I spent several hours wandering Centennial Beach and the Raptor Trail in Delta, BC, today. I usually see harriers there, and today I had almost given up and was heading back to the parking lot when a pair showed up.
Rice Lake, North Vancouver Mushrooms
We took a walk around Rice Lake in North Vancouver today, and also spotted lots of mushrooms in the North Vancouver Cemetery.
This coyote was trotting along near the cemetery sporting a fluffy winter coat
Moody Rice Lake
Watchful bald eagle
Pitt River Stream of Dreams
I spent an intensive three days this week at École Pitt River Middle School doing the Stream of Dreams Murals Society environmental education and community art project.
Years ago I was on the Stream of Dreams board for about seven years, and now I’m back in training to do some PT gigs helping out with delivering the program.
Thanks to Krystal and Cass of Echo Ecological for their guidance, patience, and good humour.
And thanks to all the students, teachers, and staff who participated! What a great bunch!
CSI Byrne Creek
Those spawning salmon can be vicious. This is all that we found left of some poor streamkeeper on Byrne Creek.
Spawner Patrol on Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby
Yumi and I did a spawner patrol today from the confluence with John Mathews Creek to the stairs in the ravine.
Sunny, clear.
The redd at the confluence with John Mathews looked bigger.
1 dead coho about 15m u/s of the confluence with John Mathews, but it was unreachable in a deep pool. Looked small so possibly a jack or jill.
Appeared to be 1 or 2 redds just d/s of Byrne bridge.
2 live chum in sediment pond
2 live coho in sediment pond
1 live jack in sediment pond
1 dead chum, female, 62cm, not spawned, in sediment pond
redd d/s of first bend in spawning channel
1 dead chum, male, 56cm, loose milt, about 10 meters d/s of the footbridge in lower ravine.
1 dead chum, female, 60cm, not spawned, at the upper end of the washout in the lower ravine
A bit depressing to be finding chum females not spawned. . .
Also three mergansers, one male, two female in overflow pond, a couple of mallards, one heron d/s of John Mathews confluence, one downy woodpecker about halfway between Byrne bridge and John Mathews.
NOTE: It is illegal to interfere with spawning salmon. Streamkeepers have training, and permission from DFO, to patrol to observe and enumerate salmon returning to spawn, and to collect data (species, length, sex, spawned/unspawned) on salmon after they die.
Editors Canada on Plain Language
Fascism Is Worming Its Way Everywhere
So a day after Remembrance Day, someone that I follow on FB posted a Mussolini quotation, with zero qualification or explanation.
The hoary old “day as a lion vs lifetime as a sheep.”
Hello? He was a a fascist dictator.
Don’t people read ANY history?
You know all those ceremonies we had yesterday? All those men and women who died to protect our freedom and democracy?
One of their key opponents was Mussolini’s regime, eh?
Hummingbird Outside Our Front Door
This is what happens when you dialed in -3.5 stops exposure compensation on your DSLR when you last used it for a moon shot. Then you grab it to shoot a hummer from your front door and, well, kinda dark, but I kinda like it : – ).
Beautiful, Clear Remembrance Day in South Burnaby
It was sunny and clear for the always moving Remembrance Day ceremony at the Bonsor Cenotaph in south Burnaby, BC.
CP-140 patrol plane
Volunteers Patrol For Spawning Salmon on Byrne Creek
Half a dozen volunteers with the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Society patrolled the creek in SE #Burnaby for spawning salmon today. It’s been a slow start to the spawning season, but we saw a couple of live ones today, and processed a couple of dead ones for size, sex, and spawning status.
NOTE: It is illegal to interfere with spawning salmon. Streamkeepers have training and permission from DFO to collect data.
If you notice a salmon carcass in the creek that’s been cut in half, don’t worry, that’s us — we cut the processed morts in half so we know they’ve been assessed, and return them to the creek where they provide essential nutrients to the food chain.
Pointing out a redd (nest of eggs) near the confluence with John Mathews Creek
They can be hard to spot even on a bright, clear, day
Another lovely redd (nest of eggs) near Meadow Ave.
Sad to find a female coho unspawned. This happens too often on Byrne Creek.
Large male chum
Resetting a dog poster. We have permission from City of Burnaby Parks to put up posters advising the public to keep dogs out of the creek during spawning season from mid-October through the end of the year. Most dog walkers are cooperative and understanding, and since they’re on the trail nearly every day, they’re some of our best “eyes on the creek.”