We saw a family of Barred Owls this evening in south Burnaby. We’d seen adults several times over the past few months, and today saw what appeared to be an adult and two juveniles.
One was tearing at what perhaps was a young crow.
Unfortunately I was carrying only my pocket camera, and the light in the ravine was getting dim so I got just a few usable shots.
I was happy to see fry in Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby on my ravine walk today. I love spotting these little tykes and watching them. Several of them were nibbling at anything that fell into this pool.
After stocking up at the Fujiya Japanese supermarket, we dropped by Burnaby Mountain for a picnic. Nothing like a fresh bento, some sushi, and assorted snacks!
The Fraser River Discovery Centre in New Westminster, BC, had several tours today sharing First Nations fishing and fish-preserving techniques.
It was interesting learning about the cleaning, filleting, and wind-drying process to preserve salmon, and we got to try our hands out sharpening Indigenous tools.
An exercise sorting cleaning, filleting and wind drying into proper order.
Wind-dried salmon
Sharpening tools
Checking out the BC watersheds map, with a focus on the mighty Fraser River
The protected White Sturgeon
Yep, these massive, ancient (both in terms of time on Earth, and lifespan) fish come from such tiny eggs. Amazing!
Temperatures are set to soar in the lower mainland of BC, so I moved my Byrne Creek/South Slope walk up to just after breakfast instead of my usual mid-day break.
Even at 8:30 am the sun was sizzling over Taylor Park Elementary
The Skytrain tracks provide a bit of shade
It’s always a few degrees C cooler in the ravine by the creek
This is a super event with lots of other stewardship groups represented. Great fun to see kids so excited about releasing fish — and, um, getting a chance to try fishing, too .
Now that’s a huge Seymour watershed 3D map!
Seymour Salmonid Society hatchery tour
The Seymour watershed provides a good chunk of Metro Vancouver’s drinking water, and is a pristine, protected area.
Heading down to the lake for the trout release
Fishing gear to borrow for free to try your hand. It’s great to see urban kids so excited to release fish, and yes, try to catch one, too!
Yumi waiting for a trout to release. She got one the last ones.
What a beauty!
Interesting hitchhiker as we walked the lake loop trail.