Rare sunny break = bike to south dyke

The sun made a brief appearance this afternoon, and I used this opportunity to go out and exercise for a bit by biking to the dyke.

 

Sun was getting to set as I arrived (just after 3 pm).

Birding in Presqu'ile Provincial Park

Sorry for the delay, but here are the photos from last Sunday when I was birding at Presqu'ile Provincial Park with Trent's ornithology class.

Waking up early and waiting for the school bus just after 6am.

Raccoon Family at Lost Lagoon

I accompanied my mother to downtown Vancouver today to pick up prizes that she had won from a local newspaper contest.  Afterwards, while it was still early, we decided to bus to Stanley Park and walked around the Lost Lagoon.  According to this post (the photos from that post have all been taken down by the server, sorry), the last time I was there was more than three years ago!?

Anyways, today was a nice day to be out - although there were too many people to our likings.

Several Mute Swans around the lagoon.

Nunaluk Spit, northernmost point of mainland Yukon

Two days ago, the inner tube of the back bike tire completely blew out when I was on my way to the trail.

 While walking back home with the broken bike, I manged to get a few photos of a bumblebee visiting someone's Moonflowers.

I bought a replacement this morning.  Hopefully I will be back biking tomorrow.  But for now, here's what happened on one of the days during my field season.

On June 23, 2012, I had the rare opportunity to travel to the northernmost point of mainland Yukon called Nunaluk Spit, it is basically a gravel bar that extended along the coast and the Beaufort Sea.

On the spit is a cabin built by the descendants of the famous Arctic explorer, Vilhjalmur Stefansson.

Riverview Park and Zoo, Peterborough

One of the main attractions of Peterborough is probably Riverview Park and Zoo, operated by the Peterborough Utilities Group. It is quite an interesting place considering that it is completely free and actually has a fair number of animals to make it a good place to visit if you have a couple of hours to spend.

The first animal that I saw was a Monarch butterfly flying beside the playground. I didn't see a whole lot of them the limited number of days that I have been here.

The classic M on Monarch.

Photographic Post - Swans, Cows, and Collared-Dove

Mute Swans at London's Landing

More Than Usual

Saw an unknown grasshopper at the Gilbert Road Community Garden today. It was sort of trapped between me and meshed fence, hence the closer-than-usual photos. Hopefully someone will help me identify it over at BugGuide.  [Edit: It may be a Carolina Grasshopper (Dissosteira carolina), thanks to Tim for the help.]

Away...Again

Sometimes life is just like today...one day, everything was going your way, and the next day, nothing is going your way. I am talking about wildlife watching, of course, although I can't really complain because I still saw quite a lot.

Today's weather was gorgeous!

Wordless Wednesday - Biked to Finn Slough again

Keep on birding

Feeling the need to start building my insect knowledge, I first went to South Dyke Sharing Farm to see if I can spot any insects. No such luck.

Keep on birding until spring arrives, I suppose.

Weather was nice today when I went out. Mew Gull (I think) flying by.

Strange weather day

The weather in Richmond was quite strange today. It was sunny for one moment, then cloudy and rainy the next. At home, I kept staring at the blue skies in Vancouver and the dark clouds over Delta; in the end, my urge to go outside won over and I quickly grabbed my backpack and biked to the dike.

The tide was quite high when I got there (the highest was 3.1-m at 15:47).

Another bike ride to Finn Slough

For the last few days, cloudy days tend to follow sunny days and so forth. I left home too late this afternoon, so I only went for a short bike ride.

I didn't see a lot of wildlife either, but I did see a few female Goldenfinches. First of the year.

Mt. Baker under a sheet of clouds.

Good birding day to start off February

Another sunny day today for me to go out and enjoy the bike ride to the dyke. Even though I don't bike that often now to the West Dyke Trail, you can definitely see and hear the Red-winged Blackbirds coming back and getting ready to claim their territories.

All the bird feeders along the trail are dominated by these blackbirds, except when I get near and start to take pictures, then they flew away and the other smaller birds start to take over.

A couple of Downy Woodpeckers enjoy the food as well. Now that I looked at the feeder again, the drawing outside is quite beautiful.

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!

First lifer of 2011: Merlin

I thought it was going to rain 100% today, instead it was quite warm and springlike. Good time to go out for a long bike ride - to Terra Nova.

Towards Steveston, this Mute Swan was snoozing beside the road. Not really an ideal spot but I don't want to disturb it.

Sleepy Swan

Biking to Steveston

I rode my bike to Steveston on this nice Sunday. I didn't see too much wildlife so here are some photos along the way.

Art at Garry Point Park.

Birding Saturday

On this sunny Saturday, I biked to South Dyke Trail and then to Finn Slough.

Not a cloud in sight.

After taking the photos of the view above, I got a feeling that someone was looking at me. Turned out it was this hawk - not completely sure if it is a Sharpie or a Cooper's.

Another bike ride to Terra Nova

The weather was so nice today that another long bike ride is a must to Terra Nova. A lot of people were out today too to enjoy the sunshine.

Lots of Yellowlegs resting on the logs in Steveston.

Wind sailing.

Grant's Woods and George Langman Sanctuary

It's been a while since I last posted a post. Between today (my off-day) and the last time I posted, I had two more off-days when I went to Orillia and checked out the city and the surrounding natural areas - Grant's Woods and George Langman Sanctuary, both of which I would definitely recommend for people to visit and enjoy nature.

Grant's Woods

Visiting Steveston on a Sunday

I bought a monthly transit pass this January and so today my mother and I visited Steveston using the Sunday special (one family per monthly pass).

Even though it wasn't sunny, the weather was dry and many people visited the harbour.

A black and white shot of the harbour.


There were many boats as usual. This is suppose to be a colored image, but for some reason only the boat in the middle stood out from the seemly black-and-white surroundings. Nice unintended effect, no?

Sky-watching

Gull on Patrol

While photographing, I noticed something on the water surface. Turned out to be a Harbour Seal, Phoca vitulina, swimming among the boats.

It never raised more than its eyes and nose above the surface, but my mother and I had a great time trying to spot this mammal. Last time I saw a seal was about a year ago at the same spot.

On the other hand, the visitors focused more on the magnificent and attractive Mute Swan.

Mute Swan (Cygnus olor)

Someone brought a huge bag of bread loaf sides and was feeding them.

Having enough of people feeding wild animals, my mother and I walked to the other side of the harbour.

A magnificent ship - Ku'ulakai.

Someone sailing away, I wonder where to.

Then we walked along the waterfronts and saw this male Common Goldeneye (because of the rounder white spot). It swam farther and farther away from us as I was trying to attach my teleconverter lens to the camera.

Bald Eagles on the other side of the bank.

Resting a bit.

Enjoying the golden reflection

A lone male Bufflehead (Bucephala albeola) was found.


It played catching-up with us, and I had a difficult photographing it.

We also saw this cute Pied-billed Grebe (Podilymbus podiceps) in winter plumage.

It swam farther away from us. We saw it eventually again on the other side of the waterfront as we were heading to the bus stop, and it was continuing swimming towards the harbour.

What a great day!

Back to work tomorrow. Hooray! (but not really).

365 days ago (2009-01-03) ...
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