Saturday, October 12, 2024

Photo of the Day

gull in fall colors

From one of my pre-work morning walks. I like the contrast of the gray and white gull against the reflected fall colors.

Wednesday, October 09, 2024

Strathcona Provincial Park

Strathcona Provincial Park takes up a big chunk of the middle of Vancouver Island. I've wanted to visit for a long time, but never got around to it. Finally we took a few days and headed up there. It's not the easiest park to access. We stayed at Campbell River for two nights and visited the north east end, and then we spent one night in Courtenay and visited the east side. It's a huge park and we barely scratched the surface but at least we can say we've been there.

On the way there we stopped at Kye Bay (near Courtenay/Comox) to eat our lunch on the beach. When we got to Campbell River we visited the Discovery Passage Aquarium. It's small but we always enjoying seeing more of the local sealife. The octopus was even out roaming about rather than hiding.

Armed Hermit Crab ?

We found a nice vegetarian restaurant for supper - Meraki.

The first morning we hiked in Elk Falls Provincial Park, along the Campbell River. When you drive into Campbell River there's a big sign saying "Salmon Capital of the World". But then you find out the river is well and truly dammed (or is it damned). They need a hatchery to produce fish and they have to bring in gravel by helicopter to promote spawning. I was expecting to see Bald Eagles and Osprey, but the closest thing we saw were Turkey Vultures.

Turkey vulture

I also spotted a Kingfisher but it was across the river and hiding in the bushes.

spot the kingfisher

The morning reflections were nice.

flowing water reflections

Next we drove to the end of Upper Campbell Lake to get to the corner of the park where we ate our lunch on the shore near Buttle Lake Campground. There were lots of dragonflies but none of them sat still long enough to be photographed.

duck

On our way back we stopped to see the actual Elk Falls. I had a telephoto in hopes of birds so I could only take a closeup of part of the falls.

waterfall

Pacific Wrens never sit still for long, but I managed to catch this one.

Pacific Wren

Back in town Shelley thought this sculpture reminded her of someone :-)

sculpture

reflections

The next day we did a longer hike (10 km, 3.5 hrs) at Paradise Meadows from the Mt. Washington ski area. There were lots of Bog Blueberries to snack on along the way. The birds were also enjoying the berries.

Bog blueberries

There were lots of mushrooms everywhere. I think these are Fly Agaric, one of the few that I have a chance of recognizing.

Fly Agaric ?

mushroom

mushrooms

mushrooms

The clouds were hovering and occasionally descended on us.

foggy trees

foggy trees

There were quite a few birds around, mostly Dark-eyed Juncos, Canada Jays, and Stellar Jays.

Dark-eyed junco

Canada Jay

Stellar's Jay

It was past the flower season, but there was still some Fireweed remaining.

Fireweed

Our final morning we made a brief stop at Millard Nature Park just near Courtenay (next to the big box stores!). According to the sign it was logged when we weren't as "efficient" at clearing the land, so the habitat regenerated quite quickly. Good to know we're more "efficient" now. Heaven forbid we should leave remnants of nature still alive after our pillaging.

Vancouver Island isn't known for its fall colors, but there are occasional splashes of color.

fall colors

The weather had turned to rain, but the slugs didn't mind. Slugs can be tricky to identify but I think these are a Pacific Banana Slug and a Meadow Slug, both native for a change.

Pacific Banana Slug

Meadow Slug ?

And of course, more mushrooms and other fungus.

Dyer's Polypore ?

See also Shelley's posts - Part 1 and Part 2

See all 73 photos in this batch

Saturday, August 31, 2024

Photos of the Week

Autumn is a second spring when every leaf is a flower - Albert Camus

wet autumn leaf

As usual, I took photos of great blue herons. I haven't got bored with them, it's actually good to see them so much because I can work on better, more interesting photos.

Great Blue Heron in flight

Great Blue Heron

One morning I got to combine the herons with my love of reflections. I really like how these turned out. These two were my prints this week. Check them out on a bigger screen.

heron reflected

heron reflected

By moving back and forth along the walkway I could choose the background. It was a beautiful calm morning. The heron was quite far away but I had my biggest lens.

heron reflected

And not to neglect the the other usual suspects

gull reflected

gull in flight

gull in flight

Canada Goose

ducks becalmed

And a pure reflection to wrap up

reflections

See all 20 photos in this batch