2016/01/01

First (bird-watching) day of 2016

I drove to Steveston with my mother today for an afternoon walk.  We stopped at a couple of places to do some bird-watching.

Mountain and Ocean
I miss this view.

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We saw at least three Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) from London's Landing.  That part of Steveston has changed quite a lot since I last visited.  So much construction nowadays.

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A single Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps).

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Several Buffleheads (Bucephala albeola).

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Males and females (there was another female outside the picture).

We went to the wharf (after ordering a pizza at the famous Steveston Pizza) but saw the sun setting, so we went to Garry Point Park first. 

Sunset view
The sun had already disappeared behind the islands once we got there. 

My camera combination of old lens plus new body performed quite poorly at autofocusing at dusk, so I had several blurry photos of this view.  Then we saw large gatherings of Snow Geese flying overhead.  I was kind of sad when I saw that none of my photos had focused properly.  Then I saw a second large group flying overhead, and I decided to switch to manual-focus instead.  And I got better photos the second time.

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Snow Geese overhead

Geese and Mountain
Based on Google Map, it appeared that the birds were flying towards the western edge of Westham Island.  I imagine there must be thousands of Snow Geese there.  Must be a party.

A pretty good start to 2016, I must say. 
 

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