Autumn colours, birds, and a butterfly(!)

This past week was probably the last few days of the year when signs of autumn are still pretty evident.  Soon the trees will be bare and the ground will be covered by snow once again.  I have an uneasy and sickening feeling about the future of the world given what happened just four short days ago in America.  But there is not much anyone can do except to stay positive and hang on tight to anything that brings you happiness, whether it is spending time with your friends and families and/or being outside and enjoying nature.

People going out for a morning stroll.

Guelph University & The Arboretum - Part 1

When I arrived at Guelph on Sunday afternoon, I first checked into the hotel, then headed to the university to get my registration kit.  Since the weather was not too bad, I decided to take some photos and tried to find the Arboretum.

This scenery reminded me of New Orleans, such as this image.

First outing of 2013 - Boundary Bay revisited

It has been more than four years ago when I first visited Boundary Bay Park.  With another year's Snowy Owl migration, (fairly) good weather today, and recent news report about starving owls, my parents were intrigued to see these owls for themselves.  After some searching, I found out the best spot to see these owls is Boundary Bay, and that was where we headed to today.

Before I start on today's post, I strongly suggest people read this person's post about Snowy Owl photography or any wildlife photography in general - treat the owls (and other wildlife) with the same private space as you would with any other creatures and humans.  I personally would not like it if I know people are photographing me, especially from close distances.

Entrance

UBC Botanical Garden & Greenheart Canopy Walkway

The past few days has been quite rewarding - volunteering at two different sessions, listening to different researches, and not stressing over the presentations like most of the presenters.  I saw presentations discussing from lizard diversity in Chile to genetically identifying shark species all over the world to the threats to Japanese Giant Salamanders.  Today was the last day of the conference (to be followed by the huge bird conference - NAOC), and I was assigned to help out with the registration table.  A few days ago, I saw a special discount for going to the UBC Botanical Garden plus walking the Greenheart Canopy Walkway for only $11.  I bought the ticket right away and thought this afternoon would be a good time to use it.

A Barn Swallow nest right outside the gift store at the botanical garden.  The parent(s) were flying in and out feeding the young chicks.

Hungry Cat, Vole Alive

Let's start of today with some photos of the delicious strawberries that my mother bought today.

Very yum and sweet!

Lychee tree in Vancouver?

Went to the Harbour Green Park during lunch time to get a breath of fresh air. In this park, there are these trees giving fruits of beautiful colors. These fruits look like lychee, a tropical fruit native to Asia. Therefore, I am not too sure if this is a correct identification or it's a modified species here in North America. Nevertheless, it is a beautiful bright fruit in such a gray season so far.

And these are its flowers.

On the trees, I also saw these invertebrates crawling (vertically) along the bark of the tree, so I definitely don't think they are worms.

Nearby, I came across this beautiful spider. Another unable-to-identify challenge, oh joy!

Not such a great day (season) to overwork the brain, but at least I got outside and took these pictures (actually, it took me more than 30 to 40 pictures just to get this half-decent picture of a spider). Terrible.
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