Yesterday it was a nice sunny day outside, which was great because we've been having really crappy weather in this part of the world lately. It seems we've been having our rainy season late this year.

So yesterday after work, I went to the gym and then I ate out at Red Robin after, with my friend A. He brought his camera with him, so after we ate, we drove over to Burnaby Lake Park and took some photos. A. hasn't been there in a while, so he was surprised to see how many ducklings and goslings there are.

There were some friendly German tourists at the end of the dock, whom were asking us about the beavers. They were eager to see them. Usually the beavers at Burnaby Lake Park start coming in at dusk, and so they were delighted to see them when they began to appear. I love beavers too.

A. got some photos of me with my camera. Here's some of them:


These ones are from the train tracks near the lake:








And here's A. with his trusty Nikon:

I visited my favorite nature spot again (when we had some sunshine). The geese with their new, young families are doing well. All the little ones have gained quite a bit of weight. The ones I took photos of a few weeks ago are now about 8lbs or more.

I brought some raw sunflower seeds to feed them as a nice treat. Geese, ducks and birds absolutely love raw sunflower seeds. I gave them sunflower seeds without the shells on, so that the little ones could enjoy them as well, (I think the unshelled ones may be more difficult to eat).



Mom had some too:




This little guy sure was happy (and he had a big full tummy too).


Here's some of the young gang on their way to inspect a new human arival:


Nature never ceases to amaze me. How can anything be so colorful? I've found it very difficult in the past to get so close to the Harlequin duck, but I was fortunate this time. This little fellow was too busy preeninghimself, to give much attention to how close I was. I was sitting down though, so he wasn't intimidated by me:




Shake, shake, shake!


Final shake:


...and he's finished preening for now:


This one has been with the group for about 2 years or so now. This one is an unusual color; it has the Canada goose (Branta canadensis) markings, but is a much lighter color. It may be a cross breed of some kind. I've actually seen two of this species together (last year) but I haven't seen the other one yet this year.


Wooo Hooo!!


I really don't like these leg bands (as I'm sure the geese don't like them either)! Nobody owns these birds. Imagine having one of these around your ankle for the rest of your life?

Yucky! Yucky! Yucky!!

The weather has been rainy and nasty here for most of the week. I know we need it, but I really don't like rain. (Probably most photographers don't care for the rain much.) Especially on my weekend, but what can ya do?

I went into town this afternoon, after I hit some yard sales (which were rather lame as well, largely due to the weather) and visited with my photojournalist friend J.S. I didn't get to have coffee with him though, because I was really late getting into town, so instead I browsed around town and checked out a few stores like Gap.

I took the train back out of town:


And when I got off the train, I saw something very rare and extraordinary...



He's the original Pauly Dangerous, and actual sightings of him are very rare! (although, I had heard rumors of him having been spotted in the area). I had just disembarked from the train, when I heard someone call my name, so I turned and looked and it was him. We chatted for a little bit, and then he had to get back on the train. He was heading home as well. Pauly Dangerous may be one of the most intelligent beings in the known universe.

Getting ready for bed as the sun goes down: (That's a feather in her mouth.)




Leg band:


A view of the north mountains from Burnaby Mountain Park.


If you're in the area, I highly recommend Horizons Restaurant. The food is great and the view is outstanding. You can see for miles to the north, west and south.

I've always liked trains (since I was a little kid). Here's one that passes near Burnaby Lake:

Well, it's come to that point where I have to clean out some of the old images. Unfortunately, I've reached the maximum allowable image space (800 images) with my image host village photos. I've been paying for 'Plan E' of their image hosting packages on a monthly basis. I think the cost is reasonable, but I don't thing I should step up to the next level (Plan 'F') just yet.

So I'm going to start cleaning out the images, starting with the oldest ones first. I think I'll leave the archives there thought, so people will still be able to go back and see pages from the past. The text will still be there, but the images will not. I've been considering making all the images available on CD, so that anyone who would like to have them can email me and request a CD. I would charge a small and reasonable fee to cover the cost of shipping and the CD. I have a PayPal business account and so the payment process would be quite simple.

If anyone who's reading this has any ideas, solutions or suggestions, please feel free to email me, or leave a comment at the bottom of this post.

In the mean time, I'm going to start clearing out the old images to make room for the new ones.

-Ciao!

I took a break from being cooped up in the house this evening. I headed over to Burnaby Lake to see the animals. There were quite a few people there this time. I didn't get there until about 7:00pm, just before sunset, so I was surprised by the amount of people. With all the new babies around, it's a very popular spot.





Several of the older babies are getting big now, particularly the goslings. The last time I was there (about 2 weeks ago) they were the size of pigeons, now they are about the size of chickens.



Some of the Canada geese are still having new batches, and I saw a momma goose still sitting on the same nest she was on two weeks ago. I didn't get to see if they'd hatched yet though, because she didn't get up from the nest. Daddy goose was standing on guard a few feet from her. He let me crouch beside him to get a good look at his nesting mate.



While I was there I saw something moving in the reeds nearby. I got up and looked and I discovered a beaver! The beaver was pulling some small branches out to take to the beaver dam across the lake. Now unfortunately there were some stupid people (I know, you probably haven't seen me angry on here before, but I gotta tell you, I was angry!) who were at the other end of the dock fishing. I don't know why they were fishing there, because I'm pretty certain there is no fishing allowed in a wildlife sanctuary, but there were 3 or four of these guys fishing, and smoking cigarettes. The beaver was swimming right towards their fishing lines and just as I feared, the beaver got snagged in the lines. Idiots! I was so angry! I started to head towards them to yell at them, when the beaver managed to break free. The beaver lost his mouthful of branches though, and he didn't come back for them.







Frankly, it wasn't the first time I've seen people doing really stupid things there, in fact every time I go there I see at least one person behaving carelessly. I just don't like to bring these things up here, because I want to keep "Life as Mark sees it" a positive place to visit. But on the other hand, it wouldn't be fair to lead you to believe that nothing bad ever happens here.