2010/12/31

My fav. kind of winter - cold and sunny; biking to the dyke

Today, my dad bought me a few things for me to prepare the harsh winters of Ontario - winter jacket, snow boots and a warm pair of jeans. Not the kind of things I usually use here in B.C.

In the afternoon, I biked to South Dyke Trail, almost to Finn Slough, then back home. Today's my favorite kind of winter - cold but sunny, and almost cloudless too. Great day for a photo outing, except that my digits get cold very quickly.

Beautiful day at the dyke trail. Many dogs and their humans out enjoying the nice weather.

Mount Baker against a cloudless sky
Cloudless.

Mount Baker
Mount Baker covered in snow. Gorgeous!

Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)
I saw many cormorant swimming and hunting in the Fraser River. Must eat to stay alive in this winter.

Then I spent a lot of time (maybe too much) photographing the chickadees at the feeder.

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)

This was one of the chickadees on top of the branches. An out of focus shot, but you can see that they use gravity to do their work for them initially. Neat!

Here were some other birds hanging around the feeder.

American Robin (Turdus migratorius)
American Robin

Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus)
Red-winged Blackbird (female)

I spotted this Bald Eagle high up in the sky circling with a few gulls. Not fighting, but just gliding.

Pedaled around the building towards Finn Slough where I spotted a young Great Blue Heron (looks like the one I usually see around here).


Sunset
Sun is setting.

After photographing the sunset, I turned around and a Cooper's Hawk flew off the ground to a tree near by. Lighting wasn't very good so I had to use ISO 3200. From the picture, I say it's a Cooper's because of the roundish tail, but I could (easily) be wrong.

Snapping a few more photos of the sunset before I put my gloves on and called it quits.

Branchy Silhouette
Branch Silhouette

Sunset Bokeh
Blurred vision (a.k.a. intentionally to achieve artistic style)

Through the trees
Alrighty, one last shot before my fingers fell off.
.

3 comments:

Susannah Anderson said...

Re fingers falling off: today we tried using those cheap chemical handwarmers. (From Eddie Bauer, I think. Lee Valley Tools carries some, too.)

I collect fresh salt water for my critters from Boundary Bay when I'm there. From then on, my fingers always ache. That's when I remembered that I had the hand warmers in the car; I got two out and put them in my thin gloves. Problem solved. So comfortable!

I use two pair of gloves in this weather; thin ones so that I can feel the camera buttons, thick knitted ones to lock in the warmth when I'm not using the camera. The hand warmers fit inside the thin gloves.

I'll never go out without them again.

Cicero Sings said...

Great pictures as usual PSYL. Love the one of the little bullet chickadee taking off. Chickadees are so amazing to me -- cheeky and hardy -- hardy enough to oversights up here - yet so small.

Glad you've a job to kook forward to. Should be interesting even if a little cold. You'll appreciate your warm clothes. I bought some Bog boots made out of neoprene -- olive them -- good to almost -30. I've only proved them to -24.

Happy New Year!

PSYL said...

Thank you both for your kind and useful comments! Wish you both (and everyone out there reading these comments) a happy 2011 too!

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