Long Weekend - Part 2

Monday's adventure day began with an early morning stop at the Stanley Park heronry. I wanted to check on Sue and Stanley's nest. Sue sat quietly, getting up once to look beneath her at what I hoped might be eggs, but the truth is that I haven't seen Stanley for a very long time. Could she have taken up residence, but only be only pretending to prepare for a new brood?

From there, we drove to North Vancouver, hoping to see how Lawrence and Olivia are doing. There was no sigh of Lawrence when we arrived, but with the low tide, we were able to free Black Jack (a big deal). She had a wonderful time exploring the rocks.

She almost stopped at this log,

but gathered her courage,

and with tongue out in total concentration, made it over successfully.

This seal popped up to watch us, and I thought it might be the same one, with a perhaps injured eye, that I enjoyed watching last summer.

"My" heron stopped by to do some fishing.

S/he wasn't disturbed by Black Jack's antics,

but did seem to find her amusing.

One seagull drifted close to the heron, perhaps hoping to take advantage of a good fishing spot.

Don't you think there is a resemblance to a swan here? It was wading.

Just missed the tip of its beak as it flew off.

We climbed up the rocks to the path around the river, and enjoyed the wild roses.

This little swallow was on the other side of the river.

We watched this crow for a long time, totally absorbed in a very thorough grooming.

One more birdhouse from the project described in a recent post. This one is by Nicole Gauthier.

We walked back to the osprey nest, and were really happy to run into my friend, Dianne, and her dog, Haley.

Lawrence paid us a visit, but only stayed for a few minutes.

Then he flew off, perhaps to Olivia. I'm hoping she is waiting at a nearby location, and will return to the nest when she is ready to lay her egg(s). There has been no sign of her for quite some time.

I enjoyed watching this cormorant. Here, a series of 3 photos.

There were two goose couples who seemed to take offence for some undisclosed reason. I think that's my first shot of a goose tongue.

He charged one of the geese from the second pair.

The one that was charged retaliates.
Seconds after this picture, they were fine. I guess they sorted out the problem.

We left the lookout, and joined Dianne for some delicious goodies at Brazza's, before continuing on to Moodyville Park. A sparrow (White-crowned?) greeted us enthusiastically.

It was enjoying a snack, but took a moment to

look at us quizzically before getting back to the matter at hand.

These were on the trail. No time to find out their name, but I love the white pattern on the inside of the bell.

No time to identify this spider either, but it was very interesting to watch.

We left Moodyville, but I took a moment to photograph this "beast"..

as well as this very busy finch, before getting in the truck.

Our next stop was a new one for us. We were hoping to see an eagle nest at Harbour View Park. When we arrived, hundreds of seagulls were gathered for bath time.

If you look closely at this picture, you may see that one seagull is nipping another from the rear.

This caused an entertaining chain reaction.

I love this series of Bill and Black Jack. They are naturally so in sync with each other. (Check out the tongues:)

Bill and Marianne (linked at the side of my blog) had kindly described the nest location, but we didn't see it at first, and when a lady named Mary, and her dog, Sam, came by, we asked for help. Mary had been about to leave the park, but she turned back, and accompanied us to the exact spot of the nest. She pointed out some Mourning Doves that we could hear but not see. We loved meeting her and Sam.

Sam is not only handsome, but very gentle. He was adopted and has been with Mary for five years. He is not fond of cameras, and is afraid of Northern Flickers, but he agreed to pose for me. Luckily, no flickers presented themselves.

Mary also agreed to let me do a photo series. My long lens is really not suited to close up views, but she walked back to the corner, and then came towards us. I hope we meet again.

We continued on our way, walking up to this lookout, where we saw an amazing variety of scenery, boats and industry. Here are some of the pictures.

This boat was called the Corella Arrow. You can see the Second Narrows Bridge behind it.

We came home tired, but really happy after that great day. Later in the evening, I took Black Jack out for her "before bed" walk. This skunk sauntered right by us. I can't believe I tried to catch a photo, given our recent skunking experience. Still, you can see I didn't waste too many moments getting the focus right:)

Have to rush here, but these pictures of a river otter eating a fish (with a quick fly-by from a crow) are from a walk on Tuesday morning in North Vancouver.

The walk concluded with a visit with Dianne and Haley. Dianne arranged this seaweed (?) just a bit for the picture. She has an artist's eye.
Thanks, as always, for stopping by!