Tag: Burnaby Lake

Burnaby Lake

The welcoming committee of Burnaby Lake Park consisted of Canada Geese.

Canada Geese

A formal delegation of Canada Geese

I enjoyed the bike ride there, it was 11°C with patches of blue skies, and birds! Happiness.

The bird of the day was a Townsend’s Warbler, a fairly rare bird here in winter, perched high on a leafless tree in the private yard in front of the nature house (viewed from outside the yard). It was sallying for flies.

Wood Ducks

A couple of Wood Ducks

A birder initiation at Burnaby lake

She came from Australia to SFU for a semester on a student exchange program. She answered the ad Marc put in the local student newspaper, calling for people who want to go bird watching. She didn’t know what she was getting into.

We set up a birding tour at Burnaby lake. It was all staged. The most charismatic birds went on a parade in front of us: Wood Ducks, a Great Blue Heron, a Bald Eagle, a Belted Kingfisher. A Pileated Woodpecker was hammering at the closest tree trunk to us with his thick, strong bill. She was impressed. She didn’t suspect a thing.

After the show was over, I excused myself and pretended to go the the washroom. The Pileated Woodpecker was just around the corner. “You did a good job” I said. The Woodpecker’s red mustache didn’t flinch. I handed in the money.

Mallards, Green-winged Teals and Long-billed Dowitchers at Burnaby Lake

The lives of nine ducklings saved

I was riding my bicycle to Burnaby Lake Park, early in the morning (According to my standards at the time; I had to set my alarm clock for 8AM to allow time for a long bike ride). Event: raking some sand at a turtle nesting site.

At 9:45am on the side of Winston street, past the intersection with Sperling Ave, I stopped my bike to pay respect to a female Mallard duck who was there with a couple of fluffy ducklings. Suddenly I realized that quackings are coming from down the storm drain, over which mommy duck was walking back and forth. The two last little ones were following mom faithfully and one by one fell down through the sewer grate too…

At Burnaby Lake Park I met a couple of wildlife animal rescue members, and together we launched “Operation Duck”. As the three of us were hovering over the storm drain, mama duck walked to the middle of the highway; we tried to get her to walk back, so she flew high up a far away tree.

Dave managed to lift the grate and had a pasta strainer handy to scoop the young ones.
Ducklings are safe and reunited with mom.
I’m a hero.

ducklings in water drain

rescued ducklings in box

ducklings rescue team

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