Wandering Stanley Park, part 1

September 2, 2026 - 3 mins read

I stopped regularity bringing my camera out birding a year or more ago. In part because it’s a distraction, but also because it is heavy.

On top of that, knowing that any photographs I post here (and anything I write as well) will be stolen and dumped into the slurry of data being feed to LLMs by amoral companies doesn’t encourage me to share.

Generating synthetic text and images may appear as harmless fun, but there are serious repercussions when they accidentally or intentionally start polluting discourse and data. Two recent articles I’d recommend reading:

With that said, here are some recent photography from Stanley Park.

Red-necked Phalarope (Phalaropus lobatus)

Red-necked Phalaropes are only slightly larger than House Sparrows, but spend upwards of nine months of the year in the open ocean. I was lucky to see this one passing through on migration.

Cooper’s Hawk (Astur cooperii)

Alarm calls went up from Black-capped Chickadees and Song Sparrows as this immature Cooper’s Hawk touched down. It half-heartedly pursued some birds, but didn’t seem serious.

Cooper’s Hawk (Astur cooperii)

Flying between branches, the hawk decided it was drawing too much attention and promptly flew away.

Bushtits (Psaltriparus minimus)

A flock of at least a dozen Bushtits were perched in the same tree, seemingly untroubled by the hawk. They are known to huddle like this, especially overnight in colder environments, but it’s the first time I’ve seen it.