already up, but it was not high in the
sky, so it was still fairly chilly out. I had on a hooded sweatshirt
that would be silly to wear a few hours later.
It turns out that there
weren't too many birds out when I got there. I walked for quite
some ways before coming upon a male Common Yellowthroat who had
perched on a small tree and was singing. He was quite the sight,
and a pretty good little singer, too. I took several photos, but
the low sun wasn't giving off enough light to get anything that
great...besides which, I got better photos of him later in my
walk and I'll show them to you a little further down.
Eventually I tore myself
away from this concert and walked over to the pond. I heard a
train coming, from the river side. (There's a rail bridge across
the Fraser that divides the meadow and shoreline parts of the
park.) I walked over to where the train would pass, and took photos
as it did so.
The train ended up
stopping. I don't know where or why it stopped, as I could only
see maybe ten boxcars in the middle of the train. Here's one of
those boxcars, reflecting the low morning light, behind some wildflowers.
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It was now
about 6:15 and I headed down a trail that leads through some woods
to a road with a few big industrial buildings. As I entered the
woods, I heard a familiar call: a Swainson's Thrush. I often hear
these guys in the woods, but just as often they're really hard to
find. Luck was with me, however, and I was able to locate this thrush
on a branch above the trail. |
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Not much else happened
on the little trail, except that I was passed by a couple of women
walking a couple of really big dogs.
Back at the meadow,
I found some sparrows on the small trees near the Common Yellowthroat.
They were Savannah Sparrows. Check out how the wind is ruffling
this one's tailfeathers.
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I saw maybe
five or six Savannahs while I was there. This one is preening. |
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And after
she got her feathers looking all nice, she allowed me to get a fairly
close portrait. And she's quite the looker, now, isn't she? |
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Leaving
the lady on the branch, I moseyed on towards the entrance and found
a big dragonfly beside the trail. He was a Four-spot Skimmer. I
see these guys around quite a bit. |
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Only a short
ways further on, I noticed some motion on the path in front of me,
and found a little Bewick's Wren there. I think that wrens are pretty
cute, and it was a bit spirit-lifting to see him there. |
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From the
trail, he flew up to a tree, and made some little wren noises. |
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I then reached a junction
where I could've gone right and headed home, or left and done
a circuit around the meadow. A little buoyed from my encounter
with the wren, I headed left. Maybe there were still good things
to be found.
The trail led into
a little bit of woods. A young eagle flew over, and I gave chase
down a side trail, but I never got a clear line of sight to him
because he was always behind some trees. As I walked back to the
main trail, I heard the thunk of a woodpecker knocking
on a tree, and after a minute or so of looking found the source
(despite him having only given the one thunk). It was a
male Hairy Woodpecker. I took a few shots even though he was at
quite a distance. Here's the best one I got; a tripod would've
helped quite a bit.
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But the bird was a
nice find, because I don't often see Hairies.
I followed the trail
around the pond and eventually made it back to where I had seen
the Common Yellowthroat earlier. He was still there, and still
singing. It was now 8am and the light was much better.
We played a little
bit of cat-and-mouse as I tried to get close enough for good photos.
One advantage I had was that there were only about three prominent
trees in the area; these were the only suitable spots for him
to sing. He would fly down into the grass if I moved too quick
or got too close, but would soon reappear if I settled down and
waited for a while. He did have his absolute limits, though, and
would fly to a different tree if I didn't respect them. (This
would mean that I would have to back out of the grass I was in
and go over to his new perch, again slowly working my way in close.)
In this way I learned his comfort zone fairly quickly, and did
the best that I could with my camera while respecting it. Anyhow,
here's the bright little guy, singing for all he's worth.
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And here
he is again, this time between phrases. |
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He was actually singing
fairly loudly (after all, the point of the whole exercise was
to get him noticed), and I could hear him for quite some ways
as I headed back towards my car.
I did have one last
photoworthy encounter that morning...there was a Western Tiger
Swallowtail on the bushes beside the trail right where the meadow
ends. As it was still a bit early and a little chilly, it was
more sluggish than any of the other ones that I've seen lately
(which were all later in the day). Here's a side view of this
beauty.
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And here's
a top view with the wings spread. Tiger Swallowtails are pretty
big butterflies, at least by North American standards. The ones
in the east are even bigger than the ones we get here. |
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I made it back home
around 9 o'clock and promptly took a two-hour nap. I stayed in
out of the heat for the rest of the day.
Next time, I'll go
hunting for buntings.
Your connoisseur of
fine naps,
Tom
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