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
Headed off to Los Angeles today to visit family for a week.
I had a car reserved with Budget, and a loop north up the coast and then inland through the hills planned for the afternoon. Unfortunately, there was a huge lineup at Budget and it took over an hour to get into a car.
I was pleased with the vehicle though — while the reservation was for a midsize Chevy, they gave me a bright red metallic Mazda 6.
Photo from Mazda Canada website
The Mazda was solid, peppy, and sure-footed, so roads like this one in the hills north of LA were exhilarating to drive. The 184-horse four-banger teamed with a 6-speed auto with available manual mode was fun.
Unfortunately, halfway through the loop, my phone and its GPS ran out of juice, and for some reason it wouldn’t charge either through the car’s cigarette lighter or USB port. I even stopped and bought a new cable, and that didn’t work either.
Eventually I was, um, unsure of where exactly I was. OK, lost. There, I said it, I was lost.
The Budget folks had asked if I wanted a paper map, and I’d said sure, but there was nothing in the rental-agreement package or glove box. Sigh. I finally stopped and bought a map, and figured my way “home,” a couple hours later than planned, so I missed my nephew’s key basketball game.
I know better than to rely solely on GPS in the bush, and now I know better than to rely solely on GPS in the big city!
After sitting at the computer for most of the day, I squeezed in a quick walk down Byrne Creek Ravine Park in SE Burnaby, and back up Southridge Drive late this afternoon.
Some nice skies as the sun eased into the west.
So according to an article entitled “No more free water for bottlers in BC” in Business in Vancouver, and another in the Globe & Mail, BC will start charging commercial bottlers for water now taken freely from the commons, put in plastic bottles, and sold.
Yes, our water will now be sold to commercial bottlers for $2.25 per million litres. Ouch, that’s gotta hurt.
That means bottlers like Nestle will now pay 0.00022 cents per litre. In case you have trouble seeing the decimal point, that’s “point zero zero zero two two” cents per litre.
Er, how much does Nestle charge for a litre of bottled water?
I was recently contacted out of the blue (the email writer likely found me through the Editors’ Association of Canada database) and asked to do some free proofreading for a charity. One that I had never heard of, and that was way across the country.
I politely replied that I was busy, and that I already volunteer (not editing, but plenty of board and on-the-ground community hours) with several organizations. Of course I occasionally write/edit stuff gratis for groups that I volunteer with, but it’s the first time to be “cold-called” for such volunteer work.
I posted my experience to the “Editors of the World” group on Facebook, and several editors wrote that yes, they do volunteer on occasion, but as with me, it’s nearly always for some group that they are already a member of, or have some other personal connection with.
So a bit of advice for folks seeking free, aka volunteer, professional assistance. Do your homework. Find someone who already volunteers in your geographical area, and your subject area. Find a friend, or a friend of a friend. Or contact your local community college or university and see if a student studying toward the craft or profession that you’re targeting needs work that they can put on a resume.
But I do not recommend cold emailing or calling, and asking folks to work for you for free.