2015/02/19

Getting a taste of spring in BC

While most parts of Canada are under deep snow and freezing temperatures, the west coast has been experiencing springlike conditions.  My mother and I went for a drive/walk to West Dyke Trail this morning to do some bird-watching.

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View from West Dyke Trail with Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens) scattered across the land.  I took this image with my new phone (Xiaomi HM Note 1W) which has pretty good camera capability (13 megapixels).


Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens)
Close-up on the goose with my Olympus DSLR.

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A pair of adult Bald Eagles (Haliaeetus leucocephalus) in the distance.

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Adult and juvenile Bald Eagles.

Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
In addition to the eagles, we also saw a female Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus) searching for preys below.

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Looking.

Northern Harrier (Circus cyaneus)
Still looking.

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The third raptor that we saw today were two soaring Red-tailed Hawks (Buteo jamaicensis).

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B. jamaicensis

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The presence of all three raptors around the field forced the goose to venture closer to the trail, which allowed me to take some interesting photos of goose in flight.

Snow Goose (Chen caerulescens)

Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens)

Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens)

Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens)

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Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens)
Standing out of the crowd.

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Then one Bald Eagle came too close and scared away all of the goose near the trail.

Snow Geese (Chen caerulescens)
Disappearing act.

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A plump of goose.

We then went to Garry Point Park to see if the blossoms have started yet given the warm temperature and news of trees blossoming elsewhere in Vancouver and Richmond (according to the Vancouver Cherry Blossom Festival website). 

Boathouse
Pond in the middle of the park.

The tree flower buds have not open yet, but we saw flowering crocuses and the first bumblebee of the year!

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Crocuses photographed with my phone.

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Yellow-faced bumblebee (Bombus vosnesenskii) resting on a yellow crocus.

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Soaking up energy from the sun.

Yellow-faced bumblebee (Bombus vosnesenskii)
Not moving.

We then got some groceries and went to the bus stop/terminal where my mother knew it would be the first place in Steveston to see blossoms, and she was right indeed!

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Another photo taken with my new phone.

Blossom

Blossom

Blossom
Beautiful blossoms!

I wasn't recording all of the bird species that I saw today, but I am certain that I saw more birds today (both abundance and diversity) than the past two months in Ottawa, where winter is still evidently present.

1 comment:

Susannah Anderson said...

Beautiful photos. I love the flying geese. And I had never heard the collective noun for geese in the air before. I love new words!

Looked it up in Wikipedia: The collective noun for a group of geese on the ground is a gaggle; when in flight, they are called a skein, a team, or a wedge; when flying close together, they are called a plump."

All I knew about was the gaggle.
:)

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