Birding – Does It Ever Get Old?

A lot of you who know me, know how I do enjoy going out to Lost Lagoon and taking photos of birds. Well, it doesn’t have to be Lost Lagoon I suppose just birds anywhere in general, the bigger the better! I like to stand (or sit) and watch what they do, from swimming around, interacting with other birds, landing, taking off and flying. It’s relaxing I suppose, and typically it can be fairly quiet when there isn’t a gaggle of tourists about. Another aspect of birding I enjoy is seeing birds I normally don’t see, or have not seen.

For example as I was out walking around the Lagoon yesterday morning before the rains came in I came across this little fellow in a nearby tree.

A Downy Woodpecker. He didn’t seem to mind me as I tried to get better photos of him, he would just peck away at the small tree branches and move his way up. I’m still getting used to my Canon 7D, but I’m getting there, and the exposure on this guy is a bit off, especially for the amount of photos I took of him. According to the specifications of my camera, the 7D has a shutter live of 150,000 clicks. I wonder how long it will take me to reach that.

So it’s pretty neat seeing a bird I have not seen before, and be able to get photos of it too. In Stanley Park I’ve seen many types of birds, so seeing a new one is pretty cool. Perhaps I should start a list of birds I’ve seen?

So far the birds I’ve in and around Stanley Park:

• Bald Eagles
• Crows
• Ravens
• Great Blue Herons
• Variety of Seagulls
• Chickadees (Black-capped and Chestnut-backed)
• Towees
• American Robins
• Black-Winged Birds
• Juncos
• Song Sparrows
• Bushtits
• Hummingbirds (Anna’s I think)
• Mallards
• Wood Ducks
• Mergansers (variety of them)
• Widgeons
• Buffleheads
• Coots
• Canvasbacks
• Scaups (Lesser and Greater)
• Harlequin Ducks
• Goldeneyes
• Canadian Geese
• Oyster Catchers
• Belted Kingfisher
• Sandpiper
• Cormorants (variety of them too)

I’m not sure if I have forgotten any, but that is a pretty big list in the variety of birds you can see in and around Stanley Park. I wonder if there are any that I have not seen yet that perhaps some of you have?

Thanks to Karl from OutdoorVancouver.ca he has a link to Stanley Park Ecological Society Eagle Report which lists the locations of their nests around the city (among other cool links).

On a side note, before I came across the Downy Woodpecker, I did spot a relatively unobstructed view of one of the resident Bald Eagles.

Happy to see one of them in a tree that is slightly shorter then the other nearby trees near Second Beach and the Lawn Bowling area. Also has some decent light on him as the sun began to rise. I still can’t decide which birds I like more, the Bald Eagle or the Osprey. I like how I can get closer shots of the Bald Eagles, but those Osprey seem to be better at keeping their distances.

I understand that Birding isn’t everyone’s cup-o-tea, but I hope you can at least enjoy the photos I share with you since most of them seem to be birds lately. Who knows, with the Vancouver 2010 Winter Olympics coming up in a couple weeks, perhaps I’ll have more non-bird photos to share!