Central Park, photos from Burnaby Lake

Uploaded more photos of Burnaby Lake to Flickr … beaver, wood duck, Canada geese, the usual suspects.

Had a walk through Central Park, an amazing spot because of the huge trees along busy roads.

The park is famous for its immense douglas fir, western hemlock, poplar and maple groves.

It is a good spot for biking, jogging and has sports and rec facilities, such as tennis courts, outdoor swimming pool, horseshoe pitch, a soccer stadium and a pitch-and-putt golf course.

But for wildlife and bird viewing, Burnaby Lake is tops.

Baby beavers and goslings

A lovely sunset (7 p.m. ish) on Burnaby Lake, spotted from the spit:

• Osprey;
• Beaver (and babies, much activity by dam, which is at the end of the spit);
• Cooper’s hawk (?);
• Canada geese with cute goslings in tow;
• Tree swallows swooping low to catch flies;
• Red-winged blackbird;
• As always, wood duck and mallard.

Sadly no ducklings in tow for the wood ducks, I will just have to keep coming back. Didn’t see the eagle near the nest again … wonder why.

Two beaver damns can be seen from the spit, one is located at the end of it, close to the observation deck.

One of the birders on the spit recommended going to Iona beach near the airport, where he recently saw a rare yellow-headed blackbird, and watched ospreys fishing.

Warning: bad joke ahead.

What did the mother beaver say when baby beaver got home?

Shut the dam door.

Online finds

Found the website of the Vancouver Natural History Society, it’s well worth a browse. The society publishes A Birders Guide to Vancouver and the Lower Mainland, which I just ordered from Amazon. It got some great reviews, I think it will help me plan trips

I also discovered a photo group pool on Flickr: Field Guide, Birds of British Columbia. I started to watch the slideshow, but there are more than 9,000 photos, some are amazing.

Website ideas

I will need to add information to my in-the-works park wesbite, listing migratory birds, what can you see in spring, what can you see in fall. Summer is not the best time for birding as the birds are on the nest and not as visible as when they are passing through in great numbers.

Also, I would like to have a link for day trips, as I will be visiting Iona, and George C. Reifel Bird Sanctuary.

Birder’s paradise

First discovered Burnaby Lake Park last Saturday, when I went on a bird walk there … I later mistakenly deleted all the cute wood duck duckling photos and everything else I shot at the park, so that was my excuse to go back there today.

Sadly, the ducklings were not to be seen, maybe because our visit was early afternoon, while the birding talk was from 6 to 8 a.m. (I got up at 5 a.m. on a Saturday, the humanity).

So I will just have to go out again some early morning to see if I can photograph the ducklings, the eagle guarding its nest across the lake from Pipers Spit (prime birding lookout off Piper Avenue), and the great blue heron stalking fish among the beautiful – but invasive! – yellow iris now in bloom. And next time, I will check what’s in the trash before I empty it.

For today’s visit, went for a bit of a walk around the Conifer Loop. The trails were a little rough for baby’s stroller, but she loved running along the trails, and there wasn’t even too much trouble for her to get into.

Along this trail we spotted a red breasted sapsucker, a striking bird (no pun intended). According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology sapsucker page, hummingbirds stalk these sapsucker so they can use their feeding holes … yummy sap. Rufous Hummingbird like to nest near the sap wells.

Burnaby Lake is a mix of deciduous forests, conifers, shrubby shorelines, streams and marshes, and protects more than 20 per cent of B.C.’s species at risk.

Burnaby Lake Nature house is now open weekends and stat holidays, from 10 to 4 p.m., until Labour Day. It’s worth checking out the displays (a cute tree frog in an aquarium … hard to believe tree frogs and flying squirrels live here!), and its chalk-board update of species recently seen here, which last Saturday read:

• Mink
• Willow flycatcher
• Muskrat
• Pied-billed grebe
• Cedar waxwings
• Spotted sandpiper

The Nature House also features a butterfly garden in the front (not yet in bloom) and picnic tables in the back.

The only bad news I can think of about the park, is what Bob Gunn, leader of the bird talk told us Saturday. That it will be a bad year for mosquitoes at the park because they lay their eggs in ponds and it has been a wet spring. Good for the bird and bat population though, so I guess really it’s good news ….

In other Burnaby Lake news, the city just pledged $10 million to dredge the lake “re-establishing it as an international rowing venue and improving the lake’s fish and wildlife habitat.“

I did get a few new photos today, but will have to come back for more.

burnabyparks.com: in the works

I took the plunge and bought the domain burnabyparks.com from dotster. Now all I have to do is keep collecting content (not too much of a hardship) and code the site. I have a preliminary design already.

I think this is going to be an interesting, albeit time-consuming project over the next few months. But for now, this URL will just take you to an error page as I am not purchasing server-space until I have pages developed! Stay tuned, I will give notice once I have gone live.

I visited Burnaby Lake Park Saturday, and will have some photos and a small report soon.

While at the Nature House there, I picked up a brochure describing my dream volunteer position: a Centre Care Worker at the Wildlife Rescue Association. Maybe next summer if I have more time once my program has ended …

A meander by the river

Another sunny day in Burnaby, so decided to check out Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Park, which proved to be a good choice as we brought baby along and the paths were stroller friendly. It can be tough finding level ground in this hilly city.

The city’s website describes the park in glowing terms:

This picturesque locale is Burnaby’s best and most scenic point of entry to the historic Fraser River, which flows a majestic 1,400 km from its source high in the Rocky Mountains out to the Pacific ocean.

We followed the pleasant poplar-lined path along the riverbank and watched tug boats and pleasure boats go by.

An elderly gentleman played guitar by the river, children played in the pirate-ship playground, and families barbecued and picnicked at the many tables along the river path.

A fisherman discussed his catches there: rainbow trout and “lots of whitefish.” We didn’t see much in the way of birdlife, beyond the ubiquitous crows, though a huge blue heron flew overhead.

Next visit we’ll bring a picnic, barbeque and a beach ball.

Later, I download a PDF map from ….. and notice that at far end of the park, an area known as Terminus Park, there is an estuary/wetland area. This would be the spot to bring binoculars and look for birdlife. Next time.

Added a few river photos to Flickr photostream.