20 minute lake

In Manning Park is a pretty little pond called twenty minute lake. I presume that normally it may take that amount of time to walk around it as it is quite small, though I believe it took us about an hour due stopping for photo-opps. I love the seasonal colors of Creation that we get to experience. Kanata is a beautiful an gorgeous county that is quickly being eaten away by corporate gluttonous greed. I pray that my grandchildren's generation will be far more sensible with the land and air than those presently in power.  

Reflections of brilliance: lone loon.

This is the closest I have ever been to a loon. My excitement mounted as it swam towards us coming within 20 to 30 feet from the shore granting fabulous photo-opps. We were surprised to see a loon on such a small body of water and I wondered aloud why one lone loon was there. Sadly to say that further along the path Gerald found the loons mate, or what was left of it.

Beautiful little chestnut-backed chickadee. I was keeping an eye out for boreal chickadees when this fella briefly came into view.

It drizzled just so slightly, enough to keep mist on our faces and furnish droplets on sunshine color lilies.

I noticed tiny flowers that kept bowing their heads to the earth, and what do I sight, a big ole bumblebee.
Nature never ceases to amaze.

Maning Park, BC

Here is the wonderful stream that flowed by our camp. With the coffee perking and the enticing chirp of wee birds I set about to catch a few images; though due subdued morning light conditions it took me a bit to figure out what setting to use, but I managed to capture a few wonderful moments.

Chipmunk was busy scurrying about paying no heed to me and my camera tinkering.

A morning mist rainbow slide right down the mountainside as the sun forced the fog down into the earth. It only lasted moments but was spectacular.

A wonderful morning pose.

A beautiful bug, I love the colors.

the journey continues

 

Full res crop of the previously posted humming bird

Smoke Haze from the wildfires in BC add an interesting thickness to the Okanogan atmosphere.

Passing through the Okanogan we stopped to admire the colorful beauty of a male Krestel.

Gray on gray as the light diminishes to dusk.

Pulling into a campsite at Manning Park at aprox 8pm we made a late supper in the mountain twilight. Then after a stroll around the park in the dark of the mountains shadows we retired to our couch-cushion make-shift bed and were pleasantly lulled to deep sleep by the gurgling murmuring flow of the river.

Ahh, what a beautiful serene memory.

Creston Birds

 Creston area was abundant with songbirds feasting on saskatoons at the beginning of august and at the end of august the marshes were filled with migrating ducks, geese and heron gaining energy for the imminent migration south. Here are a few more birds from Aug 7th. 

Western Tanager, female.

Young Robin starting to gain its red-breast feathers.

Crazy-bird-lady posing with a pair-of-dice.

No clue as to identity, though I figure its a warbler as it was quite small.

My first photo of a humming bird, this is the best shot cropped so you can see it, the rest were a blur.

Anyone care to attempt an identity for me on theses last 2 birds?

Gray Catbird, a young one who has not attained the darker cap yet. I was thrilled to hear the mew of the cat-bird throughout our journey.

First camground

After firstly visiting our grandchild for a couple of days we decided to travel south to Hwy #3 rather than Hwy #1 as 250 wildfires inundated the interior of BC with thick smoke. We encountered one bad section where smoke hampered clear breathing, though thankfully we passed through it in about an hours drive. Many areas held smoke haze but for the better part we had a clear breathing journey west to the coast.

Smoke Haze from wildfires.

The first night we camped in Creston  BC at a wonderful little campground filled with the chatter of various birds that were gorging on dehydrating saskatoon berries. Of course while Gerald set up camp I attempted to capture a few birds. Though the evening shots are not clear I had a second chance in the morning while coffee was perking. There is nothing quite as refreshing as campfire perked coffee, though due fire-bans we had to use the propane cookstove rather than a pit-fire.

Early bird enjoying the morning sun under a banner of saskatoons.

Not only were saskatoons abundant, so were the mosquitoes. We spent half the night swatting bugs till we super-duct-taped the screen around the mini-van window. Seems those hungry suckers could smell blood and managed to find small crevasses to crawl through. Duct-tape, never leave home without it!

Small ground forager. This bird was fun to watch as it scurried bobbing up and down amongst a heap of cut grasses and twigs. 

Even the Robins were enjoying the dry berries.

As bright and cheery as the rising sun a Western Tanager blessed me with its presence, which made my day even better.

Western Tanager, male.

And of course I cannot forget the resident rodent which was also scurrying around the grass-clipping heap, not sure what he was looking for but he also seemed to relish the saskatoons.

Have a greatly filled with sunshine and love. Hugs!

Birding, BC and back

Sandhill Crane parent and baby at Reifel Bird Sanctuary in Delta BC. A memorable day was had at the Bird Sanctuary. Gerald and I met up with my cousin and we spent a beautiful sunny day walking the park. I filled two 8G camera cards that day alone and now have about 10,000 photos to sort through from the trip west. The D50 is still not working properly after being repaired, which is a regal pain as I missed fantastic no brainer shots because the focus still is not registering proper and the shutter is jamming. So back its going this weekend.
Next shot is a close up of  the adult crane's bill. Mmmm, yummy, looks like a rodent to me.

I have been wanting to capture a Crane for a long time, so it was a pretty exciting day for me. One of the adults had walked fairly close to the path we were on and gave what may have been a warning squawk to keep our distance. Of course those were also shots missed due shutter freezing.

I will be posting more of the trip shots, but now I need to start unpacking and cleaning up the camping gear. All-in-all, aside from the camera issues its been a wonderful refreshing vacation.

Vancouver island

Turkey Vulture

 Turkey vultures are abundant along the BC coastline.