Blossoms in Ottawa

In one week, I will be leaving Ottawa and driving to Colorado for my third (and probably final) field season.  To get my body in shape, I have been walking quite regularly in the last few days.  Plus it gives me a chance to enjoy the blossoms along the canal.

It's almost summer-like here in Ottawa.

Blossoms and a sad finding

Last week at the Arboretum, I made a mental note of when I think the crabapple trees will start flowering so that I can return and photograph the blossoms.

I went back today and the trees were just before peak-flowering.

Getting a taste of spring in BC

While most parts of Canada are under deep snow and freezing temperatures, the west coast has been experiencing springlike conditions.  My mother and I went for a drive/walk to West Dyke Trail this morning to do some bird-watching.

View from West Dyke Trail with Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens) scattered across the land.  I took this image with my new phone (Xiaomi HM Note 1W) which has pretty good camera capability (13 megapixels).

Canadian Tulip Festival - Blast of colours (Part 2)

I biked to Commissioners Park this afternoon to check out the tulip festival once again.  Along the way, I saw many (crabapple?) blossoms in the Arboretum.

Beautiful.

Tulip Festival in downtown Ottawa and Gatineau

Today, I went to downtown Ottawa and Gatineau to check out the Tulip Festival in these parts of the cities.

The blossoms are here!

Update for the week

I bought a bike at a garage sale on Sunday, so on Monday (12th), I attempted to bike to school.  There isn't a straight-forward path from where I live to the university, but there is a path along the canal that gets me to school in about 45 minutes (by biking through some neighbourhoods and parks first), which is not bad, especially when the weather is nice.

Biking past Hog's Back Falls - man-made waterfalls.

Blossoms at Trent (Update: May 18)

One of my favourite things about Spring is probably admiring trees with beautiful blossoms.  There is just something about the colourful and fragrant flowers and the attraction to insects and birds that draw me to photographing them.  I have been waiting for the trees at Trent to flower for a while now, and now the moment is finally here!

Wednesday (May 15)

So beautiful!

Walking through Parkway Trail - Rose-breasted Grosbeak

As I mentioned earlier, I walked part-way to school today through the Parkway Trail.

Very 'green' nowadays

Blossoms outside Trent

Here are some photos taken this evening while waiting for the bus.  After this weekend, I have two days of wilderness first aid training.  After that, I am heading back to BC for a week.

May days so far

May days so far have been pretty hectic (as expected).  I need to finalize what I will be doing this summer with my supervisors, pack everything, and figure out where I am going to be living next September.

2012-05-04

I handed in my post-dated cheques to the housing unit today at school.  After that, I walked along the river towards my building.  And as expected, when I don't bring my DSLR, I ended up seeing some pretty cool wildlife.

For example, this Osprey about 20 metres away from me looking at the river.

Then I heard this knocking sound.  Looking around, it was a Pileated Woodpecker.  I have seen this species a couple of times, but no good photos to show for it.  This one is pretty decent when resized.

Bees, Tulips, Eagles, Flycatcher(!) and Blossom

It is such a nice day today. Perfect day to go bike-riding.

Look at the view! Only a few clouds in the horizon.

Hummingbird Homecoming at Richmond Nature Park

Richmond Nature Park (RNP) hosted a "Hummingbird Homecoming" event today that I thought was worthwhile checking out. But I really shouldn't expect anything too exciting for a free event that takes place where few people ever visit (even for the locals) and seems to be targeted more for children than adults. The turnout was pretty poor, I think, but there were two mist-nets set up that provided a bit more activity than just the talk (and extremely short walk) alone.

Visiting Minoru Park

In the morning, I drove my mother to the Brighouse (Main) Library to return and borrow some books. Afterwards, we walked to Minoru Park to see the blossoms.

In addition to the cherry blossoms, there are several plants flowering too.

Unknown yellow flowers.

Bird- and blossom-watching in Steveston.

In the afternoon, I drove my mother to Steveston to buy groceries. We went there via Dyke Road to see some wildlife along the way.

Common Mergansers resting on a floating log.

Lunch and Blossom Watching at Downtown Vancouver

Here're something different today. I had lunch with a couple of my old university friends at downtown Vancouver. Afterwards, I went to my old workplace and say hi to everybody.

Searching for blossoms in downtown, but most of them seem to be at the end of their flowering period.

Pink Blossoms and Gold Finch

Another beautiful sunny day without any clouds in the sky.

Saw a pair of Common Mergansers swimming towards the Phoenix Pond.

Glowing Hummingbird and then Sunset

Another beautiful day today. First thing today was biking to Garden City/South Dyke Sharing Farm to see if I can find some critters. Unfortunately, only few of the gardens look like they are in use this year, so I couldn't find anything, except for a bee that flew by me real quick.

Pigeons on Wire. Some people like to feed these birds (and the gulls) by throwing their leftover breads in this area. Today, a patch of the ground was filled with dinner rolls! It's such a waste of food, plus bread aren't good for birds at all. It's hard to convince people otherwise.

Blossom-watching at Garry Point

The weather has been pretty bad the last couple of days; thankfully, the rain ceased this afternoon and there were even some blue skies as well.

First nice weather of April

Yesterday's constant rain was probably Mother Nature's way of saying Happy April Fools. Regardless, today's nice weather made up for it.

B's of the day: blossom, bumblebee, and bittern

A much nicer day compared to yesterday. Is spring break going on right now or something? I am out of school for so long that it such a surprise to see so many kids outside during school hours.

Sunny day.