The Weekend Expedition plans have just been finalized! Tomorrow Mike and I will head back out to Reifel Bird Sanctuary to get some shots of another Wild Research Bird ID workshop. The weather is supposed to be great, so I look forward to a great outing!
This male Wood Duck seemed agitated, I presume because I was between him and several females.
This week’s Weekend Expedition was a bit of a hurried affair: I wanted to get done and get on the road to return my malfunctioning Canon 60D. This camera was working Saturday night, but when I got up Sunday morning to prepare my gear discovered that my generally reliable camera body would not start. I suspected all manner of grievous harm to the motherboard, and grumpily decided that I would return it for a refund or exchange at the store where I bought it (I had bought the extended warranty).
Because such misfortune can strike at any time, I have a backup body, the Canon 450D (Rebel XSi), which I took on the trip to Burnaby Lake.
While out in the glorious sunshine, seeing the spring springing and the birds and insects becoming active, my mind was still cloudy thinking about my traitorous camera back home. Instead of fully immersing myself in the sight of testosterone-fueled combat between Canada Geese, or sunbathing fireflies, my thoughts were elsewhere, and after a couple of hours I packed up and headed home.
Several Ellychnia hatchi , large, diurnal fireflies. were sunbathing on exposed bark.
This Scaphinotus marginatus (ID courtesy Todd Lawton) was a new one for me. Generally, the most common Scaphinotus here are the larger Scaphinotus angusticollis. These odd Carabids are specialist predators of snails, and their elongate rostrums are thought to be an adaptation for extracting them from their shells.
I did not get a great shot of the behaviour, but the Canada geese are getting their spring on with some feisty combat.
When I arrived back home, I called the store asking about the procedure for returning the camera. While I was waiting on hold, I started idly wiping the battery terminals with some cloth, thinking it might just be a connection problem in the battery compartment. Sure enough, it ended up being the case that the sole cause of the camera’s mysterious reluctance to boot was dirty contacts on the battery terminals.
Although this Weekend Expedition produced some okay shots, I find that I was dissatisfied with the day. Whereas I had planned a leisurely 4-5 hours ambling around the lake shooting birds and bugs, I ended up truncating the outing, and not really being fully present to make the most of the time I did take.
So there is a lesson in this, I think. While it is important to have a decent lenses and a working body for your expedition, it might be more important to bring a clear mind.
This Stonefly (ID anyone?) was sunbathing on a railing, and fled from my approach. After a time, it resumed sunbathing, so I could take this shot.
Even the Chrysomelids were out to soak up the rare Vancouver sunshine .
Playa.
This weekend, I hope to get out to Burnaby Lake, a large glacial lake in the Central Valley in Burnaby. This is right off the SkyTrain line, and has a variety of habitats, especially wetlands and some conifer groves. I have no set plans, and may focus on arthropods or birds, depending on what I encounter.
Wet Eagle 1
This weekend I have no fixed expedition plans… Tomorrow Catherine and I head out to Comox on Vancouver Island to help her parents move, so it could be that the only photo ops come from the ferry ride. That being said, last time I was at the old homestead, there were two wet eagles perched about 20 feet off the balcony, so that was something!
So the details of the expedition are sketchy and mysterious as of now, but sometimes these turn out the best…Stay tuned for the results!
Wet Eagle 2
Trumpeter Swans are another Comox Valley wintertime treat.
It is time for another outing with Wild Research, this time to Iona Beach, another great wintering bird location. Iona Beach is located just to the North of Vancouver International Airport, and offers several habitats, including freshwater and brackish marshes, ponds, beaches, dunes and tidal riverbanks. I will be out snapping shots of the birders and the birds, hopefully with some nice light!
SFU, supposedly an “architectural jewel“designed by Artur Erickson looks like a hideous Stalinist prison*, and in many ways it is. But being situated on a forested mountain means that the non-building areas are quite nice, and a great escape if you need to immerse yourself in nature.
The forests are all second growth, although a few old cedars were not chopped down. Most of the mountain is parkland.
The view down the sides of the mountain allow glimpses of Burrard Inlet, which is not as much of a toxic waste dump as you may have thought (although I would not eat the shellfish)
Out behind the Biology Buildings there are some nice wooded paths, where even on a cool February day you can find a firefly or two.
Seems like many insects were out soaking up the sun.
Spring is waiting to be sprung…Hang on spring, you will be called for in June.
This cranefly is a good example of a winter-active creature you can find out flying on a sunny day.
The weevil sunning on a railing rounds out the expedition.
And one more to show that blue skies can exist in Vancouver.
*I know, I know, I probably don’t “get” architecture. But I don’t “get” classical music either, but it still sounds nice to me. These buildings however, look like about the worst kind of ugly I can imagine.
Weekend Expedition 3 went off with no undue trouble thanks to Willow English, a phalarope researcher who drove us both to Westham Island and the George C. Reifel Bird Sanctuary. This was the first time I had been there in many years, the last having been on a field trip with my vertebrate ecology lab way back in undergrad.
The weather was a mix of fog, cloud, and sun, so no real dramatic lighting was available, but this is typical for this area in the winter. There were certainly a lot of birds, as this is one bird sanctuary where you are allowed to feed the wildlife (which, when you think about it, is kind of odd). I think these feeding opportunities made for some good photo opportunities such as the sandhill cranes in closeup, as well as the low angel mallard shot. On the raptor front, we were not disappointed to find a sleepy Saw-Whet Owl dozing on a low limb with another somewhat higher. These have been spotted for several weeks now, and in general they seem to be reliably found at Reifel.
Overall, not so many surprises, but it was definitely worth the trip. And feeding Sandhill Cranes really is pretty awesome.
What did you get up to this weekend?
I would like to get out to the George C. Reifel Bird Sanctuary on Westham Island, if I can arrange transportation… Folks have been shooting lots of cool stuff out there and I would like to give it a go. The goal? Get out into new territory and not be such a homebody…If suitable transport cannot be arranged, I will have to wing it with the bus system.
The main work-related goal this weekend is to prepare a 40 minute talk on caracara foraging biology for next Thursday’s Les Ecologistes seminar.
This weekend expedition was much like any you might venture to make on a winter day in Vancouver: grey and rainy! The rain was not severe though, so with the camera protected by a big umbrella, I headed out with Wild Research for a birdwatching trip led by Elly Knight, a grassland songbird researcher at SFU. The mission today was to get out and see some waterbirds as well as some passerines that make their homes in wintertime Vancouver. I was along to document the fun, as well as to offer my own, often unreliable, ID help! Click on any image below to see a gallery of the resulting shots.
A beautiful Long-Eared Owl!
This Snowy flew right over our heads.
Hidden, but wary!
Bombs away!
Another shot of this gorgeous little owl.
The weekend expedition was a great success. Marie Burle, Willow English, Mike Boers and myself set out for Delta, where the swampy farmland meets the muddy waters of Boundary Bay. . This site is a great place for birds of prey, especially in the winter. We endured cold cloudy weather, but were rewarded with sightings of three owl species, harriers, a Cooper’s Hawk, Red-Tailed Hawks, and many eagles…. The Snowy Owls, which have been abundant at this site both this year and last, were for the most part far off near the shore. We did spot a few, including this one which flew right over our heads. Without a doubt, the highlight of the trip was sighting these wonderful little Long-Eared Owls. Just as we were about to drive away, Marie, a fellow researcher at SFU , spotted the first owl hidden in a tree right next to the car. To our surprise, there were actually three of them perched within 1 m of each other. Shooting was difficult, due to a fence and many blackberry bushes, but we managed to shoot some decent exposures. A brief visit with Sofi Hindmarch, another raptor biologist ended a great weekend expedition.
Results: see above.
