Birding at Richmond Nature Park

Yesterday I went to downtown Vancouver with my mother to get Compass Cards for public transportation.  While we were waiting to cross the street in Chinatown, I was shoved to the ground from behind by a random drunk/addict walking by.  I don't come to downtown Vancouver often, but for whatever reason, I always left with a bad taste for this part of the city whenever I do come.

After the incident, we took the sea bus to North Vancouver just to get away from Vancouver.

Last (bird-watching) day of 2015

I was hoping to do more nature-related things when I came back home, but various tasks took place and I ended up not bird-watching until this morning when I drove my mother to the library to borrow some books and then went to Terra Nova for a walk.

I miss this view.  You can't see mountains and ocean (sort of) in the same view back in Ottawa.

May update - assorted topics

We are having several consecutive days of relatively nice weather throughout the day so I have been quite busy working (and taking photos) but not posting them.  Here are a lot of photos from the last week of May.

Snow day (May 25th, 2015)

Before the weather got better, it got worse on the 25th when it snowed and we lost power overnight and in the morning after (so no heat and no internet). I couldn't do any work except walking around Gothic and taking pictures.

Birds saw in Richmond

Aside from working from home most of this week, I went out twice to do some bird-watching and six times to dine out.  Here are the birds we saw on Thursday (at Terra Nova) and Saturday (at Richmond Nature Park).

Terra Nova

The only Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) I saw this trip.

Biking to West Dyke Trail

Here are some of the things I encountered while out biking at West Dyke Trail.

Red-eared Slider, one of the many in the ditch.

Chickadees' and Killdeers' potentially nesting?

This was one of the few photos taken from our 'backyard' yesterday when it was grey and wet out using the OM lens.

This was taken at f2 as you can tell by the blurriness behind the flower in focus. The colors captured by this lens is not as saturated as the digital lenses, but it is fixable with some post-processing.

Birding at RNP & Happy CNY

Today is the eve of the Chinese New Year, and this morning, my mom and I went to Richmond Nature Park to see if we can find the Silver Pheasant again.

There were a lot of birds there, but no pheasants.

Black-capped Chickadee (Poecile atricapillus)

Last lifer of 2010 - Silver Pheasant

Quarter to 12am and 2011! Probably be 2011 by the time I finishes this post.

Originally I wanted to use my month bus pass for one final long birding day-trip (i.e. Stanley Park). In the end, I ended up going to Richmond Nature Park with my mother, and boy, did I glad I did - because I got lots of good photos as well as a final lifer of 2010!

Overall, 2010 has been a memorable year - working with and meeting new people, learning new things, absorbing new information, spending a lot time with wildlife in the outdoors and more. I hope 2011 can be just as exciting.

Now, some photos from Richmond Nature Park. First, some non-bird photos.

Just like the feeling this image provokes.


Frost on wooden fence. Wish I captured it better, but it was really neat to look at the frost close-up.

Definitely not a Wordless Wednesday - Heron up-close and American Mink again!!!

My story began when I biked across the bridge towards the Terra Nova Natural Area. Looking to my left, a young heron was just across from the deck!

So close!

Not wanting to startle the heron and missing the opportunity to photograph it up-close, I parked my bike on the grass and slowly walked towards it.

Getting closer.

Another day at the dyke - eagles, heron, towhee, chickadee, bushtits, and more

Yesterday's weather was a bit confusing. It looked like it was going to rain with the heavy cloud cover, but it never did. It was the same thing this morning, but by the afternoon it actually turned out quite nice.

With nice clear sky.

LIFER! RNPH in Terra Nova!

My post begins today with entering the Terra Nova Sharing Farm, where birds of all sorts meet and greet, and enjoying the seeds and insects in the soil.

Entrance into a magical place!?

Birds such as:

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis)

Hanging Bushtit (Psaltriparus minimus) with interesting bokeh


Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) with piercing eyes.


American Robin (Turdus migratorius)

Most of the birds were quite shy and it was difficult to photograph them, especially so close to the sun setting where the lighting was not optimal. That was when I started pedaling to the back of the farm and hoped to find the Short-eared Owl again. And that was when I realized that someone (or something) was behind me!

Who is that!!?

What's that pink cabbage called?

My mother accompanied me (halfway) in this relatively grey day out to the dyke.

Watching the harrier fly by.

Great Blue Heron (one of the many of them that I saw today). My mother headed home around this point while I continued on.

A Snow Goose adult protecting the juveniles around it.


Ring-billed Gulls seem to like hanging around in the same soggy areas as the Snow Geese.

Spotted Towhee. One of the birds that enjoy the easy food provided in this feeder.


Saw this Winter Kale in the Terra Nova Share Farm. Took me a couple of searches in Google before finding out what this pink cabbage is actually called. A few interesting information about kale here (not sure if accurate or not).


Droplet on kale leaf.


A Red-tailed Hawk. Probably the same one as yesterday.




A handsome heron standing close to me.

Snow Geese spooked by eagles (I think).

Bald Eagle again. My mother says it's more likely to see them later in the afternoon; hence, the reason why she didn't see them this afternoon (around 3-pm).
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Goodbye, April. Hello, May.

Time to say goodbye to the wonderful month of April, and hello to the exciting May. The next month should be very exciting for me, but I will talk about it when the right time arrives.

But for now, let's just enjoy the beautiful weather on the last day of the month.

No more bare branches as leaves and buds are popping up everywhere.

A pair of adult Bald Eagle was observed today - both outside their nest. Enjoying a bit of the sunshine, I guess.

From where I was taking photos of the eagles, this Spotted Towhee demanded a bit of my attention as well.

Along the way, I saw a Tree Swallow carrying a feather, but the feather kept falling and the bird kept flying back to retrieve it (while the feather was still on the air). Such an impressive demonstration of their acrobatic flight skills. Sadly, I didn't photograph the moment.

This Barn Swallow did not like posing on wires or nest-boxes. Instead, it opted for a more natural setting. Fine with me.

Calling out

I also saw some kind of Accipiter (probably a Red-tailed Hawk) carrying a smaller bird, but the camera couldn't focus fast enough on the flying bird, so I got two poor images that I won't bother to show here, but thought I'd mention it.

Yep, the Great Horned Owl is still around.

Quite a lot of Yellow-rumped Warblers can be spotted in the shrubs beside the slough. Most of them are the western subspecies (from the "auduboni" group) with yellow throats. This bird above, however, does not have the yellow throat. The white throat indicate that it is from the "coronata" group, also known as Myrtle Warblers (Dendroica coronata coronata), the eastern subspecies.

Even though they are insectivorous, they will also eat wax-myrtle berries in winter; hence the name "Myrtle Warbler".

Two pairs of Cinnaon Teals were spotted in the Terra Nova Slough, along with the female Common Goldeneye.

Beautiful Blossoms.
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Testing the new lens

After a rewarding morning, my afternoon bike ride turned out pretty good too. Getting the teleconverter made me feel like a child all over again, receiving new toy and wanting to play with it all the time.

Another beautiful day.

Lesser Yellowlegs in flight.

Two Canada Geese were spotted feeding and staying guard in Terra Nova Rural Park, and since the guard goose was standing still, I decided to play with the teleconverter again by holding the lens in one hand and the camera in another. It's hard work since both hands are slightly shaky, leading to some fuzzy photos. Can't wait until I have the adapter to join the two together. Nevertheless, I am quite pleased with the results.

A Spotted Towhee was singing loudly on the treetop, so I took this photo with the TCON again. The details are good when the focus is spotted on and hands are not shaky.

I finally had the chance today to photograph and observe Barn Swallows (Hirundo rustica) today. Usually, they are either in fast flight or there are cars on the roadside preventing me from taking photos, but not today.

Barn Swallows are blue-black swallow with a tan belly and a deeply forked tail. They build cup-shaped mud nest under eaves, structures, and even the entrance of caves or mineshafts.

While heading home, I saw one Bald Eagle just beside its nest. Soon after, another adult inside the nest flew out and landed next to the other one. Then they were just looking at the golfers undernath them shouting and hitting golf balls.

Such magnificent birds. I wonder if they have eggs or offsprings at all inside the nest.
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Owl-watching in Terra Nova again...

The majority of today's outing was to simply observing the Great Horned Owl (Bubo virginianus) in Terra Nova. There's nothing more rewarding in this world than having this magnificent wild bird (a very top predator, not to mention) allowing you to look at it, and it doing what a wild animal should do right in front of you (or above you, in this case). I feel extremely privileged.

Sleeping - as it should since it's a crepuscular predator (i.e. it hunts at dusk and dawn).

Peeking. The crows woke it up (shifting the blame to the annoying crows), but it is quite possible that the humans staring and photographing it from below can attribute to that too.

Quite fully awake now.

Giving itself a good scratching and grooming.

Pure satisfaction.

Looks like it is yawning, but it was actually trying to regurgitate - as something solid came out of its mouth a few seconds later.

Other worthy birding pictures to share.

Immature Bald Eagle flying by.

Killdeer nesting.

Yellow-rumped Warbler flying around unpredictably. This is the Audubon's race - as identified by its yellow throat. Pretty bird.

A Spotted Towhee singing for a potential mate.
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