July update - Some photos from Kebler Pass

In less than 24 hours, I will be flying out of Colorado and heading back to Ottawa.  Before that, I am currently packing up my lab equipment, some of my personal gear, and updating my blog.

Here are some of my photos from Kebler Pass.

Looking at the contact zone between Mertensia brevistyla and M. fusiformis.

Birds of Gunnison National Forest, Colorado

After posts of flowers and insects, here are finally the birds that I photographed last summer.

 Gray Jay (Perisoreus canadensis)

Christmas Bird Count 2014 - Ottawa

Today I did the Christmas Bird Count with people whom I have gotten to know this semester that enjoy bird-watching too.  It has been a while since I bird-watched with other naturalists, and I have forgotten how fun it can be (and less awkward compared to birding by myself in the suburbs and/or parks with children around).

Focusing on the Goldeneyes on the Rideau River.

We saw a total of 26 different species (the others kept actual counts for each species), and below were the more interesting species that we observed and that I photographed.

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.

Some of the birds in Ivvavik National Park

Life is still very busy right now - I have a final exam (on Statistics) on Sunday, a committee meeting on Monday, need to grade all the research reports for the Plant Ecology class, invigilate the Plant Ecology final exam on Wednesday, and fly back to BC on the same night. Phew!

I can't wait to go back to BC to relax (just a bit...still a lot of work to do back home) and do some birding - I have seen a lot of Snowy Owls photos by Lower Mainland photographers that I am feeling very jealous of. Birding is not particularly interesting here, or maybe I am just way too busy.

Here are some of the bird photos that I took this past summer in Ivvavik.

Horned Lark (Eremophila alpestris) - they were found in alpine tundra areas - grassy or rocky with very little vegetation.

Pretty good day - wildlife-wise

This Glaucous-winged Gull was staring at me when I arrived at Phoenix Pond in Steveston. Looking around, I realized there was a dead salmon in the water below.

Watching flicker excavating cavity

Blogger wasn't being cooperative last night and this morning, so I had to delay yesterday's post until now. Today's activities will be blogged at a later time today, hopefully, since I had just returned home. It was a very busy day today.

After months of riding my (parents') bike through gravel and sand and soil, I had worn out the back tire and it had several punctured holes and beyond repair. So today I had to ride my old bike (from elementary school) to the dyke to do some bird-watching. I saw a flycatcher at the entrance of the dog park, but couldn't find it again after it disappeared.

I went to watch the flicker cavity that I saw last week and initially there was no bird in sight.

Strange weather day

The weather in Richmond was quite strange today. It was sunny for one moment, then cloudy and rainy the next. At home, I kept staring at the blue skies in Vancouver and the dark clouds over Delta; in the end, my urge to go outside won over and I quickly grabbed my backpack and biked to the dike.

The tide was quite high when I got there (the highest was 3.1-m at 15:47).

Good birding day to start off February

Another sunny day today for me to go out and enjoy the bike ride to the dyke. Even though I don't bike that often now to the West Dyke Trail, you can definitely see and hear the Red-winged Blackbirds coming back and getting ready to claim their territories.

All the bird feeders along the trail are dominated by these blackbirds, except when I get near and start to take pictures, then they flew away and the other smaller birds start to take over.

A couple of Downy Woodpeckers enjoy the food as well. Now that I looked at the feeder again, the drawing outside is quite beautiful.

Sunny in the afternoon

Like I said before, the weather forecast can't be more wrong lately. Calling for rain when it is nice out and sunny when it is raining out.

Anyways, it was raining pretty hard in the morning. Thankfully, it stopped and the sky cleared in the afternoon. Time for the much-needed bike ride and some shutter therapy.

The bird feeders along the South Dyke Trail (in the dog park) were dominated by the Red-winged Blackbirds. But while I was photographing, they stayed away and gave opportunities to the White-crowed Sparrows and juncos.

Applepalooza and bird-watching in Steveston

The last few times I biked along the dyke, I saw a few signs about an upcoming Applepalooza festival at the South Dyke Sharing Farm on Oct 3. So this morning, I decided to go and check it out; plus, it would be my first time at this sharing farm.

There were only four tents, a small lunch-selling table, a game tent, and live music playing.

I did not buy any apple trees, so I didn't stay for long. But there were still many pretty flowers to take pictures of.

Bright red!


Probably my favorite flower in this farm. No idea what it is, but it's so beautiful.

Worries away in RNP & Zoom!

Today is the first day of October. Five days from today, I will return back to my temp office job in downtown Vancouver for this fall season.

Lately, I have been in a slump. Work-searching in my field has been unproductive (as usual in the winter season) and grad-school searching has been unsuccessful - not many openings and with my just average grades in my undergrad years, I imagine professors are probably hesitant to take a student without any scholarship support. So my future is unclear as muck and it frustrates me everytime I think about it.

With my new monthly bus pass, I visited Richmond Nature Park today. And when I step on the ground that's not made of cement and surrounded by trees instead of buildings and people, all of the sudden, my worries are gone. I am in the moment of just enjoying birds chirping and watching the leaves changing their colors. And photographing - it just takes time away and makes it all worthwhile.

Watching the frenzies in the bird-feeding area. Many chickadees and squirrels on the feeders. The sparrows and juncos on the ground. These are probably my first decent shots of a Dark-eyed Junco because most of the times, they are too fast or too difficult to photograph.

Dark-eyed Junco

Earth Day & White-crowned Sparrow

Personally, I am not a big fan of celebrations like this. It's not because I dislike Earth, in fact you couldn't be more wrong from that. I just think it's ridiculous for people to get all excited and started paying attention to Mother Earth for just one day out of 365 days in a year. If you love Earth, then you do it 24/7, everywhere, and everytime (or at least try to), whether it be recycling, taking public transportation, biking, walking, donating to conservation charities, and so forth.

Now that I got rid of how I feel about today, on to today's outing. Today was chilly. I got tricked by the sunshine and only wore two layers of shirts, and I was freezing by the end of the bike ride. Stupid me.

Don't be fooled for the beautiful weather.

The Great Horned Owl on another tree this time. I came by a lady photographer, and she said that a Great Gray Owl(s) was (were) observed by the managers of the community garden in the same vicinity. I'll have to keep a sharper eye out next time. Imagine that, a Great Gray Owl! Wow!

Not much wildlife was observed afterwards. I saw a Yellow-rumped Warbler, many American Robins, Swallows, a Killdeer, and many White-crowned Sparrows (as photographed below). I think I also saw (and heard) Orange-crowned Warblers. But sadly, I don't have a picture proof. Maybe next time.

White-crowned Sparrow (Zonotrichia leucophrys) - identified by its clear grey breast and black-and-white striped crown. This pretty bird sat patiently for me to capture these detailed images. Thank you, my (interspecies) sibling of the same Mother Earth.
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