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.

 
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.  

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.

 
I saw maybe five or six Savannahs while I was there. This one is preening.  
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?  
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.  
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.  
From the trail, he flew up to a tree, and made some little wren noises.  

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.

 

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.

 
And here he is again, this time between phrases.  

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.

 
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.  

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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