Adam J. Blake

I took this week’s photo last weekend at Burnaby Lake. Being from Alberta and not familiar with Western Skunk Cabbage, I was surprised to see any herbaceous plants in March, let alone a plant in full flower. After some research, I later learned about the early flowering tendencies of Western Skunk Cabbage. This particular plants reminds me of Arum, another member of the Araceae present in Alberta.

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Sara and I took a trip out to Vancouver last summer. On one day of our trip we visited both Burnaby Mountain Park and Barnet Marine Park. The weather was beautiful and sunny, which I am told was a welcome change from the cold rainy weather in June. As always there were great views of Vancouver from the mountain, I saw a bunch of new plants, and I took some good bird and insect shots. You can see all my photos from Burnaby Mountain Park and Barnet Marine Park on Flickr. [click to continue…]

Last Sunday after missing Boris (as he was dubbed by the neighbours) twice I got to see the Brambling that has been reported from around W 17th Ave in Vancouver. I was a little late to the party, missing the big crowds that flocked there during January. Bramblings are native to the Palearctic but regularly stray into Alaska on migration, sometimes showing up as far south as California or, in this case, Vancouver. This particular Brambling been coming regularly to this feeder since December but who knows when he may set off for Siberia, so see him while you can.

Two weeks ago I went to New Brighton Park looking for the Gyrfalcon that has been hanging around the Viterra Grain Elevator. I struck out on the Gyrfalcon that day (I saw it yesterday, lifer!) but I did see a pair of Peregrine Falcons and a Red-tailed Hawk near the elevator. The trip wasn’t a complete loss as I was able to take this shot of the Second Narrows, showing the bridge and the ship traffic at and around the elevator.

Between the rain, a cold, and St. Patrick’s Day festivities I didn’t get out shooting the past few weekends, so this weeks photo is from my archives. Sara and I took a trip out to Vancouver last summer to look at places and while we were in town we checked out Burnaby Mountain Park. I took this photo near the Horizon’s parking lot looking southwest. The view from up there on the mountain is great and I tried to set up some forced perspective in this photo by nestling the skyline under the boughs of the tree.

In this weeks photo you can see the evergreen leaves of Pacific Madrona or Arbutus. This species is found almost exclusively on rocky costal shores such as those found at Klootchman Park. I really like the way the leaves look probably because they remind me of the wings of a Sulfur Butterfly. You can see other photos from Klootchman Park at Flickr

As I mentioned in my earlier post, Sara and I took a trip last month to George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary. We visited on a Sunday afternoon so in addition to the large number of birds there were large crowds of people. I was struck by the amazing number of birds at the sanctuary (for example I saw almost 30 Great Blue Herons in one pond alone). I’m not sure if these numbers are due to the feeding that goes on it the park, the sheer importance of the area as wintering habitat, or some combination of the two. Although I missed out on Snow Geese and Dunlin (I may have to try again there with my new scope), it was a great day of birding. The highlights for me were the Peregrine Falcon, the Northern Goshawk, the Black-crowned Night-Heron, the roosting Northern Saw-whet Owls and the Mallard Wigeon Hybrid shown above. [click to continue…]

I took this week’s photo during last month’s trip to George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary (Is it really March already?). Unlike most sanctuaries, the birds here are fed by the visitors and in fact this crane was feeding from Sara’s hand right before I took this shot. The birds at the sanctuary are habituated to humans and because you can approach the birds without startling them you can actually attempt portraiture, like my attempt above, as opposed to the more typical whole bird photography.

I made a couple of trips out to Boundary Bay Dyke Trail in the past few weeks in search of the many reported raptors. On my first trip out to the Boundary Bay Dyke Trail I parked at the 64th Street access and walked to the east. I was able to see several Short-eared Owls, over a dozen Snowy Owls, and even more Northern Harriers. On my second trip I parked at the 72nd Street access and walked again to the east. The real striking thing about this trip was the sheer number of Bald Eagles roosting and soaring along the shore. Additional sightings of a Peregrine Falcon, a Rough-legged Hawk, and a several Red-tailed Hawks put a nice dent in the raptors on my year and BC lists. [click to continue…]