George Clulow led another of his informative birding walks for Burnaby Parks this morning at Barnet Marine Park.
Sorry honey, Christmas is Long Gone
Aw, sorry honey, Christmas is over. . .
Took down all the lights today. Sigh.
Kitty is mourning the Xmas tree again this year.
I finally took it down today, and “butchered” it in the garage, keeping it for campfire kindling this coming camping season.
And just as in previous years, Choco the Cat has been crying at the door to the garage, going in and sniffing at the remains, and repeating the process.
Seven-Day B&W Photo Challenge
I was asked to participate in the seven-day B&W photo challenge.
Seven days, seven black-and-white photos of your daily life. No people. No pets. No explanation.
I started on New Year’s day and posted my seventh shot today. Here they all are in chronological order:
Foggy South Burnaby Walk
My near-daily ravine and south slope walk in SE Burnaby was shrouded in a lovely fog today that made everything look mysterious and beautiful.
Converted this last shot to B & W
Burnaby Lake Bird Action
Lots of birds, lots of people feeding birds, and lots of photographers shooting birds at Burnaby Lake’s Piper Spit today.
Mallard mosh pit action, with a few other species thrown in
Shake your booty!
Another photographer said this Snow Goose had been hanging around on its own near Piper Spit for several days
Pileated Woodpecker
Love the lines on this Northern Pintail
Poinsettia Cat
Twas a morning between Christmas and New Year’s and not a creature was stirring because she’d already found a comfy place on the dining room table 
Year-End Digital Data Backup
I back up regularly, but I also make a point of making sure I have fresh images of my main computer hard drive, and backups of all data drives, at the end of the year.
There’s no such thing as having too many backups — both onsite and offsite.
Yes, make sure you also have a backup stored with a relative, or at a trusted friend’s place. Or in a safety deposit box.
My project for this cold and rainy afternoon was to check my drives and backups.
My 3TB D: drive, which is dedicated to photos, was near capacity, while my 2TB C: drive was 80% free. I’d been contemplating upgrading to 4TB-plus on D:, but ended up moving several hundred GB of old photos from D: to C:, giving me enough room on D: to keep me going well into the new year.
Now setting up backups of the new configuration to my NAS (network attached storage) RAID drives.
Again: there is no such thing as too many backups!
Harriers, Owls, Eagles at Boundary Bay
We spent several hours around Boundary Bay in Delta, BC, today. Lots of eagles, several harriers, and what I think was a Short-Eared Owl.
This Northern Harrier had a large tag. Update: Been informed it’s actually a Rough-Legged Hawk, and that the tag may be part of the YVR relocation program.
I think this is a Short-Eared Owl
The owl chased the harrier, er hawk?!
Great Blue Heron in flight
Saw three pheasants in a field
Frosty Miniatures on Byrne Creek Spawner Patrol
Frost added lovely touches to our spawner patrol on Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby today.
Heron, Thrush on Byrne Creek Spawner Patrol
The resident Great Blue Heron was at the sediment pond on Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby again today. Also a lovely thrush along the trail.
