| Photojournal
- 11 July
2004
South
Surrey Sunday
| On the 11th,
which was a Sunday, I grabbed my friend Ken and we headed out for
a photo expedition. We decided to go to Burns Bog in Surrey. The
guide book I have that gave directions to it (or more properly,
to the entrances to it, as the Bog itself is pretty hard to miss)
had two entrances listed. The first, more proper, one is to enter
from the parking lot of the ice rinks just across the Alex Fraser
Bridge.
Well, we searched around
the parking lot there and didn't find any obvious entrance to
a bog. The bog was on the other side of the highway from there.
We eventually gave up on that plan and went to the other place
listed. It was equally mysterious to find, but we think we found
it, by the entrance to the landfill just north of Highway 99.
At the very least,
we found a nice trail along some power lines with interesting
and colorful plants and flowers all around. It had gotten to be
around 2 or 3 pm when we arrived. This meant we were out of luck
with regards to bird life...it was pretty warm out and the birds
were not flying too much. We did see some eagles circling, but
not too much else.
Bad for birds turned
out to be pretty good for insects. There were dragonfiles and
butterflies flitting all about.
As we were walking
in, I caught a picture of the following white butterfly, which
I think is either a Cabbage White or a Margined White. Either
way, he's pretty tattered.
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I've been
seeing those little white butterflies around a lot recently. Further
in, we found a little slough crossing the path, which was a hotbed
of dragonfly activity. Here's a blue-bodied dragonfly from beside
the slough.
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Here's a red one, which
spent most of its time on the plank that had been laid across
the slough as a bridge. Here he's on the bank, though. (Update:
after careful study of my newly-arrived dragonfly books, I believe
that this one is an adult male Cardinal Meadowhawk.)
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Here's a blue damselfly
on the plank bridge. I like her green eyes.
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We went a bit past
the slough to a place by a blueberry farm. Some blueberries had
escaped the farm and were growing on the side of the path. They
were small, but they did indeed taste like blueberries. After
turning around, I got a good picture of one of the types of butterflies
that we had seen a lot of. This one is called a Lorquin's Admiral.
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A similar one which
was also around is the Red Admiral.
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| There was
one pesky brown dragonfly which kept buzzing Ken, and Ken was trying
to get a photo of it. The guy eventually flew away, but I tracked
where he went and stepped off the path a couple of steps to catch
this picture of him. His body appears to have blue and brown stripes. |
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On the way out, I did
catch one sunbleached photo of a sunbleached bird. This looks
like a Song Sparrow to me, but he's different than the Song Sparrows
that I've been seeing around. I think this one is molting (losing
feathers).
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Well, Ken and I were
parched and done for the day. Just for fun, we drove through a
tunnel under Highway 99 that we didn't previously know was there.
It was a one-lane tunnel, probably originally intended for cows
but now a road. This brought us out to Ladner Trunk Road and a
short trip back on the highway to New Westminster, where I dropped
Ken by his car and came back home.
In the next installment,
I cross international borders to bring you interesting photos.
Stay tuned.
Cheers!
Tom
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