Making a daytrip out of Richmond City

Today's weather was so gorgeous that I borrowed my parent's car again to do some practice driving along the tested routes. Coincidentally, I ended up at places I usually can't get to without taking a bus. I spent this whole morning and afternoon driving to these areas, walking around, and taking photographs. In the end, I think I left my footprints all over Richmond today. Here are the photographs that I took at each location.

Richmond Nature Park

I arrived at the park early in the morning and there was already a group of photographers pointing their humongous lens towards the feeders. The birds were mostly Black-capped Chickadees, Dark-eyed Juncos, Spotted Towhees, sparrows, and several Downy Woodpeckers. Since the others were quite common to see around where I live, I mainly focused on the Downy Woodpeckers.

Downy Woodpecker (Picoides pubescens)

Afterwards, I left the photographers and the birds alone and walked the trails within the park.

One of the many singing Song Sparrows at the park. Springtime is indeed here even though the weather may not feel like it.

I saw a few Bald Eagles flying in the sky, as well as these three accipiters. I think they may be Cooper's Hawks, but I can't be certain.

The Nature Park is one of the areas where there are more Douglas Squirrels than Gray Squirrels. Love these cute native creatures.

I returned back to the feeders afterwards and saw this Downy in the process of pecking. Neat.

An image of a Cooper's Hawk through branches.

Before I leave, I went to check out the pond and through the fences I saw these turtles out enjoying the sun. But are they real or no?

Finn Slough

Finn Slough is located at southern Richmond, and it is a small fishing community with wooden houses and boats. I never been here before so I was mainly there just to look around, but you can definitely feel it's an area with an interesting history.

Wanderin' Weeta have checked out this area more extensively than I have, and posted more interesting posts about it. Feel free to check them out.

Given the mood it creates, I thought it would be interesting to remove the colors and feelings from these photographs and let the black and white images to speak for themselves.

Wooden walkways

Cat heading back home

South Dyke Trail

A few steps away from Finn Slough is the South Dyke Trail, a trail that eventually connects to the West Dyke Trail that I usually go on.

What a gorgeous view.

West Dyke Trail

When I got home early afternoon, the sun was still shining and the blue sky was still uncovered by clouds. So I decided to grab my bike and headed to the dyke again.

I came across this guarding Bald Eagle with its mate inside the nest. Are they incubating already?

I also saw this Great Blue Herons and got this image of it catching a very small meal.

What a day! What a day!
.