Biked to Terra Nova

Today begins a string of several pleasant days. Time for a bike ride to Terra Nova and try out my new bins. It is definitely an improvement - brighter and clearer images that allowed me to see some birds that weren't photographed by my camera, e.g. a male Common Merganser, a female Red-breasted Merganser and a Pied-billed Grebe.

Today's bike trip took me over five hours, I was exhausted by the time I got home, especially since I skipped lunch.

Here are some photos from Coots and Mallards photo from Steveston, as well as a female Brewer's Blackbird - one of those common brown birds that I don't normally pay attention to until this afternoon.

One of the photos that I wanted to get was a shot of the coot's lobed feet! Check!


A female Brewer's Blackbird, I think, since it doesn't look that a female Red-winged Blackbird or a Cowbird (process of elimination).


Turning to West Dyke Trail.

I noticed a group of Northern Pintails but they took off as soon as they saw me taking photos of them. I also saw a Belted Kingfisher diving into the ditch for food but didn't get any photos of it.

A resting heron. The moment of peacefulness was disturbed by a boy carrying a air crossbow wanting to fire at it. He didn't because I was still taking photos of it, but I don't really understand how people's mind works sometimes. [On an irrelevant side note: I saw my second dead heron today. One was from the roadside at the end of No. 3 Road near the South Dyke Trail saw from last week; today's was in the reeds along the West Dyke Trail near Steveston. I wonder what the deaths were caused by: food and/or weather or something else?]

It was getting pretty cloudy and chilly near sunset.

Time to go home.
.