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Late in the morning
on Saturday the third of June, I decided to head out to Iona Beach
to see if anything was happening there. My first stop was the
inner ponds, which is the polite way of saying the sewage
treatment ponds. Luckily, it hadn't been hot enough, or the
pond mix wasn't right, to cause me any olfactory distress, though.
The southeast pond,
which is the first pond one encounters on going in, was pretty
empty. I headed up the trail to the intersection at the middle
of the four ponds. Right at the intersection, there was a family
or two of Canada Geese. The young ones in this group were getting
fairly large.
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| Despite
leaning left (west), the geese moved on to the east. I headed through
the intersection northwards, and spotted another family of waterfowl
in the northeast pond—Mallards. The interesting thing for me
about this family were the ducklings, who had half-completed a molt;
their front halves are feathered and their back halves are downy.
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| My apologies
for the following blurry photo, but way out on the northeast pond
I found a drake Blue-winged Teal. I haven't seen too many of these
this year, so I figured I should pass along even an iffy photo. |
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| When I reached
the northwest corner, a singing Marsh Wren grabbed my attention.
I took a few shots of him before he headed on to another perch. |
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| I was able
to follow him to the other perch, and there I learned something
about Marsh Wrens and their singing: it's possible for them to go
at it so intensely it causes their eyes to go all slanty. |
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| And when
they've done that for a while, they enter a state of rapture. |
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| Nearby,
a Tree Swallow stopped at the entrance to his nest box to listen. |
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| After eyeing
me warily for a while, he ducked into his box. A couple of minutes
after that, he stuck his head out to see if I was still there. I
was, and I had my camera ready for him. |
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| There really
wasn't much else happening at the inner ponds, so I headed on back
towards the gate. Once I was by the southeast pond again, I found
this Spotted Towhee who struck a nice pose for me. |
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My next stop was the
outer ponds; these are more-natural ponds in the park part of
the island. Both outer ponds have some nice marsh around their
edges, and I headed to the marsh on the west of the north pond.
There I found the usual conspicuous inhabitants, Yellow-headed
and Red-winged Blackbirds. Here's a male Red-winged.
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| I decided
to walk a little ways north to the north edge of the island to see
if I could find any Purple Martins. On the way, I looked up and
noticed an Osprey passing by with a fish. |
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I reached the north
edge of the island, but I found no Purple Martins in the area.
That seemed a little odd, because I know that there are some that
nest in the area, and it's the right time of year for them. Maybe
I just didn't look long enough or hard enough.
I did find a bunch
of more-normal-sized swallows, though. (Purple Martins are a type
of swallow, and they're larger than the other North American swallows.)
Here I caught a Barn Swallow and two Northern Rough-winged Swallows
resting on a cable.
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I slowly moved closer
to the cable, and a Violet-green Swallow came in and perched on
it. I continued moving in, and I didn't shoot until I saw the
whites of his eyes. Or, as the case really was, the white around
his eyes.
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That little sliver
of white plumage above and behind the Violet-green's eyes is very
distinctive; if you see that on a swallow, you've got a Violet-green.
So I found three types
of swallows in the area (or four if you count the Tree Swallow
from the inner ponds), but no Purple Martins. It goes that way,
sometimes.
Next I checked out
the north side of the marsh on the north pond. The blackbirds
were still as active as ever, and this time I found a favorite
perch of a male Yellow-headed Blackbird. He came and went from
this perch four or five times while I was there. After seeing
him there the second time, I moved in close while he was away
and waited for his return. I ended up with a few good shots, including
this one where he's doing the splits.
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| Next I spotted
a Spotted in the grass. Spotted Sandpiper, that is. She was holding
her feathers in a strange way. She just held them like that, and
didn't move for a while. She didn't seem to be at a nest, or trying
to lead something (or me) away from a nest. I never figured out
what it was all about. |
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| Now I started
heading back to the parking lot. On my way, I found only one more
subject, a juvenile European Starling who was out wading in the
shallows. |
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| Then I was
back in my car and headed home. When I got home, I was headed through
the courtyard with my camera equipment when one of my orange-haired
friends came by for a little chat. (Pardon my French...) |
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| He wasn't
the only guy I knew out in the courtyard, though. Sonic and Max
were over by the stairs that lead up to my place. Both of these
kitties are friends with me, but they aren't really on speaking
terms with each other. Unless you count growling and hissing as
speaking. |
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| I told them
to be nice, but I then got distracted by a little bird landing in
a tree right beside me. It was a Black-capped Chickadee. He gave
a little Chickadee call. |
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That was pretty neat,
as I haven't often seen chickadees in the courtyard.
Somehow, while I was
busy with the chickadee, Max had moved on before the confrontation
became claws and fangs. She was nowhere to be seen. Sonic, on
the other hand, sauntered over my way.
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After getting a few
Sonic closeups, I went inside for a well-earned nap.
I woke a couple of
hours later and, lacking anything respectable to do, grabbed my
camera and headed out again. This time I went for a little hike
along Powerline Trail on the west side of Burnaby Mountain. I'd
never been far up the trail before, and so I got to explore some
new territory.
There weren't many
birds around to be photographed, though...and my choice of the
west side of a mountain in the late afternoon (I started around
5:00) was a little suspect, in terms of getting sunlight to photograph
in.
I did find a few subjects,
though. There were several Willow Flycatchers around, like this
fellow.
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| At the crest
of the trail, around 6:00, I found a few Cedar Waxwings. One of
them perched on a bare branch, giving me a clean shot at him. |
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| On my way
back down, I stopped by a tree where I had seen a Wilson's Warbler
on the way up. After waiting only a couple of minutes, the warbler
reappeared. It took another ten or so to get an unobscured camera
angle. Even then I wasn't certain if my shutter speed would be too
slow for a clear photo; the bird was for the most part staying in
the shadows. In the end, I found one shot that I think is reasonably
acceptable. |
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| Soon after
leaving the Wilson's Warbler, I came upon another Willow Flycatcher
(my sixth of the evening). This one was staying low, on top of some
brambles, rather than hanging out up in a tree. He also didn't seem
to mind my being moderately close. I took advantage of that to get
a good flycatcher shot or two. |
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But now I had lost
enough sunlight that I wouldn't get any more good bird photos.
I slung my camera across my shoulder and headed down the trail.
I'd done a lot of walking, and it was time to get home and sort
through my photos.
Still sorting,
Tom
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