Day 264: Not you again...

After last week's snowy owl watching, I couldn't resist going down to Boundary Bay again, on the pretext of showing Maria (really, I just wanted an excuse to go again :-) Sure enough, in almost the same place, there were three snowy owls decorating a few logs close to the dyke. Not long after we started watching this one, it stretched out a wing, then one of its legs - which prompted a barrage of shutter firing. I shot off a few and caught this one where both of its furry/fluffy/feathery legs can be seen. Oh yeah, and there were a few eagles and northern harriers too, and a short-eared owl sat on a distant fence post.

Snowy owl stretch

Day 257: Like a bump on a log

Last weekend I saw someone's photos of snowy owls and I couldn't wait for the working week to finish so I could go and see them again myself. They last made an appearance in 2005/2006 at which time we had our little point-and-shoot camera. We have no photos from that time as we imagined that all we'd see were a couple of distant white dots (much like our bald eagle spotting in Maryland). We were wrong, and we were treated to the sight of the owls very close to the dyke. When I went down there today, it was the same deal: a couple of snowy owls sitting on a log, barely 10 m from a crowd of gawking photographers (I swear some of those lenses were long enough to poke the poor birds from that distance... ;-) I counted another half-a-dozen owls out on the marshes, and I was disappointed to see yet more people out there lugging their huge lenses and tripods around to get a close-up shot of one of the owls. I have no doubt that they would have got as close (or closer) had they stayed up on the dyke. A couple of times I saw owls take flight - a big no-no when doing any form of wildlife watching. If they react to you by moving further away, you're too close.

I kept to the dyke and snapped away with our tiny 55-200 mm lens. Compared with much of the weaponry I saw out there today, our camera still felt like a little point-and-shoot. I came home with over 100 photos of the owls, which spent the entire time sat there like two white bumps on a log. Seriously, the only movement I saw was them swivelling their heads to look around. But at the end of the day, that's a good thing.

Snowy owl

Day 5: Birds in Boundary Bay

One of our contacts on Flickr posts a stunning array of bird photos, many of which are taken along the dykes of Boundary Bay. I've been down there a few times and seen bald eagles up close and far away, herons, golfers, wildfowl and garter snakes. One of the most common birds of prey there is the Northern Harrier and I've longed to get a good photo of one of them drifting and dinking over the marshes. But they're hard to catch, and tend to stay well away from crowds of the bird watchers armed to the teeth with their telephoto lenses.

My first foray onto the dyke today was met with a heavy shower of rain, and I quickly retreated back to the car. I began driving home, but pulled over at a spot where numerous eagles were flying back and forth. I parked the car and explored an area I'd not seen before, a gated paved road. An information board informed visitors that the area used to be the Vancouver Wireless Station operated by the Royal Canadian Signal Corps to monitor Soviet Arctic communications during the Cold War. All that remains is the network of paved streets that formed the base, and they're open to the public to wander around.

I didn't go very far, but in that time I had close encounters with half-a-dozen dogs, several herons, a few golden-crowned sparrows, and more than a dozen bald eagles. At times the eagles flew less than 10 feet above my head, and I missed more than a few photos due to the camera not focussing quickly enough. But I still got plenty :-) and having taken enough I returned to the car and decided to drive to a different part of the dyke, this time at the end of 64th Ave.

I parked up and wandered out into a new shower of rain. I spotted a lone tree out on the marsh and dropped down off the dyke in order to get a picture of it silhouetted against the sky. As I walked back up onto the dyke I saw a bird flying straight towards me. And not any old bird: a male Northern Harrier in breeding plumage. I raised the camera and quickly fired off a couple of shots as it flew right past me at little more than head height. Wow! I was thrilled to have such a close encounter.

I wandered a little further along the dyke and encountered the harrier once more as I was on my way back to the car. Of course I couldn't resist taking more photos, and watched it hover over the long grass, talons down ready to grab any unsuspecting mouse or vole. I'd say I have my photo covered for today... :-)

Other photos from today are on Flickr.

Male Northern Harrier