June 28th, 2020: You can’t go birding every week. I certainly try to! But this week, I was largely immobile thanks to some back spasms. Ugh. After a bunch of drugs, I was able to get out for a walk today. It was just a walk in the city to get some coffee. But that doesn’t mean I didn’t bird along the way. Some cheerful sidewalk art City birding isn’t the most glamorous, to be sure. But you can see quite a lot of species just wandering through city/suburban streets. Today’s birds were mostly birds I hear and see from my apartment: American Goldfinch, Anna’s Hummingbird, House Finch, Pine Siskin ..read more

A few comments on our current cultural moment, through the lens of birding. It’s been great to see all of the recent support for Black birders, following #BlackBirdersWeek! Indeed, there has been quite a jump in birding popularity in general during the COVID-19 pandemic. And with Christian Cooper shining a light on racism against Black birders, many (White) people have awoken to this serious issue. Audubon published a good article: “5 Key Lessons to Take Home from the First #BlackBirdersWeek.” And here’s a very short piece on some of what this has meant for Black birders. It notes, “For the Af ..read more

June 11th, 2020: An afternoon at Burnaby Lake I decided to bike out to Burnaby Lake Regional Park this afternoon. Not a great time of day to go birding. But it wasn’t raining and when that happens in Vancouver, you have no excuse for being inside! It’s almost an hour bike ride from my place, but what a day for it! Overcast, a bit of a breeze, with some warmth in the air. I arrived and locked the bike up at the west entrance by the tennis courts, rugby club, etc. My walk today took me to Piper Spit and back (~6.5k round trip). Burnaby Lake Regional Park satellite view I hadn’t walked this side ..read more

June 11th, 2020: An afternoon at Burnaby Lake I decided to bike out to Burnaby Lake Regional Park this afternoon. Not a great time of day to go birding. But it wasn’t raining and when that happens in Vancouver, you have no excuse for being inside! It’s almost an hour bike ride from my place, but what a day for it! Overcast, a bit of a breeze, with some warmth in the air. I arrived and locked the bike up at the west entrance by the tennis courts, rugby club, etc. My walk today took me to Piper Spit and back (~6.5k round trip). Burnaby Lake Regional Park satellite view I hadn’t walked this side ..read more

June 3rd, 2020: It’s hard to get bored of the big colourful ones… Not that we ever really get “bored” of a bird. But the bigger migrants that come through a little later in Vancouver always grab hold of my attention a little harder. Some of today’s Queen Elizabeth Park greenery I’m thinking specifically of things like Bullock’s Oriole, Lazuli Bunting, Western Tanager, and Black-headed Grosbeak. Since they don’t nest in my local patch, I have to visit them while I can. Queen Elizabeth Park was pretty good today. But I was a little lazy and didn’t get started until 11AM. VERY late for a supposed ..read more

May 26th, 2020: So many great birds at Colony Farm!! I was excited to head out to Colony Farm Regional Park today to meet with a birding friend for some social distancing birding. I was also hoping to see a few Colony Farm specialties. Today’s wish list of birds that can be tough to see within the city proper (where I live) included: Bullock’s Oriole, Band-tailed Pigeon, Mourning Dove, Eastern Kingbird, and (mostly importantly) Lazuli Bunting. Looking over the Coquitlam River from a bridge at Colony Farm Regional Park We had a FANTASTIC birding day! Starting at 10AM, in order to give me time t ..read more

May 19th, 2020: Lots of biking and lots of birds! With a few of the later migrants coming through town now, I was excited to visit different (non-woodland) habitats today. I’ve still been heading to QE Park pretty much every day. But I was wanted to get back to Iona to see what I might find there. Today, I was particularly interested in Bank Swallows and any shorebirds that might turn up. I headed to the outer ponds first. They were covered in a mix of swallows, as usual. It was mostly Tree and Cliff Swallows today, with a few of the others thrown in: Northern Rough-winged Swallow, Barn Swallo ..read more

It’s not rocket science. A person of color has just as much right to go birding as anyone else. A different post today in light of this particularly horrible time for Black Americans. While vastly more Black Americans are dying from Covid (broadly due to the many tentacles of institutionalized racism), they’re also being murdered by White civilians and police officers. This, of course, is an enraging “par for the course.” I’m speaking of the U. S. in particular, but I’m not letting Canada off the “institutionalized racism” hook here (we have our own brand, largely centered on Indigenous people ..read more

May 13th, 2020: Mini-midday-fallout at Queen Elizabeth Park Queen Elizabeth Park was PACKED with birds today. So packed that I made a trip before (eBird list) and after lunch (eBird list). A small mid-morning storm rolled through Vancouver and seemed to have knocked a bunch of migrants out of the sky. Some storm clouds near QE Park They were mostly Wilson’s Warblers (WIWA). I’d guess at least 200 of them in the park. You could stand under a tree and just watch them stream from one to the next above you. Little, bright yellow, black-capped warblers zipping by… I savoured the little yellow gems ..read more

May 9th, 2020: Global Big Day…by bike Every year, eBird’s Global Big Day falls either on, or slightly after, my birthday. So it’s always my birthday present to myself to make sure I get out birding for a whole day. Today was very hot by Vancouver standards, but I stuck to my plan to use only my feet, bike, and (empty) Skytrain for my transit. Now that Common Tern and Parasitic Jaeger are starting to move through, it seemed sensible to start at Iona Island today. Specifically, the tip of the south jetty at the highest tide I could fit into my schedule. Panorama from the tip of Iona’s south jett ..read more