Saw three pairs of chum salmon spawning in Byrne Creek in SE #Burnaby today. Wonderful to be seeing more fish. Keep on coming!
Female flipping sideways to dig a nest in the gravel with her tail. Color temperature off due to weird light under bridge, didn’t bother to correct it.
Volunteer streamkeepers found and assessed this dead male chum salmon on Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby today. We spotted racoon tracks a ways further up the creek.
Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Society volunteers spotted four chum salmon in the creek today in SE #Burnaby that have returned to spawn. Great to see them coming back this year!
Cold, rainy day activities: baking and advanced theoretical physics.
Sora is a highly intelligent cat. While Daddy is interested in baking bran muffins, she’s more into string theory. . . 
Blueberry, sesame, oatmeal bran muffins. Oh, yeah, half a banana in there too. . .
A few shots taken on my patrol to look for spawning salmon today on Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby. Unfortunately there was some sediment flowing into the spawning habit so visibility was poor. I reported the flow the City.
It was a lovely morning to ramble about in Fraser Foreshore Park in south Burnaby, BC.
Downy Woodpecker couple
Black-capped Chickadee
Northern Flicker
Spotted Towhee
Looks like we may be developing a new “regular” at our balcony feeder.
A Steller’s Jay appeared a few days ago, and it, or one of its kin, was back today. It’s fun to watch it grapple with the feeder, which is designed for smaller birds.
Spent four hours rambling Deer Lake in Burnaby this morning. I debated about lugging Big Bertha (Tamron 150-600mm lens on a Nikon D7200) and Manfrotto tripod, and while I’m sore now, I’m glad I did.
Pied-Billed Grebe winter phase?
Steller’s Jay — the backlight and crown not showing make it look like a crow.
There were lots of American Coots
American Robin
Canada Geese
Cormorant
And one of the ubiquitous mallards
Great Blue Heron taking a fish at the mouth of Byrne Creek in SE #Burnaby this morning.
At first I thought this may be a small coho, a jack or jill, or is it another salmonid like a large trout. We rarely see trout that big on the creek.
I was impressed by how surely it handled the fish, and by the size of the swallow, though I’ve seen herons gulp rats.
UPDATE: I have confirmation that this is a coho. Nice to know spawners have started returning to the creek!
UPDATE 10/16: Thanks to the Burnaby Now for publishing one of these photos with commentary!
Took a stroll looking for salmon returning to spawn. Didn’t expect to see any, as they usually start appearing in this Burnaby creek around Oct. 18 – 25, but it was still a lovely day for a walk.
