scenery

More spring springing, 2024 edition

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.

Spooky mountain

I updated the gallery for September 9th’s birdingpalooza. You can view the gallery in its original post, or at the bottom of this very post.

Not included is this black and white variant of a local peak. It looks kind of spooky. I like it.

And the gallery for September 9th:

My black and white photo oeuvre (so far)

Various photos I’ve taken and converted to black and white, typically by using a LUT in Pixelmator Photo.

Gallery page is located here.

Some shots from onboard or near the Queen of Oak Bay

From my trip to Vancouver Island on April 5, 2023.

The shots from the ferry were taken through windows, so mind the reflections. I wasn’t going onto the deck, it was freaking cold out there. Yes, I am a wimp!

UBC in the distance
Leaving Horseshoe Bay
Queen of Oak Bay arriving in Nanaimo
Poopmonsters in Departure Bay

BC Day 2022 recap: Birds, birds and no parking

We hit four (!) places yesterday. It was still warm, but not quite Africa hot at 28C. Humidity is still weirdly high and gross. The birding went like so:

  • Burnaby Lake. Much busier than usual, but expected on a statutory holiday. A family showed us a photo they had on a phone of some critter they’d seen and asked if we could identify it. In 10+ years of running, walking and taking photos at Burnaby Lake, I had never seen the creature in question. It looked a bit like a ferret or a marmot with a dog’s head. It was weird. We saw a white mallard at Piper Spit, too, so it was a day for odd sightings, apparently.
  • Colony Farm. We did not see much here and the humidity was oppressive, even if the sun was screened a lot by high cloud. We did see an Eastern king bird, but the cedar waxwings that were in abundance last visit were completely gone.
  • Como Lake. We were driving by, and I’d never been, so we stopped by. This is a small urban (though natural) lake with a one km path around it, so it didn’t take long to check out. Got some nice scenery shots, but only saw a few ducks. They had temporary fencing/netting on one side of the lake at entry points into the water to discourage geese from hanging around, due to their “excessive numbers.” It must be working, because we didn’t see a single goose there.
  • Rocky Point in Port Moody. We tried to visit here, but could not find any parking in the available lots or nearby streets. The smart people walked in or took transit. We ended up leaving without even stopping. Sad trombone.

Here’s a shot of the white mallard and its entourage:

A shot in the park

Specifically, Burnaby Lake Regional Park.

I decided to get some exercise on a non-run day by walking to Piper Spit at Burnaby Lake (about a 12 km round-trip from my place). I took my camera in order to shoot many and assorted bird shots.

When I got there and opened my camera bag, the spot normally occupied by my camera was not occupied at all. Because I had left the camera back on my desk.

Whoops.

I took a few shots with the iPhone while I was there, then made my way back home (it was 32C by the time I got back, definitely an Africa Hot kind of day). I will now remember to actually check my camera bag before leaving, so lesson learned.

I took mostly scenery shots, and a seagull photobombed one of them. Here it is:

Reifel Bird Sanctuary, June 4, 2022

In which the weather, which called for light showers, turned out to remain dry and the sun even came out for a bit. Nice!

Here are a few pics from the day.

This sandhill crane was maybe getting territorial when some geese got too close, and started freaking out a bit and doing a funky dance.

Baby duck being adorably cute.

A rare turtle sighting. It then had the clever idea to climb over the log and promptly flipped itself upside down. Nic turned it right side up, and it made it safely into the water.

My first shot of an American goldfinch.

My first shot of the elusive marsh wren.