I took a 3-hour stroll along the dyke at Boundary Bay, starting from 72nd and heading west, and then back again. Lots of eagles, both golden and bald, some harriers (of which I didn’t get any usable shots), and assorted waterfowl and smaller birds.
We walked around Deer Lake in Burnaby, BC, today, spending half an hour or so observing the heron colony. It’s busy season, with herons building nests, flying in and out collecting branches.
I put in two calls to the City of Burnaby today. The first was about a house construction site where dirt was not being properly managed, creating a situation in which silt would likely flow into Byrne Creek.
Then about half an hour later on my walk, I saw that the creek was running milky green. I traced the source to the stormwater line that drains Edmonds St. above Kingsway, and then joins the pipe that runs along 18th Ave and that empties into the creek on 18th just upstream from Edmonds Skytrain Station.
Mud building up on Hedley from house construction
Sites are supposed to be managed so this does not happen, or at least immediately cleaned up. This is just a few meters from a storm drain that goes directly into Byrne Creek, where volunteer streamkeepers have been seeing coho salmon and chum salmon fry hatching out over the last few weeks.
The fish ladder at Griffiths pond
The sediment/substance appeared to be coming from the 18th Ave. stormwater pipe.
Folks, nothing should go down street and parking lot drains except rain.