I just updated the firmware on a couple of my Nikon DSLRs.
I should check for updates more often, for they often incorporate small fixes and feature enhancements like faster focusing, improved metering, better video features, enhanced compatibility with certain lenses, etc.
Sometimes I forget that aside from the mechanical bits, digital cameras are basically computers with imaging sensors.
This hawk was in a tree just above our balcony when some crows spotted it. It flew further down the treeline, the crows followed, and eventually chased it off out of sight.
1 live chum about 10m u/s of Meadow Ave. bridge
1 live chum at the flow notch in the spawning channel
5 live chum in the sediment pond
2 live coho in the sediment pond
1 barely alive chum about 20m u/s of the footbridge
1 live chum monument in ravine
1 dead coho, sediment pond, 31cm jack, male, loose milt but lots of it
1 dead coho
Volunteer hours: 6 X 2 = 12
Volunteers patrolled Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby, BC, today for spawning salmon. It was a good count for our little urban creek, but unfortunately we are yet again seeing Coho prespawn mortality.
This means that Coho die before they spawn, and the first female we found this year was dead yet full of eggs. This issue has been studied in Washington State, and the smoking gun is a chemical in tires that washes off roads and into creeks. For some reason it kills Coho but Chum are not affected.
We get so few Coho back every year that each unspawned female is a small tragedy.
Today’s count below. . .
Female Coho
Dead yet full of eggs
Chum Salmon
Partly predated Chum Salmon
2 live chum, sediment pond
1 live chum, near the log pond in lower ravine
2 live chum, lower ravine
1 live chum, near monument
1 dead chum, sediment pond, 54cm, male, no milt, partly eaten
1 dead chum, 10m d/s of weir in lower ravine, 53cm, male, looked spawned, partly eaten
1 dead chum, near the log pond in lower ravine, 58cm, female, spawned
Total chum:
6 live chum
3 dead chum
1 dead coho, sedpond, 48cm, female, not spawned
5 live coho, sedpond, all looked on the small side
Total coho:
5 live coho
1 dead coho (prespawn mortality again)
1 redd near the log pond in lower ravine
I didn’t linger long at Deer Lake in Burnaby, BC, this morning as it was raining heavily and there was also some hail. After getting some moody shots of the lake, I walked around for about half an hour to get some bird photos and then headed home.
Gadwall
Pied-billed Grebe
There were dozens of American Coots
Varied Thrush
And the ubiquitous Canada Geese
Lovely light on a moody morning at Deer Lake in Burnaby, BC, complete with heavy rain and hail.
There were some lovely colors on my ravine ramble in south Burnaby, BC, today.
Yumi cooked the Halloween pumpkin but it was pretty soggy and tasteless. I’ve never liked pumpkin pie, but I love banana bread, so . . .
Found a pumpkin bread recipe and it’s delish! Threw in half a cup of oatmeal and several tablespoons of roasted pumkin seeds.
Oh, yeah, I also used a couple of cups of the cooked pumpkin in a scalloped potato dish, and that’s good, too.
Earlier today I came across Sora the Cat occupying my office chair.
You want to work, Daddy? You’ll have to deal with my super-cuteness first. . . : – )
It’s been a late start to the Chum salmon spawning season on Byrne Creek in Burnaby, BC, and numbers are far below usual. Apparently Chum returns in lower mainland Fraser River watershed creeks are critically low.
Byrne Creek Streamkeeper volunteers were happy to spot three Chum in the creek today. Here’s a short video of a pair hiding.