Photography

Photos I’ve taken of scenery, interesting objects and other things.

Birding, July 20, 2024: Hidden driveways

Where: Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby), Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Maplewood Flats (North Vancouver)
Weather: Sunny, 23-27°C

The Outing

Piper Spit

Still no turtles.

We broke tradition two ways: Going birding on a Sunday and hitting Piper Spit first. The outing got off to a near-calamitous start when Nic found he could not adjust the f-stop on his camera. He fixed it by doing a variation of the classic turn it off/on by removing his telephoto lens, then putting it back on. Electronics are weird!

Near the dam, we saw some baby wood ducks, but not exactly close-up. We continued on and at the stump with the freaky fungus we saw a pair of Douglas squirrels being simultaneously adorable. One sat on top of the stump, eating a large nut like a cob of corn. I like squirrels because they like to eat and when they eat, they don’t move, which means I can usually get good shots. This seems increasingly important now, as my camera, or parts of it, seem to be experiencing an increasing array of issues. More on this later.

Once at the spit itself, the land mass to the east has returned, after multiple weeks of very hot and dry weather. It was pretty much Goose Island.

As expected, there wasn’t much variety in the waterfowl–mostly mallards and wood ducks with their prim new mullets. However, even the songbird population seemed to be largely elsewhere, save for an errant song sparrow and a mass of blackbirds hopping and flying about, seed smeared on their beaks. We witnessed a surly kid blackbird demanding to be fed by a parent, then proving himself completely capable of feeding himself when the parent took too long. Kids!

We got intel on where to find a lazuli bunting at Tlahutum, which was conveniently our next stop.

Tlahutum Regional Park

Rusting fences, but no buntings.

By now it was still rather humid and clouds began gathering. Some of them looked moisture-laden, but I hadn’t seen any showers in the forecast. You can probably see where this is going.

The directions for the bunting took us outside the park proper, to a nearby grass labyrinth and the titular hidden driveway (also the name of the album by my country punk fusion band). We listened, we looked, we trod around, but we heard no buntings and we saw no buntings. We left, buntless.

At the community gardens, we noted an absence of swallows, which may have already started heading off on their fall migration. In their place, a few robins, towhees and one elusive American goldfinch (I got one shot before it flew off).

By now, my camera–which I had cleaned the night before–was starting to show issues, the most prevalent being an inability for the shutter to engage, also sometimes accompanied by an inability to change focus. I did some experimenting with my kit lens and have made a provisional diagnosis that the problem lies with the telephoto lens or the adapter it uses. Look, if I win the $30 million 6/49 jackpot, I promise I will donate oodles of money to good causes and be a level-headed millionaire. But I will also totes buy a new camera, because even repairing this one is probably not worth it.

We elected to skip the rest of Tlahutum this time and headed off for lunch.

The shower–intermittent and half-hearted, began with lunch, but ended before we got to Maplewood Flats. Traffic on the highway was so slow (it was Sunday, too, remember, not rush hour on Wednesday or something) that we lost the GPS signal on Google Maps while going through the Cassiar Connector.

Maplewood Flats

The very low tide at Burrard Inlet.

Maplewood Flats had better light than we expected, but birds were scarce, despite a whiteboard near the entrance showing off all kinds of semi-exotic species that had been sighted here in the last few weeks. We saw some seagulls and cormorants, as well as a mallard mom and her snoozing brood by an inner pond. There are now even more signs warning people to keep off the mudflats, and the tide was indeed very low, exposing much of the shoreline. We were good and did not venture out.

In the end, I only shot a little over 250 photos, or about 1.25 batteries’ worth. With the paucity of birds, the high humidity and my camera being weird, it was a fine day to be out and enjoy the views, but maybe not so great for actual birding.

And now I’m off to write tracks for Hidden Driveways.

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American goldfinch
  • American robin
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Purple martin (maybe?)
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Canada goose
  • Cormorant
  • Great blue heron
  • Mallard
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • None

Non-birds:

  • Assorted pollinators
  • Douglas squirrels

Birding, July 12, 2024: How to attract ducklings

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary (Delta), Crescent Beach (Surrey)
Weather: Sunny, 19-25°C

The Outing

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

Looking west across the marshland, the Gulf Islands and Vancouver Island in the distance.

Another Friday birding adventure, but due to scheduling and not the weather, which continues to be sunny and warm (but thankfully not hot and gross). We first headed out to Reifel, hoping to see the pair of adorable Sandhill crane babies.

As we neared Westham Island, we got stuck behind a rather slow-moving car with a large lab-type dog stuffed in the rear window. It was panting. But don’t worry, the windows were open. I know this because people on both sides of the car occasionally stuck their arms out and waggled their hands. I’m not sure if they were signalling that it was OK for us to pass them–most of the road here is “no passing” and usually the driver does the signalling, as the driver is the one, well, driving. Maybe he had one hand on the wheel and one holding an extra hot cup of McDonald’s coffee1I know McDonald’s doesn’t do this anymore. Please don’t sue me, McDonald’s.. Whatever the case, we observed that dogs are not allowed at Reifel, but the car was passing every possible stop before Reifel, including the island hotspot of Emma’s Farm, which is so popular in the summer they have “No parking here” signs all around the property, so people won’t park just anywhere, desperate to get in and touch cows, or whatever it is you do there.

As it turns out, the car turned off at one of the last few houses before Reifel, which made me wonder, how often do any of the island residents actually go there? Do they ever go there? Do they even like birds?

In any event, we like birds and arrived to a flurry of barn swallows buzzing the main lagoon. Nic got some nice shots, I got one blurry shot that vaguely resembles a UFO.

We also discovered that the wood ducks are still here, when we came across a bunch of male wood ducks in one of the increasingly swampy-looking inner waterways. These young fresh fellows were just starting to develop their mullets. Apparently the wood ducks stay, but just move out of view during the summer. Maybe that’s what the shovellers and pintails do, too.

Chickadees remained scarce and elusive. I did not get any shots. We did see some towhees and a few errant song sparrows, but most of the birbs proved elusive. There were goldfinches, too, but either far off in the marshland or in deep shadow in the trees, taunting us to get good shots. I did not.

However, there were oodles of herons all over the place, lots of them flying around, plus bonus turtles outside the first bird blind.

One highlight began as a lowlight–the Sandhill crane viewing area was closed, meaning a large swatch of the inner ponds was inaccessible, and we wouldn’t see the adorable babies.

Fortunately, Sandhill cranes can’t read signs and pay no attention to human barriers. We were preparing to leave and lo, the entire family was right there in the picnic area near the entrance, casually strolling about as they do. The two kids are rapidly growing and already entering the “90% legs” phase.

The other item of note were my shoes. I have new HOKA Speedgoat 6s. They look like this:

We encountered the first of many sets of ducklings near the base of the viewing tower, and these duckings were very interested in my new shoes, with all of them coming up and pecking at them or pulling at the laces. Apparently this colour combination resembles either a food source or just something delightful to them (I mean, the colour is pretty delightful). One duckling even started following me as we left the area.

So now I know how to attract ducklings.

Canada geese were still ever-present, and still ominously quiet. One mom came by with her gaggle of kids, and they were in that prime gangly teen stage, still all downy, but showing adult colours, and 95% legs (even more so than the crane babies).

And we saw a most unusual sight: A single Eurasian wigeon. I think Nic and I took a combined 500 photos of the bird. It was very cooperative that way. I had to go for quantity, as my camera sees wigeons as robins, which is to say fuzzy and slightly out of focus (as a side note, I had some camera issues today, despite the camera being cleaned the night before. The only thing I can think is heat may have been a factor. The telephoto lens casing did feel pretty warm after some time in the sun). The wigeon was very handsome and helped cap a typical summer day at Reifel–pleasant, beautiful vistas, but overall quiet compared to migratory seasons.

Crescent Beach/Blackie Spit

Shell on a log at Blackie Spit.

Nic did not want to log 30,000+ steps, so suggested Crescent Beach next, which is relatively compact. Unlike Reifel, which was quiet both bird and people-wise, Crescent Beach was hopping–with people. Birds, not so much, and some of the ones we did see were off in the distance. We saw herons, some gulls, plenty of crows, but no killdeer (which had been reported in the area). Again, some nice scenery shots, but not much in the way of birbery. We did see a snail clinging upside down on a flower, with a large spider nearby. I’m not sure if there was drama there, or if they were both just avoiding the sun.

Speaking of, I once again avoided any sunburn. Then forgot my sunblock in the car.

Overall, not a bad day of birding, and the weather was just plain nice.

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American goldfinch
  • American robin
  • Barn swallow
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Eastern kingbird
  • House finch
  • House sparrow
  • Marsh wren
  • Purple martin
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Savannah sparrow (heard, not seen)
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Tree swallow

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Canada goose
  • Eurasian wigeon
  • Great blue heron
  • Mallard
  • Sandhill crane
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • Rock pigeon
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle

Non-birds:

  • Sand wasps
  • Assorted pollinators
  • A snail
  • A spider next to the snail
  • Bull catfish doing their bottom-feeding best

Birding, July 6, 2024: The best camera is the one in your hands

Where: Tlahutum Regional Park (Coquitlam), Iona Beach (Richmond)
Weather: Sunny, 23-27°C

The Outing

Tlahutum Regional Park

Coquitlam River, aka the desktop background shot.

I am writing this some five days later for reasons, so I’m doing my best to remember what we saw and where we saw it.

There were birds.

We started out, uncharacteristically, at Tlahutum Regional Park, hoping the morning would yield more birds and birbs. We passed a woman exiting with a giant, bone-crushing telephoto lens, and I asked her if she had seen anything exotic. She then offered some tips on seeing somewhat exotic birds, so we ventured from our usual route to lead west and north, roughly following the path of the Coquitlam River. We spotted a black-headed grosbeak! It was a little high up and the light was not great, but it gave us opportunity to get shots as it chirped noisily, before darting off. A pair of cyclists saw us and one actually turned back to report a bittern sighting in the adjacent creek. But they had apparently spooked it into hiding behind some tall grass and we never actually saw it.

But in the same creek was a mallard! But also a green heron. Being a heron, we were able to get a good number of shots before it flew off, though it was a little tricksy shooting down into the creek over all the nature in the way.

We continued on a bit further, spotting a few not-very-close cedar waxwings, an Eastern kingbird and more.

Overall, a pretty nice haul. Tlahutum is the one place where I wish I had a better than 250 mm telephoto lens. It’s fine for places like Reifel, where the birds are closer, but at Tlahutum the birds are rarely close. Alas, to dream.

After putting on more mileage than intended, we headed out to Iona Beach.

Iona Beach

I heard you like seaweed, so I put seaweed in your seaweed.

The Ferguson Road realignment was surprisingly complete, or complete enough to open. This isn’t directly related to birding, but it is a nice improvement for the area, taking a narrow road adjacent to the airport, moving it farther away, and expanding it to include multiple bike lanes (there were none before, nor even any shoulders on the old stretch of road), providing a wider, safer route to the beach. It should be fully finished in the next few months.

But then birds! But first, bugs. The sand wasps have returned and were busily digging and ducking into their burrows, where they do secret sand wasp things. Fortunately, they don’t seem fussed by nosy humans walking by (I also brought Deep Woods Off!, but we did not need it–yet!)

The pond area yielded a few birds, but mostly off in the distance.

We moved to the beach and took advantage of an especially low low tide to get into the gap in the jetty that allows fishies to now swim through (when the tide is not especially low). On the way back, we moved further away from the shore, always opting for a clear path that led us out more. This was inevitably going to end with us having to cross through muck at some point, and we did, gingerly stepping over slippery yellow mud, vast piles of vibrant green seaweed, and the occasional bit of flowing water. I got my shoes thoroughly mucky, which is how it goes at Iona.

The birding was a bit whelming here, though there are always nice vistas to shoot. I shot them all.

Strangely, the best bird shot I got of the day was not with my Canon EOS M50, but my creaky old iPhone 12, when we were getting ready to leave. We had both front doors open, and a blackbird landed first on the driver side door, then took off and landed on the passenger side. I managed to get four photos before it flew off. I don’t know if it thought there was secret seed in the car or something, but it definitely had that “I just might hop inside!” look to it, and that would have been quite interesting, I’m sure.

The best shot was one I got just as it began to take off. I present it here, gallery-free!

Red-winged blackbird demonstrating why it is named thus.

In the end, not a ton of great shots, but some nice rare sightings to compensate. Also, no sunburn, woo.

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American goldfinch
  • American robin
  • Barn swallow
  • Black-capped chickadee
  • Black-headed grosbeak
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Cedar waxwing
  • Eastern kingbird
  • House finch
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Tree swallow

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • American bittern (allegedly)
  • Great blue heron
  • Green heron
  • Mallard
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • European starling
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • None

Non-birds:

  • Sand wasps
  • Assorted pollinators

Burnaby Lake, July 8, 2024

Some shots taken around the lake post-run and before it got silly hot, shot on my iPhone 12.

In order:

  • Actual view of lake
  • View from bridge over Deer Lake Brook
  • Still Creek
  • Still Creek from bridge, looking east
  • Still Creek from bridge, looking west
  • View from Phillips Point
  • View from Phillips Point
  • View from Piper Spit

June 28, 2024 gallery is up!

Here it is, the first gallery I’ve posted in 37 years. More maybe soon. Who knows.

Brunette River, July 2, 2024

I forgot to make a post about Canada Day yesterday, but it would have been a dumb joke, anyway.

Instead, today you may enjoy another shot of the Brunette River, looking resplendent on an early summer day.

Shot on iPhone 12. I’m not upgrading, Tim Cook. Haha!

Birding, June 28, 2024: The geese must be plotting

Where: Reifel Bird Sanctuary, Centennial Beach (Delta), Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake (Burnaby)
Weather: Sunny, 15-23°C

The Outing

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

Serene and bird-free pond. (Technically, there were a few birds.)

For the first time since we began visiting Reifel, we got stopped as the bridge to Westham Island was rotated to allow a sailboat to pass through. It was kind of neat for the first few seconds, then it was just mostly waiting for it to swing back so we could actually get to the birds.

Once there, I noticed the gusting wind of the last few visits was mostly being absent. It cleared up earlier than perhaps expected, and I slapped on sunblock midway through. I only got a little bit of a burn where the camera strap tugs near the top of my t-shirt. I blame a lack of mirror during application.

The wood ducks have vacated the sanctuary again, though I have no idea where they go, because they always come back at some point. This meant most areas were dominated by mallards. The geese seemed to have claimed the main pond by the west dyke and were disturbingly quiet, most of them spending their time napping, like they’re conserving energy for an invasion or something. I don’t think I heard a single honk. Eerie!

There were cowbirds on hand, and they were acting weird–something we would see again at Piper Spit, as the guys were showing off to each other and the women. None seemed particularly impressed. But they persevered, puffing up their feathers, arching their heads back and making lots of weird little peeps and calls.

The freaky catfish have returned to the London Slough, affording us some delightfully hideous shots of them, as they congregate near the surface and directly below the railing overlooking the slough.

We did not see any marsh wrens this time, but Nic managed a few photos of a Bewick’s wren. There were a few chickadees around, but only a few, and I could only get butt shots. But they were nicely detailed butt shots.

They couldn’t touch the robin butt shot that Nic got. That one was truly spectacular, hall of fame material.

The other highlights:

  • A juvenile killdeer! Cute! But a little too far away to get great shots.
  • Ducklings! Several groups, one quite close to us, still fairly young, so very fuzzy and adorable. We also saw some juveniles, which look more like mini adult ducks now. Strangely, we did not see any goslings.
  • Several small groups of greater yellowlegs hanging out in the main pond by the outer dyke. There’s been a bit of a paucity of shorebirds lately, so this was nice.
  • We saw a mysterious sooty-coloured bird sitting up in a tree between two of the inner ponds. It looks like an all-black swallow. Merlin suggested a Northern rough-winged swallow, which is a clear miss, and even a brown-headed cowbird, also a million miles off. It’s rare to stump Merlin when you have pretty clear shots of the bird in question, but we did! We debated whether it might be a purple martin, but to me the beak did not have quite the right shape. I declare it Sooty Swallow.
  • The sandhill crane couple that is nesting on a small island in an inner pond has had babbies! Only about a week old, there are two of them, and we went to the viewing area (the central trail is temporarily closed to keep pesky humans away), where the “maximum 6 people” rule was, shall we say, loosely enforced. To everyone’s credit, people were quiet and letting them just do their thing. In the case of the babies, this was mostly just sitting, occasionally lifting a head up, or walking a very short distance before repeating the first two. Nic got a shot of a worm-feeding. Who doesn’t like a fresh yummy worm hand beak-delivered?

I had some issues with my camera that prompted me to use my new PACK1Portable Awesome Cleaning Kit, which consists of a repurposed earbuds case filled with cotton swabs and a small bottle of isopropyl alcohol, but troubles persisted, as you will see.

Centennial Beach

The usual very low tide at Boundary Bay.

Centennial Beach was fairly busy for a Friday afternoon. It was the last day of school, and I’m guessing they still do the half day thing, so the kids were taking advantage of the sunny weather. The pond had a few mallards, but we got some great shots of assorted dragonflies, including a couple that were…coupling. I’m not going to judge by saying the way dragonflies reproduce is freaky and terrifying, but.

We unlocked the Savannah sparrow achievement. Centennial is a pretty reliable place for seeing them, you just have to hope one lands close enough to get some good shots. In this case, we had one perch atop a sign post, which was very considerate on his part.

There were a lot of crows around, for some reason. We saw one cooling off on the ground by spreading its wings and “panting”, a few others bully some starlings out of the topmost branches of a tree, and another harassing a Northern harrier who probably got too close to some hideously rotten something-or-other the crow had down on the mudflat waiting for him.

We also saw two bunnies, the first of which gave us several excellent cute bunny poses and didn’t seem overly fussed by our presence. We aren’t raptors, so I guess that checks out.

I used the “level” feature in my iPhone’s camera app to see if it would help with my often-titled scenery shots–and it did!

Piper Spit, Burnaby Lake

Looking east from the pier, toward the towers around Lougheed.

We ended at Piper Spit, where the wood ducks were not at all absent, though the males in particular are looking quite scruffy in some cases. The geese here were also very eerily quiet, and the cowbirds were just as weird as at Reifel. Blackbirds were more plentiful, and a bunch of rock pigeons were hanging out. The regular rains of June meant the land mass is completely submerged, and the overall higher water level also meant no shorebirds here. :sadtrombone:

It seemed to be nap time, so many of the ducks and others were napping, nestled in the shaded areas filled with comfy grass. Like Reifel, we saw no goslings here. Maybe they were over in the fields. Or gathering for the invasion I mentioned above.

Piper Spit has such a different vibe in the summer. It’s utterly pleasant and pretty, but strangely quiet compared to the height of migratory seasons in the spring and fall (roughly speaking). Still, we did get some nice shots of a chunky gray squirrel doing that classic cute squirrel pose. And we didn’t get stuck waiting behind a train.

Overall, a fine morning and afternoon of birding.

The Shots

The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold.

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American goldfinch
  • American robin
  • Anna’s hummingbird
  • Barn swallow
  • Bewick’s wren
  • Black-capped chickadees
  • Brown-headed cowbird
  • Cedar waxwing
  • House sparrow
  • Mysterious dark swallow
  • Red-winged blackbird
  • Rufous hummingbird
  • Savannah sparrow
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee
  • Tree swallow

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Canada goose
  • Great blue heron
  • Greater yellowlegs
  • Killdeer
  • Mallard
  • Northern pintail (one!)
  • Sandhill crane
  • Wood duck

Common:

  • American crow
  • European starling
  • Seagull

Raptors:

  • Bald eagle
  • Northern harrier

Non-birds:

  • A chunky squirrel
  • Catfish (probably brown bullhead, though I am not a fishologist)
  • Dragonflies, dragonflies, dragonflies!
  • Red soldier beetle
  • Bumblebees!
  • Other assorted pollinators

Birding, June 21, 2024: Herons in the hizzy

Where: Rocky Point Park, Old Orchard Park, Inlet Park, Old Mill Site Park (Port Moody)
Weather: Sunny, 27-28°C

The Outing

Be very quiet, we’re despatrely searching for herons

While it looks like we covered all of Port Moody’s parks, these are all clustered along the north shore of Burrard Inlet along a several km stretch, so it’s actually quite compact. Handy, considering the unusually high heat.

Due to my annoyingly slow recovery from my current cold, I passed on the early part of the birding in Pitt Meadows, but it was mostly out in the open under a cruel sun (ie. hot), though pretty, based on Nic’s pics (plus my recollection of being there last summer). Nic’s quest to see a Bullock’s Oriole paid off, and he didn’t even know it until he was looking at his photos later, which is like getting just the prize you wanted in the bottom of the Cracker Jack box1I dimly recall the prizes being small, plastic and unremarkable, so a Bullock’s Oriole is even better. He also saw a red-winged blackbird with a white tail, which is decidedly weird, as well as cliff swallows tending to their nests, which are reminiscent of something you’d have H.R. Giger design for an Alien film (the nests, not the swallows).

I joined in the next stage of the quest in mid-afternoon: To find the heron rookery at Rocky Point Park before all the baby herons left their nests. We were aided in several ways:

  • Helpful signs on the path saying, “You’re in a heron colony, be quiet, you clumsy loud human!”
  • Some directions given to us weeks ago by people who knew of the rookery when we were last at Rocky Point.

It turns out the directions were off probably by a factor of two and the heron nests, which they said would be at or near eye-level, were only at eye level if you were 10–20 metres tall. Which I am not.

But after wandering the lower trail several times (twisty, dirt-packed and filled with enough exposed tree roots to give me PTSD), we opted to try the path higher up, which is paved, civilized and also available for cyclists. This gave us the vantage point we needed, and we saw plenty of nests up (way up) in the trees. Yay! Most of them were empty. Boo. The ones that weren’t had nearly full-grown herons, so we totally missed on the goofy baby dinosaur stage of development. But we will know where to look during the next nesting season.

Although we did see more birds than we normally do at Rocky Point, there still weren’t a lot, and most of my shots were mediocreat best. Even my scenery shots taken with the camera were crooked (I fare much better with the camera than the phone). I blame everything on my cold. At least I never coughed while taking a photo, though that might have at least looked artsy.

The Shots

Soon™

The Birds (and other critters). Rare or rarely-seen birds highlighted in bold. I have ommitted birds from the Nic-exclusive part of the birding, otherwise the list would have been much longer and more interesting.

Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:

  • American robin
  • Northern flicker
  • Song sparrow
  • Spotted towhee

Waterfowl and shorebirds:

  • Canada goose
  • Great blue heron
  • Mallard

Common:

  • American crow
  • European starling

Raptors:

  • None

Non-birds:

  • None that I noticed. Maybe some bees?

It’s the first day of summer (2024) as we know it (and I feel adequate)

Good news: My favourite season has arrived. Yay! Yes yes, climate change, heat domes, etc. I don’t care, summer is still my favourite season.

Bad news: I am still sick, though improved. I was able to go out and aboot without any issue. At home, I was coughing occasionally, mostly when sitting in certain specific positions that told my body, “Now is the time to cough.” They were all the most comfortable positions, too. 🙁

Neither good nor bad news: The weather today was very summer-like, with a high temperature of 28°C and “felt like 32”. It was pretty warm compared to what we’ve been getting. We’ll get one more day of sun before YMS (Yet More Showers). I don’t think I’ve ever seen grass so lush and green on June 20th before.

Anyway, here is another shot of Hume Park, this time the lower part.

It’s the last day of spring (2024) as we know it (and I don’t feel fine)

It was actually a pleasantly sunny day for the last day of Spring 2024, with a high of 26°C (not a record). The not-fine part is related to the allergies/cold/flu/alien incubation I currently have. I slept horribly last night, but I think I am on the mend now and will hopefully at least be back to somewhat normal by tomorrow, the first day of summer.

I will frolic about if that’s the case.

In the meantime, here is a wide-angle photo of Hume Park, with the grass unusually green for mid-June: