Four photos from my walk to Burnaby Lake but without any lake shots (07/23/2026)

See below, in kitschy pseudo Polaroid glory. The weather was milder today, but a bit more humid. I enjoyed the walk.

Post-surgery, two months later

I went in for surgery on May 22, exactly two months ago, so I thought I’d check in and see where I’m at. Also, I like lists!

  • Starting about a week ago, I could sneeze and not feel it in my surgery area. This is a notable improvement.
  • It took about a month before my sleep returned to normal.
  • My three incisions continue to heal, but are still pretty visible. I am expecting scars in at least two of the three. Then I start scar therapy! Also, the puffiness is all gone now and when I rub my hand over the area, it feels mostly normal. Don’t get all pervy, I don’t do this a lot.
  • But when I do do it, I also note that there is still numbness in the immediate area above the surgery shenanigans. Whether this means it’s permanent or not remains unknown, but I’m leaning more toward yes, it probably is.
  • The hair on the left side of my chest has still not fully grown back yet. Meanwhile, if I don’t shave my face for two days, it looks like I’m growing a beard. Why is hair so weird?
  • My return to running was complicated this week by some extremely summer temperatures, climbing up to around 33-34°C. Even the mornings have been too warm, especially after not having the past six weeks to acclimate to the warmer weather. Friday is supposed to reach 29°C, which seems almost cool in comparison. I may try a run then.
  • Everything else is pretty much back to normal.
  • But I am always kind of aware of the surgery area or SA or some other clever name I’ll eventually come up with to describe where the surgical team spent two hours yoinking a tumour from my chest. It doesn’t bother me, but I now see a dividing line in my life: before surgery, and after.

And now, a cat.

Hot walk, dry heat

I went for a walk in the early afternoon to Burnaby Lake and back (8 km) as the temperature was hitting 33°C. This may not seem like an optimal time to walk, but most of the route is on a river trail with a good bit of tree canopy and the humidity was low, so I sweated, but only a bit. I also wore sunblock because I’m not stupid enough to let myself get sunburned twice in the same summer (yet).

Weather app shot:

Everywhere you go, it’s gonna be hot.

A few river shots. And yes, it felt cooler down by the water. Not Fonzie cool, but maybe a little.

Birding, July 18, 2026: Blood on the beach

Where: Iona Beach, Terra Nova, Richmond Nature House (Richmond), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Mostly sunny, 21°C

It was Richmond up in the hizzy today, which meant planes, planes and also some birds.

Iona Beach

Freight ship plying the waters off Iona Beach.

After some early morning showers, the sky mostly cleared up and it was pleasantly warm–and super muggy–for the remainder of the day. We started at Iona Beach and worked back toward a group of people shooting something apparently exotic. But it was just mallards. I guess they are exotic if you don’t see them normally. But in the same green sewer pond we also saw a Northern Pintail couple, the first we’ve seen this summer. We took an alternate trail into the wooded area and did not see much there. A trip down to the river provided the first of several blood sacrifices from Nic as he walked manly through thorny brush.

Once we moved into the open area, filled with scrub and smaller trees, it was chickadees everywhere, along with House Finches, swallows of various sorts and hummingbirds trying to stab each other. It was a birdpalooza, perhaps brought on by the abundant berries growing all over.

In the open gravel area Nic heard, then we saw a couple of Killdeer. They appeared to be nesting, so we gave them a wide berth. One seemed to be trying to draw us away from a nest and I felt bad being there. As penance, I didn’t manage any shots.

The main beach provided opportunities for shooting surly gulls. You know the ones. There was also a disturbingly large amount of broken glass along the shore, spread out over a fairly wide area. Nic picked up like 50 kg of it.

Terra Nova

Looking toward the mountains and airport from Terra Nova.

We then headed across the bay to Terra Nova, which yielded great scenery, a large retro biking group, an ice cream truck playing “Happy Birthday to You” (WHY?!) and not many birds at all! There was a heron standing in the main pond, up to its knees in goop, and looking about as pleased as you’d expect.

What we did see a lot of, other than planes, were bugs of various sorts, and especially grasshoppers. We found one on the trail that was oddly unmoved by our presence, then we realized she was laying eggs in the gravel. Kind of neat and kind of gross at the same time.

Also, lots of planes. I shot about a thousand of them. It was Plane Day for me.

Richmond Nature House

A fake turtle on real wood at Richmond Nature House.

Nic wanted to see if there might be some action at the Richmond Nature House. There was not, other than a few errant hummingbirds and a House Finch. However, the small pond had a turtle (fake) and plenty of dragonflies (real), making the trip, which was not really out of the way, worth it. In summer, it’s all about the bugs.

Tlahutum Regional Park

View of the community gardens at Tlahutum Regional Park.

We concluded at Tlahutum, though we did not venture to the big pond. We saw some Canada Geese in the river, a kingfisher that I could not capture as it zipped by, and at least one Willow Flycatcher.

In the community garden, we continued to see lots of juvenile birds getting their flap on, mainly House Finches, some cowbirds, and robins. Yellowthroats continued to taunt form out of view. I shot a bunch of flowers. Nic shot red soldier beetles getting it on. And on and on.

In all, a fine outing, even if half the spots were a bit bird-deficient. But it’s the summer and that’s expected. Plus the pintails were a nice surprise.

The Shots

All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto unless otherwise noted.

Soon™.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Goldfinch
  • American Robin
  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Black-capped Chickadee
  • Brown-headed Cowbird
  • Common Yellowthroat (heard)
  • Eastern Kingbird
  • House Finch
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • Tree Swallow
  • White-crowned Sparrow
  • Willow Flycatcher

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Belted Kingfisher
  • Canada Goose
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Killdeer
  • Mallard
  • Northern Pintail
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • Various seagulls

Raptors:

  • Bald Eagle

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Other naughty bugs

July 18 birding preview

I swear I’ll have the post and photos soon. It’s kind of weird how busy I can get doing things I don’t particularly enjoy.

In the meantime, here’s as preview, with two of the photos I took.

Photo 1, the pond at Iona Beach, looking all windswept at 16:9 ratio:

Framing!

And because we went to Iona Beach and Terra Nova, I took about 10,000 shots of planes landing and taking off. Here’s one of them, a Westjet jet taking off against a cloudy backdrop:

Flying still terrifies me.

In the birding post (soon™) I will include photos of actual birds.

Litter pickup and watering crows

A while back I decided to use a picker and go out and occasionally pick up the bits of litter around our condo complex. One of those “If you want something done, do it yourself” things that has become a primary philosophy of mine. I usually do every Sunday and other days as needed, covering most of the complex and the sidewalks.

Today’s haul looked like this:

Not visible: About a thousand cigarette butts

I also watered some of the trees in the heritage courtyard this afternoon using a hose with a spring-loaded nozzle (the only way to water with Stage 3 water restrictions in effect). Shortly after I started a crow showed up and stood just inside the range of the water, lapping it up as it fell down on her/him. Eventually three other crows joined in, drinking from the small puddles that eventually formed, showering under the spray, or even attempting a bath in one of the bigger puddles. It was cute. Hopefully these crows won’t attack me now when I enter their turf.

Anyway, this is what I post when I can’t think of anything else. Hopefully my brain will be more inventive moving forward.

My mind has been mindless

Sometimes I post a flurry of nonsense and other times my mind just rattles around, shrugs and says, “I dunno!”

The last few days it’s been doing the latter. I can’t say why these things happen when they do–I could probably write a bestselling self-help book if I figured it out–but it’s been persistent, if intermittent, since I was old enough to scribble mostly inside the lines.

In celebration of finally posting some nonsense, albeit not a flurry of it, here is, of course, typing cat.

Run 1,045: Improvement through adversity

View from Cariboo Dam, pre-run: Warm and dry. The air, that is.

Or something like that.

First, I’ve decided to add the Performance Condition stat to each run, because I love stats. Garmin explains it here:

For a real-time assessment of your current ability to perform, look at your performance condition. During the first 6 to 20 minutes of your run, this metric analyzes pace, heart rate and HRV. The resulting number is a real-time assessment of the deviation from your baseline VO2 max, with each point on the scale representing about 1% of your VO2 max. The higher the number, the higher you can expect to perform.

Today, mine was +1, which is a bit better than neutral, but considering conditions, pretty good!

Speaking of conditions, I got a late morning start, and it was already 25C at the start of the run and 26 by the end, with humidity down to around 40%, which is definitely dry mouth territory. I hydrated at the fountain before the run, but even for 2.5 km, it might have been nice to have a water bottle or something with me.

The heat also made me alter my planned short loop. Originally I was going to take the side loops, then come back on the main trail before diverting back onto the Spruce Loop to finish. Instead, I simply reversed course and went back on the side loops, because they are mostly under the shade of second growth forest, where the main trail is a lot more exposed. This was a good call.

I experienced one issue–some cramping in my chest (not the surgery side) around the 1 km mark. I believe this is because, strangely, I was actually pushing a bit. I eased up a little, and it was fine after that. While I did flag a bit in the second km, I made up for it and finished with an average pace eight seconds faster than Monday, despite the higher temperature, at 6:18/km. Still overreaching, but I think it’s going to keep saying that until I’m in better shape.

Overall, better than expected, given conditions. I am pleased. Friday is looking to be cooler, which will be nice.

View just west of the dam, post-run.

Stats:

Run 1,045
Average pace: 6:18/km
Training status: Overreaching
Performance Condition: +1
Location: Burnaby Lake (CCW, short loop)
Start: 11:20 a.m.
Distance: 2.51 km
Time: 15:48
Weather: Sunny
Temp: 25–26°C
Humidity: 40–39%
Wind: light
BPM: 152
Weight: 170.4 pounds
Total distance to date: 7,035 km
Devices: Garmin Forerunner 265, Samsung Galaxy S26, AirPods (3rd generation)
Shoes: Scarpa Golden Gate ATR 2 (15/33/48)

Music: Shuffle play

Birding, July 11, 2026: Abbreviated avian adventure

Where: Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam)
Weather: Mostly cloudy, 21°C

I guess my Forerunner 265 wasn’t lying when it said take a rest day, because I was so pooped in the morning that I skipped Reifel and Boundary Bay. Nic swung by after, and we spent some quality time in the community garden at Tlahutum.

Tlahutum Regional Park

Coquitlam River in a green mood.

For the first part of the outing, we hit the trails, and it was mostly Song Sparrows and the occasional crow, but we did see a young, scowly Great Blue Heron sitting atop one of the bird boxes near the big pond. The big pond itself was looking a bit green, and seemed to be bird-free. On the way back, we spotted a small group of what were probably young Rough-winged Swallows hanging out in a few trees south of the trail, their extra-big mouths still not quite assuming adult form. One adult, and likely a parent, was sitting among them.

Weirdly, we saw a couple of Barn Swallows just standing on the trail. Maybe they do it sometimes just to see what it feels like.

After tantalizing glimpses of a Common Yellowthroat in the tall grass (Nic saw it and got some OK photos, I did not see it at all), we moved onto the community garden and zigzagged through it. The plots here are in full bloom, with flowers and veggies in abundance, meaning pollinators were also around.

But not just pollinators. There were quite a few birds buzzing about, many of them young and scruffy-looking. House Finches were racing about in small groups pretty much the entire time we were there. I managed a few decent photos when they deigned to sit still for more than a moment.

Overall, the gardens proved to be relaxing, with the clouds providing relief from the sun, but still high enough to provide decent light most of the time. My watch would have approved.

The Shots

All photos shot with a Canon EOS R7 with 18–150 mm kit lens and 100–400 mm telephoto unless otherwise noted.

Some of these are more interesting than “great” shots. Also, dragonfly sex. You’ve been warned.

The Birds (and other critters)

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American Goldfinch
  • American Robin
  • Anna’s Hummingbird
  • Brown-headed Cowbird
  • Common Yellowthroat (heard, briefly seen)
  • House Finch
  • Northern Flicker
  • Rough-winged Swallow
  • Song Sparrow
  • Spotted Towhee
  • Tree Swallow (?)
  • White-crowned Sparrow

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Belted Kingfisher
  • Great Blue Heron
  • Wood Duck

Common:

  • American Crow
  • European Starling

Raptors:

  • Bald Eagle

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Other bugs