They left the location deciding to me, and so I took them down to the Tsawassen ferry jetty to check out the "compensation lagoon" and the heronry. When we got out of the car on the jetty, Annie noticed a black bird flying over to the rocks below us. It was a Black Oystercatcher; an adult with something in its bill. We got a real good close look at it.

We checked the rest of the lagoon and didn't see much. There were a couple of Great Blue Herons there, and a bunch of seagulls. So we headed back to land and stopped at the little turnoff when we reached it. That's where there's a cliff with a big heronry on it (and a bunch of blackberry brambles by the side of the road). The trees were filled with Great Blue Herons. The morning light turned out to be not so-good, leaving the cliff and the herons in the dark. I decided not to try to photograph the herons because of that (and because I'm out there at the heronry enough to have already gotten a lot of photos there). We did see one Bald Eagle there; there's an eagle nest beside the heronry.

We were running out of time, as I thought I had to be at a wedding reception at 2:30. So we decided to skip Reifel Bird Sanctuary (which to do properly would take several hours) and went instead to Serpentine Fen, another sanctuary that none of us had ever been to. I blissfully drove past the entrance to the Fen, but luckily my companions spoke up and directed me back to where we were going.

At the fen, more blackberries awaited Annie, and Derrill and I plodded along the path. It was getting to be around 11:00, and the sun was really beating down on us. We spotted some grasshoppers with striking, butterfly-like wings. The only problem was that they only had their wings open when flying. When they sit, they just look like grasshoppers.

So I tried to get a photo of one flying. I enlisted Derrill's help; I would set up the camera on a stationary grasshopper, and he would flush it and I would hopefully press my shutter release fast enough to catch it spreading its wings.

Derrill was really good at flushing the grasshoppers, but sadly, I was nowhere near quick enough to get a picture of them taking off. Those little guys are fast.

After a few attempts, we tired of that, and proceeded along. We noticed a yellowlegs of some sort across the river. We had a little debate about which kind of yellowlegs it was; I don't remember who took which position. The photo seems to indicate a Lesser Yellowlegs to me, but I'm not 100% sure.

We had only walked a little bit farther before deciding it was too hot and turning back around. Annie had come along the path to get us, having decided the same thing.

We went to brunch and then I dropped them off and headed to work to check out what time I was supposed to be at the reception. I found the invitation and discovered that the reception was at 6:30, so that meant I had a few hours of free time. I decided to drop by Como Lake and check on the Pied-billed Grebes.

When I first got there, however, I went over to where the dragonflies were and tried to capture photos of some that I wasn't able to get the last time there. I finally did get one of the things that looked like Twelve-spot Skimmers, only whiter. I do believe that it is just a sunbleached Twelve-spot, not a different variety.

I also caught the following guy, who has dark green eyes.

They were just floating around without much activity. Most of my photos of them ended up overexposed. Here's one more of the okay shots--one of the little guys.

I was getting baked, so I headed on home for a nap before primping in preparation for the reception. Congratulations to my friends Greg and Kat, who were married that day.

Trying to stay in the shade,
Tom