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.

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).

Went back to BC for 10 days

I went back to BC for reading week from Oct 11th to 20th.  Aside from going out twice nature-watching and five times for food, I spent most of my time indoors working.  Such is the life of a busy PhD student.

On the second day back, I went to Richmond's Sharing Farm for an hour or two with my mother.  The sky was cloudy and cool temperature - typical Vancouver.

Dew

Second outing of 2013 - Boundary Bay revisited - Attempt 2

The past few days my mother and I have been paying close attention to the weather forecast and hoping for good weather so that we could go out to Boundary Bay again to look for Snowy Owls (since last time was unsuccessful).

Despite the 90% POP, the rain still did not show up in the morning, so my parents and I decided to take the chance and go out to Boundary Bay again right after lunch.  The rain did not come at all this afternoon and we even saw a bit of sunshine, so that was pretty much a success in itself.  The lighting wasn't that great today, so I had to set most of my minimal ISO to 800 for the birding shots, hence the "noisy" photos.

Lots of Northern Harriers flying around today.

AAA trip to Amherst Island, Ontario

Trent's Avian Appreciation Association (AAA) has been planning a birding trip to Amherst Island for quite a while now, and I was glad to take a break from sorting my insect collection and go outside for a much needed birding experience. Amherst Island is an island in Lake Ontario and accessible by ferry (or air) and is home to many species of owls during summer and winter.

Leaving Peterborough around 8am.

Quick post from Edmonton

Hello from Edmonton. I arrived at Edmonton about a hour ago and now waiting for another graduate student from Trent to arrive. We are planning to go to Elk Island National Park and then we will travel to Inuvik, NWT tomorrow morning.

Now, here are the photos from yesterday where I went to do a Grassland Bird Survey (GBS) with my supervisor's husband in the morning (woke up around 5:20am), then came back to their home and got ready to go to their cottage. Overall, it was a fulfilling but tiring day, considering I woke up early than usual and kayaked and canoed (not activities I do everyday).

In the morning.

Animals I saw when I slowed down...

Instead of biking from point to point, I decided to just take things slow and enjoy life and nature as they come to me.

As I sat on the bench watching the Fraser River, a Cabbage White (Pieris rapae) was flying from plant to plant hoping to find a place to rest. I slowly inched closer and closer and was able to get these pretty satisfying photos (using my 70-300 lens at closest focus of 0.96m. The Raynox 250 requires subjects to be about 10-15 cm away, which is way too close for skittish insects).

Bird-watching in Terra Nova with mother

I drove my mother to the library this afternoon. Afterwards, we went to Terra Nova to watch the birds.

I first saw the female, but only this male was photograph-able. The head shape makes it look like a Lesser Scaup, but I can't be certain. [Edit: It's a Ring-necked Duck, thanks to Frank for the identification.]

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!

Sunny in the afternoon

Like I said before, the weather forecast can't be more wrong lately. Calling for rain when it is nice out and sunny when it is raining out.

Anyways, it was raining pretty hard in the morning. Thankfully, it stopped and the sky cleared in the afternoon. Time for the much-needed bike ride and some shutter therapy.

The bird feeders along the South Dyke Trail (in the dog park) were dominated by the Red-winged Blackbirds. But while I was photographing, they stayed away and gave opportunities to the White-crowed Sparrows and juncos.

Franklin's Gull, where are you?

I rarely, if ever, dedicate my outing just to see a rare bird or a lifer. That would involve too much effort and time, which is something I do not want to do during a relaxing free day. However, last week when I saw photos and a blog post that there is a Franklin's Gull somewhere in Steveston (here and here), I decided to go out one of these days to check it out myself. But it seemed that I underestimated the gulls' population in Steveston (or overestimated my ability to find a gull which is sometime I don't do) and couldn't find it today. Oh well, maybe it was not meant to be.

On the other hand, I did saw other birds...

Saw my first two eagles since coming back to BC!

A super cute-looking Pied-billed Grebe.

Checking out all the birding places in Richmond!

I had the car for the day, so I was able to drive my mother and I around to check out some birding areas in Richmond.

Paulik Park

A Northern Flicker excavated the nest for a short while.

Crazy girl scaring geese

I went out for another bike ride today. The first time I tried to go out, it was raining. But it stopped a few minutes later.

Still cloudy though.

Saw a pair of Muskrat in the ditch again just as I entered the trail.

Munching on the surrounding vegetation.

Photographic post: Goldfinches arriving

As I was biking today I saw a crow chasing and harassing all the wigeons and Mallards.

I wish this Red-tailed Hawk would teach it a lesson about manners.

Witnessing Green-winged Teals' courtship

Such a great weather today!

Sky-watch of the day.

At the Terra Nova observation deck, I saw the Green-winged Teals performing their courtship rituals.

I took photos only (with FZ18). And now that I think about it, I should had taken a video like this one. Pretty neat!

Photographic post & Rainbow at the end of the day.

Such a cloudy day today.

Look at that cloud cover! Thank goodness it was retreating.

Sky slowly clearing.

Good Birding Monday - female Canvasback, Sharpie, Snow Geese-in-flight, eagles, and Harrier-in-flight

I was going to walk with my mother to the dyke today. But just a few blocks away from our house, light rain started to fall and my mother decided to head back home and I can bike to the dyke by myself. Sigh.

Grey weather.

Looking at the water for something unusual.

Every Sunny Weekend Should Be Canada/US Hockey Game...

...that way, I can always enjoy my bike ride in peace while other people can stay indoors and watch their game. A win-win situation really.

Actually, I watched parts of the game until the beginning of the third period. That was when I headed outside for a bike ride.

The lack of people allowed me to fool around and take this photo while riding the bike at the same time.

I didn't see much until I got to the Terra Nova Sharing Farm again. This is a female Northern Harrier.

Northern Flicker searching for food...

Another nice day today, although it was quite chilly and windy.

Blue sky.

Young Great Blue Heron.

I biked towards Steveston today. Along the way, I was searching for the harriers that always rested on the logs when I pass by. I didn't see anything except for this little round thing moving on top of the fallen log.

It was a female Northern Flicker (Colaptes auratus) searching for food within the long-dead trees.

Moving on to another log.

Searching for food again. I think it was digging for insects rather than drilling for them, because I didn't hear anything loud drilling noises like the ones I usually hear from woodpeckers and barbets.

Arriving at Garry Point Park. At the edge of the rain-filled pond was a group of Ring-billed Gulls.

Saw a pair of shy Red-breasted Mergansers (Mergus serrator). Such peculiar looking birds with stylish crowns.

Mt. Baker and Pilot.

Saw this Northern Harrier when I biked home - just looking around and resting.

365 days ago (2009-02-17) ...
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Photographic Post: 2010-02-02

Another day out at the dyke.

A relatively blue day.

Northern Harrier

Juvenile heron falling asleep.


Adult heron falling asleep.

Two (male) Northern Flickers.


The easier flicker to photograph.


Stretching.

Covering the chickadee's eye.


Over the shoulder.

Three shy Hooded Mergansers.

A lengthy picture.

Snow Geese "# 1".


The Color of Cool.


The Color of Warmth.

Red-tailed Hawk taking off.

Juvenile Bald Eagle.

PS - Can't believe I already used up 22% of my restricted 100MB monthly storage in Flickr in the first two days of the month. Yikes.

PSS - Phone interview for a summer job at Ontario tomorrow.

365 days ago (2009-02-02) ...
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