I spent this past Mother’s day enjoying the nice weather on Burnaby Mountain. I had a good day of birding adding a bunch of spring migrants to my year list. As always with my first spring outing, I spent a good chunk of the morning working on my rusty birdcalls. It always takes me a while to get the difference between Pacific-slope & Hammond’s Flycatchers straight in my head and it seems to me that the Black-throated Gray Warbler’s song doesn’t match the recordings I’ve heard. Despite these difficulties with my bird call ID, I saw a good variety of warblers, including large numbers of Yellow-rumped Warblers moving through. The highlight for the day was picking up a Chipping Sparrow for my BC list, in the rose garden near Horizons. I spent more than 7 hours wandering the trails near Horizons covering over 7 kilometers and getting a really wicked sunburn but my effort was rewarded with 28 species of birds.

When I wasn’t puzzling over bird songs or getting a wicked case of warbler neck, I spent some time with my macro lens getting some improved shots of some of the flora on the mountain. I think I got some really nice close up shots of Fairy Bells, Pacific Bleeding Heart, and Fragrant Fringecup. Between the birding and the photography I had a really enjoyable day up on the mountain.