Good wildlife-watching day; Bad photography day

Life sometimes like to play funny tricks on you. For example, today is incredibly cloudy and a bad day for photography, but yet I saw so many cool critters, e.g. Muskrat, lots of raptors, Mink(! - no photo). Sigh, blurry photos will still serve as a good day.

First, I saw a Muskrat eating vegetation in the ditch. First Muskrat of the year!

Should just have photograph black and white images all afternoon.


Managed a relatively decent shot of a Cooper's Hawk (I think). There was another Cooper's before seeing this one, but I got only two photos of its dark back. Glad I saw this one just above me.

Two Mute Swans feeding in the muddy lowtides in Finn Slough. The dirtier looking swan is the juvenile, and according to a fellow birder, one of the mates of this pair died and so it was up to this single adult to take up the parental role.


Adult. S for Swan.


Juvenile. Not sure if it is because it is a cloudy day, but it's bill is not as colorful as the adult's.

A female Northern Harrier flew towards me while biking and then went over my head and landed on a perch in the middle of someone's backyard. Another blurry photo.

I also saw a mink swimming in the Fraser River beside the riverbank. When it sensed me stopping in my track, it dived into the water and peeked behind a rock on the riverbank before disappearing. Sigh.

A nice-looking image taken mainly because of the Red-tailed Hawk on the treetop.

Taking off!

Perched on a taller tree behind a fence. But still keeping a close eye on me.

Immature Bald Eagle.

Another terrible taking-off photo.


A pair of Bald Eagle nesting near Finn Slough, beside the packaging building.

Saw almost all the common raptors I can possibly find in Richmond, and yet I had no good photos to show for it. Well, I guess I can't ask for too many good things all at once.

PS - Saw Nature's "Bird of the Gods" episode tonight on PBS. What a fantastic episode about the Birds-of-Paradise in Papua New Guinea. In addition, it was incredibly sad to see in the end that the Papuan ornithologist Paul Igag passed away last year. R.I.P.
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