Christmas Bird Count 2015 (Ottawa) & Return back to BC

Hello from BC!  I returned back to BC early yesterday morning for the holiday break.  Before Tuesday, I participated in the Ottawa-Gatineau Christmas Bird Count on Sunday with mostly the same group of people as last year.  As you may already know, it has been a warm December in Ontario and the weather is completely different from the previous year.  Compared to last year, our section did not record as many species, although the region as a whole has received a record number of individuals, with more than two-thirds of the total count (about 25,000 individual birds) being American Crows and Canada Geese (read the news report here).  Unfortunately, I stupidly forgot to put my freshly-charged battery into my camera and was not able to take any photos of the birds we saw.  In the end, I only snapped two photos with my phone.

The starting point of our bird count early in the morning.

Walk Around Deer Lake Park

While my mother was in Burnaby visiting family friends, I also tagged along and visited Deer Lake Park on my own. It's a nice park - pretty natural considering all the houses and roads around it. I believe the last time I was here was for my limnology course in my last year of university, collecting some water samples in the lake, which was at least four years ago. Wow, time sure goes by quick.

I was worried that it might rain here in Burnaby during my walk, but it only did briefly at the end of the walk.

Walking through the marshy area, I saw my first hummingbird of the year!