HodgePodge

Let's see.  A couple of beasts (cats), lots of birds (including a Serena/Sam development), some blooms, and a sunset.  A hodgepodge for sure, but here goes.

On Thursday, Black Jack seemed intent on rousting out cats from their hiding spots.  During the morning walk, she found this one.  It was sure it had found the perfect vantage point to survey its world.  It remained motionless, as I held Black Jack on a short leash with one hand, and snapped the photo with the other.

The sun as we returned home from our walk caught these blooms and reflected their light back to me.  
On the evening walk, just a few feet down the lane from our house, Black Jack again was up to her tricks.  Bill took her along, and I stayed back to get the photo.  I'm not sure what the expression in those eyes was telling me, but I'm fairly certain it wasn't inviting me to come closer.
We continued on to the endowment lands, and found a swampy beaver dam.  Although the light was fading, I loved the reflections in this shot.
Smelly but pretty skunk cabbage was all around.  The beaver dam can be seen across the middle.
On Friday morning, I stopped to photograph these blooms by the park at West Georgia Street, just before the Lions gate Bridge.  I talked to the gardeners, who were pleased that I was enjoying their designs.
The gardeners warned me, as I watched this red-winged blackbird, that it was nesting, and had pecked a man on the head that morning.  The man apparently complained to them, and asked them to kill the bird.  Hard to believe people think that way, but easy for me to say - I was wearing my bicycle helmet:)  I did take the picture quickly and continued on my way, not wanting to stress it too much.
And if you remember, the last time I posted about a visit to the heronry, Sam and Serena's nest appeared to be abandoned.  And for several visits before that, there had been no sign of Sam.  So, I was quite excited on Friday night to find two herons in the nest, and I feel they must have been Sam and Serena, since I don't think any new pairs are setting up housekeeping at this late stage.  They were working away busily, and the nest definitely was beginning to look more substantial.
They appeared to be very lovey-dovey.
Both looked intently at...  a twig?
Serena, I think, is in the background, possibly sitting on eggs, since I'm fairly certain I saw them mating a couple of weeks ago.  Sam's plumes appear to be in mating form.
On the other side of the road, I looked at Stella and Stanley's nest.  No sign of Stanley, but Stella appeared to be dividing her time between preening herself and working on the nest.

Friday night, Bill, Black Jack and I walked down to Spanish Banks Beach.  The sunset from the fishing dock was quite spectacular.  A warning to stop reading here if you gross out easily. It really is a good point to end the blog, but I can't resist showing pics of a seagull that we watched eating chicken necks.  It wasn't pretty. 

Here is the series of the seagull eating a chicken (or maybe turkey?) neck.  

1. Pick it up.
2. George Burns cigar pose.
3. Half way down.
4. And, just about gone.  Yuck!  Told you it was gross.  How can they do that?