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.
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.
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.
The fish survey involves rambling through the bush. Those hi-viz vests really stand out in the forest.
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
Skunk cabbage popping up in several place. This is a cool plant!
Emptying a Gee trap
Checking out the results
Releasing the little guys unharmed
Thanks to all the volunteers!
Volunteers from the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Society began a two-day survey of fish in the creek this morning.
Lovely morning in the ravine
Please note that fish surveys are done with permission from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Here’s a little feller hanging in a pool beneath a fallen tree.
Robin keeping an eye on things in Ron McLean Park in SE Burnaby
I took a couple of hours away from the office to zip up to Alice Lake Provincial Park to take some photos today.
Driving north on the Sea to Sky Highway
Heading out counter-clockwise around the lake
Mergansers hanging on the beach
Stream tumbling into the lake
In the summer these tables would all be full. Today, I saw only three other people over the entire loop around the lake.
Roots and rocks embrace
Byrne Creek Streamkeepers volunteers found a coho fry (newly hatched with yolk still visible) in a bug sample yesterday, so today on my creek walk I stopped at a few likely places to see if I could spot any in the water. I was happy to see three fry!
Two fry under the wooden footbridge, and I spotted another about ten meters downstream.
It was a lovely day for counting bugs on Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby today. Such aquatic invertebrate surveys provide an indication of water quality in the creek, and unfortunately while streamkeeper volunteers have been regularly sampling for over ten years, the quality is nearly always poor to marginal, with just the occasional satisfactory at best.
Using a D-net to gather a sample
Chatting with neighbourhood friends
Volunteers show up with a new generation of streamkeepers 🙂
Volunteers usually combine data collection with ongoing garbage cleanup
It’s been a warm winter!
I checked the artificial spawning habitat and sediment pond for fish, but saw only two cutthroat. No fry yet. I also found this odd black, flaking coating on the sediment pond spillway. Something yucky came down the creek not too long ago!
Yumi and I spent three or four hours at the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary today. In terms of species seen, it was one of our best days down there. It was great chatting with more experienced birders who were happy to share their finds, point them out, and help us with species identification.
Here are some shots taken today:
There were lots of these black crowned night herons — apparently an unusual number.
Northern saw-whet owl?
American coot
American wigeon
American wigeon closeup
Bald eagle
Hooded merganser
I’m thinking long-eared owl?
Mallard head
Mallard tail
Northern pintail
Northern shoveller couple
Red-winged blackbird
Ring-necked duck?
Sandhill cranes
Sandhill crane
Scaup of some sort?
Sharp-shinned hawk? Cooper’s?
Crescent moon, Venus and Mars, over Burnaby, BC, tonight.
Shot taken with a NIkon D7100 and a Tamron 150-600mm zoom at about 320mm, so about 480mm equivalent on a traditional 35mm camera. ISO at 6400 to keep shakiness to a minimum, even on a tripod.
Today was my last day in Los Angeles at the end of a one-week visit to see my sister and her family. I’ll gradually add previous days to this blog as I have time, but here are a few shots from Manhattan Beach where I spent a couple of hours before my flight at LAX.
This sea lion was following a group of surfers near the pier. This was no one-off — the lion repeatedly rode the waves and swam back out for more.
Pelican in flight