Photos I’ve taken of scenery, interesting objects and other things.
In this case, the teen is a young blackbird at Reifel Bird Sanctuary, and it really wasn’t in a mood to get its own food. Here it is protesting and flapping in a tree after dad took off to a spot nearby. More birding shots from Saturday in a full gallery soon™.
After today’s run, I spotted a clutch of mushrooms, possibly aided by the showers on Monday and Tuesday. I snapped a few quick photos and here they are in a lovingly handcrafted mini-gallery.
(Shot on my iPhone 12)
More coming soon (not just butts, I promise).
Found near Maplewood Flats, during extreme low tide.
Added to my black and white gallery:
It’s been a while and I couldn’t take a photo from my usual spot because it was occupied by others enjoying a pleasant summer evening. Instead, here’s a shot a bit farther up and partly obscured by the vegetation.
As seen earlier this evening:
This is looking north from the bailey bridge on Braid Street that connects New Westminster to Coquitlam. It offers a rather nice view of the Brunette River.
Where: Boundary Bay Dyke Trail (Delta), Piper Spit (Burnaby) and Tlahutum Regional Park1Formerly known as Colony Farm (Coquitlam) Weather: Sunny, 18-22C
The Outing
My energy level was greatly improved over last week, which was fortunate because as I type this late Saturday evening, I have over 28,685 steps on the day. Also fortunate, it never got hot, though Nic kept insisting the reported temperatures were wrong and it must have been at least 32 degrees or something.
I missed a few spots and got some light sunburn on a couple of small areas around my neck and also above my chin, which I totally forgot to put sunblock on. It looks kind of weird, like the area below my lower lip is angry.
As for the trek, we hit three places again:
Overall, a good batch of birds, along with weather that was warm, but not hot.
The Shots
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
Waterfowl:
Common:
Raptors:
Non-birds:
The colours:
Where: Sapperton Landing, New Westminster Weather: Sunny, 28C
The Outing
Feeling somewhat human again after a week of being sick, I ventured over to Sapperton Landing on the Fraser River and spent an hour or so taking in the sights on a day that was quite warm, somewhat hazy and muggy. The light was a challenge, with high cloud causing light to shift from bright sun to shadow, but this was my first real chance to shoot birds with my adjusted diopter and check the results. Overall, I’m fairly happy with the results.
In terms of birds, it was the usual suspects: herons, crows, song sparrows, geese and gulls. Strangely, no ducks at all were to be seen. The bufflehead duck I’d seen around a few times was also absent.
In terms of people, I didn’t see anyone else for nearly the entire time I was there. Someone finally passed me as I was heading out, over an hour after I’d arrived. It was kind of weird.
Overall, it was nice to get out, stretch and test my mad camera skills again.
The Shots
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
Waterfowl:
Common:
Raptors:
Non-birds:
Where: Sunnyside Acres Urban Forest, Serpentine Fen, Crescent Beach (all in Surrey) Weather: Sunny, 22C
The Outing
I went out with a minor bit of trepidation. A few days earlier I’d caught a bug from Jeff, but on Friday I was feeling fairly decent and got a lot of stuff done, so I was hoping some birding on Saturday would be fine.
I was mostly right. By the time we got to our third and final stop, Crescent Beach, I was beginning to flag. Despite asking really nicely, Nic refused to carry me out. I managed to get out on my own two feet.
As for the various locations:
Sunnyside Acres Urban Forest: The name is a bit of a misnomer, because most of the area is shrouded in semi-permanent shade due to the abundance of very tall trees. It’s great for that forest vibe, and is neat to walk off a street and into the middle of fairly dense woods. The Merlin app was going cuckoo, reporting as many as seven different species at once, yet we actually saw very few birds, most of them remaining high up in the trees or away from the trails. My shots here were not great, though I did get a couple of nice shots of some fungus and then, right as we were about to enter the parking lot to leave, a junco came out and did a bunch of posing for us. What a nice junco!
Serpentine Fen: It had been a while since we’d visited here and the weather was ideal–sunny, but not hot. It was very pleasant, and the area was lush, though the river was very low. We did see more birds here, including an abundance of geese and herons in the river. Songbirds were more elusive, but we caught sight of a wren, a Savannah sparrow and a few song sparrows. Strangely, no ducks at all–not even mallards in the ponds. Again, my shots were not great.
Crescent Beach: We arrived here around 3 p.m. and given that it was:
The beach was very crowded. We could not find parking in the usual lot and ended up parking further away, near a café, and had to walk in from there. As we trekked across the beach and through the trails, I began to flag, but managed to stay upright. We again saw no ducks, but there were song sparrows, some herons and purple finches were in abundance. A cedar waxwing also made an appearance, as did some Savannah sparrows.
Yet again, my shots were not great. As we left, I pondered this. A lot of the birds were far away, and the lighting was often not great (shadows or bright sun), but there seemed to be more to it than just the specific conditions of the shoot.
Later, when Nic and I talked about it, I mused that my shots had been getting worse–blurrier–for some time now. I am cleaning the lenses and contacts regularly, so I didn’t think those were the cause. As Nic looked over my camera, he noticed that the EVF (Electronic Viewfinder) was blurry. I concurred, but had always figured that it was my eyes and not the EVF (my prescription for lenses is about two years old now). Nic consulted the internets and discovered where the diopter1In this context it’s the control under the EVF that sets how sharp the image is in the EVF is located. I’d known about this before, but had completely forgotten about it. Fiddling with it brought the EVF into sharp focus. It is very possible this was at least one of the major culprits of my shots not being as clear as they could be. I will find out more the next time I go out and aboot shooting birds.
In the meantime, and as a bonus, I have also discovered how to make quick exposure and ISO changes. I’m finally learning to use my camera two and a half years after buying it! Go me.
As for the outing, I put in 25,000+ steps, which was probably way more than my body was in condition for, but the weather was nice, and I was glad to be out.
The Shots
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
Waterfowl:
Common:
Raptors:
Non-birds:
I’m still recovering from a head cold or maybe the flu (who can say for sure?) but thought a gentle day of birding would be fine. I mean, it was, except that I walked way more than intended–over 24,000 steps. That was perhaps too much, and toward the end I was flagging pretty hard. Some food and rest later helped, but I haven’t felt this bagged in quite a while.
We hit three spots:
Overall, my shots were not great, but I may have found out partly why–more later when I have more energy to typy-type.
For now, here’s a shot looking up in Sunnyside Acres, taken on my iPhone:
I have no idea why I’ve never used this terrible title for Canada Day before, but I’ve fixed that now!
It is a day of birding and, hopefully, relaxation and recovery.
Here’s a bonus bird shot from this week that I hadn’t posted to get things started:
