Bees, Tulips, Eagles, Flycatcher(!) and Blossom

It is such a nice day today. Perfect day to go bike-riding.

Look at the view! Only a few clouds in the horizon.

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.

Sky-watching from London Landing

The sky cleared today and in the afternoon, I drove my mother to Seafair and Steveston to do some banking and grocery shopping. Afterwards, we went home via Dyke Road.

Stopping at London Landing to watch some birds.

Bald Eagle watching & first experience with OM lens

Today I headed to Finn Slough first thing in the afternoon to meet up with a fellow birder, who is kindly giving me his lens adapter for adapting old Olympus film OM lens to 4/3 digital bodies, as well as lending me his Zuiko OM 50mm f1.4 lens to try it out.

Before I got to Finn Slough, I spotted this Red-tailed Hawk on top of the telephone pole just above me. From experience, I know they tend to be very shy and almost always fly away before I can take out my camera. So I biked past it and took photos from about 100-m away. Not the best photo but good enough to finally show that there are Red-tailed Hawks around in the area.

Fly with cool eyes

Another fair weather day.

Very low tide. It was actually pretty steep walking from the 'dock' down to the floating platform.

Close-up bees, Bittern, and Eagle Pair

A good day to go out and test my new 'lens'.

Not cloudy at all.

Busy day, little done & Raynox 250 test photos

This is what I did today:

4:15 am - Went to the airport with my father (where he works and when his shifts begin).
4:30 am - Drove the car back and headed back to bed.
9:15 am - Woke up.
9:45 am - Went to the airport to pick up an acquaintance from Taiwan who received a working visa and will be looking for work here.
10:45 am - Acquaintance arrived and drove her to Burnaby where she found housing.
12:00 pm - Drove back to Richmond and had lunch at Richmond Public Market and bought groceries there.
2:00 pm - Arrived back home and dead tired.

My acquaintance brought me my new photography toy - Raynox Microscopic Lens DCR-250. An addition that I have been looking for quite a while to improve my macro photography.

It's not exactly a lens, but an addition in front of the lens that magnifies the image captured. To my best of knowledge.

Hummingbird Observing

Six straight posts; three straight days of nice weathers; excellent!

A bit cloudy today, but overall it was acceptable.

Insects at South Dyke Sharing Farm

Another nice day today to head out and check out what critters I can find over at South Dyke Community Garden/Sharing Farm.

Sky-watching from the garden.

Crystal Clear Day

A crystal clear day today. Spring doesn't get any better than this, I don't think.

Biking along the South Dyke Trail

Hummingbird Homecoming at Richmond Nature Park

Richmond Nature Park (RNP) hosted a "Hummingbird Homecoming" event today that I thought was worthwhile checking out. But I really shouldn't expect anything too exciting for a free event that takes place where few people ever visit (even for the locals) and seems to be targeted more for children than adults. The turnout was pretty poor, I think, but there were two mist-nets set up that provided a bit more activity than just the talk (and extremely short walk) alone.

Observing Common Merganser's courtship behaviour

I had a crazy proportion of brunch with family and family friends this morning. A bike ride in the afternoon was needed to burn off excess calories.

It was cloudy and gray, and high-tide as well. I began biking towards the South Dyke Sharing Farm.

VARSOVIA (a.k.a. Warsaw, the capital of Poland).

Visiting Minoru Park

In the morning, I drove my mother to the Brighouse (Main) Library to return and borrow some books. Afterwards, we walked to Minoru Park to see the blossoms.

In addition to the cherry blossoms, there are several plants flowering too.

Unknown yellow flowers.

Bird- and blossom-watching in Steveston.

In the afternoon, I drove my mother to Steveston to buy groceries. We went there via Dyke Road to see some wildlife along the way.

Common Mergansers resting on a floating log.

Lunch and Blossom Watching at Downtown Vancouver

Here're something different today. I had lunch with a couple of my old university friends at downtown Vancouver. Afterwards, I went to my old workplace and say hi to everybody.

Searching for blossoms in downtown, but most of them seem to be at the end of their flowering period.

Ladybug and Birds

I imagine that this will be the only post for the next couple days as rain head our way. Today was overcast and windy.

My first ladybug of the year. It has 19 spots (2, 3, 3, 1 on each side, from anterior to the end; and one spot right in the middle); therefore, this is a 19-Spotted Ladybug (Harmonia axyridis). It was walking along the railings of a dock. It seemed to have trouble walking against the wind, so I gently nudged it towards a depression where it can hide.

Incomplete rainbow?

The weather in the afternoon was not as good as the morning; it was hazy and warm.

I have no idea what this phenomenon is, but there was just this patch of "rainbow" in the hazy sky.

Pink Blossoms and Gold Finch

Another beautiful sunny day without any clouds in the sky.

Saw a pair of Common Mergansers swimming towards the Phoenix Pond.

Glowing Hummingbird and then Sunset

Another beautiful day today. First thing today was biking to Garden City/South Dyke Sharing Farm to see if I can find some critters. Unfortunately, only few of the gardens look like they are in use this year, so I couldn't find anything, except for a bee that flew by me real quick.

Pigeons on Wire. Some people like to feed these birds (and the gulls) by throwing their leftover breads in this area. Today, a patch of the ground was filled with dinner rolls! It's such a waste of food, plus bread aren't good for birds at all. It's hard to convince people otherwise.

Blossom-watching at Garry Point

The weather has been pretty bad the last couple of days; thankfully, the rain ceased this afternoon and there were even some blue skies as well.

First nice weather of April

Yesterday's constant rain was probably Mother Nature's way of saying Happy April Fools. Regardless, today's nice weather made up for it.

B's of the day: blossom, bumblebee, and bittern

A much nicer day compared to yesterday. Is spring break going on right now or something? I am out of school for so long that it such a surprise to see so many kids outside during school hours.

Sunny day.