I type this Sunday evening after a full day of birding, which followed a day of birding yesterday too. I took the weekend off riding because I was coming down with something, though feel largely better now. However, the week otherwise was rather full of bikes – I rode every day Monday thru Thursday to a total of 113km, so despite the weekend off, I’m on par with my average weekly mileage.
I started the week with a bike commute to work on Monday, and the weather was perfect. Not only that, but it was Easter Monday so school was out, making the roads much quieter and safer feeling too. On the way home I added over 10km of extra riding to enjoy the sun and also run a couple errands. I stopped at Choklit park, pictured below, for a beverage as well.
Tuesday I got out for a ~16km loop up to the lookout below. Sunset was still a ways off, but people were already congregating for it. This is one of the most popular sunset spots I know around town, and for good reason!
Wednesday was Parkbagging, and we had a good turnout thanks to the continued good weather this week. I rode the Evasion this time, hoping its original owner could make it out, but they weren’t able to. Doesn’t matter – this is a fun bike to ride so I was pretty happy.
I rode it again Thursday actually, this time for a TCR (tall can ride) with longtime pals out to Spanish Banks in the far west reaches of Vancouver. We then backtracked to the Strathcona park oval, where a 100 lap race was nearing completion. I regularly visit this park but I always assumed the gravel loop is just a running track, albeit a large one – turns out, it was a car race course in the late 50’s and early 60’s! Then hosted bike races more recently – so it’s good to see it getting used for its purpose again.
This weekend though I switched gear to birding. If you’ve read my previous posts you’ll know that I’m a novice birdwatcher and really only started taking it more seriously in the last week of 2025. I’m still very much new to this, but I am also the type to jump in the deep end on hobbies. Thankfully, I don’t cycle through (no pun intended) hobbies very quickly, which is good because I tend to invest in each one (see: two Rivendells, a Stooge, and a Crust).
Merlin and eBird really turbocharged my counting of birds – my interest was already there, but this facilitated goal setting that I didn’t get from my little field bird book. I started tracking my “lifer” birds in Merlin, and occasionally using eBird to fill out a checklist if I was making a point of having a birding session. Most of the time though I was simply stopping when I heard a call I didn’t recognize and trying to spot the bird.
My “life list” is, as of today, at 70 species, and a rather astounding 9 of them were added today. I spent about the same amount of time birding yesterday but only added one to my life list – the difference today was that I went a) somewhere new to me and b) near the largest migratory bird sanctuary around here. I actually tried to go to the sanctuary (Reifel), but didn’t realize that it could, and did, book up full by midway through the day. I had driven almost an hour to get there, but I knew there were other good birding spots nearby so I went to the coastal dyke shown below. It was monotonous visually, but the bird activity was alive and highly varied.
Out in the water I spotted a Common Loon and a red breasted merganser to add to my life list – the former was so amazingly sleek looking, and the latter was eating a 5 or 6″ long fish as I spotted it from a near distance! The first bird I hear after I parked was a Killdeer – a bird I have been hearing regularly on my outings and never spotting – and still couldn’t find it. I also spent a great deal of time trying to spot a marsh wren that was loudly taunting me from some blackberry bushes only to walk away unsuccessful. But 100 ft later I saw a marsh wren just standing on a rock near the path, and before I got back to the car I also saw a killdeer properly finally!
I saw four different types of sparrows, two of which were new for me – savannah sparrow and swamp sparrow. The latter was more rounded and had more brown on its sides, foraging in a field next to a robin buddy. Brewer’s blackbird and barn swallow were two other new-to-me species today. Meanwhile, yesterday all I added was the American Herring gull, a pair of which I had noticed due to the black tail I wasn’t used to seeing on gulls. I still think gulls are very boring birds, which may change as I fall deeper yet down this rabbit hole.
I have a soft goal of seeing 100 BC local species this year, and was starting to feel like it was out of reach as it took so much time and energy to get from 55 to 60. But with the influx of summer residents and the realization I just need to move around town a bit more, I can see it happening. Only 30 to go and I’ve still got most of the year left!
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