Wood Ducks

This gallery contains 6 photos. As often as I have seen adult Wood Ducks in Metro Vancouver for the past six years, seeing their young up close was still an elusive experience for me.

Green-Winged Teals

This gallery contains 3 photos. Teals are small ducks, and the Green-Winged Teal is the smallest species of [dabbling] duck found in North America. The adults look like ducklings 

Cinnamon Teal

This gallery contains 3 photos. Perhaps the most elusive of the Teals and the hardest to photograph in the Pacific Northwest is the Cinnamon Teal. I have only ever encountered one or two

(Un)Common Goldeneyes

This gallery contains 4 photos. I’d been hoping that this single lady–aptly named for her glowing ember orbs–would return to the new Centennial Beach pond–and she did! Her curiosity got the better of her, and this time she swam even

A Curious Bufflehead Drake

This gallery contains 2 photos. This is the famed Bufflehead drake sentry that calls Burnaby Lake home, and he takes his patrol duty very seriously — giving me a quick onceover as he swings by the floating dock. Buffleheads are

Green-Winged Teals

This gallery contains 2 photos. A male Green-Winged Teal enjoys the calm waters of Piper Spit/Burnaby Lake. Only at Burnaby Lake can we see these diminutive dabbling ducks (the smallest in North America) literally

Oh, Those Wacky Surf Scoters

This gallery contains 2 photos. Yes, the ladies of this particular duck species really do like those thick, colourful bills on their boyfriends. Photographed at the Tsawwassen Ferry Causeway on March 3. As close as

Blue-Winged Teals

This gallery contains 3 photos. I’ve only met the Blue-Winged Teals this year … the first one at Iona Island, followed by 9 at Reifel, and 4 more at Piper Spit; each encounter brought me progressively closer to these

A Pensive Wood Duck Drake

Perched on a fallen log (and living up to his name) is this colourful drake, one of several Wood Duck “fixtures” at Piper Spit. Burnaby Lake is home to the largest concentrations of Wood Ducks–hands down, the most colourful waterfowl