On Saturday morning I headed out to Colony Farm Park to see if I could get some decent photos of a Lazuli Bunting. The latest reports, from some very reliable fellows named Dave and Larry, had placed some of these blue beauties in the park near the former pig barns. I had gotten some clarification from Larry about exactly where that was, and I prepared myself for ear identification by listening to the song of the Lazuli (on a birdsong CD that I have) over and over, on the way over.

I parked at the park at about 9:15 and started walking down the path by the train tracks. My first encounter was with a butterfly—a Painted Lady, to be exact. I saw very few birds on my walk down the path, except for a group of about eight European Starlings that I seemed to push along. There was a train of rail carriers (railroad cars that carry rail sections) on the tracks behind the businesses that are just off of United Boulevard. Here's a shot looking back at them from later in the day.

At this point, I spotted a roughly-sparrow-sized bird flying from a tree near the tracks to one over by the warehouses. It seemed greyish in flight and I thought that it was a song sparrow or robin. I finally got my bins (binoculars) on it and was quite surprised to find it was a Lazuli! The blue hadn't shown at all during its flight. I started across the tracks towards the tree, but then lost the bird in the foliage and after about five or ten minutes gave up on it.

While I was over there, though, I noticed a pretty funky sight on one of the trailers parked next to a warehouse. The paint used for the logo on the side of the trailer was peeling; it wasn't flaking off but rather rolling up.

After taking a few shots of that, I went back to the park side of the tracks. I was encouraged by the easy encounter with the bunting and hoped that it wouldn't be my last of the day.

I watched the tree that the Lazuli had flown from for a while, and found a little guy hopping around. He's a young White-crowned Sparrow in funny light.

Turning to wander further along, I saw a pair of pigeons on the rails up ahead of me. I immediately noticed the little white crescent on the back of their neck and pulled up the camera and shot. Regular pigeons (a.k.a. Rock Doves) don't have that crescent; the bird that we get here that does have it is the Band-tailed Pigeon. The birds flew off before I could get close enough for a really good shot, but I got a few where they are at least identifiiable.

In this shot, you can't see the crescent on the nape, but the yellow feet are fairly obvious.

Rock Doves, of course, have red feet.

Colony Farm Park is next to a place with the intriguing title of Forensic Psychiatric Institute. It looks much like a prison from the outside, and no, I haven't visited the inside. At least, not since a few months ago when they told me I could go free.

The importance of this is that the pig barns are located near the place where the road by the railroad tracks meets the road leading west from The Institute. And I was at this intersection. I didn't see the pig barns right away, but I did notice Mrs. Wood in the water in the ditch. She seemed to have her figurative hands full, looking after 17 youngsters.

Mrs. Wood, naturally, is a Wood Duck.

I started down the road towards the institution, and immediately saw a bird land in a tree to my right. It was a House Finch, and I liked the way it looked like she had tousled hair flapping in the breeze. It reminded me of some of my colleagues—we're a notably disheveled bunch.

As I watched, he flew down to the grass beside the path another 15 meters in front of me. I moved along, trying to get closer, and to get a clear camera angle on him, without flushing him. I didn't manage that, and I ended up focussed on the grass in front of the bird and not the bird himself.

After he flew off, I headed back to the tree on the right of the path, and found another Lazuli who quickly flew. There were also a trio of Cedar Waxwings there. I took some photos of them; despite bad lighting conditions (they were in the shade with a bright sky behind them). I did a little Photoshop work to try to salvage a photo that I liked. I like this one because of the dashing way he's holding the feathers of his crown.

Cedar Waxwings are very common around here, but they're quite pretty.

Looking up, I noticed a Red-tailed Hawk circling. It was joined by another, and they ended up coming a bit down in the sky and closer to me. I took the opportunity and shot a lot of almost-vertical shots, not knowing how they would come out, as it was nearing noon and that put the sun almost directly over them. Some of them came out okay, though.

More light on that hawk's head would've made that shot very nice.

I decided to step down into the ruins of the pig barn itself, to see if any of the trees near it held any Lazulis. I did find another one, but the strong noontime sun made the lighting on him pretty awful for photographs. That sun was beginning to take its toll on me, too, and as I was hungry, I decided to pack it in and head to lunch.

I had my customary lunch at the Golden Pita, but of my usual lunching buddies, only Matthew was there. I haven't mentioned it, but I had my car broken into a few weeks before. At first I had thought that I hadn't lost anything in the break-in, but I eventually noticed that I couldn't find the 18-70mm lens that had come with my camera. I had vaguely formulated a plan to replace the lens, and discussed that with Matthew, who encouraged me to act on my plan. Clearly, he's a good friend.

So after lunch, Matthew and I headed to Coquitlam Centre, where there's a fine camera shop, and I bought a new general-purpose lens. It's a 24-120mm lens, so it won't quite take a wide-angle photo as wide as my old lens would, but it has less distortion overall and also has vibration reduction, which makes it easier to hand-hold. (I also have this feature on my long telephoto lens, which I use for taking the bird shots.)

So when I got home, I headed outside to try out my new lens. I first went across the street to the rail yard, where I got a few shots of graffiti on boxcars.

That's a much wider-angle shot than I could have done the day before. I could probably have gotten a similar shot with my long lens, but I would have to be much farther away, and worry about intervening street signs and fences and such. It was much more convenient to walk up near the car and snap the photo.

Here's the other end of the same car.

When I got inside, I examined my day's photos. I was quite happy with the shots from the new lens, especially the wide-angle ones, but I found that I didn't get any shots of the Lazuli Buntings that were as good as what I was really hoping for. So I decided to head back to the park a little later on, thinking that the evening sun would provide better lighting.

So around 5:15 I arrive again, this time parking by the warehouses off United Boulevard and walking through one of their parking lots (by the peeling-paint trailer) to the path by the rails. I checked the tree on the left of the path, and noticed a bunch of American Goldfinches flitting around in it. As I started to take photos of one of the male Goldfinches, he got chased off the branch by this fellow.

He's a little dark and blurry, but my friends who know a little about birds assure me that he's probably a Willow Flycatcher.

After the flycatcher flew off, I turned my attention back to the goldfinch, who had settled on a lower branch. As soon as I started shooting him, he flew off, too.

But he didn't turn his rufous breast towards me, and I wanted a good shot of that, too. So I decided to go down into the ruins of the pig barns and see if any more Lazulis would show up.

I turned and faced the ruins, and saw a Milbert's Tortoiseshell perched on one of the rocks in front of me. He was kind enough to sun himself whilst I took a portrait of him.

Here's what the ruins of the pig barns look like. Those concrete walls aren't even waist-high on me; I guess when you're as vertically-challenged as a pig is, you don't need very high walls to get a sense of privacy.

I climbed down to the ruins and the Tortoiseshell fluttered off.

About two-thirds of the way down, on the right, there is a relatively tall pair of trees; they're the ones just poking above the background hill in the above photo. I thought I would go watch these trees, as they had seemed quite popular with the birds that morning.

Actually, the two trees seemed rather interesting in and of themselves. Their trunks grew about a half of a meter apart, and the left half of each tree was bare, and the right half had foliage. It was an odd sight.

Anyhow, some birds would stop on the bare limbs (making for easy photos) and others would stop on the foliage, and then sometimes hop over to the bare side.

(And no, that's not my beer can—not my brand.)

I chose a block of cement near the two half-trees and sat on it, taking off my knapsack and making myself at home. I know that there are those who would say that it's not really a stretch for me to feel at home in a pig barn, but those are people who've never really truly appreciated the finer points of my lifestyle.

Anyway, it was good for me to sit; it helped the birds feel more comfortable with hanging out in the trees.

And hang out they did. Most of the time I was there, there were two or three American Goldfinches in the tree: different ones; they were always coming and going. A female House Finch caught my eye; she was greyer (less brown) than many of the ones I had seen on the day.

When I finished with the Goldfinches, I looked to my left and found that my yellow House Finch had returned. This time I was closer and got better photos.

Throughout my time in the pig barns, there had been fifteen or twenty swallows flying around the area. Sometimes they all came in low, flying a meter or two above the ground of the ruins. I watched three of them chasing one another around...it looked as though they were enjoying that, as they kept at each other for at least five minutes straight, or maybe longer. Occasionally one or more swallows would settle in the two trees or on the ruins, so I decided to try to get photos of them when they stopped. (I would have tried for some flight photos as well, but swallows are awful quick and I still wasn't supposed to twist my torso too much.) Anyhow, one of the first to stop was this Violet-green Swallow, who was puffed up like a fluffball.

As I took pictures of it, it gradually shrank back to normal swallow shape. I next caught a Violet-green resting on a rusty piece of somethin', showing some of his gorgeous colors.

There were some Barn Swallows around, too. Here's two shots of one of those svelte little guys.

Then I found the following swallow on one of the trees. This is a Violet-green Swallow, either a juvenile or a drab-morph bird. One of my other photos of him shows that the top of his head was olive-colored, like the one three photos ago.

But in the field, I wasn't really able to identify him. I thought that he was maybe a Northern Rough-winged Swallow.

And that swallow actually gave me quite a hard time about that. He had a blast laughing at me not being able to identify him. When I tried to get closer and stumbled a bit, he even suggested I was drunk, and asked me to touch the tip of my nose with my finger, illustrating the procedure for me. "Like this," he mocked.

I had told him like I told you...it wasn't my beer can. Not that he would believe it...he sure was a nervy little guy. Imagine that...a swallow making fun of me like that! How low I must have sunk...

Well, after that embarrassing moment, another Lazuli came by and gave me a modelling session, but the photos were mainly like the last Lazuli I showed above. I happened to notice a Cedar Waxwing up in the tree, and then saw two more arrive. Here's one of the latecomers; the lighting is much better on this one than the one from the morning.

It was getting late and the sun was fleeing the scene. I put my knapsack back on my back, and as I was bidding my little stall adieu, I had one final visitor show up.

That lady is a Brown-headed Cowbird. But don't let her beauty fool you...she's a sneaky one. Lady cowbirds don't construct their own nests, but rather lay their eggs in the nests of some other species, leaving the tasks of egg incubation and raising of the young to others. (This is called brood parasitism.) Brown-headed Cowbirds have been recorded laying eggs in the nests of over 200 other species...so just about anybody they can sneak an egg in on, they will. Incorrigible!

Anyhow, that sneaky lady ended my long and fairly successful day in the field.

Never laying eggs in anybody's nest,
Tom