Paul Cipywnyk's Blog

Sample Density of Fish Killed in Byrne Creek

Sometimes it takes death to reveal how much life there is.

Would you believe that on average there was a dead fish less than every 2 meters along a sampled section of Byrne Creek the morning after someone poured a toxin down a street drain in the upper watershed on March 4, 2010? Most people never see fish in the creek - it takes patience, stealth, and knowing where to look to spot them when they are alive. My wife and I counted 231 dead trout, coho smolts (yearlings) and coho fry (this spring's babies) in an approximately 400-meter section of the creek. For those interested, here's the breakdown:

182 - Small cutthroat trout (say less than 15cm)
20  - Medium cutthroat trout (say 15-20cm)
1   - Large cutthroat trout (over 20cm)
Total 203 cutthroat trout

16 small-to-medium dead fish visible inside the culvert, too dark to ID
1 - large trout, very dark, no cutthroat markings on chin, near footbridge

8  - Coho smolts
3  - Coho fry
Total 11 coho salmon

Grand total dead fish in that stretch: 231

And that's likely lower than the actual number due to several factors: dead fish get wedged under rocks and drop deep in pools, the tiny fry are difficult to spot at all and we know that before the kill there were schools of dozens in the area sampled. In addition, opportunistic predation starts almost immediately after the toxin is quickly flushed down the creek: we found several fish partially eaten, and only strings of guts and bits of flesh too small to ID here and there.

The coho were found around T518 to T516 (lower end of the lower ravine). The coho fry were found in the vicinity of T517 where we photographed live ones a few days ago... See the entry below "Video of 2010 Salmon Fry in Byrne Creek."

The above photo shows dead fish ranging from coho fry at the bottom left,
a coho smolt a the bottom right, and an adult trout above. There was a
surprise to come, as you'll see in the next photo. . .

The big trout had a fry in its mouth. It's not hard to imagine what
happened - it spotted a little fish in distress from the chemical,
thought it an easy meal, and then before it could even finish
swallowing its target, the bigger fish also died.

Fish Kill in Burnaby’s Byrne Creek March 4, 2010

A chemical entered Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby in the mid-to-late afternoon today, killing fish. Someone called Environment Canada [CORRECT: in fact the City of Burnaby received the call from the BC provincial enviro ministry after a youth called the Provincial Emergency Program], who then called the City, and streamkeepers also noticed the kill around the same time. City staff took samples and worked on tracing the source, which likely came from a storm drain, while streamkeepers took photos for documentation and sampled pH in the creek at several points. Both City staff and streamkeepers plan to follow up tomorrow. Here are some photos:

The fish ladder at the pond west of Griffiths Dr.
Water is covered with foam and slick to the touch.
There was an ammonia smell coming out of the pipe.

Dead fish on bottom of pool.

Dead cutthroat with hazy water visible. That's a size 12 boot
toe beside it for comparison.

Just a few days ago, streamkeepers were excited to see baby salmon
fry popping out of the gravel. We are concerned that they may also have
been affected.

I find it hard to believe that after decades of education efforts, such
kills still happen.

Please, folks, remember that all drains on roads and parking lots lead to fish habitat!

Video of 2010 Salmon Fry in Byrne Creek

I shot this video at 640 X 480 resolution with my Canon SD780 digital still camera handheld with the zoom at max. I processed the file in Windows Live Movie Maker, a free download. Not bad for such a cheap, on-the-fly setup :-).

It's always great to know that at least some of the few salmon that managed to return to this urban creek in southeast Burnaby last autumn successfully spawned, and that their eggs survived through the winter.

Dirty Discharge Passes Through Byrne Creek

At 4:00 p.m. today I noticed that the pond near Choices in the Park just west of the Edmonds Skytrain Station in SE Burnaby was a murky grey-green colour. Not good. Something likely had been dumped in the creek through a drain on a street or in a parking lot. I phoned it in to Environmental Services at the City, and was told it had already been reported and that staff were checking the situation.

This is the pond at 4:00 p.m.

And here it is at 5:00 p.m. The creek flow had cleared
out the "slug" of dirty water.

Didn't have time to check downstream for the possible
impact on fish. Hope to do a creek walk tomorrow.

The concrete structure at the bottom of the photos is a fish ladder to enable fish to get up to the culvert that was put in when the trail was built across the creek.

Dawn, Dusk on BC Ferries

The 7:00 am BC Ferries run from Tsawwassen to Swartz Bay, and the return 5:00 pm run produced some moody sunrise and sunset photos today.

The dawn run:

And coming home at dusk:

Fun and Games at Richmond OZone, 2010 Olympic Flame

After a beautiful morning in Byrne Creek Ravine doing streamkeeper activities, Yumi and I headed out to the Richmond OZone for 2010 Olympic-related festivities, and ended the day with an evening downtown on the packed streets of Vancouver.

Cherry trees starting to bud in the park next door.

Yumi checking pH in Byrne Creek.

OK, on to Winter Olympic 2010 Festivities!

Flags festoon a mall in Richmond.

There were delays on the Skytrain, so it took awhile to get down
to Richmond, but it was worth it.

Salmon says "O Canada," but I think it would be saying "Oh! Bear!"

Light standard with OZone banner.

Yumi with Year of Rooster lantern at OZone

Paul with Year of Boar lantern at OZone.

I refuse to call it Year of Pig! :-)

Yumi and some kids get their photo taken
with a Japanese super-fan.

Japanese team works on ice sculpture.
I yelled "Ganbare Nihon" at them and got
a happy look of surprise back :-).

The main stage at the OZone. We flaked out on the ground
and listened to some bands.

Outdoor skating oval at the OZone.

OZone banner in Richmond City Hall. There was a cool
display of ice skates through history, and a progression
of Canadian ice-skating uniforms.

The only downer was grabbing a 591ml bottle of Diet Coke
at the lunch stand, only to be charged $3.50 for it.
Highway robbery!

A view of the banners from outside as dusk fell.

The big screen at Richmond City Hall.

Evening falls at the OZone, time to head downtown!

The Birks Building at night.

The famous clock.

Huge Olympics projection on The Bay, with London Drugs in foreground.

Lanterns on Granville.

More illumination on Granville.

The street was full of happy people,
and every block had a different genre
of street music. Yowza!

Robson Square, the epicentre of the action.

Robson Square with the BC Pavilion (Art Gallery) in background.

The Zipline over Robson Square. If you look closely,
those ghostly shapes are lucky riders who made it
past the 4- to 6-hour wait!

And here it is folks, the 2010 Olympic Flame!

And, more importantly :-), moi and my
better half in front of it.

Waaaayyy in front of it :-). At this point in this very
full day, my back was giving out, and there was no way
I was going to stand hours in line to get any closer!

Heading home on the Skytrain at Waterfront Station.
It was packed, but kudos to Translink, police and volunteers
for keeping things moving smoothly. Well done!

New Fry in Byrne Creek, Signs of Spring

Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby, BC, is sporting new babies! I spotted two salmon fry in pools in the creek today - not many, but it's a start. There were also lots of other signs of spring.

Hard to ID for sure, but it may be a coho, judging by
orange-ish colour.

This backlit strider was making explosive flashes of light
on the water with every step.

Robins, Fruit at Stewart Heritage Farm

Though it was overcast, I checked out the Stewart Heritage Farm in south Surrey today - it's a great place for birding and nature photos.

Cattails in a marsh

Last autumn's apples

An inquisitive robin.

Who gets a worm!

I got some good shots of waxwings eating berries at the farm last October.

Vancouver 2010 Games Valentine’s Day Photos

Valentine's Day was sunny and clear, a wonderful day to spend checking out 2010 Olympic pavilions in Vancouver.

Russian Sochi pavilion (Science World)

Fun photo at Saskatchewan House

Athlete's Village

Police diver patrol

First CF Card – 16MB

I found this CF card today - it's the first one I ever had. It was included with our first digital camera, a Kodak DC4800 that we bought back in March 2001, during a trip to Japan. The purchase was spurred by my father-in-law, who insisted we ought to get a digital camera while we were visiting, and who provided some cash to back up his idea :-).

To think that this card would hold just two RAW photo files from my Nikon D300!

I remember when Yumi and I bought the DC4800 in Shinjuku, Tokyo, at a store that no longer exists, we "splurged" on an additional 128MB CF card and a PC Card reader so we could plug CF cards into our notebook computer. Don't recall now how much all that cost, but I think the 3.1MP point-and-shoot, the extra card, and the reader totalled over C$600.

Sunset Near Byrne Ravine Park

Late this afternoon I got out for a loop of Byrne Creek Ravine Park in SE Burnaby, and got a few sunset shots on my way back up the hill.

The view down the hill over the Green development.

Along Byrne Park Drive.

Olympics? Bah, Humbug… Er, Dang But I’m Smiling

I have counted myself among Vancouver 2010 sceptics, but darn it if I don't feel a spring in my step and a smile twitching on my face. We headed downtown today to check out the street scene, see if any pavilions were open, and had a great time. The only pavilion we entered was Northern House, and it was fun. While we don't have tickets to any events - damn hard to find and expensive - I will certainly be checking out more pavilions and other free stuff.

Yumi owns the podium!

Paul goes snowboarding. OK, if I look stupid, I admit I've
never been on a board in my life!

The outdoor skating rink at Robson Square.

With inukshuk at Northern House.

Yumi with muskox.

The "video postcard" at Northern House was a great hit.
You can select videos of northern scenes and activities
and have yourself superimposed upon them.

Feeding an eagle a bit of Japanese crepe on Robson St.

Eagles, Crows on Marine Way

While my wife was picking up some cat food I got some shots of eagles and crows near Marine Way in Burnaby. At one point there were six bald eagles soaring overhead, with some sort of hawk or harrier joining in for a moment. There were also several crows patrolling the parking lot.

Warmest January on Record in Vancouver, Eh?

Well, look what I found outside our door today:

I also did a quick patrol for salmon fry in Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby. Didn't see any yet, but back in 2005 we spotted fry on Feb. 8, so with this year's warm winter they ought to be popping out of the gravel soon!

Dell U2410 Monitor

Received the 24" Dell U2410 LCD monitor today that I got for around 33% off the regular price - about C$500 compared to C$750. My first impressions? This is one bright, sharp, gorgeous screen. It's clearly head and shoulders over the 20" Dell 2007FP that I have it paired with on my desk, and it leaves the old 19" Benq FP931 that it replaced in the dust.

The 24" screen with its native 1920 X1200 resolution is impressive, but it's the underlying technology that really makes it shine. It's an IPS monitor, designed for high-end graphics work, and it's colour-calibrated at the factory with sRGB and Adobe RGB presets. No matter how much I fiddle with the settings on the Dell 2007FP, I can't get it to match the U2410's fidelity and clarity. I'm just eyeballing the two screens side by side, but I suspect that even with colour-calibration gear, it would be tough to get the 2007FP looking as good as the U2410.

I'm look forward to developing photos on the new screen, along with having significantly more space for document editing and desktop publishing work.

Cleaning Bird Boxes at Burnaby Lake

A call for volunteers appeared in the local papers to help clean out bird boxes at Burnaby Lake Regional Park for the spring nesting season, so Yumi and I drove over this Saturday morning to check out what the Burnaby Lake Park Association was up to.

Led by the irrepressibly passionate and knowledgeable Joe Sadowski, the 30-40 folks who showed up were divided into three or four teams and spread out to do some housecleaning. Despite the overcast, drizzly conditions, people's spirits ran high.

And a lovely Wood Duck couple, perhaps looking to move
in to the newly cleaned housing :-)

Rainbow on Vancouver’s North Shore

On the way home from shopping on the north shore, we saw this rainbow. I grabbed a few quick shots from the side of the road near the Cargill grain terminal with my pocket camera, but unfortunately the rainbow began to dissipate before I could find another vantage point. It must have looked magnificent from further south, say Burnaby Mountain!

Frosty Ramble 'Round Deer Lake

Combating the seasonal overeating, Yumi and I trundled all the way to Deer Lake and back, doing the route in a bit less than three hours. It was a frosty, cloudy day, but I worked up a good sweat, fell on my butt on the icy Sperling stairs, and got a few decent shots, too.

View from the canoe dock

Frosty mooring cleat

Yumi testing the ice near the beach

Frozen cattails near the beach

Foggy view of Metrotown from the north shore of the lake

Spotted this little furball sneaking through tunnels of grass
near the trail - a vole?

Frozen dew

We were surprised to see a salmon carcass in
Buckingham Creek near the beach parking lot.
We've never seen salmon in the Deer Lake area.
Unfortunately, we were unable to get at it to ID it.

Foggy New Westminster Quay, Boardwalk

A stroll along the quay and boardwalk in New Westminster on a socked in, foggy afternoon produced some moody photographs.

Christmas Jaunt up the Sea to Sky, Squamish, Brackendale

A Christmas daytrip up the Sea-to-Sky highway to Squamish and Brackendale resulted in some nice shots, though there were few eagles to be seen.

Stonework pattern on washroom at Shannon Falls

Spawning salmon, green water, stones make for an impressionistic shot
near the Tenderfoot Hatchery

Great Blue Heron watches salmon near the Tenderfoot Hatchery

An American Dipper keeps a sharp eye out for wayward salmon eggs

Lots of people at the Eagle Run at Brackendale, but few eagles

Squamish River with mountain background

Heading back home we stop at Porteau Cove - Yumi against the sunset

Moon at bottom with Porteau Cove pier structure

Rocks and ripples at the ocean's edge

Chains anchor the sunset

Bench and rails frame the setting sun

Trees, sunset along the Sea-to-Sky highway

The sun dips in to the sea beyond the mountains

Byrne Creek Ravine Sunset on Christmas Eve

We did a quick loop of Byrne Creek Ravine Park in SE Burnaby late this afternoon as the sun was going down.

Foggy, Icy Rice Lake in North Vancouver

The Rice Lake trail in North Vancouver is a short, flat walk that's refreshing even on a rainy day.

Birds at Blustery Boundary Bay

It was just above zero Celsius and the wind was a'blowin' as Yumi and I checked out the bird action on Boundary Bay around the south end of 72nd St. in Delta, BC, this afternoon. We saw lots of Northern Harriers, Gulls of several kinds, Northern Flickers, Robins, Herons, lots of waterfowl, etc.

This bold Great Blue Heron was blithely hanging around the side
of the road about a hundred meters north of the end of the road.

Mt. Baker in Washington State visible to the southeast
across Boundary Bay.

There were lots of raptors, mostly Harriers.
Now that I'm looking at this photo, is it a Harrier?
We definitely saw Harriers, but dunno about this one. . .
Another photographer said he'd seen a short-eared owl.

I believe this is a female Downy Woodpecker.

A Northern Flicker of the "red-shafted race."

There were lots of American Robins eating berries.

Fur Ball Reveals Vertebrae, Claw

A ramble along Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby is always stimulating and refreshing, and if you keep your eyes open, you can spot all sorts of interesting evidence of the animals that live in the ravine. I'd love to spend a few days in the ravine with some First Nations elders, and plant and animal biologists, to really learn what to look for and how to interpret it.

While on spawner patrol, Yumi found a fur ball. Something had regurgitated it - a coyote? Spreading it apart with the tip of a walking stick, we could see vertebrae and a claw inside, but we don't have the knowledge to ID what beast ended up in the stomach of another one!

Claw at top left, vertebrae scattered near middle.

OK, if you'd like something more pleasant to look at to end this post, here's a raindrop sloughing off a berry :-).

Coho Spawning in Byrne Creek

The day was dark and gloomy following a week of rain, but my wife Yumi and I decided to check out Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby for spawning salmon. We volunteer with the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers, and spawner returns have been low this year, but we're always hoping.

It's tough to see fish when the water is high and dirty, and the light is low, but to our surprise we ran across a pair of coho spawning. In fact, the poor conditions likely worked in our favor, for on a bright day with clear water, the notoriously shy coho would have quickly spooked and hidden themselves. While we never saw them that clearly, it was still a thrill when we'd catch a flash of these magnificently muscular fish, with their scarlet-streaked copper-green sides.

A swirl of dark green, brown-gold and red as one of the coho moves up the creek. They had chosen to spawn just above a fast riffle, and moved up and down, battling the current.

The female flips sideways and carves the gravel with her tail to dig a nest for her eggs called a redd.

Deer, Faun, Waskesiu Summer 2009

Ran across this photo from my summer trip to Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta and am posting it now to relieve some of the Wet West Coast early winter rain blues.

Taken early one morning near the golf course in Prince Albert National Park.

Bird’s Nest, Spider, Claw Marks Along Byrne Creek

Today on a patrol of Byrne Creek my wife and I found one dead chum salmon, one live chum guarding a nest of eggs (redd), and three coho salmon, in addition to lots of cutthroat trout that gather this time of year hoping to snag a wayward salmon egg. Nature being unemotional and efficient, we've observed cutthroat poking female salmon in their bellies, hoping to pop eggs out.

Today Yumi found a nest on the ground. It looked like it had never been completed. We also ran across what I believe is an orb weaver spider. It was on the cycling/walking path on Southridge Drive, so Yumi shepherded it off into the grass, as she is wont to do with any sort of animal that she feels is in danger.

We also observed plenty of claw marks and tracks at various places along the creek as opportunists of all species gather to meet the returning salmon. That's why salmon are so crucial to the entire west coast environment - they are a key part of the food chain for all sorts of birds and beasts, in addition to fertilizing the forests.

Byrne Creek Paw Prints, Paint & Mushrooms

I ran across lots of tracks along Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby on a patrol looking for spawning salmon today. Dead spawners attract all sorts of hungry animals from skunks to raccoons to coyotes. I've even seen squirrels checking out carcasses - why not? A cousin of mine calls them "rats with bushy tails" :-). Someone also thoughtfully left a bunch of paint cans along the fence at the spawning habitat!

Prints leading toward the creek

Close-up

A rain-filled mushroom

Poster reminding people and dogs to stay out
of the creek during spawning season

What's with the paint cans? Someone even took the
time to nicely line them up, so why not the time to
take them to a recycling centre?

Face to Face with Coyote on Byrne Creek

I had a meeting at the Stream of Dreams office just off Byrne Road south of Marine Way in SE Burnaby this morning, so I dropped into the Byrne Creek artificial spawning habitat for a few minutes on the way back up the hill to check if the chum salmon I had seen on a spawner patrol the previous day were still around.

As I broke out of the path into the habitat and onto the vehicle access road, a coyote came scooting out of the bush just a few meters in front of me, trotted a short way down the road, and stopped.

A large coyote.

It was the biggest I've seen in some time. It looked at least the match of a mid-sized German Shepherd, and had thick, sleek fur, so it appeared well fed... (the above photo was snapped on the quick draw with a tiny pocket camera and enlarged dramatically, so the quality is middling. . .)

It stopped and stared at me, and I stared at it while regretting not having the long walking pole that I usually carry. It flinched first, and began loping down the chain-link fence looking for a way out, and finally wriggled under it.

Before I proceeded further, I got my knife out and then slowly walked in, making plenty of noise. (During spawning season I carry a sheath knife in my pack to process dead salmon with -- streamkeepers have permission from the Department of Fisheries to cut open carcasses to determine sex and to check if fish have spawned before they died).  The creek was still running high and dirty from the morning rain so I didn't bother searching very hard because water visibility was very poor. I have to admit I was also on edge moving through the bush, because the coyote was likely in the habitat because it was attracted to dead salmon.

Sure enough, on my way out, I found the remains of a chum the coyote had been eating on the bank at the southwest end of the overflow pond, near where I first flushed it out.

There wasn't much left, just head bones, and about five inches of body. I didn't linger, not wanting to be between a coyote and its lunch :-) . I did see salmon eggs that had spilled into the water, so it was likely an unspawned female chum.

I found the experience exhilarating, and it left me tingling all over. It's amazing how the sight of a predator sharpens your senses when you're alone in the bush -- even in an urban park.  Thank you, coyote, for that moment of clarity, focus, and connection to nature.

Silverdale Creek Wetlands

On the way home from Harrison Lake we took the slower route 7, and at one point before Mission saw trails and what looked like a spawning channel to the north of the road. We found an access road, and discovered the Silverdale Creek Wetlands. We'd heard about the project, so we set out to explore. There were "Mother Bear with Cub" warning signs all over, so we kept our eyes peeled, proceeded slowly, and made plenty of noise!

It was a beautiful area, with ponds, marshes, and a spawning channel. We found only one dead spawner in the wetland area, but saw several more dead, and one live one swimming upstream, from the bridge over the creek near the entrance.

Look closely - there, in the middle foreground, it's
a huge concrete salmon. Steamkeepers around the
lower mainland have been sharing the mold for
these beauties

Despite it being November, there were still lots of dragonflies about

Lots of bird boxes of various sizes adorn many erected perch "trees"

The only spawner we saw in the habitat

The same spawner can be seen in the foreground

And a close-up of a second concrete salmon in the habitat

Harrison Lake Colors, Aerobatics Flight

On the pretext of looking for spawning salmon in Fraser Valley creeks and rivers, Yumi and I took a day trip all the way up the valley to Harrison Lake. While we didn't see many fish, it was a gorgeous day. As we were strolling around the beach at the lake, a formation of aerobatics planes zoomed overhead.

Kayakers head out on Harrison Lake

The dock near the hot-spring hotel

Along the trail to the original hot springs pool

Heading back toward the beach area

A sudden roar, and this formation unexpectedly flew overhead

A slightly tighter shot as I banged away while zooming in

Breaking into the blue

Heading back from a loop over the lake

Salmon Pumpkin for Halloween

My wife Yumi carved this salmon pumpkin for Halloween to celebrate the return of spawning chum and coho to Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby, just behind our place.

Later: She also made a cat pumpkin.

Spawning Salmon Return to Byrne Creek

Byrne Creek Streamkeepers spotted six chum salmon in Byrne Creek this afternoon, and several of them were already digging redds, or nests, for their eggs. It was a wonderful sight to see!

Byrne is an urban creek in southeast Burnaby, and salmon numbers have been declining for the last several years.

I took the above video using the video function on my Canon S5IS camera, which tops out at 640 X 480 at 30 fps. I then used MS Movie Maker, which came free with the Windows XP operating system, to do so some rudimentary editing, titling, etc. It's a far cry from a real camcorder and more powerful software, but it's still fun to play with.

My Digital Photo Stats Over 8 Years

My Nikon D300 DSLR "rolled over" yesterday: the photo counter hit 9,999 and started fresh. I began using it in August 2008. My Canon S5IS superzoom rolled over on Sept. 19 this year, a bit over two years after I bought it in July 2007.

My first digital camera was a Kodak DC4800 with which I shot the first photo on March 30, 2001. That camera still works but has been retired. It was followed by a shirt-pocket-size Canon SD400 that died in February this year, being replaced with a tiny Canon SD780 for everyday carrying around. I took the SD400 nearly everywhere in pockets, belt packs and briefcases, and it did yeoman's work for about three-and-a-half years before succumbing to the regular battering with a dead LCD screen.

The D300 and S5IS 10,000-shot milestones got me thinking about my digital photo statistics, so I did some poking around my hard drive.

As of today, I have 45,330 files in 960 folders under the My Photos directory, totaling 221GB. That includes perhaps a hundred photos scanned from film pictures, and a few dozen short movie files shot using the movie function on my Canons. I have no idea how many rolls of film I've shot since I began taking pictures some 40 years ago, and that's another project - to scan the better slides and negatives into digital files. . .

That means that since I shifted to digital photography, I've been keeping about 5,330 photos/year. As I explain in the next paragraph, that means I've been shooting about 6,500-7,000 photos/year. Not bad for an amateur, eh?

When I transfer digital photos from my various cameras to my computer, I immediately cull the worst of the lot - the badly underexposed or overexposed, the out of focus, the motion blurred, etc. I also usually zap severely unflattering shots of people, near duplicates of the same scene, and so on. I figure that I trash 15-20% this way. But I need to do more.

While my photos are fairly well organized in chronological folders and topic folders, I've never used a tagging/archiving program to keep track of them, and with 45,000+ images that needs to change. Since I returned to SLR shooting last year after about a 15-year hiatus, I've also gotten more serious about my photography again, and need to keep better track of my better work.

I've started using Nikon Capture NX2 and Adobe Bridge CS4 to do some basic tagging over the last few months, and am investigating digital asset management options such as MS Expression Media, ACDSEE Pro 3, etc.

As time allows, I aim to go back and do more culling, while adding metadata to my old photos. I ought to be able to cut at least 10-20% of that 45,000. And more importantly, tag the best 0.1 - 0.5% (1 - 5 out of a thousand??) that may be worthy of printing for display, or attempting to sell.

It will be interesting to revisit this topic once this gargantuan project is done, and see how the numbers turned out.

Waxwing Chows Down Berries

It was a great day to wander the Stewart Heritage Farm in South Surrey this afternoon. I'll add more photos tomorrow, but I wanted to post this series of a waxwing selecting and downing a berry before I went to bed:

Checking things out.

Going. . .

Going. . .

Gone!

All shots handheld with Nikon D300 and Nikkor AF-S 70-300mm zoom at 300mm (450mm effective), ISO 800, 1/320, f7.1

More Autumn Colours Around Byrne Creek

A ramble from Ron McLean Park in SE Burnaby down the ravine trail to Byrne Creek.

Autumn Colours Advance on Byrne Creek

The recent rains in the lower mainland of BC have cast a chill upon the land, yet warmed my heart with excitement. Salmon will return to Byrne Creek soon.

It's a bit early, the first spawners are usually spotted in this urban creek in southeast Burnaby around mid-October, but the fish follow the rain, so you never know - and I couldn't wait to start looking.

I didn't find any salmon today, but the rain had begun washing the vibrant greens into reds, yellows, golds, and browns.

Burnaby Artists Studio Tour, Deer Lake Ramble

My wife Yumi and I spent a couple of hours today visiting Burnaby artists in their homes and studios on the Studio Tour 2009.

We started with James Koll, who lives nearby. We've bought a couple of his watercolours and a print, and he's becoming one of our favourite local artists for his lifelike renditions of landscapes. After visiting James, we hit a few other artists, and then ended up at the Shadbolt Centre at Deer Lake. After checking out the displays at the various galleries in the area, we took a slow ramble along the boardwalk at Deer Lake, where I enjoyed taking photos of the wildlife.

On the way home, we ended up raiding an ATM and going back to James Koll's to buy another watercolour -- "Still Creek Near the Lake." We volunteer as streamkeepers in Burnaby, so we have a close connection to the scenes Koll paints of waterways and parks around the city.

Here are few photos from today's walk:

The lawn below the Shadbolt Centre in Burnaby

Lilly pads in Deer Lake

Mallard framed by trees

A frog soaking up the sun

Great Blue Heron

Whack! The heron strikes

Success - a fish to swallow

No time to digest, on the hunt again

Plethora of Petals, Plants at New Westminster Quay

The boardwalk along the Fraser River in New Westminster has an amazing collection of flowers and plants. I spent a couple of hours blissfully lost in photographing the array on a lazy Labour Day. Here's a photographic ode to the end of summer:

All shots hand-held with Nikon D300 and AF-S Nikkor 18-200mm VR ED zoom at ISOs ranging between 200-400. The camera was on the "Vivid" setting. Not sure how that happened, I usually have it set on "Standard," but for the most part it worked well, with only a few shots badly over-saturated. These are all from Large/Fine JPEG files. I have the raw NEF files as well, but have yet to try playing with post-processing them.

Chris Isaak at the PNE

It was a great show yesterday. Isaak is a consummate performer with great original tunes and crowd-pleasing chatter.

Concert shots were hand-held at ISO 3200 with my Nikon D300, with the 18-200 VR lens.

Silty Discharge Hits Byrne Creek

A "slug" of silty water hit Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby overnight or early this morning. As no dead fish have been spotted, it appears it was not toxic; however, any discharge into street drains is illegal, and City of Burnaby staff are checking for the source.

As streamkeepers repeat again, and again, all drains on streets and in parking lots lead to fish habitat.

Water in the sediment pond in the spawning habitat was still opaque many hours after the discharge, though the water running into the pond (at the lower end of the photo) is clear.

Water discharging downstream of the artificial spawning habitat was also still very murky early in the afternoon.

Foreshore Park Pond Provides Wildlife for Long Lens

I headed down to Burnaby's Foreshore Park over lunch today to do some shooting with my new AF-S Nikkor 70-300mm 4.5-5.6G IF-ED VR zoom lens. The pond near Nokia is a great place for dragonflies, damselflies, bees, tadpoles, frogs, and other wildlife.

First off, some bees on various flowers.

And a white butterfly/moth hiding in refracted light.

Next up several shots of dragonflies.

Some huge tadpoles, a couple of which were munching on a dead fish.

And some frogs. Close, hidden, and submarine surfacing :-).

And a lonely cattail among the reeds.

Cute Frogs, Ugly Trash in Deer Lake

We took some friends for a walk at Burnaby's beautiful Deer Lake this afternoon and were greeted by dozens of little frogs. Unfortunately, there were also some of those water bottles that supposedly rarely end up in the landfill because they are recycled. Hm. This doesn't look like a recycling centre to me!

There are at least four frogs hiding in this photo - the Dasani bottle is not so well camouflaged!

As the clouds rolled in over Metrotown up on the hill, we decided to call it a day.

Good Deal on Nikon Lens, Flash

I've had my eye on the Nikkor 70-300 f/4.5-5.6 G IF-ED VRII lens for awhile now. While I'd really like the Nikkor 80-400, $1,700 or so vs $599 is a huge difference. The 70-300 would give me a 35mm equivalent of 105-450mm on my Nikon D300, a substantial stretch from my present 18-200 (35mm equivalent > 27-300mm)  glass, and great for wildlife photos. Today on my road trip I checked out the Future Shop in Medicine Hat and got a great deal.

I was also interested in getting a dedicated flash, the SB-600. I ended up walking out of the store with the 70-300 lens, the SB-600 flash, and a SB-400 demo flash thrown in for free! Plus no 5% PST in Alberta, so all told I saved over $200 compared to what the lens and two flash units would have cost me  back in BC.

Can't wait to start "shooting" birds and other wildlife with the longer lens, and learning how to use Nikon's Creative Lighting System.

Updated Nikon D300 Firmware

I'm still exploring the capabilities of my Nikon D300 DSLR little by little though I've had it for nearly a year. Lots of menu items to tinker with, settings to try.

I was cruising Nikon's website awhile back, updating some of the software that came with the camera, and was a bit surprised to find a firmware update for the camera. Then on second thought it made perfect sense -- digital cameras are to a great extent computers with dedicated processors and software programs.

The update provided a number of potential improvements, and I finally got around to installing it today. I had a moment of trepidation fooling with "the guts" of this expensive machine, but then again, I've updated BIOSes on computers that cost just as much. There were two files to update, and one worked fine, but the camera didn't want to recognize the other one. I finally got it to load by deleting the second file, leaving only the one choice on the CF card.

So I now have version 1.10 of both "A" and "B" firmware files on board.

If you have a DSLR, it might be an idea to check your maker's website for similar updates.

Bugs, Mink on Deer Lake Canoeing Afternoon

We got the canoe out for an afternoon on Burnaby's Deer Lake. It was a great day and we did three or four circuits of the small lake, often stopping in the lily pads to check out the wildlife. We saw lots of dragonflies, damselflies, moths, fish, waterfowl, and even a young mink bopping along the shore.

Metrotown towers to the southwest.

A flotilla of Canada Geese.

A dead stickleback?

Sure looks like a mink -- I had to severely crop this photo taken from a distance with my teeny Canon SD780IS - wish I'd had my S5IS or my DSLR!

Canada Day at Queen's Park, New Westminster

This year we attended Canada Day festivities at Queen's Park in neighbouring New Westminster. That's where an aunt lives, so we decided to try her 'hood. It was a great location -- bandstand surrounded by trees and greenery, and great acts.

The crowd taking in the entertainment.

The bandstand.

The Blue Meanies put on a rockin' good show.

Celebratory balloons.

Power outage in New Westminster.

The only negative to the day was a blown transformer on the street that my aunt lives on, which knocked the power out for a good part of the day. I did not know that New Westminster has its own power company!

Pre-Canada Day BBQ at White Rock

Had a great BBQ near Crescent Beach in White Rock, BC, with good friends this evening. A bit windy, but gorgeous. Nice way to get an early start on the Canada Day holiday tomorrow!

Duffey Lake Road Trip

A day trip up the coast from Vancouver past Squamish and Whistler and then along the Duffey Lake Road to Lillooet and Lytton had us up at 5:00 on Sunday morning. It turned out to be a great day, sunny, and not too hot. We stopped at several places along the way for short walks/hikes including Brandywine Falls, Nairn Falls, Duffey Lake, Seton Lake and Lytton.

Brandywine Creek

Brandywine Falls

View south to Daisy Lake from Brandywine

Yumi on the trail to Nairn Falls

Nairn Falls

Nairn Falls

Nairn Falls

Young black bear on Duffey Lake Road

Duffey Lake

Duffey Lake

Yumi at Duffey Lake

Seton Lake

Seton Lake

Seton Lake

Road toward Lillooet

Seton spawning channel

We came across a nonchalant herd of mountain goats between Lillooet and Lytton

The silty Fraser River

The clear Thompson River flows into the silty Fraser at Lytton

A crow harasses an osprey above the river lookout at Lytton

Sea, Sky, Clouds at Porteau Cove

Porteau Cove is one of my favourite spots to stop on the Sea To Sky highway from Vanvouver to Squamish and Whistler. With the sea, the mountains and the sky, there are always photo opportunities.

Balcony Berries, Baby Spiders

A few shots of baby spiders on our balcony - so cool, but I gotta admit they make my scalp crawl when they crawl :-). The raspberries and strawberries are on their way.

Manning Park, Princeton, Coquihalla Trip Yields Bluebirds, Jays

A daytrip east from Vancouver to Manning Park, Princeton, north on the 5A and back to the coast on the Coquihalla yielded some nice photographs.

Similkameen River near Manning Park Lodge.

Yumi snaps a photo of friendly ground squirrel at Lighting Lake.

Sure are cute!

Clark's Nutcracker at Lightning Lake day use area.

Taking a break at Allison Lake.

Heading north up Highway 5A.

A gorgeous mountain bluebird.

Bluebird in flight.

Bluebird perched.

Steller's Jay at Britton Creek rest area.

Canoing Fraser River at SEP 2009 Workshop

About 70 streamkeepers signed up for a canoe trip down the Fraser River to cap the SEP 2009 (BC Streamkeeper) Workshop, out of around 300 people attending. It was a gorgeous day for a paddle and we had a great time. We put in near the Mission bridge, and took out up Kanaka Creek, with a stop for lunch along the way.

The putting-in point near the Mission bridge.

Me in front, with my wife Yumi behind me, and Naomi from Campbell River.

Heading downstream.

Catching up in a bit of friendly competition...

Cool water, blue skies - a gorgeous day for a paddle.

Working up a sweat!

Looking east down one of most productive salmon rivers in the world, with Mt. Baker barely visible on the horizon.

Heading up Kanaka Creek to the landing site.

It was a great day with a fantastic outing with wonderful people. Thanks to all of the organizers and sponsors!

Cates Park, North Vancouver

We finished off our Mother's Day perambulations with a picnic followed by a trail and beach walk in Cates Park in North Vancouver.

There's not much left of the Dollar Mill except for the base of the burner.

There was quite a collection of rock-balancing sculptures - one toppled with a clatter just as I took a photo, giving me a start.

There were many starfish.

Mt. Seymour, North Van

There was still plenty of snow on Mt. Seymour in North Vancouver, but the lift was shut down.

Yumi in front of the skyline.

Paul feeling brisk in his hiking shorts and sandals.

Motorcyclist in green zapped by the sun!

Flowers, Buds, North Vancouver

Poking around near North Vancouver cemetery:

Spring Has Sprung Along Byrne Creek

More signs that spring is really here.

These are the same trilliums that I photographed on April 5. You can see how the pure white has shaded into pinks and purples.

Note: All of these shots, and the garter snake, were taken with my new ultra-compact Canon SD780IS that I first wrote about here. Still getting to know the little gizmo, but it's producing nice photos.

Morning Sunlight on Balcony Cherry Blossoms

The morning sun danced in changing patterns over the thickening cherry blossoms on the tree by our balcony. As I read the paper by the window, I kept jumping up and going out to take more photos as the light changed.

Burnaby Mountain Cherry Blossoms

It's been a strange year for cherry blossoms with the cold winter and spring, but there were some nice views on Burnaby Mountain.

Canon SD780IS

I bought a Canon SD780IS ultra-compact digital camera today on sale at NCIX in Burnaby. I like having a pocket camera in addition to my Canon S5IS superzoom and my Nikon DSLR -- something that I can carry all the time without it getting in the way.

I wrote about my previous ultra-compact, the Canon SD400, here, and about how it finally died with a psychedelic screen of death here.

There have been significant advances in technology in the over three years between the SD400 and the SD780IS. The resolution has increased from 5MP to 12MP, but that's rather bogus on such a tiny sensor -- I've got the SD780IS set at 8MP, which will be plenty. The 780 has a larger LCD screen: 2.5" vs 2" -- many newer cameras have 3" screens, but that takes you out of the ultra-compact category. The "brains" of the camera have improved significantly as well with the Digic 4 processor, adding features such as face recognition, contrast correction, less shutter lag, 720P HD movie capture, etc. Other useful features include image stabilization, which the SD400 lacked, plus a higher ISO range.

The SD780IS is about the same size as the tiny SD400, and is even thinner. Here's a shot of the two side by side. I like the black finish on the 780 -- it's a bit classier and more unobtrusive than the silver SD400:

A few shots taken with the SD780IS. Tomorrow I'll take it for a walk along the creek and to a social event.

Choco the cat: not bad for such strong backlight with no fill-flash or exposure compensation.

Macro shot of sunflower seed sprouting on our balcony.

Yumi snapped a couple of shots of me in my office -- with flash...

... and without flash

Coho Fry Identified in Byrne Creek

Yumi managed to net a couple of fry in Byrne Creek today. To the best of our knowledge they are coho: sickle-shaped dorsal and anal fins with leading white/black rays, distinct parr marks, orange-tinged caudal, anal and adipose fins...

Definitely not chum, and do not have the white dorsal tip of cutthroat fry, and dorsal/anal fins definitely sickle-shaped, which cuts do not have...

NOTE: It is illegal to net fry and streamkeepers do so with the permission of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans for ID purposes only. Fry are returned unharmed to the creek.

Spring in Southeast Burnaby

Here are a few more spring photos from around Ron McLean Park in southeast Burnaby:

Red-Tailed Hawk in Byrne Creek Ravine

Nice to see a red-tailed hawk in Burnaby's Byrne Creek ravine today.

Great to See Bees A-Buzzin'

White Rock Beach Walk

A beautiful sunny day found us strolling along the beach at White Rock.

Surf scoters

Snowy Rice Lake

Rice Lake on Vancouver's north shore was still covered with ice and snow on the last weekend of March. It was a bright day, and we enjoyed the short ramble through the woods.

It's an easy trail through the wonderful forest.

A reflecting pool in the woods.

Yumi checking annual rings on a stump.

Leaf embedded in the icy lake.

New growth pushes up through last autumn's dead leaves.

Tiny shoots sprout from a mossy log.

Pockets of snow in the forest.

Salmonid Fry Spotted in Byrne Creek

Yumi and I saw salmonid fry in Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby, BC, today. After checking ID books against the photos we took, they appear to be chum salmon fry.

It's always exciting to see fry in this urban creek, and know that the few salmon that came back the previous autumn were successful in spawning and creating a new generation.

Rainy Byrne Creek

I had to get outside despite the rain and shake my afternoon drowsiness. Byrne Creek was running high and dirty, but there were some beautiful scenes. I saw some varied thrushes -- a male and a female hanging out together -- on the ravine path, and some red-winged blackbirds at the overflow pond. Unfortunately my bird photos were all blurry today because of the low light in the woods. My Canon S5IS does not perform that well in such conditions and I didn't want to carry my DSLR in the rain.

Byrne Creek with high, dirty flow in the rain.

A mossy tree - I didn't realize there were raindrops on the lens until I viewed the photos at home!

Signs of Spring at New Westminster Quay

A stroll along the New Westminster Quay revealed a few signs of spring on a lovely day.

Canon SD400 Psychedelic Screen of Death

Walking through the park this morning I came across some lovely frost on grass and leaves. I pulled out my omni-present Canon SD400 teeny weeny digital camera, only to find the LCD screen had died -- now all it shows is a psychedelic pattern.

Sigh. It was a great little camera. It was extremely portable and easy to use, with good quality. The only drawbacks were the lack of an image stabilizer and poor performance in low light. I carried it around in shirt pockets, coat pockets, belt packs, and briefcases for years, so I certainly got my money's worth out of it.

I think I'll go Canon again for an ultra-portable camera, though Olympus has some interesting models that are shock and water resistant...

Byrne Creek Fry Search

Fry have been found already in some Burnaby creeks, so Yumi and I checked out parts of Byrne Creek today. While we didn't spot any baby salmon yet, it was a lovely day to be down by the gurgling waters.

Yumi checking the creek for fry.

Some lovely fungus growing on a fallen tree.

Death scene. Feathers trailing down a tall cedar and spread on the ground...

There were over a dozen bald eagles soaring above the ravine.

I wonder if the above feathers were remnants of an eagle lunch...

Lonely Tree Perseveres in Stark Prairie Beauty

Months have gone by since my BC, AB, SK, MB road trip last autumn and I have yet to post any photos on my blog.

Here's a lonely, yet uplifiting tree in southern Saskatchewan to get things going.

Birding Bonanza at Reifel Sanctuary

Yumi and I spent three hours ambling around the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Delta, BC this morning. We had a great time, and I took 572 shots with my Nikon D300... Yikes! When I got home I winnowed that down by about half.

Got some good shots of lots of different species of birds, and today was a sandhill crane special -- to our surprise they were even eating out of people's hands! Not sure if it's such a great idea to get them that acclimatized to humans...

Ocean view from the sanctuary.

Walking along one of the dikes.

Swans in foreground against the north shore mountains.

The first of several shots of sandhill cranes.

You can see grains of wheat in this one's beak.

Head closeup with eyelid open... next shot same bird, eyelid closed.

Eyelid closed.

Eagle.

Cooper's Hawk (?) hunting the marsh.

Female mallard walking on ice.

Male mallard.

Female mallard eating grain.

American coot.

I believe this is a ring-necked duck.

Northern pintail.

Red-winged blackbirds mobbing a feeder.

A closer look at a blackbird.

This towhee appeared to be injured or ill.

What's a bunch of birds without a pigeon?

Yumi tempting chickadees with sunflower seeds and chopped walnuts.

A chickadee lands on Yumi's hand.

And one snags a sunflower seed.

Here's a little cutie... I'm still terrible at IDing these small ones...

And a closing shot of the lovely surroundings.

Cool NFB Streaming Video Website

The National Film Board has a new streaming video website to which they've posted many NFB films from over the decades.

You can search by category. For example, under "environment", I found this 1975 salmon migration and spawning documentary.

You can also search by keyword, and a few that I found useful as a streamkeeper are "salmon," "fish," "fishing," and "fisheries."

Once you're watching a film, lists of related films pop up.

Very cool! Potentially hugely time-wasting, er, I mean educational.

Yikes! As I watch the above salmon movie, it's bringing up issues that we're still nattering about nearly 35 years later...

You could spend hours deconstructing these films. For example, in the 1949 film Red Runs the Fraser, there was no mention that the slides that blocked fish passage in the Fraser River at Hell's Gate were caused by railway construction.

Byrne Creek Patrol Jan. 18, 2009

Yumi and I walked the ravine portion of Byrne Creek this afternoon for the first time in over a week. As we suspected, there was some significant erosion following the melting of the heavy snow we've had over the last few weeks.

Heading down the stairs into the ravine.

Tree fallen into creek at eroded bank.

A closer view.

Wild looking fungus on a fallen log.

Misty Burnaby Lake Wildfowl

Following the wildlife tree workshop, Yumi and I spent some time on Piper Spit enjoying the spooky view of Burnaby Lake in the mist, and the variety of ducks and geese.

Eagle in the mist.

Photographer on the spit in the mist.

Another view...

A kaleidoscope of ducks and geese.

A stylish wood duck couple.

Yumi and Canada Goose ogle each other.

From the end of the spit the shore was barely visible in the mist.

Testing Photo Posting With ScribeFire

Let's try posting a photo with ScribeFire. I'm having some trouble doing this....



OK, that finally seemed to work after I configured the FTP settings to my blog...

Except I don't see any way to add a border to the photo without going into editing the tag manually...

ScribeFire also seems to be doing something strange with paragraphs -- rather than using "p" tags it's using double "br" tags...

Snow Falling on Byrne Creek

It's still snowing in Burnaby, making for an enchanting walk around Byrne Creek this afternoon.

Heron in the snowy creek.

Yumi on the creek trail.

Paul on the creek trail.

Paul and Yumi on the footbridge.

Eagles on Squamish, Cheakamus Rivers

Thousands of eagles gather every winter along the Squamish, Cheakamus and Mamquam rivers in the vicinity of Squamish and Brackendale, BC. This year's count was way down, and there were few to be seen at Brackendale Eagles Provincial Park. Yumi and I got up close to some of these magnificent raptors near the Tenderfoot Hatchery.

Along the Squamish River.

A kingfisher along the road to the hatchery.

Bald eagle surveying the countryside.

Entrance to the hatchery.

This eagle was ringed by photographers but took the paparazzi in stride.

Yumi getting closer to the blase bird in the photo above.

Raptor working on what appeared to be a coho salmon carcass.

Large salmon carcass framed by chain-link fence.

There were at least six sated eagles resting in this tree.

Snow Sledding in Ron McLean Park

With work off at noon on Dec. 24, Yumi decided she wanted to try tobogganing in Ron McLean Park. The catch was we have no sled or toboggan, but we had a coated sheet of cardboard in the garage, and a piece of rope and a couple of holes later -- voila!

The snow was coming down hard, and it was already knee-deep in the park.

Yumi getting set on her "sled."

Heading down the modest hill.

And slogging back up the hill...

With my bad back, I took photos, and gave Yumi pushes to boost her speed... No bouncing around for me!

As people got home from work, more families joined in the fun.

Heading home into our townhouse complex.

Snow Accumulates in Burnaby

The snow kept coming overnight and there was a fresh accumulation of ten to 15cm this morning, so I went out at 6:45 a.m. to shovel. I cleared the path in front of our section of townhouse units, and the trail to the back gate, but the road can wait for the contractor to show up with his truck! I wonder if people who need to drive to work are making it out...

Yumi heading off to work.

You can see the accumulation on our balcony.

The total must be up to around 25-35cm by now with the previous snow. Not much for my Saskatchewan roots, or up the valley toward the mountains, or in the interior, but it's enough to cause huge problems here.

Choco, our indoor cat, was amused for about 30 seconds...

Snow doughnut, with icing sugar piling up beneath the hole :-).

The sun comes up, highlighting the snow.

Clearing Snow in Burnaby

It's snowing again in Burnaby, BC, so it looks like we may have a White Christmas if it doesn't melt. The forecast is for cold weather for a few more days...

Paul with the shovel.

Yumi following up with the broom.

Snowy Deer Lake Walk

Deer Lake in Burnaby was covered with ice and snow this weekend. Yumi and I walked the completed trail that now goes all the way around the lake. It was -8C to -10C and I was happy to find that my Nikon DSLR stood up fine to the cold for the hour-long ramble.

Gulls on the swings at the beach.

Yumi with ducks congregating in the only open water near the beach.

A gateway to the new "official" trail on the south shore.

Yumi edging her way onto the ice. More adventurous, or foolhardy, souls were skating on the lake despite the warning signs saying not to.

Deer Lake has numerous streams running into it that can undermine the ice, and temperatures rarely get cold enough, long enough, for safe skating. Thereby the prohibition...

Me bundled up on the shore.

The Shadbolt Centre across the frozen lake.

Puffed up against the cold.

Circling the west end of the lake on the boardwalk.

A hardy heron.

A semi-frozen stream enters the lake.

Snow Scenes Around Byrne Creek

It was fun crunching through the recent snow taking photos along Byrne Creek this afternoon.

It's actually a heron, but I like to call this "Two Cranes" :-)

Female Chum Awaits Death in Byrne Creek

This female chum salmon was quietly awaiting death in a calm pool in Byrne Creek this morning. Her spawning mission accomplished, her life's purpose was done. In her deteriorating state she appeared to have gone blind, as she didn't react to my looming shape, but when I stepped in the water she sensed the movement, her shallow breathing accelerated, and she stirred her body -- battered from digging a nest for her eggs in the gravel. I snapped a quick photo and left her in peace.

Chum Spawn in Byrne Creek

Chum salmon have been returning to Burnaby's Byrne Creek over the last couple of weeks. You can check out the website for updated information on numbers as streamkeepers monitor the run.

I took a video of a few spawners today and posted it on You Tube -- my first YT contribution. The quality is not the greatest as I shot it with a digital camera, not a video camera, and I'm still experimenting with editing and processing techniques.

Calgary to Waterton to Lethbridge

I left my cousin's place on an acreage west of Calgary this morning and zipped into the city to drop off a package for a friend. Mission accomplished, I backtracked west on the No. 1 -- and ran into a near whiteout of a snowstorm! Groan. Just what I needed after two days of rain.

I persevered, heading south down the 22, and within half an hour the skies cleared, the sun came out, and I enjoyed a wonderful drive through the beautiful, rolling, ranch country with the mountains to the west. As I cruised south, view upon view pulled me to the side of the road to shoot photos. The silvers, yellows, browns and golds of the autumn landscape were amazing, with the blue, purple and gray backdrop of the distant mountains, and the white clouds scudding across the vast, azure, western sky!

When I hit the No. 3, I backtracked west to visit the Frank Slide, then it was east again on the No. 3 and then south on the No. 6 to Waterton National Park.

I arrived in Waterton to find the village literally boarded up for the season and just a few hardy tourists wandering around. The townsite was full of deer. The countryside was gorgeous and I took a pile of photos. I had not visited Waterton in over 30 years, and the short sojurn today sparked weak memories, at best. But I vowed to bring my wife Yumi to Waterton in the spring, or next autumn, to make fresh memories together.

I left Waterton reluctantly, as fragile fragments of camping in the park as a kid with my family began to form and tease over the intervening decades... Were we driving the Rambler? Did we have that huge, heavy, yellow and brown canvas tent?

It was time to head onward into the future again...

I took the No. 5 north and east to Lethbridge. I ran into another line of windmills, about 20 or so, not as many as the dozens along the No. 3... I wonder how much of Alberta's electricity comes from the wind?

Today made up for the last two days of non-stop rain. I loved cruising along the nearly deserted roads at 10 - 20kph below the limit and pulling over whenever I felt like it to drink in the views and frame a few shots.

Sorry, the photos will have to wait until I get home in about ten days -- I don't have the gear and software to get them onto this ancient notebook computer that I'm using....

Pitt, Hayward Lakes

The Thanksgiving long weekend provided an opportunity to get out of town a bit and take some photos.

Pitt Lake

Pitt-Addington reserve dike trail.

Trail near Hayward Lake.

Autumn Signs Along Byrne Creek

A ramble down the Byrne Creek ravine revealed signs of autumn, though a holdout garter snake proved it wasn't too cold yet.

An empty bench in Ron McLean Park invites contemplation of changing colours.

The return of an American Dipper to the creek is a sure sign of the impending arrival of spawning salmon.

These bouncy little birds love to dive under the water for salmon eggs.

Not the best shot of a garter snake -- but I was happy to see they were still enjoying a bit of sun as the cold comes on...

Rivers Day 2008

Byrne Creek Streamkeepers had a booth up at Rivers Day on the BCIT campus in Burnaby today. It was a gorgeous day with lots to see and do.

Hanging a temporary Stream of Dreams mural for the event.

Byrne Creek display.

Rivers Day founder Mark Angelo and BC Environment Minister Barry Penner.

VIPs release cutthroat trout into Guichon Creek.

A curious ball of fluff watches the activities.

Mother Raccoon, Kit Killed on Burnaby's Southridge Dr.

A mother raccoon and a kit were killed by a vehicle on Southridge Dr. in southeast Burnaby recently. I came across their carcasses at the side of the road today. Thanks to the kind soul who moved them off the bloody pavement and placed them side by side on the grass.

It's high time people slowed down on Southridge -- the speed limit is 50kph but I'd say the average speed is around 70, with speeds of 80 and more not uncommon. It's a wide, four-lane road, but that is no excuse. When I drive the road I feel that I'm obstructing traffic if I'm moving at less than 60-65, and I am passed regularly at that speed. I often walk sections of the road and despite the wide sidewalks, find the roaring trucks, zooming cars, and screaming motorcycles intimidating at times. It would take only a split-second of distraction for a driver doing 70 or 80 to hop the curb and mow down a pedestrian.

I was going to use the headline "Mother, Child Killed on Southridge Speedway" but felt that would be too sensationalistic.

Yet it was a mother and her child...

But I guess we won't care until it is a Homo sapiens mother and child lying at the side of the road.

And perhaps not even then.

Life in the fast lane, eh?

Canoeing, Camping Lightning Lake

We finally got away for our first camping trip this year! I'm zonked so I'll add to this later, but here are a few photos....

Osprey on a perch.

Osprey in flight.

Loon in the morning mist.

The above shots were taken hand-held in a moving canoe at my Canon S5 IS's maximum telephoto of 432mm (35mm equivalent). Not bad, though I wouldn't want to blow them up to 8 X 10s :-). They were taken within about 30 minutes of each other, showing how fast the light can change in the morning in the mountains.

Byrne Creek Foliage

A refreshing walk along Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby...

Alternative Sidewalk in White Rock

I ran across a SEA (street edge alternative) street in White Rock today, but on taking a closer look, it appeared to be more of an alternative sidewalk. SEA streets do away with curbs and gutters, and replace them with vegetated swales to reduce the impact of rain into storm drain systems and filter out pollution. This street had small swales but it still had a curb... Hmm... There were openings cut into the curb here and there, with small guides to let street runoff in, but I don't think they would accomplish much.

As you can see, the regular storm drain is still in place, and the teeny street diversion would not move much water into the swale.

I'm not an engineer, and I'm scratching my head on this one :-). Most such projects attempt to capture the polluted water from streets... Not nearly as much pollution on the sidewalks...

Canoeing Deer Lake

We didn't get away this Labour Day weekend, but today we did at least get the canoe over to Deer Lake, just a ten-minute drive from our place in Burnaby. As we were paddling along something was bothering me, and it wasn't until we got to the far end that I figured it out -- we'd forgotten our life jackets! Dangerous and illegal....

We got back to the beach, and I zipped home to pick up the jackets. Then we did two more laps of the small lake -- I guess it was good we hadn't gone too far from home :-).

The lillies were covered with thousands of little insects.

Byrne Creek Sediment Pond Profiling

The sediment pond upstream of the Byrne Creek artificial spawning habitat is to be cleaned out next week, and streamkeepers decided to do a depth profile of the accumulated silt and gravel, so that we can learn how fast the pond fills after it's been cleaned.

Streamkeeper John W. told me about a method using a transverse line knotted at 1-meter intervals, from which a weighted line is dropped with tabs at 10cm intervals. The method worked like a charm; however, my wife Yumi had to go through some contortions to anchor the line on the side of the pond with a lot of growth next to it!

Yumi setting up the ropes.

Me checking out the drop line.

Streamkeeper John G. helps collect data.

Yumi burrowing through the bush.

Whistler, Lillooet, Lytton Loop

Itchy feet and an itchy trigger finger put me on the road today to get out into the mountains and shoot some photos. I went north up the 99 to Squamish, Whistler and Pemberton, carried on past Duffey Lake and over to Lillooet. Then it was back south to Lytton, Hope, and home to Burnaby. It never ceases to amaze me how varied the landscape is in BC, and how quickly you can transition from one ecological zone to another. The weather also changes by the hour as you travel, and today I encountered everything from hot sun to torrential rain.

On the 99 north.

Near the Joffre Lakes parking lot.

Near the Joffre Lakes parking lot.

Cayoosh Creek.

Duffey Lake.

Setton Lake, just west of Lillooet.

I've stopped at this spot perhaps four or five times over the last ten years, and I have never seen this lake calm. Powerful winds funnel down between the mountains, raising whitecaps and making boats tied to the dock buck like broncos mad at being tethered.

Heading south on highway 12.

North of Lytton.

Spider Lunches On Fly

This spider had already wrapped up this fly on our balcony when I came across the scene. The spider withdrew at my presence, but when it figured I wasn't a threat, it descended back onto the fly to continue its lunch.

Taken with my new Nikon D300 with the 18-200 zoom at its maximum of 200mm. Shots taken at various ISOs from 200 - 800, resulting in exposures of around 1/250 at F stops of 6.3 - 9. The difference in background colours resulted from using the flash in some shots.

Nikon D300

I've added a Nikon D300 with a Nikkor AF-S DX 18-200mm zoom (27-300mm equivalent on a 35mm camera) to my arsenal. It was a major, and expensive, step to get back into SLR photography after over a decade of sticking to digital point-and-shoot cameras. The D300 is a big, heavy beast, but a DSLR has much greater potential creative control and image quality. It'll be fun going through the manual and playing around with all the menus and functions!

I have several old 35mm film Nikons and a bunch of Nikkor lenses that are basically worthless now -- no trade-in value at all, though I paid several thousand dollars for the gear (in mid-1970s to early 1980s dollars!). While these old, magnificent, optics can still be used on high-end digital Nikons like the D300, it's a bit of a hassle, and when you have a super-zoom that pretty much covers the range of four or five of the old lenses....

But I guess it all worked out -- though I've never been a professional photographer, I made enough money using that old equipment to pay for it, and I hope to do the same with the big investment in the D300 and lens...

The "worthless" collection...

The hefty new D300.

Byrne Creek Walk

I was pleased to see many fish in the sediment pond in the Byrne Creek spawning habitat today. They ranged in size from a few centimeters to around 25 cm, and were likely this year's coho and cutthroat fry, along with larger cutthroat trout.

A dragonfly on a blackberry.

I love seeing bees, particularly as they seem to be on the decline.

I've cropped the same shot very tight so you can see the pollen on its head.

A waxwing -- they look so cute, like little punk-rocker Robin Hoods :-).

Deer Lake Sunset From Baldwin House

The Stream of Dreams Murals Society rented the Baldwin House on Deer Lake to put up some out-of-town program teams that are attending a workshop this weekend.

We had a spectacular sunset from the Arthur Erickson-designed house overlooking the lake.

Remembrance Day Poppy Changes

Going through boxes of old stuff the other day I ran across a Canadian Remembrance Day poppy that must date from the early 1960s, judging by the rest of the mementos. I was surprised at how much smaller it was than recent poppies.

Streamkeepers Tackle Invasive Plants

Byrne Creek Streamkeepers tackled masses of invasive plants that had overwhelmed native plants and trees planted by the City of Burnaby on the sides of the access ramp to the creek off Southridge Dr. Unfortunately, the City has no invasive species plan or coordinator, or apparently any budget to maintain what it has planted.

Streamkeepers to the rescue!

Thirteen volunteers put in a total of 32.5 hours this morning unearthing conifers, ferns, salmonberry, and other native plants from the clutches of Himalayan Blackberry, Morning Glory, English Ivy, and Scotch Broom. We filled two heaping truckloads of invasive plants and took them to the City's recycling centre on Still Creek.

One of the areas we worked on. It was so overgrown that these conifers were not even visible. As we cut down 2-meter high blackberry we came across more stunted trees.

Hauling the invasive plants up the ramp.

Filling the truck.

New Edmonds Library Groundbreaking

The City of Burnaby held a groundbreaking ceremony for the new public library that is being built in the Edmonds area. The new library is part of the impressive revitalization of the Edmonds area that has been underway for several years now, and that will continue with many more projects including a new community centre and public swimming pool.

The Edmonds area was home to Burnaby's first City Hall, but has gone through a few challenging decades. The City, developers, businesses, the RCMP, and community groups have been doing a great job at turning things around.

L-R: Councillor Dan Johnston, Mayor Derek Corrigan, Library Board Chair Ruth Hardy.

Sorry, I didn't catch the name of the RCMP constable...

The Library Board in no particular order: Ruth Hardy (Chair), Gary Wong (Vice Chair), Andy Chiang, Iqbal Dhanani, Linda Eaves, Ernest Maitland, Karen Purdy, Mondee Redman.

L-R: MLA Harry Bloy, Councillors Garth Evans, Nick Volkow, Dan Johnston, Gary Begin.

L-R: MP Peter Julian, RCMP S/Sgt. John Buis, MLA Raj Chouhan.

I invite businesses and citizens to join the Edmonds Town Centre Business & Community Association to help in the revitalization of the Edmonds area. The ETCBCA will have a website up soon. We are breaking for the summer, and our next meeting will be Tuesday, Sept. 9, 2008, at 6:00 p.m., at the Eastburn Community Centre on Edmonds St.

Griffiths Overpass, South Spur Urban Trail Opening

The beautiful pedestrian bridge over Griffiths Dr. in southeast Burnaby was officially opened today. I attended wearing two hats: president of the Edmonds Town Centre Business & Community Association and president of the Stream of Dreams Murals Society. A refurbished Stream of Dreams mural was also officially unveiled on another bridge just down the trail. It used Dreamfish salvaged from the original Stream of Dreams mural that was at the corner of Kingsway and Edmonds for about six years.

The soaring arc connects the urban trail and Byrne Creek Secondary on the east side of Griffiths to the trails and Edmonds SkyTrain station on the west side.

Ian Wasson of the City's planning department MC'd the event.

Mayor Derek Corrigan.

MLA Raj Chouhan.

Stream of Dreams Executive Director Joan Carne.

Untying the ribbon -- the new sustainable way :-)

L-R: Mayor Derek Corrigan, SDMS Artistic Director Louise Towell, SDMS Executive Director Joan Carne, MLA Raj Chouhan, Burnaby Parks Chair Paul McDonell, Councillor Sav Dhaliwal.

Checking out the renewed mural.

One part of the mural had an eye shape, so SDMS Artistic Director Louise Towell created a special Dreamfish to highlight it.

Deer Lake Wildlife, Views

Yumi and I took a 10.1 km (according to my GPS) ramble from our place in southeast Burnaby all the way to Deer Lake and back on this gorgeous afternoon. We saw lots of animals!

The view from the beach.

The turtles were out in force, soaking up the sun.

A huge tadpole -- it was almost as big as some of the frogs we saw.

Hope it's not an invasive bullfrog...

What's a carp doing in the lake? A dumped pet?

This frog seemed unconcerned at our presence.

Here's another one.

A pretty wood duck.

And here she is with her cute babies.

A waxwing convention.

Heading up toward the former prison farmland.

Dandelions ripe for blowing :-).

The marsh near the viewing tower is great for watching tree swallows.

Spectacular clouds.

Revitalized Stream of Dreams Installed on SkyTrain Bridge

Several volunteers helped to arrange refurbished Dreamfish on a bridge carrying the Urban Trail across SkyTrain tracks near Edmonds Station today. The fish were salvaged from the original Stream of Dreams mural that was at the corner of Kingsway and Edmonds in southeast Burnaby for many years.

That original mural had to come down when the vacant lot finally began development. SDMS volunteers removed the Dreamfish and salvaged as many of them as possible for re-use if their colours were still strong, or refurbishment.

It's exciting that they are finally going back up! There will be an opening ceremony for the bridge and new mural on June 11 at 3:30. The bridge is just a few blocks south of Edmonds Skytrain station, heading toward Byrne Creek Secondary.

Iona Beach Jetty Walk -- Planes, Birds

This gorgeous Victoria Day Sunday, Yumi and I went to Iona Beach Regional Park. The park is a favourite spot for airplane watchers, as it has a great view of Vancouver International Airport. It's also a great place for bird watching, and here are several photos of both natural and man-made birds.

We walked the length of the 4km jetty extending into the Strait of Georgia that is also the sewage outfall for the nearby treatment plant. It's funny how far 4 or 4.5km feels when it's a straight line with no nearby frames of reference!

The setting:

First the "real" birds:

We saw several bald eagles.

A gull.

One of over a dozen herons.

We also saw many cormorants.

Now here is a gallery of prop and jet passenger planes from several carriers. They are impressive coming in low and heading for the Vancouver airport. After awhile, though, as they keep coming, and coming, about every two to three minutes or so, my mind began to think of all that fuel being burned, and all the carbon emitted!

More Birds, Bugs

It's a gorgeous sunny day here in Burnaby, and I took a stroll up and down Byrne Creek this afternoon. I came across two species of woodpeckers and several kinds of bugs.

Pileated woodpecker.

I think this is a female hairy woodpecker.

An American robin with a worm.

Striders in Byrne Creek -- dunno if they're fighting or mating.

Ladybug.

A group of sow bugs.

I was also buzzed by a hummingbird and saw an unidentified raptor hovering over Taylor Park.

Byrne Creek Birds, Bugs, Snakes

I walked Byrne Creek from the top of the ravine all the way down to Marine Way today.

Shed garter snake skin.

There were lots of little garter snakes along the dike basking in the sun. I had to be careful not to stomp the harmless snakes as I walked through the grass.

The caterpillars are back attacking trees in the spawning habitat.

I don't like killing any beasties, but on the other hand, these trees provide crucial shade for the sediment pond...

I was happy to see a goldfinch in the habitat.

I also saw three bald eagles soaring high overhead.

Another Trillium in South Burnaby

Yumi and I found another trillium near Byrne Creek today. It's only the second one we've seen this year.

BC Ferries Sunset

Coming home from Victoria we had a wonderful sunset on the ferry.

Byrne Creek Chum Release With Clinton School

Students from Clinton Elementary School in south Burnaby released chum salmon fry into Byrne Creek this morning with the help of DFO and Byrne Creek Streamkeepers. This is one of my favourite annual events because the kids are so excited and happy, and it connects them a bit to nature.

DFO's Maurice Coulter-Boisvert talks salmon.

Kids get chum fry to release.

My wife Yumi assists.

Kids point and marvel as silver hatchery fry turn brown to blend into the creek.

Chum schooling in the creek.

Trillium Graces Byrne Creek

A rare trillium has appeared in Byrne Creek Ravine Park. We usually spot only one or two of these flowers in the riparian zone each year. Apparently it is illegal to pick them in British Columbia. I see we spotted one on almost the same day last year and I posted a photo to this blog.

We also spotted a large bumblebee checking out a dandelion.

Choices Earth Day BBQ - Byrne Creek Tours

Choices in the Park hosted a salmon BBQ for Earth Day, and once again Byrne Creek Streamkeepers had our booth set up for the event. We also did two tours of the creek for people interested in getting out in nature and learning a bit about what streamkeepers do.

Thanks again to Choices for having donations from the BBQ this weekend and last weekend going to help efforts to keep Byrne Creek clean and habitable for all the fish and wildlife that it supports.

We presented two hand-cut, hand-painted cedar salmon to Choices CEO Mark Vickars and Choices in the Park manager Dominic Uy in appreciation of their efforts.

Me, Dominic and Mark

Pointing out park features on creek tour.

Byrne Creek Habitat Looks Like Pea Soup

The spawning channel, sediment pond and overflow pond in the Byrne Creek spawning and rearing habitat in southeast Burnaby looked like pea soup around noon today. Yumi and I had gone down hoping to ID some fry (baby fish); however, visibility was zero. The creek was clean, so the sediment was likely coming down the stormwater pipes along Southridge Dr.

Fortunately, we did not see any dead fish, but we'll watch closely for the next few days. We called the incident in to the City, and an environment officer said the situation would be investigated.

The overflow pond.

The sediment pond.

Yumi and I checked several areas up the hill along Southridge Dr. but did not spot any smoking guns. Hope the City has better luck.

More Fry, Oil, Flicker in Byrne Creek

Yumi and I spotted more fry in Byrne Creek today, along with a flicker in the ravine park, but were dismayed by the amount of oil accumulating in the sediment pond.

Salmon fry in the sediment pond

Blue and purple oily sheen on water surface

I think this is a common flicker of the red-shafted race.

More Signs of Spring

Cherry blossoms, a plump robin, and a small school of salmonid fry (baby salmon) all pointed to signs of spring on our Byrne Creek ramble after lunch today.

Spring Salmonberry

I patrolled for fry this afternoon in Byrne Creek this afternoon and was happy to find several more spread in pools in the spawning habitat. As I was scanning one pool a curious chickadee flitted over and danced from branch to branch just a foot or two from my face. We had a little chat and then he bounced off as I moved on. More salmonberry bushes are beginning to blossom.

Reifel Sanctuary Birding Foray

The Easter weekend brought a lot of people out to the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in BC's Lower Mainland today. Yumi and I spent over three hours walking and taking photographs. I'm amazed at the variety of beautiful birds we saw today, ranging from teeny balls of fluff to impressive great horned owls and cranes. Before we even arrived at the sanctuary, we ran across a field filled with thousands of snow geese:

We could also hear killdeer, and we finally spotted three of them across the road from the snow geese:

I'll just throw up a bunch of photos from this point -- enjoy, I sure had fun taking them!

American Coot

American Wigeon

A territorial Canada Goose that took some feathers out of a mallard's butt...

Bufflehead

Female Ring-Necked Duck

Great Horned Owl -- this fellow had about $50,000 worth of huge lenses and spotting scopes locked onto him :-)

Mallard male

Mallard male face closeup

Mallard female face closeup

Lovely female mallard feathers

Lovely female mallard feathers, take two...

Northern Pintail

Wood Duck

Redwing Blackbird

Sandhill Crane

Sandhill Crane profile

Sandhill Crane closeup

Rice Lake Ramble

Taking advantage of a sunny Good Friday holiday, Yumi and I did a quick walk around Rice Lake in North Vancouver.

Boundary Bay Walk

Hoping to see Snowy Owls, Yumi and I headed out to Boundary Bay at the south end of 72nd St. but we missed them this season. It was still a great day for a walk.

We ran across a Great Blue Heron convention

Signs of Spring Along Byrne Creek

It was a beautiful sunny day today and I took advantage of it for a long walk along Byrne Creek.

Sun splashing off the water.

Red alder -- I'm allergic to the pollen -- dominates the spawning channel.

Mayfly larva in a pool -- there's a photo of a hatched mayfly in yesterday's blog entry.

Pileated woodpecker in Byrne Creek ravine. I love these flashy birds.

This was a hand-held shot in a forested ravine with my Canon S5 IS at its maximum 432mm telephoto (35mm camera equivalent), so don't look too closely :-).

Foam in Byrne Creek

There was a suds event in Byrne Creek this afternoon. When I started on my walk shortly after 11:00 the creek was clear. I spent some time sweeping the lower reaches, the spawning channel, the sediment pond, and the overflow pond for fry, but saw nothing -- no fry, no smolts, no cuts, zip.

On my way home I took the upper ridge trail, and about halfway along I spotted a pileated woodpecker, and as I was lining him up in my camera, I noticed the creek way down below was quite foamy. Snapping a few shots of the woodpecker, I headed up the hill and found almost no sign of foam in Griffith's Pond near the skytrain station. When I went down the Ron McLean path, there was quite a bit of foam coming down from upstream of the Hell Hole at around 1:15. So the source was likely somewhere upstream of Griffiths.

Byrne Creek Mayfly Hatch

Mayflies were skipping along Byrne Creek this afternoon. Yumi and I didn't spot any salmon fry yet, but they should be popping out of the gravel soon...

We also saw many small apparent redds, or nests of eggs that fish deposit.

Frosty Fotos Around Byrne Creek

An overnight frost lent some sparkle to Byrne Creek Ravine and the salmon spawning habitat this morning.

Successful Byrne Creek Fish Trapping Survey

Byrne Creek Streamkeepers found 17 cutthroat trout in the Gee traps that they placed in the creek yesterday. While far off the record, we were happy to see fish at all as the creek has been hit by several toxic spills through storm drains over the last couple of years. One disappointment was the lack of coho salmon smolts (yearlings); however, we had not been expecting much as there have been almost no successful coho spawners in the last couple of years.

We handle the fish as gently and quickly as possible as we size and ID them, and then return them to the creek. NOTE: It is illegal to trap fish, and streamkeepers do so with DFO permission.

Measuring a cutthroat.

Streamkeepers head up the ravine.

Fish-Trapping Streamkeepers Find Herons

Members of the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers set traps in the creek today hoping to catch some fish to see what species are resident. We do this every year under the auspices of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to gather data. (Note that trapping is illegal unless sanctioned by DFO). We weren't the only ones out looking for fish! We spotted herons several times -- likely repeat viewings of two birds.

This one was fishing the big pool where the stairs come down into the ravine from Brynlor.

This one was further up the ravine.

Streamkeepers bait Gee traps.

'Porridge' Fouls Byrne Creek Again

The mystery "porridge" has fouled Byrne Creek yet again. We know it comes down the Hedley St. storm drain and into the creek, but the City of Burnaby's engineering department has not managed to confirm the source yet. This has been going on for months now in a haphazard manner. Hope they track it this time!

The stuff was pooled all along the creek. While it does not appear to be toxic, it has no business coming down storm drains into the creek.

UPDATE on Feb. 15: City staff have found the source and are dealing with it. While for legal reasons they can't tell us the details, streamkeepers are relieved that this ongoing irritant will be under control. Thank you!

Sun Splashes Byrne Creek

The sun broke out for a couple of hours today, so I trundled off to do a quick loop of Byrne Creek ravine, checking for fry along the way. Fry are baby fish, and while the coho and chum salmon returns to the creek were very poor last autumn, I'm hoping we did have some successful spawners. In the past we've seen fry as early as mid-February, though I think that is a bit unusual. Streamkeepers will be keeping an eye out for the cute little fish over the next couple of months.

Heading down the stairs into the ravine.

White Rock Sunset

There was a beautiful sunset at the White Rock pier late this afternoon. We were also thrilled to get close to a Cooper's Hawk.

Water patterns as the tide comes in.

Yumi checking out the tidal pools.

White Rock pier as the sun drops in the sky.

Another view of the pier.

Yumi spotted this Cooper's Hawk in a tree and a few seconds later it swooped away and down onto the beach. As we walked along, Yumi saw it again, and we got within four or five meters of it. (If it's a Sharp-Shinned, let me know, we're still learning the bird ID business :-)

Road Oil Enters Byrne Creek Through Storm Drain

Oil that had accumulated on Southpoint Dr. in southeast Burnaby was flowing down the rain drain at the bottom end of the cul-de-sac and into Byrne Creek this afternoon as a steady drizzle washed pollution off the street.

Can you imagine the cumulative flow of this crap into drains all over the city -- all of which lead to local creeks, rivers and the ocean? Yuck!

It is precisely for this reason that streamkeepers are pushing the city to build bio-filtration swales and ponds. There are well-known, well-established ways to ameliorate the impact of such pollution on fish and wildlife habitat.

Ringing In the New Year at Tozenji

Japanese traditionally go to a temple on New Year's Eve for a short service and then to ring in the New Year on the temple bell. For the last several years Yumi and I have been going to Tozenji Temple in Coquitlam. It's a beautiful facility, and the head priest always brings the service to a close with a funny, yet moving, sermon.

Preparing to start the bell ringing.

Looking into the temple from outside after the service.

Squamish Day Trip = Eagles, Salmon, Rivers, Ocean

The Brackendale eagle run is underway (provincial park info here), so Yumi and I took a day trip up the Sea to Sky highway to the Squamish area for some nature photography.

We stopped off at the beautiful new tourist information building in Squamish to pick up a new provincial parks annual parking pass, and were pleased to discover that the price had been cut in half to $25.

Next stop was the eagle viewing area along the Squamish River. There was plenty of snow, and few eagles -- the volunteer guides had recorded only 16 adults and a few juveniles today. There wasn't much salmon spawner evidence either -- few carcasses and almost none of the distinctive odour :-).

Here are a few shots from that location:

The Squamish River on a sullen winter day.

Eagle on the shore of the Squamish.

Gulls reeling through the leaden sky.

Disappointed by the meager count we decided to head off to the Cheakamus River and the North Vancouver Outdoor School. The gate to the property was open, so we drove in. The manager was out and about wearing a Squamish Streamkeepers cap so we introduced ourselves as fellow streamkeepers, and he told us there were eagles visible from the dike on the river.

There were more spawner carcasses, and we got a lot closer to several eagles as well.

A view of the Cheakamus looking south from the bridge on the Paradise Valley Road.

The Cheakamus looking north from the bridge on the Paradise Valley Road.

Bald eagle on its perch over the river.

Here's some evidence of the lifting power of eagles: a salmon skeleton draped in a tree!

This salmon spine was around 80-90cm long, so it was a hefty fish.

A salmon jaw in the same tree -- perhaps it belongs to the skeleton above.

On the way home we stopped at Porteau Cove to take in some great views of Howe Sound.

Gull framed by pier view-tower structure.

We made one more stop, driving up to the Cypress Mountain viewpoint. It's days like this that make up for all the winter rains!

Looking south over Vancouver and Burnaby with Burnaby Mountain to the left.

And one more eagle soaring over the Cypress Mountain snow line.

Bold Chickadees, Towhees at Foreshore Park

While Yumi did some Boxing Day shopping (at the Salvation Army Thrift Store in keeping with our sustainable Christmas :-), I headed down to Foreshore Park in southeast Burnaby and found bushes quivering with friendly chickadees and some towhees that were quite bold for their usually shy species. One of the chickadees was so forward and used to being hand-fed that several times it nearly fluttered onto my head or my camera.

Chickadee on a blackberry.

Chickadee in a chain-link fence.

Towhee in the bush.

I'm still terrible at distinguishing sparrow-like birds...

Perhaps it's a wren, or a finch. Then again, if a wren and a finch had a good time, it could be a wrench! :-)

North arm of the Fraser River under looming winter clouds.

For those who are interested, all photos shot on this day were taken with a Canon S5 IS digital superzoom, usually at the Auto setting, but a few with exposure compensation. All these photos were shot with the camera on a light tripod used as a monopod to follow the birds, because even image stabilization cannot compensate enough for extreme telephoto shots on overcast days. I noticed that often the auto-focusing had trouble locking onto these small, fast-moving balls of feathers.

Fishing Birds Feast on Byrne Creek Trout

When Yumi and I arrived at the sediment pond in the artificial spawning habitat on Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby today on our weekly salmon spawner patrol, a heron struggled into the air, two rotund cormorants plunged off of the concrete lip at the lower end and into the pond, and a kingfisher chattered at us angrily.

We saw a couple of dead cutthroat on the bottom of the pond in the 25-30cm range and for a heart-stopping moment we thought there may have been another fish kill, but we finally saw a couple of live trout as well.

The two cormorants refused to fly -- they simply dove under and swam from end to end depending on where we moved to, and we finally surmised that perhaps they had gorged themselves on trout to the point that they were having trouble getting airborne. The big schools of trout were all gone, perhaps they skedaddled downstream when they came under protracted attacks from all the fishing birds. Maybe the birds had killed the large trout and then had been unable to swallow them? Or they were finally full?

(Note: By "refusing to fly" I don't mean that we were trying to drive the cormorants off -- we were being as non-threatening as possible and just observing -- I've just never gotten that close to cormorants before!)

Note: the apparently different colouring on the bottom bird is just a matter of lighting and exposure.

Heron in Byrne Creek Ravine

A heron was fishing in Byrne Creek today and I got a couple of photos of it on my ravine ramble. It had its eye on me, so as I angled for a better view, I kept talking to it in a soothing tone in an attempt not to flush it -- they can be quite twitchy. That seemed to work as I snapped a few quick ones and then quietly moved away and let the bird continue looking for its lunch.

Salmon Patrol Finds Dead Cutthroat

On our weekly Byrne Creek salmon spawner patrol, Yumi and I found no spawners but did find a dead 23cm male cutthroat trout with no visible external damage. There were live trout in the same pool, so we don't know why this one died.

Burnaby Rainbow, Sunset

A lovely rainbow graced Burnaby late this afternoon, followed by a golden sunset.

Byrne Creek Sees Few Spawning Salmon

It's been a disappointing spawning season so far this autumn on Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby, with only around 20 chum and coho salmon tallied. Another issue that has cropped up in the last few years is also being repeated -- the lack of spawning success in coho. We keep finding female coho dead before they have laid their eggs, and today Yumi and I processed another.

NOTE: My usual disclaimer -- it is illegal to disturb spawning salmon. Streamkeepers receive training and also have permission from the Department of Fisheries and Oceans to process dead spawners and record data about them. I think it is important to share our volunteer efforts with the public; however, I occasionally worry that people may get the idea that these fish and their eggs are fair game -- they are not!

Beautiful coho found in Byrne Creek today.

Unfortunately, this female did not spawn before she died.

Some people may also be confused about why these fish die. Salmon are anadromous -- that's a big word that means that during their lives they move from fresh water, to salt water, and back to fresh water again to lay their eggs. This entails major changes in their organs -- from ingesting minerals in fresh water to extruding salt in the ocean. Some species of fish can repeat this cycle, but when salmon come back to their birth creeks, streams and rivers to spawn, it's a one-way trip. They stop eating when they enter fresh water and their health begins to steadily deteriorate -- all of the energy in their bodies goes to keeping their reproductive systems and brains going as their flesh fails. If a fish cannot reach its native spawning grounds and find a partner within a set period, it will die before it can spawn.

After collecting data about the fish, Yumi and I voiced a brief appreciation for her efforts, and then we cut the carcass in half (this ensures that streamkeepers don't double count fish) and returned it to the creek where it will provide essential nutrients for the food chain.

Autumn at VanDusen Gardens

The colours were wonderful this afternoon at Vancouver's VanDusen Botanical Gardens.

Yumi checking out the pond.

We were graced by several bald eagles soaring overhead.

Spawning Salmon Back in Byrne Creek

Spawning salmon have returned to Burnaby's Byrne Creek with streamkeepers spotting both chum and coho in the last week.

I did a spawner patrol today and came across five live chum salmon and two dead ones, which I processed for length, sex and spawning status. Please note that it is illegal to disturb spawning salmon, and that streamkeepers undergo training for monitoring techniques and report their findings to the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

If you come across spawning salmon, feel free to observe them from a distance, but do not disturb them, or their carcasses after they die. Streamkeepers check carcasses for size, sex and spawning success, and return them to the creek because the bodies provide essential nutrients to the ecosystem.

Chum salmon spawner in Byrne Creek.

Aomori Pets

It was great to hang out with the pets at Yumi's home. Mukkun the dog, who is pushing 15 years, revived remarkably and was raring to go for walks, while Cat C -- yes, the other two are called A and B -- was a cuddly furball.

Aomori Autumn Colours

The mountains near Yumi's hometown in the Japan's northern Aomori Prefecture are gorgeous in the autumn. Most of these shots come from the famous Oirase area.

Yumi's mom taking photo of Yumi and her dad.

Nagasaki Sara Udon and Champon

After the morning spent retracing the horrors of atomic weapons, we headed back to the Dejima area, and had lunch by the waterfront at Dejima Wharf. Two of Nagasaki's famous dishes are Nagasaki Sara Udon, or crisp noodles covered with a seafood and vegetable sauce, and Nagasaki champon, a succulent noodle soup.

Nagasaki Sara Udon

Yumi tackling a bowl of champon.

Throughout our stay in Nagasaki we saw many of these impressive raptors soaring overhead.

Nagasaki Nuclear Bomb Memorial

Our first morning in Nagasaki we headed out to pay our respects at the atomic bomb memorial and peace park. With the sun shining brightly on the beautiful harbor city surrounded by mountains, it was hard to believe that 60 years ago much of it had been instantly rendered a radioactive wasteland with tens of thousands of dead and dying.

The peace museum was powerfully moving, with haunting images and artifacts. It also does not overlook Japan's imperial expansion and aggression.

Preserved ruins of the Urakami Cathedral. The cathedral, then the largest in East Asia, stood near the epicenter of the blast. It is ironic that Nagasaki was likely the most "Western" city in Japan at the time, and had the highest proportion of Christians in Japan.

I had never quite understood the symbolism of the Nagasaki peace monument until I read the plaque with the following words:

Words of the Sculptor

After experiencing that nightmarish war,
that blood-curdling carnage,
that unendurable horor,
Who could walk away without praying for peace?
This statue was created as a signpost in the
cause of global harmony.
Standing ten meters tall,
it conveys the profundity of knowledge and
the beauty of health and virility.
The right hand points to the atomic bomb,
the left hand points to peace,
and the face prays deeply for the victims of war.
Transcending the barriers of race
and evoking the qualities of both Buddha and God,
it is a symbol of the greatest determination
ever known in the history of Nagasaki
and of the highest hope of all mankind.

Seibo Kitamura
Spring 1955

Nyokodo. It's tiny, yet so moving...

From the plaque:

Nyokodo (As Thyself Hermitage) is the sickroom and study used by Dr. Takashi Nagai, honorary citizen of Nagasaki City. Born in Shimane Prefecture, Dr. Nagai graduated from Nagasaki Medical College and majored in radiology. He was exposed to excessive doses of radiation while treating large numbers of tuberculosis patients with poor equipment. As a result he developed chronic myeloid leukemia and was given three years to live. Two months later he was injured in the atomic bombing and lost his wife, but he continued his selfless efforts for the rescue of the atomic bomb victims, finally falling bedridden. However, spurred on by his sense of scientific mission and also his Catholic faith, Dr. Nagai wrote more than ten books from his sickbed here. He named the building after the Christian maxim "Love others as you love thyself" and live here with his two children, appealing to the world about the foolishness of war and the importance of peace until his death on May 1, 1951 at the age of 43. Nyokodo continues to this day to serve as a symbol of Dr. Nagai's spirit of peace and brotherly love.

Kurashiki Charms With Canals, Crafts

We left Himeji around noon and took a side trip to Kurashiki on our way to Nagasaki. Kurashiki has preserved an area of town with charming canals, old warehouses, and lots of arts and crafts.

The curry shop where we had lunch.

Himeji Castle

OK, here we go with about a dozen views of Himeji Castle.

Bullet Train Trip Begins

After seeing a client for lunch in Tokyo on Tuesday, Yumi and I headed off on our travels. With Japan Rail Passes in hand, Yumi organized a series of bullet train tickets that would take us all they way to Nagasaki on the southern island of Kyushu with stops at Kobe and Himeji on the way down, Fukuoka and Hiroshima on the way back north to Tokyo, then all the way to Aomori at the northern tip of the main island of Honshu and back to Tokyo. The JR agent at Kanda Station in Tokyo where we made our seat reservations was amazed at all the stops we were making. The JR Pass is a great deal -- we likely did over 200,000 yen worth of traveling each on passes that cost less than a quarter of that amount.

The shinkansen bullet trains are magnificent beasts that run like clockwork.

Cleaners line up to ensure the bullet train is spick and span before passengers board.

Tokyo Morning, Kichijoji Ramble, Akihabara Changes

We were up by 6:00 on Monday morning, and decided to head out to our old stomping grounds in the Kichijoji area in western Tokyo. We planned to walk around Inokashira Park on the south side of Kichijoji station until the stores opened at 10:00.

Walking on side streets on the way to Ochanomizu station we got a glimpse of the Nikolai Cathedral among office towers.

A holdout householder -- the land must be worth millions...

A Chuo Line train pulls into Ochanomizu station.

Inokashira Park with shrine, aeration fountain.

A detail of the shrine.

The small park surrounded by the urban jungle had an amazing variety of wildlife.

Yumi with binoculars in hand, pointing out another species of duck.

After a couple of hours in the park, we headed back into the shopping arcades and streets of funky Kichijoji.

The main shopping arcade.

A shop selling traditional crackers.

A kimono store selling the real stuff, not tourist junk.

Personalizing cell phones is a big business.

Blowfish swim in a restaurant's aquarium.

As lunch approached I began thinking more about food, so I headed over to the Seiyu department store, knowing the basement food floor featured an amazing variety of prepared items.

A lineup of packaged meals.

A mouth-watering variety of onigiri rice balls.

More great stuff! I love Japanese supermarkets!

This display of tonkatsu (deep fried pork cutlets) reminded me of a tonkatsu restaurant nearby, so I headed out to find Yumi.

Yumi was shopping at Yuzawaya, a huge crafts store at the east end of the station, and I was to meet her there at 11:30. When I arrived, I found a large Halloween display -- I don't recall the event being such a big deal in Japan five or more years ago! Japanese retailers are experts at appropriating any sort of holiday from any culture to flog more goods :-).

Hmmm. This costume looks like it's more suited to, ahem, tricks rather than treats!

We were momentarily distracted by this sushi mountain plastic display...

But ended up at our favourite tonkatsu place in the LonLon mall. Yum!

In the evening we walked over to Akihabara, Tokyo's electronics wonderland. When we arrived, I was completely disoriented -- the area has undergone huge development, and it took me 15 minutes of wandering around to gain my bearings. I was seeking a new memory card for my digital camera and the prices in the major stores were out of sight. I knew I could do better if I could find some of the teeny shops I'd frequented years ago. I finally tracked a few down, and sure enough, the prices were less than half of the major electronics retailers.

A manga character billboard.

Yumi checking out canned noodles -- a recent phenomenon that we'd heard about but not experienced first hand.

We ended the long day back on the Kanda shopping street, where we closed out the evening with beer and munchies at an izakaya pub.

Autumn Colours Paint Byrne Creek

Red, yellow, gold, and brown leaves are painting Byrne Creek with an enchanting mosaic of colours. I love this time of year when the air takes on an edge and the hazy days of summer are replaced with an invigorating clarity.

I also love this time of year because the leaves that colour the creek foreshadow the return of the salmon. Any day now, likely within the next week, coho and chum salmon will start swimming up Byrne Creek to spawn and die, after traveling thousands of kilometers in the Pacific Ocean. As a streamkeeper, monitoring the return of these magnificent fish is a peak experience that I look forward to every autumn.

The relaxed creekside rambles of spring and summer take on urgency and excitement as we stalk the mottled purple and green chum, and the silvery scarlet coho, making note of redds (nests of eggs), and measuring and assessing fish after they die.

Descending the stairs into the ravine.

Chilly Snake Seeks Autmn Sun

This poor garter snake was trying to catch a few rays, huddled up on a heat-attracting black garbage bag near Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby. Streamkeepers stash invasive plant species in the heavy garbage bags and leave them out in the sun to cook. We often find these harmless snakes seeking their warmth.

Cool, Green Grasshopper

Yumi found this cool grasshopper on a plant.

Alta Vista Picnic, Gas, Dirt in Drains

The Byrne Creek Streamkeepers had their booth up at the Alta Vista Park community picnic again this year. It's a great event, and the organizers do an amazing job. It's always fun, and like last year, we brought bugs from the creek for kids to check out.

Streamkeeper Eleanor supervises the bug activity.

The rock climbing contraption is always popular.

As is the annual appearance of a Burnaby firefighters ladder truck.

At events like these, streamkeepers try to educate the public about their local creeks and watersheds. People are often amazed to learn that drains on streets and in parking lots lead directly to local creeks with no filtration. That means nothing except rain should go down those drains!

It was then my turn to be amazed when a person came up to me and told me there was a vehicle parked across the street from the park leaking gasoline directly into a rain drain! I have cropped this photo so as not to cause embarrassment, but this is exactly the type of problem streamkeepers fight.

If you see something like this happening, call the Burnaby 24-hour hotline at 604-294-7200.

On the way home after the event, Yumi and I were also surprised to see trucks spreading dirt from a construction site along Royal Oak. This is illegal, and should be reported to the city.

Remember, everything that gets washed down a drain on a street or parking lot goes directly into a creek!

SalmonTrain Kickoff

This morning the SalmonTrain was officially launched at Gilmore Station on the Skytrain Millennium Line. What's a SalmonTrain? It's a commuter train car covered with Stream of Dreams Murals Society (SDMS) Dreamfish, with an urban creek running down its floor with tips on maintaining healthy watersheds. Conceived by Louise Towell, a co-founder of SDMS, and implemented with the hard work of the Rivershed Society of BC and corporate partners Translink, 3M, and Lamar Advertising, the Stream of Dreams® SalmonTrain Mural in Motion is a vibrant means of educating the public about the importance of clean water in our creeks and streams.

As president of the charitable SDMS, I was proud and amazed at the results of nearly a year of hard work by all the partners. Here are some photos I took of the event, and the SalmonTrain.

The SalmonTrain poster at Gilmore Station.

Fin Donnelly, founder and executive director of RSBC, chairs the event.

Louise Towell, co-founder of SMDS, speaks.

Dan Johnson, Burnaby City councillor.

Partners pose in front of the Gilmore Station poster.

The SalmonTrain arriving at the station.

Louise and Joan Carne, SDMS co-founders.

The partners in front of the train.

A closer look at the exterior.

The urban stream inside the train.

An incredibly lifelike storm drain on the floor.

A closeup of Dreamfish in the floor stream.

The message? All street drains lead to fish habitat.

A ceiling poster, also called a "Michaelangelo."

Another ceiling poster.

So the message is, all rain drains (storm drains) connect directly to local creeks and streams. Why does this message need to get out? Ironically, as my wife Yumi and I walked home from Edmonds Skytrain Station after the event, we came across what was likely paint coming down Powerhouse Creek that leads to Byrne Creek. Somebody was washing out painting equipment into a storm drain, so we called the city in on it. There are still a lot of people to teach!

Update: Lots of stuff on You Tube

Salmon Train Launch -- Fin Donnelly, Louise Towell and Dan Johnson

Interviews:

Translink's Drew Snider

SDMS co-founder Joan Carne

Lynn Peak Teaches Fitness Lesson

Lynn Peak on the north shore of Vancouver taught me a lesson today -- I'm not in very good shape! I tend to think that my three or four rambles a week around Byrne Creek keep my legs pretty strong, but a three-and-a-half hour hike up and down the Lynn Peak trail told me something else...

It took us just over two hours to the 921-meter top of Lynn Peak from the parking lot near the new water treatment plant that is under construction. By the time we were 3/4 of the way up, I knew my legs would be sore going down. I was packing more stuff and more water than I usually do on my Byrne Creek rambles, and the spare tire wasn't helping much either :-).

The view from the top was amazing, but the slog back down was tough -- I have a bad back and am paranoid about bouncing too much, or sliding and landing on my butt (which I did once despite my care anyway). Keeping my legs under strict control all the way down proved my muscles and stamina need some work!

So I've added a new "hiking" category to this blog, and aim to get out there on the longer, tougher trails more often to rid myself of those extra pounds and build up my legs.

The lower mainland from Lynn Peak.

Another view with Burrard Inlet in the foreground.

Yumi at the top.

Garbage Blights Burnaby's Foreshore Park, Glenlyon Development

An early afternoon stroll along Fraser Foreshore Park in Burnaby provided lots to see along the river and in ponds; however, the beauty was blighted by plenty of garbage dumped on the outskirts of Glenlyon Business Park in the vicinity of the lower reaches of Byrne Creek near where it empties into the Fraser.

First the good...

A view of the north arm of the Fraser from the park.

A small tugboat passing behind a log boom.

It's hard to believe summer is ending.

There were dozens of small frogs in the pond near Byrne Creek.

A bright red dragonfly.

An acrobatic chickadee.

And the bad, and the ugly...

I do not understand how some people can be so senseless and uncaring. I also do not understand how the tenants of the business park can drive by this crap every day and not ask the developer or the city to clean it up. At least two of these sites have smashed TVs, one of them several, and CRTs and accompanying electronics contain metals that are harmful to humans, other animals, and the environment.

I know that several of the tenants in the business park have security guards, and I've also seen mobile units patrolling the roads. As good corporate citizens, they might consider having their guards keep an eye out for dumpers and send license plates in to police.

Steveston Cannery Row

The remains of old canneries, net lofts, shipyards and workers' accommodations along the Fraser River in Steveston are always a great place for taking photos. I love the textures of the silvery old wood, the barnacled pilings, and the rusty bits of equipment. A stroll around the gradually developing heritage site makes me wonder what life was like on the river half a century to a century ago when the salmon runs were thought to be inexhaustible. There is still an enchanting rawness to the area, and I hope the buildings that will survive the encroaching development will not be overly refurbished and prettified. It would be interesting to be able to travel back in time and tell the fishermen and cannery workers that in 2007 there would be no commercial sockeye fishery on the Fraser, and see if they could comprehend such a development... Here are several shots from an afternoon jaunt today.

Byrne Creek Bug Count, Fish Trapping

Volunteers with the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers in Burnaby, BC, had a busy morning, with several setting 11 traps in the creek to assess fish populations, and others completing the last set of samples for the summer bug count. Once the trappers were done, they helped the bug team count aquatic invertebrates that give us an indication of water quality.

The lush ravine in early morning light.

Rusty takes a break while Bob and Dave bait traps.

Not the greatest of photos, but there's a trout hanging out in the upper right corner of the frame as the trap is lowered into the water :-).

NOTE: It is illegal to trap fish, and streamkeepers do so for ongoing research under the auspices of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans. All fish are released unharmed.

The bug team hard at work counting numbers, species and taxa. Coffee, tea and cookies help the effort.

Snakes by a Creek!

A few Byrne Creek Streamkeepers went out battling invasive Policeman's Helmet in the creek this morning, and found several garter snakes soaking up the heat beneath black garbage bags in which we compost evil plants on site.

Streamkeeper Maho inspects a garter snake.

My wife Yumi checks out another one.

We handled them gently and released them unharmed.

A close-up of one of the harmless beauties.

A grasshopper posed for a portrait.

Driving Home From Jasper

We drove home from Jasper today, and got a some nice shots of elk and Mt. Robson along the way.

An elk with a magnificent rack calmly browsing beside the highway.

Me in front of Mt. Robson on an unusually clear day.

Edmonton to Jasper

Before we met a couple of fellow learners from my recently completed MA in Professional Communication at Royal Roads University for lunch in Edmonton, Yumi and I spent the morning at the Royal Alberta Museum. We enjoyed the dioramas and live animal exhibits, and wished we'd had more time to explore.

Here are some of the beautiful and educational dioramas:

Coyote family.

Wolves.

Golden eagle and chick.

Yumi is spellbound by the eagle catching a rabbit diorama.

And here are some of the live animals:

A western hognose snake -- cute! And endangered :-(

An amazing stick insect.

Yumi staring at the unnerving giant tropical cockroaches!

Brook trout.

Arctic grayling.

Northern pike -- a ghostly predator...

Relaxing by the fire with a brewskie at Whistlers campground in Jasper.

Saskatoon to Edmonton

We drove from Saskatoon to Edmonton, stopping at Vegreville to show Yumi the world's largest pysanka (Ukrainian Easter egg).

The pysanka with a brewing storm in the background.

Yumi stretching up to the pysanka.

Alberta summer thunderstorm.

We reached Edmonton, and in the evening we checked out the West Edmonton Mall, the largest in the world. We were not particularly impressed. A mall is a mall, eh? OK, there are the other attractions, too, but.... Just didn't do it for us.

Morning at Weyakwin Lake

We went for a drive and walk in the morning at Weyakwin Lake. We spotted some mushrooms from the vehicle, so we all piled out to search for more, but they were few and far between.

The public beach.

A sleek female mallard.

"Ukrainian fire drill" -- everyone hops out of the van and checks the side of the road for mushrooms :-).

A wasp's nest on the cabin with resident emerging.

Visiting Weyakwin Lake

We drove from the farm north of Melfort Saskatchewan to an aunt's cabin further north at Weyakwin Lake. It was great visiting relatives and catching up in the summer sun.

Checking out the dock.

My wife Yumi on the tractor-tire tree swing.

Yumi lends an ear to a visitor.

Amazing lilies.

Evening boat ride with cousins.

The breathtaking (and nose plugging :-) cormorant and pelican island. Unfortunately I was using my pocketable Canon SD400 and didn't bring my Canon S5 IS superzoom along...

Banff Morning

We woke up early in the morning in the Tunnel Mountain campground in Banff, and quickly ate breakfast and broke camp. We had a few hours to kill before driving to Calgary, so we poked around the hoodoo trail, drove up the Mt. Norquay road, and explored the Cave and Basin historic site.

Morning view from the campground.

Hoodoo in front of mountains.

Hoodoos trail.

Another hoodoo trail view.

Banff from the Mt. Norquay road.

The Cave and Basin historic site -- the hot springs here provided the impetus for declaring the area a national park.

The famous pool, now closed to use.

Yumi carefully viewing endangered Banff Springs snails.

A trail from the Cave and Basin leads to a bird blind on the lake.

Trilingual English, French and Ukrainian signs commemorate the harsh internment of Canadians of Ukrainian descent during WWI -- the Cave and Basin was their winter camp. Such forced labourers built much of early Parks Canada facilities. They were considered to be enemy aliens because at that time Western Ukraine was under the rule of the Austro-Hungarian Empire. They were treated much like Canadians of Japanese descent were in WWII.

While none of my ancestors were interned, I am angry that such events happened in a supposed democracy. I feel it for both wars and ethnic groups for my wife Yumi is Japanese. Again, none of her family was affected for she was born and raised in Japan, but there's a connection...

Summer Trip - Burnaby to Banff

We're off to the prairies. I was born and raised in Saskatoon, Saskatchewan, and we try to get out to visit relatives at least every second year. I love the drive from our home in Burnaby, BC, through the mountains, and down into the expansive plains. We drove as far as Banff the first day and camped overnight. We had reserved a spot through Parks Canada, a wise move during the busy summer season, but were disappointed by the bare, open campsite that we were assigned which was closely surrounded by several other sites. With the usual luck, some of our neighbours arrived back from town near midnight, and proceeded to loudly chatter and giggle with boyfriends on their cell phones as they bedded down. The wonders of modern technology, eh?

Yumi forbade me from roaring at them, as I've been known to do to campers who carry on with loud music and laughter well past "quiet time."

Grrrr...

Sunset on the Bow River in Banff.

Magpie casing out handouts in downtown Banff -- why have I seen these corvids only east of the Rockies?

Burnaby's Symphony in the Park

The Vancouver Symphony played its annual, no-charge Symphony in the Park at Burnaby's beautiful outdoor concert venue at Deer Lake Park this evening. It was warm and sunny with enough dramatic clouds to set off the perfect setting for an outdoor concert.

Even though we arrived nearly an hour before show time, the grassy slope overlooking the serene lake was already filling up. The VSO played a crowd-pleasing program, as usual. Shostakovich's Festive Overture was the short, sweet, lead-in, followed by Borodin's melodic In the Steppes of Central Asia. The first half concluded with Rachmaninoff's Rhapsody on a Theme of Paganini, ably performed by the 19-year-old Melody Quah on piano.

The second half began with a rousing, hyperdrive fast rendition of Williams's Star Wars Suite 1. Main Title. That was followed by Conway Baker's Through the Lion's Gate: 3. Mountains, a lovely piece I'd never heard before. It celebrates the north shore mountains near the concert venue, and the composer was present and received a standing ovation. In a serendipitous touch, a Great Blue Heron overflew the crowd in the midst of the performance. Only in Canada, eh?

That was followed by Rachmaninoff's Vocalise, in the version for violin, charmingly performed by the VSO's Associate Concertmaster Joan Blackman. When the short piece ended, Yumi and I simultaneously sighed and said we wanted more... Then came a few well-known selections from Grieg's Peer Gynt, and the concert wrapped up with Tchaikovsky's thunderous 1812 Overture.

In conclusion, being of Ukrainian descent, and noticing the preponderance of Slavic composers represented in the program, all I can say is: Slavs Rock! :-)

Dreamfish Renewed at Discovery Day

Burnaby's Discovery Day at the Shadbolt Centre for the Arts on Deer Lake was the site of the latest Stream of Dreams Murals Society and Byrne Creek Streamkeepers renewal of Dreamfish from the original fish mural at the corner of Kingsway and Edmonds. Those Dreamfish commemorated the killing of 5,000 fish in Byrne Creek in 1998 when someone poured a toxin down a storm drain, and grew into a watershed education and community art program that has taught over 50,000 participants across Canada with over 160 murals installed.

That original mural came down for a new development, and we salvaged fish that were still in good condition, and prepped them so that they could be repainted for a new location on a bridge on the Urban Trail that crosses the Skytrain line near Edmonds station.

You cannot paint a Dreamfish until you have heard the story of the death and rebirth of Byrne Creek, and learn how drains on streets and parking lots lead directly to local waterways.

Stream of Dreams co-founder Joan Carne explains how rain drains lead to local creeks.

Stream of Dreams co-founder Louise Towell talks about environmentally friendly cleaning products.

Kids painting Dreamfish.

My wife Yumi found time amid volunteering to paint a Dreamfish.

Kids double-teaming on a Dreamfish.

Adults become kids again, and the creativity flows.

Admiring the growing collection.

A closer view of a few beauties.

Byrne Birds

More shots of our feathered friends. A wee one, and silhouettes of crows chasing a raptor.

More Byrne Creek Wildlife

Here are more shots taken in the Byrne Creek salmon spawning habitat. I'm amazed at how many species of birds inhabit the Byrne Creek area and really need to learn to identify more of them.

Taylor Park Abounds With Birds

This afternoon Yumi discovered a patch of native blackberries on one of our regular walks around Byrne Creek, so I headed up the hill from the Southpoint Dr. cul-de-sac into the as yet undeveloped part of Taylor Park, a former landfill in Burnaby. When I got to the open area surrounded by brush I saw dozens of birds of various species. It's an optimal area for birds with lots of berry bushes transitioning into an open meadow-like area. I hope the city doesn't clear it all out and turn it into a monocultural "people" landscape. I saw robins, various sparrows, a red-tailed hawk, American goldfinches, cedar waxwings, chickadees, towhees, swallows and others that I couldn't identify. I'm not really happy with these shots -- they were all taken handheld at the full 432mm telephoto of my new Canon S5 IS -- and even with image stabilization they'd be a lot better with a tripod and a closer distance to the subjects. Live and learn...

American goldfinch -- I saw at least seven species using this perch tree.

Cedar waxwing.

A hummingbird and unidentified pal.

American robin with a berry.

Lonsdale Quay

The sun spurred us to work hard this morning so we could get out for the afternoon today. We took the Skytrain downtown and the Seabus to Lonsdale Quay. We strolled around the area enjoying the gorgeous weather, and had a late lunch at the Quay. On the way home we wandered around Canada Place and checked out the cruise ships.

Downtown Vancouver viewed from Lonsdale Quay.

Downtown with dock in foreground.

The MPV Constitution, a real paddlewheeler.

It's cruise ship season.

Canada Place sails.

Another view of Canada Place sails.

Take me to your leader :-).

Canon PowerShot S5 IS

I bought a Canon PowerShot S5 IS digital superzoom camera a few days ago, and after blasting through close to 500 shots I really like it. I've used it for all the photos on this blog starting July 1.

Product photo from the Canon Canada website.

You can see all of its features at the link above, but the ones I like most are the 12X zoom and image stabilization -- they're great for nature photography. It would be nice to have the zoom start a bit wider than 36mm (35mm equivalent), but the 432mm reach at the telephoto end sure beats the 105mm equivalent on my pocketable Canon SD400.

I've only used it on full auto so far, and focusing and exposure have been pretty accurate. I want to experiment with some of the more controlled settings like aperture and shutter priority. I also haven't taken any flash shots yet.

One drawback is the loose lens cap -- but I suspect it may be loose on purpose, because if you start the camera without taking the lens cap off, it gets knocked off by the extending lens. And I've done that several times already...

Lynn Valley Hike

This Canada Day holiday Monday found us zipping over to the north shore to take a hike in Lynn Valley. We did a portion of the Lynn Headwaters trail system. I was also eager to take more photos with my new Canon PowerShot S5 IS superzoom digital camera, and an encounter with a deer put the stabilized telephoto to the test.

Yumi on the trail.

Remains of old wooden water pipes.

Clear, cold Lynn Creek.

A deer near the parking lot. This was shot at full telephoto, or the equivalent of a 432mm lens on a 35mm film camera, hand held after a fairly strenuous hike, so the image stabilizer appears to work well.

Nibbling on foliage.

Dreamfish Revived at Canada Day Fest

Canada Day dawned bright and clear, and the Stream of Dreams Murals Society and Byrne Creek Streamkeepers took part in the festivities at Burnaby's Eastburn Community Centre.

We've participated in this event for many years, but this day was special because we invited people to help revive the original Stream of Dreams dreamfish that graced a chainlink fence at the corner of Kingsway and Edmonds in Burnaby for many years. The dreamfish commemorated the killing of 5,000 fish in Byrne Creek in 1998 when someone poured a toxin down a storm drain, and grew into a watershed education and community art program that has taught nearly 50,000 participants across Canada.

That original mural had to come down for a new development, and we salvaged all the wooden fish that were still in good condition, and sanded them and primed them so that they could be repainted for a new location on a bridge on the Urban Trail that crosses the Skytrain line near Edmonds station.

Dreamfish are special, and you cannot paint one until you have heard the story of the death and rebirth of Byrne Creek, and learn how drains on streets and parking lots lead directly to local waterways. We set up a pathway in our tents through which people passed to learn that story, and then they painted their dreamfish.

People line up to paint dreamfish.

We had lots of posters of trout and salmon to provide inspiration.

Kids learn from a 3D topo map of the Byrne Creek watershed.

Kids paint their dreamfish.

The collection of fresh dreamfish grows.

The palettes of paint grew increasingly funky!

Here's another one next to a blank dreamfish.

Even more dreamfish...

Admiring the eclectic collection.

Do you remember which dreamfish you painted?

What's a Canada Day without an RCMP honour guard?

Or municipal, provincial, and federal politicians cutting a cake?

By the end of the afternoon, Stream of Dreams and streamkeeper volunteers were exhausted, but we had a great time.

Big Banana Slug

We ran across this impressive banana slug today on the Byrne Creek trail.

Oh, that's inches, not centimeters :-).

Choco's Hobbit Paws

Here's a shot of Choco's hairy feet. Our cat has amazing tufts between her toes.

Early Summer Plants, Flowers

A few shots taken on a Byrne Creek perambulation.

And a dead swallowtail butterfly.

Vernon Sightseeing

After a hearty breakfast at our friends' place, we headed out to see some of the sights. Yumi and I have never spent any time in Vernon, though we've passed through on several trips, so it was nice to take a look around. There is a lot of development going on!

The first place we stopped was Planet Bee, which was very interesting. We enjoyed viewing the transparent hive and locating the queen bee who had been marked with a dab of white paint.

Yumi checking out the hive.

The queen amid a mass of bees.

Next was a visit to Davison Orchards. I enjoyed checking out all the old farm equipment while the others explored the fruit, gifts, pies and other products for sale.

Davison Orchards.

A 1949 John Deere M.

A 1946 Mercury 3-ton truck.

Next stop was the Allan Brooks Nature Centre that provides an awesome view of the Vernon area. We enjoyed the vistas, and the wildlife.

A view from the centre.

Yumi stalking a marmot.

Taking a closer look at the marmot.

A swallow brings food for its young.

Our last stop before we had to drive back to Burnaby was the Gray Monk winery. It's a beautiful setting overlooking Okanagan Lake, and we had lunch at the outdoor restaurant. The food was excellent.

The winery overlooking Okanagan Lake.

A huge hanging basket of brilliant flowers.

The sunny restaurant.

Canoe Shakedown Cruise

53 weeks -- yes, over a year -- since we got our canoe, we finally took it out on a shakedown cruise on Burnaby's Deer Lake. It's hard to believe where that year went. I was so busy with work and school, and it just sat in the garage gathering dust.

Today we cranked on the roof rack, strapped the canoe on, and drove the ten minutes to Deer Lake. When we got there the sunny blue sky was overshadowed with ominous black clouds, but it's a small lake so we headed out anyway. It was great fun slipping along watching the wildlife -- so much more approachable in a canoe than on foot.

Three-quarters of the way around the lake the wind began to rise, so we headed back to the beach and called it a day after less than an hour on the water. It was probably best to take it easy anyway, as I'm sure we used muscles that haven't been in action for years.

I'm looking forward to getting out on the water more often!

Getting set up on the goose-poop strewn beach.

Yumi in the prow.

And me in the stern.

Manning Park Day 2

We had a modest campfire last night at our site at the beautiful Lightning Lake campground at Manning Park, burning wood we brought with us that we had collected from a "free firewood" pile after someone cut a few trees down on their lot near our place in Burnaby several years ago. It being nearly the longest day of the year, it didn't get dark until well after 10:00. That also meant that it was getting light by 5:00 a.m., and the birds were in full chorus by 5:30. We should have gone fishing, but instead we dozed until 7:30.

We had breakfast, broke camp, and loaded the car before we tried some spincasting from shore. I had rainbow trout following my lure several times, and even had one hang about just a meter or two offshore for nearly a minute, but we didn't get a single bite. It's frustrating to see fish jumping to feed and not get a bite. Perhaps we should learn how to fly fish!

After an hour of fishing we pulled out and hiked the short Canyon Loop on the Similkameen River. It's a beautiful walk. We then drove up to the lookout on the alpine meadow road before heading back home.

A shot of the Similkameen from the canyon trail.

Pine beetle devastation.

Yumi checking out bugs in the river.

A view from the alpine meadow road lookout with Manning Park Lodge below and Lightning lake in the background.

A Steller's Jay harassed us while we picnicked at the west gate.

Manning Park Day 1

Yumi and I took a quick overnight camping trip to Manning Park. We stayed at the Lightning Lake campground, and took a walk around the lake in the evening. We were shocked at all the pines killed by pine beetles, and wondered what the park would look like in a few years. We saw lots of trout jumping in the lake as they fed, and planned to do some catch-and-release fishing in the morning.

A view of Lightning Lake from the trail.

Canoes at the rental dock.

Inquisitive ground squirrels -- these fellers obviously expect food!

Spanish Banks, Vancouver

Here are a few photos taken at Vancouver's Spanish Banks on an overcast, drizzly day.

Looking east toward downtown.

Looking west.

Yumi exploring pools left by low tide.

Bees Pollinate Byrne Creek Blackberries

Bees were out in force sucking blackberry blossoms near Burnaby's Byrne Creek today. I was happy to see them working away as I've been reading horror stories of how bees are disappearing and nobody knows why. They are incredibly important insects because so many crops depend on them for pollination.

One in flight and one on a blossom.

Another view.

Getting even closer.

A spit bug deposit. Dunno if that's the proper term :-)...

Reifel Bird Sanctuary

I finally got a rough draft of my master's project in yesterday, so Yumi and I celebrated by taking a break this sunny afternoon and headed down to the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary. While we're not "birders," we do enjoy walking around and trying to spot various species. The highlight today was a pair of turkey vultures soaring over the marshes.

As we were walking the trails, we spotted several plants that looked suspiciously like something akin to the poisonous giant hogweed that can cause serious burns to the skin. We've been warned to report this huge, dangerous, invasive plant to municipal authorities. The ones we saw were not huge, but could they have been baby hogweed? We mentioned them to staff, and they said they'd check them out.

When we got home and poked through Plants of Coastal British Columbia, we suspected that the smaller ones were cow-parsnip; however, we did see a stand of what was likely giant hogweed as well.

This is the stuff that may be cow-parsnip.

This looks very much like a stand of giant hogweed.

The observation tower.

Swallow building a nest on the warming hut.

Cool Fly-Bee-Wasp Thingy

On a stroll down Byrne Creek to assess the prevalence of invasive plant species, Yumi and I encountered a really cool looking bee-ish, wasp-ish beast.

Update: Yumi tracked the beastie down on the Bug Guide website. It appears to be a sawfly.

Byrne Creek Coho Smolt Relaase

Kids from Stride Ave. Community and Kenneth Gordon schools in southeast Burnaby released coho salmon smolts (babies) into Byrne Creek today. The event was a blast, and we were also graced by the presence of a bald eagle that sat in a tree watching the fun until the noise got to be too much and it flew away. Our DFO community advisor Maurice Coulter-Boisvert shows up with the tank full of fish from the Bell-Irving Hatchery at Kanaka Creek, and the kids are given plastic bags of the yearling fish to release into the creek.

Maurice speaks to the kids.

Kids watch the fish they've released.

A slightly stunned smolt gets used to its new surroundings.

Trillium Appears in South Burnaby

A couple of beautiful trilliums graced Byrne Creek Ravine Park in the last few days. We love spotting these somewhat rare flowers.

Choco, Dori Enjoy Spring Day

On a beautiful spring day, our cat Choco enjoyed the cherry tree blossoming over our deck, and Dori our turtle perked up as well. Mom really enjoyed Choco when Yumi and I would go camping and leave the cat at her place. We got Choco a couple of years ago as an adult from the SPCA, and she took awhile to settle in and warm up. Mom's lap was the first Choco curled up and slept in, and Mom was always proud of that.

Spring Blossoms In Southeast Burnaby

During Mom's illness Yumi and I still tried to get out for our regular Byrne Creek walks as often as possible to clear our minds and get some exercise. Mom loved flowers, and she would have appreciated these scenes.

Here's a potpourri of shots I took along the creek and in Ron McLean Park over several days.

Byrne Creek Shrew

This teeny shrew (about the size of my thumb) was scurrying along the sidewalk on Southridge Dr. in southeast Burnaby. Since it was heading for the busy street, Yumi gently picked it up and carried it several meters up the embankment into the park where she released it.

I doubt if Mom would have liked shrews, but she would have understood Yumi's urge to protect the wee tyke.

Cat Happy With De-Hibernated Turtle

We brought Midori, our red-eared slider, out of her hibernation tank the other day, and Choco the cat was happy to have her buddy back. Though Choco tries to play, they don't interact much, but I think Choco just likes having Midori around.

Cloudy, Rainy Burnaby Sunset

On a dreary, rainy, monochromatic evening visiting my Mom in her tower condo, the setting sun broke through for a few moments to illuminate the northern ridges of Burnaby. The north shore mountains are hidden in the mist.

Cherry Trees Begin to Bloom in Burnaby

Cherry trees are beginning to blossom in Burnaby. Yumi and I took a quick tromp down and back up Byrne Creek Ravine Park this afternoon to get some exercise and some fresh air in between work and school assignments, and were enchanted to see some fragile petals.

Salmon Fry Popping Up in Byrne Creek

Salmon fry (babies) are popping up out of the gravel in Byrne Creek in southeast Burnaby. I saw fry in several areas of the creek, the spawning habitat and the sediment pond this afternoon. I was elated to spot them because streamkeepers had seen fry several weeks earlier last year, and I was getting concerned. I haven't positively identified them yet, but they are likely chum. I also saw mayflies hatching and a butterfly, so spring is in the air. Last, but not least, I saw a muskrat or beaver swim into a hole in the bank of the overflow pond in the habitat.

Look carefully and you can see a school of fry above the gravel.

This mayfly has just hatched. The husk is above.

Here's one emerging. A nymph can be seen to the left.

Deer Lake in Mid-Winter

Yumi and I roamed around Burnaby's Deer Lake this afternoon for the first time in months. Five years ago we lived much closer to this beautiful park and used to walk it several times a week, so it was like visiting an old friend.

The view to the northeast from the upper meadow beneath where the penitentiary used to be.

The old ditches on the former pen farm are clearly visible amongst the flattened vegetation in the winter sun.

An old fence gradually decays next to a road.

A leaning tree extends over the lake.

A gorgeous pileated woodpecker looks for lunch.

Trout Repopulate Byrne Creek

Byrne Creek Streamkeepers were happy to tally 55 trout in their winter trapping run on Burnaby's Byrne Creek--a number that was near previous highs. The results were heartening considering that a year ago a toxin introduced into the creek through a rain drain (storm drain) killed all fish throughout most of its length. We identified species, measured them, and released them back into the creek.

NOTE: It is illegal to trap fish, and streamkeepers do so for monitoring purposes under the auspices of the Department of Fisheries and Oceans.

Streamkeepers retrieve a trap.

Measuring a fish--you have to be gentle and quick so as not to harm them.

Streamkeepers work their way up the misty ravine.

Foggy Fish Trapping on Byrne Creek

Twice a year Byrne Creek Streamkeepers set out Gee traps in the creek to check on populations of cutthroat trout and young coho salmon. We leave them in overnight and come back the next morning to identify, measure and release any fish that are caught.

It was a foggy, mysterious morning on the creek today, with a forecast for sun. I love the arduous tramp up the ravine. It's hard to believe you're in a city once you get into its depths. Well, the old tires here and there, and the garbage that washes down the creek are reminders that this is not pristine wilderness...

The foggy ravine before the sun burns through.

John, Dave, Dave, and Yumi set a trap and check water temperature and pH.

Yumi checking pH. The results were good all along the creek.

Resting on a trail as the sun tops the ravine rim.

Lovely light pours through the woods.

Dead Cutthroat Trout, Mayflies in Byrne Creek

We found a dead cutthroat trout in the sediment pond above the spawning habitat in Burnaby's Byrne Creek today. It was about 30cm long, and when we opened it up, it was a male. No signs of external damage. There were plenty of other live trout around, so it wasn't killed by a toxin. I wonder if was an early spawner near the end of its life cycle. CORRECTION: Yumi believes that it was spiked by a heron -- there was a stab wound that I assumed I had inflicted when I scooped it out of the pond with a pike, but she thinks that the size and shape of the wound were smaller than what the pike would have done.

We also saw many mayfly nymphs in pools on the spillway between the sediment pond and the overflow pond, and also found one hatched, rather bedraggled looking mayfly floating on the surface of the sediment pond. We fished it out with a twig.

Vancouver Sunset From Cypress Lookout

A quick trip to Brackendale Eagles Provincial Park to view the annual gathering of bald eagles proved fruitful, with over 50 of the magnificent birds present. I didn't take any photos with my puny little pocket digital camera; however, I did get a few sunset shots on the way home when we stopped at the Cypress Mountain lookout.

The view to the west.

City lights appear as the moon floats overhead.

Merry Christmas From Choco the Cat

There's nothing like opening presents, and exploring piles of crumpled wrapping paper, to make a cat happy. I love how the flash turned Choco's eyes the same color as the paper she's playing under.

Merry Christmas from all of us!

Streamkeepers Wrap Trees Against Beavers

Beavers have been mowing down trees in the artificial spawning habitat on Burnaby's Byrne Creek. While the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers are all for urban biodiversity, we felt we had to protect the trees in the habitat that provide crucial shade for the spawning channel in the summer, so we had a tree-wrapping session this morning. We use chicken wire, and it's effective in keeping Canada's national symbol at bay :-).

A view of some of the damage.

Here I am going at it with chicken wire and cutters.

My wife Yumi, Bob, and Rusty, one of our mascots.

Amazing 'Life Through Time' Slideshow

Amazing photos and music.

Brew a cup of tea, sit back, and watch the show...

Click "Start the Journey"

Then "View the slideshow"

I'd suggest resisting "clicking the photos to learn more" or clicking ahead until you've seen the show once. You can always go back.

www.lifethroughtime.com

Byrne Creek Patrol Finds Oil Still Seeping, Dead Cutthroat

The oil that streamkeepers saw entering Burnaby's Byrne Creek a week ago is still trickling out of a storm outfall. City environmental staff put a boom in to try to soak some of it up, but it doesn't appear to be very effective. Today we found a dead cutthroat trout a few meters downstream of where the substance is entering the creek, and while it's impossible to say there is a causal relationship, it's possible the fish blundered into a pocket of the pollutant.

This little cutthroat trout had no visible external damage and was 17.5cm long.

As we worked our way upstream looking for spawning salmon, the sun broke through.

It's beautiful moments like this that lift a streamkeeper's spirits!

Coho Spawners, Polluting Oil in Byrne Creek

Today Yumi and I did our weekly salmon spawning patrol for the Byrne Creek Streamkeepers in southeast Burnaby. We were happy to find a couple of coho, but were also dismayed to see a steady stream of oil entering the creek from a storm outlet. We called the city's environment department, and they sent staff out to put a boom in and try to trace the source.

Here's the oil entering Byrne Creek.

This outfall has always been problematic, with oily substances appearing quite often. Today the flow was stronger than usual and steady. This must be more than just road wash.

The amount of guck accumulating in the settling pond is also increasing...

A magnificent male coho that we found today.

We measured him and checked out his internals, and his milt was loose so he appeared to have spawned. We process spawners and keep records under the auspices of the DFO.

We were also happy to find a huge new redd, or nest of eggs, in the spawning channel, with a female guarding it. We found the expired male perhaps 15-18 meters downstream, and there are few spawners in the system now, so he may have been her partner.

Cold Spawner Patrol on Byrne Creek

Yumi and I did a cold, wet spawner patrol on Burnaby's Byrne Creek today -- halfway through it started snowing again. We were rewarded with one dead spawner, unfortunately it was a female coho salmon that had not deposited her eggs. Poor visibility precluded sighting any other returning salmon.

An unspawned female coho.

(Please note that streamkeepers monitor spawners under the auspices of the DFO -- please do not disturb salmon or their carcasses.)

Oily filth accumulates in the semi-frozen spawning habitat.

The blast of snow in BC's lower mainland is going to have a negative impact on local creeks. All the salt and snow melt that people use to keep their vehicles moving will eventually make its way down rain drains (AKA storm drains :-) and into local waterways.

Snowy Byrne Creek Photos

The snow in the lower mainland of BC might be causing havoc, but it's also beautiful. Here are a few shots around Byrne Creek today.

The trail to the ravine along Brynlor.

Leaves yet green covered with snow.

Ice formations in Byrne Creek.

More ice formations in the creek.

The overflow pond in the spawning habitat.

Byrne Creek Spawner Patrol

I went on my first spawner patrol this autumn on Byrne Creek this morning, as I had been away at university for three weeks. Yumi and I found two dead coho spawners and a very dead chum. We also saw four live chum and a live coho.

Unfortunately, the two coho were both unspawned females. They were in excellent shape and had not begun to turn color as spawners usually do. Their egg sacs were still firm, and we wondered why they had died prematurely. We hope this doesn't become a recurring pattern with female coho, as it was last year on Byrne Creek.

Here's Yumi hauling one of the coho out of the spawning channel.

A close-up of the egg sacs.

Yumi found this one by smell! Not much left of it...

Streamkeepers measure all dead salmon spawners we find and check if they have spawned. We then cut the carcasses in half so we don't double count, and return them to the creek where they provide essential nutrients.

Frosty Halloween Morning at Royal Roads

It was a frosty morning at Royal Roads University in Victoria today, with the temperature at -1 C. The cold, fresh air cleared my mind as I took an early morning walk to prepare for another long, intensive day in residency. This is my second, and last, residency in the Master of Arts in Professional Communication program, and with a little over two days to go on campus, my feelings are bittersweet. I've really enjoyed it and have loved the intensive work with so many amazing people. I'm going to miss everyone. But I also want to go home. I think these wintry shots evoke that feeling a bit as they signify a changing of the seasons, death, and looking forward to rebirth...

Royal Roads Gardens

After studying for about eight hours, I took a break and walked around the gardens at Royal Roads University this afternoon. While the autumn colors were past their peak, the gardens were still wonderful.

Royal Roads Sunrise

It looks like we're heading toward several days of rain here in Victoria over the coming week, so I took advantaqe of a quiet Sunday morning during my residency at Royal Roads University to get out for a walk before sunrise.

I ran across this deer just before the sun broke the horizon. My Canon SD400 does not do well in low light, particularly at the telephoto end of its range.

Another deer was inquisitive. I spotted it 30-40 meters down a path, and as I talked to it in a low, gentle voice, it gradually ambled toward me, ears pitched and eyes ogling.

Here's the sun breaking over the lagoon.

A sailboat on the dock.

I ran into a couple of other learners and we watched the changing colors as the sun rose.

Autumn Colors at Royal Roads University

The autumn colors are gorgeous here at Royal Roads University. I took a break from studying this Saturday afternoon and took a walk around the grounds. You could spend the whole day from sunrise to sunset exploring the photographic opportunities here.

Hatley Castle -- I'm looking forward to our tour next weekend.

Canada geese in the lagoon.

Two of the famous peacocks.

A tiny garter snake. I've never seen one this small.

The trees have wonderful personalities.

And so do leaves and needles.

Evening at Royal Roads Lagoon

I ambled down to the lagoon at Royal Roads University after my last class today and found several rowing sculls hard at training. The sky was filled with billowing clouds as the sun sank toward the horizon.

Royal Roads Second Residency

I headed off to Royal Roads University today for the second three-week residency in my Master of Arts in Professional Communication program. I'm really looking forward to the residency. It's a chance to catch up face-to-face with other learners in my cohort.

It rained much of the night in Burnaby, and was still raining as I drove out to the ferry. I was happy with the rain because returning salmon need higher water in local creeks to spawn, yet I was a bit disappointed that learners from across Canada had missed our gorgeous late summer and autumn. The crossing was overcast and drizzling, yet by the time I reached the campus the sun had broken through -- a good omen!

The crossing from Tsawassen to Swartz Bay was misty and monochromatic.

Evening avenue of trees on campus.

The lagoon at sunset viewing Fort Rodd Hill.

Another view of the lagoon.

Adams River Sockeye Run

Yumi and I headed up to the Adams River yesterday afternoon to take in the sockeye run -- 2006 is one of the peak returns that happen every four years. I checked the BC Parks website and discovered that a campground near Vernon, Kekuli Bay, was still open, so we decided to spend the night there.

That evening it was cold and windy, and we chowed down on hot ramen and hot dogs in the dark.

The next morning, we had a chat with the park operator and complimented him on the clean site. The park is on the bare side, but still beautiful in its own way. We saw loads of small fish from the dock, and enjoyed the changing colors on Kalamalka Lake as the sun rose.

We drove up to Adams Lake via the Falkland-Chase road. It's a small highway with a stretch of gravel that passes through pretty country. When we arrived at Roderick Haig-Brown park, it was already crowded even on a weekday. There were lots of schoolbuses with hundreds of kids.

DFO staff were on hand to tell people about the sockeye, and disect a few dead ones.

We headed out to the river to watch the fish. It is a breathtaking sight to see the thousands of spawners performing their final act before they die.

We were surprised to see many chinook spawners as well -- they are huge fish compared to the sockeye. We hadn't seen any chinook when we visited the Adams run four years ago. Here's a dead chinook next to a dead sockeye and the size disparity is evident.

There were several people snorkelling and taking video and still images of the spawners.

Here's one more image of a male sockeye in his full glory.