Brunette River showing more green along its shores, plus a bonus great blue heron in the lower-left corner. Ignore the bit of the new SkyTrain maintenance yard construction also on the left. As the vegetation does it thing over the next few months, most of that should be blotted out, preserving the illusion of untouched nature.
I like these kinds of illusions.
And it allowed me to get this shot of the Brunette River. It was also drizzly in that “doesn’t seem like you’re getting wet but end up soaked by the time you get home” way. But worth it, because I touched a tree.
Shot yesterday (Jan. 23) on my iPhone 12, on a gray, wet winter day.
I went to Hume Park yesterday to shoot a few pics and enjoy the refreshing chill of -9C weather.
The water level has dropped enough that I can get back to my usual photo-taking spot, so here is a look east down the river at Lower Hume Park, looking all chilly and such in the morning light.
We just had one of those fun atmospheric rivers come through the area, and they always live up to the name, dumping huge amounts of water before moving on.
This afternoon I made a trip with my camera to Lower Hume Park and found the field to be squishy, muddy, and very marsh-like. There were ducks.
And seagulls and crows. And up top, some golden-crowned sparrows and several elusive juncos. The light was not great, but I got a few decent shots (I’ll post more later). Here’s a crow I shot on the way back home:
And a shot of the still very high Brunette River:
Taken while out on an afternoon walk.
We had a windstorm blow through the area (as windstorms do) on the night of November 10th, a few days ago as I write this.
I went birding the next day and captured a few shots of the destruction while walking down the Brunette River trail.
First, the pretty. The wind yoinked a bunch of leaves off the trees, making the trail resplendent in fall colours:
And the destruction. This was the largest piece of debris on the river trail I saw, and definitely not something you would want clobbering you on the head at 70-90 km/h:
This rare non-run day shot from the top of the Cariboo Dam shows that the morning after the storm was actually pretty decent:
Where: Lower Hume Park (New Westminster), Brunette River Conservation Area (Burnaby) Weather: Cloudy, 12°C
The Outing
I didn’t want to spend all day cooped up inside and the weather was better than expected, so with the usual Saturday birding cancelled, I decided to head out for a mini-birding trip along the Brunette River today. My unofficial goal was to shoot a heron.
And I did!
I also shot fall scenery, some mallards, crows and a surprise hooded merganser.
I almost shot a black squirrel, but the light was very bad. The light in general was very bad, so the photos are a bit grainy. I might try fiddling with settings more, because it’s probably going to be a long, grainy winter.
In all, a quick outing, but with better-than-expected results in the bird department.
The Shots
The Birds (and other critters)
Sparrows and sparrow-adjacent:
Waterfowl:
Common:
Raptors:
Non-birds:
This was shot yesterday morning, but it probably looked all foggy up in the hizzy again today.
I was not inclined to go back at night to get a more atmospheric shot.
I would normally run on a Friday but due to the Xtreme™ run on Wednesday, I decided to alter my run schedule and give myself a little more time off before running again, as my knees are feeling the effects of the 7.5 km run. They’re not exploding or anything, I am just being cautious. I am tentatively planning on running on Sunday, which gives me three days of non-running.
Today I walked to the lake and back. The weather was sunny and pleasantly warm. Curiously, my pace on the return route was a fair bit faster, with two km coming in under the 9-minute mark. I have no real explanation for this.
But it was nice, and I was listening to Hall & Oates, who are collectively probably 300 years old now. But they rocked my socks between 1980-84, and they still rock them even today (except for “Open All Night” which has perhaps the most cringeworthy lyrics ever in a Hall & Oates song).
Rather than split the walk in two, I’ve just smooshed in both sets of stats below.
Stats:
Walk 101 Average pace: 9:24/km and 9:06/km Location: Brunette River trail/Burnaby Lake Distance: 4.03 and 4.03 km Time: 37:53 and 36:38 Weather: Sunny Temp: 21 °C Humidity: 57% Wind: light BPM: 107 and 109 Weight: 167.1 pounds Devices: Garmin Forerunner 255 Total distance to date: 754.44 km
A few shots around the Brunette River, taken in late afternoon light at Lower Hume Park.
And a bonus heron. It left before I could get a closer shot, alas.
