Monthly Archives: May 2022

Nature, Photography

Red-Tailed Hawk Day

We saw Red-tailed Hawks twice today.

First in Queensborough in New Westminster, where there was one that had caught a small bird, perhaps a Starling. And then again on Marine Drive in south Burnaby as we were visiting a garden shop. There were two hawks being chased by crows.

hawk with prey queensborough new westminster bc
You can just make out that the hawk is clutching a small bird in its talons

red-tailed hawks marine drive burnaby bc
The pair over Marine Drive in south Burnaby

Nature, Photography, Streamkeeping

Coho Smolt Kill in Byrne Creek, Burnaby, BC

Sadly we expected this with the rain last night right after releasing 3,700 smolts in Byrne Creek yesterday with elementary schoolkids.

We suspected this would happen as it has happened following releases many times over the years. If it rains too soon after a release before the smolts migrate to the river, they get killed by road wash — a chemical in tires identified by research in Washington State that coho are particularly susceptible to.

We counted a couple of dozen dead smolts today, but the place we usually see the most morts — the sediment pond — was too murky to see anything. I’ll go back later in the day when it has cleared.

As I was there, I saw a smolt throw itself out of the pond onto a sandy bank, before flopping back in the water. There was one mort floating on the surface, and there were several up on the banks in the artificial spawning channel.

coho smolt kill byrne creek burnaby bc

Nature, Photography, Streamkeeping, Sustainability

Coho Salmon Smolt Release With Schoolchildren

We released beautiful Coho salmon smolts on Byrne Creek in Burnaby, BC, this morning.

Thanks to Isaac and Brian from DFO for bringing the fish, and thanks to the volunteers at Kanaka Creek who help raise them!

And thanks to the streamkeeper volunteers, teachers, and parents who helped supervise.

coho salmon smolts byrne creek burnaby bc

barred owl juvenile byrne creek burnaby bc
The kids were excited to see this Barred Owl juvenile on our way to the release site

 

Photography, Technology

Spring Cleaning the Photo Drives

Spring cleaning the photo drive(s).

I have a pair of 6TB external drives that I download (and mirror for backup) my photos to. They were nearly full, so eventually I’ll have to get a larger pair, but I wondered if I could delete some photos and put off that expense to later in the year.

It turns out that apparently I used to be much less stringent about immediately deleting photos I didn’t like, be they out of focus, repetitive, badly exposed, poorly composed, or whatever.

This evening in an hour or two I cleared nearly 100GB of space just by going through a couple of years of photos. I suspect a few more hours over the next few days and I’ll be able to clear another 100-200GB.

I also have an 8TB RAID NAS (Network Attached Storge) that I back up to.

You can never have too many backups!