There were at least half a dozen eagles hanging around Spanish Banks in Vancouver this afternoon.
Category Archives: Photography
Raptors in SE Burnaby
Yumi spotted a couple of Barred Owls and a hawk today on our SE Burnaby walk. Not sure if the hawk is a Sharp-shinned or a Cooper’s.
UPDATE: One expert has weighed in on Cooper’s. Thanks!
UPDATE 2: And another has come down for Sharp-Shinned. . .
Kamui Mintara ‘Playground of the Gods’ Sunshine
Spent over an hour shooting around the Kamui Mintara installation on Burnaby Mountain in Burnaby, BC, today.
This Spotted Towhee was quite friendly — usually they’re very shy
Burnaby Fraser Foreshore Lunch
If I have some time to spare, I enjoy going down to Fraser Foreshore Park in Burnaby to have my lunch while watching wildlife and the working river.
Don’t Step in the Poop, Dear, People Want to Look at It
Don’t step in the poop, dear, people want to look at it. 🙂
Overheard today from a parent to a young child during a tracks and scat talk ‘n walk at the Kanaka Creek Stewardship Centre in Maple Ridge, BC.
Super event, great fun and educational to boot.
Folks taking turns observing raccoon tracks
Lovely Kanaka Creek
Scat with bones in it
Claw marks
The lovely stewardship centre
A cool bug
Yumi on the bridge
Moi enjoying the creek and forest
More Canon SX730HS Surgery
From the Don’t Try This at Home files 
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Performed additional surgery on my Canon SX730HS using my trusty Leatherman.
Yes, you read that right! I dropped the Canon on pavement a week or two ago, smashing the metal lens-cover iris that opens and closes when the camera is cycled on and off. Otherwise the camera functioned fine, so I pulled out as many pieces of the iris as I could.
Over the course of the last week a few more pieces worked their way loose, so out came the Leatherman this morning.
Yeah, I’ve got DSLRs but this is the pocket camera that I have on me nearly all the time.
Fry Spotted in Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby
I spent a couple of hours after work this afternoon searching for fry in Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby. Success!
I spotted one near the wooden footbridge at the bottom end of the ravine, and half a dozen upstream and downstream of the Meadow Ave. bridge.
Din’t get any clear shots, but judging by the orange tails they were coho.
It’s always so rewarding to spot fry in the spring, for that means that salmon that came back to spawn in this stressed urban creek the previous autumn were successful in starting a new generation. Yay!
Rice Lake Loop in North Vancouver
If we’re on the north shore in Vancouver and have a bit of time, we love the quick and easy Rice Lake loop. It’s a fairly short, flat trail, yet the lake and the towering trees refresh the soul.
This female mallard was almost overly friendly — very conditioned to humans. No handouts from us!
We didn’t see any water life until Yumi spotted this caddisfly larva crawling along the bottom. These creatures are so cool — they build “shells” out of bark, leaf litter, sand, tiny stones, etc.
Merganser
That’s some excavating! Perhaps the work of a Pileated Woodpecker?
Drumming Flicker in Burnaby’s Taylor Park
I came across this Northern Flicker in Taylor Park on my pre-dinner walk late this afternoon. It was drumming on this metal can on a pole. If the guys are making noise, does that mean spring must be around the corner? : -)
Dropped My Near-New Canon SX730HS
I thought I had the strap secure around my wrist, but somehow I dropped my near-new Canon SX730HS camera about 4 feet onto pavement today.
I picked the bits out of the iris at the front of the lens that opens and closes when the camera is powered on or off, and it’s cycling OK.
Found that an old Nikon F2 body cap covers the now non-protected lens nicely in the retracted position. Glad to have found a fix, but. . . Sigh. . .
