Thursday, May 27, 2010

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!

9 comments:

  1. I enjoyed your stories and photos as always Carol. Great shots of the otter eating a fish!!

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  2. Wow … you really outdid yourself, Carol. I can’t recall ever seeing the tongue of a goose or any other bird for that matter. It really was worthwhile double clicking on that photo! I laughed out loud at the similar photos of Bill and Black Jack. This was a playful entertaining post all the way through, from seeing Black Jack romp the rocky terrain, to meeting handsome Sam, to seeing the otter enjoy his catch. The fuzzy shot of the skunk only proves your dedication as most folk would run, not stop to take a picture. :)

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  3. Love smiling puppy-dogs! (Tongue-sticking out dogs--and humans--can be fun, too.)

    Is it possible that, after the storm damaged the osprey nest, Olivia found another spot to "start over", and Lawrence is just visting the previous year's nest for "old time's sake"? Don't wait to be a spoil-sport, but just wondering if this could explain her absence...

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  4. Hmmm.....Stanley is AWOL, Olivia is AWOL... they have forsaken their mates and run off together!

    The unnamed flower is called Foxglove. There are several different stories about how foxglove got its name. Some say it used to be "folks glove" and that the word "folks" used to refer to fairies (therefore, "gloves worn by fairies"), while others say it comes from the medieval "folks' glauve", in which a glauve is a small bell, or Anglo Saxon "foxes' glien" which was an array of bells used as a musical instrument. But my favourite is a fable about some fairies who befriended a hungry young fox who had never learned to hunt; the fairies gave him soft gloves for his paws so he could silently sneak up on the hen house to kill the chickens! I seem to recall there was more to the story - in which the fox learned only to take what he needed to survive - but my memory of it is fuzzy.

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  5. Once again great photographs and you or either very lucky or very patient...I think the latter!

    Thanks Carol!

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  6. Thanks for the comments, everyone!

    Mark, I loved your otter pics too. Any readers, check them out at the top link (321photos) on my page.

    Penelope, so glad you enjoyed the post. I admit that watching that skunk get closer and closer in my view finder did make me quite nervous:)

    EvenSong, we are all pretty much guessing, so your suggestion is as possible as any we have come up with. I'm still hoping she is just waiting until she's ready to lay her eggs before setting up residence in the nest. And yes, smiling puppy-dogs make me happy too:)

    Jean, the one possibility I hadn't considered. Now that would be something for the record books:) And, the Foxglove info is really appreciated, and fascinating! I like the fable too, although I suppose the chickens might have preferred one of the other stories:)

    MarianneBill, sometimes, I am patient, but in the case of the otter, I was truly lucky. I came out of school and there s/he was, just climbing up on the log with the fish.

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  7. I enjoyed your stories and photos as always Carol. Great shots of the otter eating a fish!!

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  8. Once again great photographs and you or either very lucky or very patient...I think the latter! Thanks Carol!

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  9. I enjoyed your stories and photos as always Carol. Great shots of the otter eating a fish!!

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