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.

This bird is no begger.

Then I turned around and slowly biked towards Finn Slough. In the wooded area next to the tracks, the leaves and flowers have all sprung and it's a nice place to walk through, and not too dense either. [Note: I saw my first swallows of the year, although they are still to quick for me to photograph. Nonetheless, it was good to see swallows here too.]

Most of the area is covered with Salmonberry shrubs.

There are a lot of birds there too, such as chickadees and Dark-eyed Juncos, although they are extremely skittish and very hard to photograph.

I saw this (female?) junco at the end of the fallen branch, and it stayed there for a while.

Near the centre of the branch is this nest. I have seen it before although it seemed to be in poorer conditions before. Maybe the juncos patch it up and are using it. I looked at nest from a farther distance but didn't seem any activities around the nest. Definitely need to pay attention to it the next time I come by.


Since I didn't have much luck taking photos of birds (so far) today, I decided to take photos of this Northwestern Crow. All-black birds (and objects) are a pain to get the correct exposure of the image.


Same with white objects, such as this puffy cloud.

The last time I biked past Finn Slough, there were a few Salmonberry flowers blooming. I decided to come and check it out again. And indeed most of the flowers are blooming now.

Salmonberry flower.

I suddenly hear quick buzzing sounds. I looked around and found this Rufous Hummingbird (Selasphorus rufus)!

Shiny gorget




It was exciting to see a hummingbird closer than normal (about 5, 6 metres away). It would perch on this tree for a short while. Then buzz away. Then came back later. I hope it will stay around here for a long period of time, so that I can come see it everytime.

Then it was time to bike home for dinner. After dinner, my mother wanted to go watch the sunset on this beautiful day and so I drove her to Garry Point Park.

Plus I can show her the blossoms that I photographed yesterday.

Sunset bokeh. The actual sun was half-blocked by the clouds.


After sunset. The clouds were strange over where the sun sets.


Silhouette

It was a new moon 3 nights ago. So a smiling moon!

A long, but fulfilling day.