Several hours spent wandering Fraser Foreshore Park in south Burnaby, BC, resulted in lots of birds seen!
Bald Eagles
Screaming Red-Tailed Hawk
Ring-Necked Duck
Great Blue Heron
Gadwall
Wood Duck
White-Crowned Sparrow
Steller’s Jay
Spotted Towhee
Starling
Golden-Crowned Sparrow
I walked from Edmonds Skytrain Station in SE #Burnaby to 22nd St. Station and back after lunch. It was quiet, only a couple of Anna’s Hummingbirds (one at our feeder and one on the trail), a few robins, and assorted sparrows in Taylor Park.
There were some lovely colors to be found in berries and leaves along the way. . .
The Alex Fraser Bridge as seen from the urban trail. Deliberately underexposed to enhance the brooding appearance.
On our ramble to and around Central Park in #Burnaby today, we saw lots of Hooded Mergansers in a pond.
We were feeling squirrelly and needed to stretch our legs, so we walked from our place at the east end of #Burnaby all the way to Central Park at the west end of Burnaby and back.
According to Google Maps, it was about an 11 km ramble.
Finches, Red-Winged Blackbirds, Golden-Crowned Sparrow, Spotted Towhee, Junco. . . Historic Stewart Farm, South Surrey, BC.
There was a lovely sunset late this afternoon at Fraser Foreshore Park in SE #Burnaby, BC, and this hawk seemed to be enjoying it, too. . .
Yumi found this dead Pine Siskin yesterday. She picked it up using a plastic bag, and buried it.
She found it near the Green townhouse complex on Southridge Dr. in SE Burnaby, not far from Taylor Park Elementary School.
It exhibited the symptoms of salmonellosis — emaciated, discharge at mouth, etc. Do not touch birds with bare hands, this can spread to other species.
Our consummately professional and constantly bantering Toyota saleswoman contacted us to wish us a happy new year and let us know that she’d love to discuss new-car-smell options with us 
.
We have a RAV4 Hybrid, and it’s been a solid vehicle with a combo of AWD, phenomenal pep, super gas mileage particularly in town where the electric drive gets the most use, and perfect reliability.
Just out of curiosity we asked about the RAV4 Prime, a plug-in hybrid version that can run on electricity only for about 70km before the hybrid gas/electric system kicks in.
She laughed and said, “you can give me a deposit on a RAV4 Prime today, and you can expect delivery in two to three years.” She wasn’t kidding. . .
Back in 2014 I wrote six blog posts on what I called “Paul’s Photo Tips.” Today I took my own advice regarding “Tip 2 – Read the Manual.”
I hadn’t looked at the manual for my Nikon D7500 in years, and on this quiet, rainy day, with the cat on my lap, I read its over 300 pages. Much of that information will also apply to my D7200.
It was a valuable exercise, as I was reminded of features and functions that I rarely use, and many of which I’ve never even tried.
I also got refresher on setting up autofocus and metering optimized to the kind of nature and wildlife photography that I mostly do.
And something that I’ve never taken advantage of is setting up the programmable dedicated function buttons to suit the sorts of situations I often shoot in.
Here are links to the six tips:
Tip 3 – It’s not the camera, it’s the photographer
Tip 6 – Carry extra cards and batteries
It was a quiet day on Byrne Creek today. It seemed even the birds and beasts were hunkered down on a cold, drizzly day. I did get a few shots though. . .
Pileated Woodpecker
Bushtit
American Crow
Cross Orbweaver near our door