Volunteers from the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers Society began a two-day survey of fish in the creek this morning.
Lovely morning in the ravine
Please note that fish surveys are done with permission from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.
Here’s a little feller hanging in a pool beneath a fallen tree.
Robin keeping an eye on things in Ron McLean Park in SE Burnaby
I absolutely HATE it when you go to a web page and suddenly there’s music blaring from your speakers for some advert.
I hate anything that moves or makes noise when I land on a web page, including those creepy “how can I help you” chat popups on some sites.
Oh, yes, I hate animated email messages, too.
If I control my user experience, I am much more likely to read your email or stay on your web page. I’ll even click on a few advert links if they’re something I’m interested in. I might even click on a “click to chat” link if I do have a question.
But if you get pushy with me, I’m gone.
Too many things on the go! About half an hour ago a guy from the gas company knocked on the door to say that they had replaced the gas meter (we’d gotten notice a few weeks ago this would happen). He said he’d like to come in and relight the furnace, the water heater, and any other gas appliances.
We keep the house at 18C in the daytime in our mild winters here, so I hadn’t even noticed that the furnace was off.
As part of the relighting he asked me to jack the thermostat way up so that the furnace would kick in.
He left, I got back to work… And mindlessly took my sweatshirt off and continued working in just a T-shirt. And awhile later I was getting more irritated by how bloody hot it was…
And it still took another ten minutes for it to sink in that I’d left the thermostat at 26C!
OK, furnace is off, back to work.
I went to my first Federation of BC Writers event today, the Self Publishing Fair held at the main branch of the Vancouver Public Library.
I enjoyed the speakers and chatting with folks who had displays at the fair. I recognized a couple of fellow members of the Editors’ Association of Canada.
I decided to join the “Fed” as it appears to like to call itself. Perhaps being part of such a group will help stimulate me to do more writing!
Thank you Restore Canada, Burnaby location.
The used office chair I bought from you three or four years ago for, if I recall, C$20, died.
So on my way home from dropping off a bunch of stuff at the Burnaby Recycle Center I stopped by your store and picked up a “new” office chair for C$10. Not quite as swanky as the last one, but it still has adjustable height, adjustable arms, lockable back tilt, etc.
Deal!
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?