Category Archives: Photography

Goldeneye at Birch Bay State Park

I took a Friday – Monday trip out to the Okanagan to visit some relatives from Saskatchewan who had booked a suite in Osoyoos for a winter break. I’ll gradually catch up with posts, but here’s a couple of shots of a goldeneye at Birch Bay State Park in Washington State.  There were a lot of them hanging out just off the beach. (I came home through the US to take a different road, and do some shopping though the exchange rate isn’t nearly as favorable as it had been for the last few years.)

Goldeneye Birch Bay State Park
Stretching and/or drying wings

Goldeneye Birch Bay State Park
Making a call

Informative Burnaby Mason Bee Workshop

I attended a mason bee workshop sponsored by the City of Burnaby today. I’ve been to these before, but I always learn something new. Today’s speakers were bee expert Margriet Dogterom who runs BeeDiverse Products and bird box and bee box builder extraordinaire Joe Sadowski.

Margriet Dogerom
Margriet in action

Joe Sadowski
Joe mentioned that he turned “83 years young” the other day!

When he saw me, he gave me a punch in the shoulder by way of greeting. I may have a bruise coming on 🙂

Melinda Yong
Organizer Melinda Yong of the City of Burnaby Parks Department

Same Scene, Half a Year Apart

Realized that I’ve shot the same scene about half a year apart. While the scenes are not exactly lined up, you can recognize the fence posts and get a sense of how close I must have been standing for the two takes.

NIcola Valley March 2015
March 9, 2015

BC Highway 5A
October 1, 2014

If you look closely, you can see that I was just a few steps to the right compared to the more recent photo. Cool!

Oops, this is on the BC 5A north of Merritt.

Nicola Valley Under Blue Skies

I love the BC 5A between Merritt and Kamloops. The Nicola Valley and its string of lakes has a quiet beauty that changes with the seasons. In three or four hours of slowly touring up and back down, I saw at most a dozen other vehicles. The smaller lakes were still mostly iced over, with blue at the edges.

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Nicola Valley

Meadowlark
I tried many dozen shots of these Western Meadowlarks, but only these two were usable. They were very shy, and even with the monster Tamron 150-600mm maxed out, they were hard to capture.

Meadowlark

Here are more shots of the same route taken October 2014. 

Impressive Results for Byrne Creek Fish Survey

Volunteers with the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Society completed a weekend fish survey in southeast Burnaby, BC, today with the third-best result recorded in 13 years of collecting data.  We caught, identified, measured and released 70 juvenile cutthroat trout and three coho.

Please note that this activity is done with authorization from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans SEP Program, and with training by the Pacific Streamkeepers Federation.

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015
The fish survey involves rambling through the bush. Those hi-viz vests really stand out in the forest.

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015
Someone had placed this chair at this idyllic spot. Nice view, too bad whoever was sitting here appeared to have been tossing beer cans in the creek… Sigh

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015
Skunk cabbage popping up in several place. This is a cool plant!

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015
Emptying a Gee trap

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015Checking out the results

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015
Releasing the little guys unharmed

Byrne Creek Fish Survey March 8, 2015
Thanks to all the volunteers!