Photojournal
- 1
September 2004
A
Queen Elizabeth morning
September had arrived
and I was determined to not let it stop me from birding. For the
first, I planned a morning outing to Queen Elizabeth Park in Vancouver.
There had been reports of Nashville Warblers, American Redstarts,
and Orange-crowned Warblers from this park recently. Besides,
it was a place I'd never been birding and it wasn't wetlands.
The morning turned
out to be quite overcast. Rain was constantly threatening and
occasionally breaking out. I kept my camera on my shoulder under
my coat, bringing it out from under its protection only when shooting.
Soon after I arrived
at the park, I spotted some birds in the tops of a few nearby
trees. I could tell by the shape that some of them (but not all
of them) were flycatchers. Here's an early shot, showing a flycatcher
of some sort in the background, and a yellow warbler or goldfinch
in the front.
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Right after that shot,
the flycatcher chased the yellow bird away.
Here's a later shot,
with two flycatchers.
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I wandered around the
hill and eventually came to the large gardens, which are located
in an old quarry. At a crossing, I looked to my left and saw a
pretty-darned-big raccoon on the path. He stopped and locked eyes
with me for a second, before scurrying away under a bush. I quickly
broke my reverie and tried to pursue, but he ducked under a bridge
and then into some dense underbrush, where I couldn't track him.
From where I ended
up, I could see several people in the gardens, including the following
guy. He was gyrating his hips all around, like he was Elvis or
somethin'.
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I like the monstrous
leaves on the plant behind him.
Here's a view that's
less zoomed in, showing more of the gardens.
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The gardens
were quite pretty, and I need to go back some other time to shoot
just the gardens in order to do them justice. I'll present you with
one more shot of them, though. |
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As I was
skirting the outside of the gardens, I didn't see any of the reported
warblers, but I did see a large bird flying towards the top of a
tree. Following the motion, I came across a Cooper's Hawk, just
as a hole in the clouds came by. |
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While I
was taking photos, another Cooper's Hawk arrived. There were two
of them, both juveniles. Here one is giving the other a hard time.
The recipient of the scolding seems to be making a "buzz off"
gesture. |
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It turns out that these
two Cooper's Hawks had been reported (by Len) along with the warblers,
but I had remembered only the warblers. So I wasn't expecting
these guys.
Here's another shot
of the one on the left.
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I followed the hawks
through the trees for 45 minutes or so, catching them in a few
different places, although they liked to return to the tree where
I first found them.
Here's one of them
at another tree. You can see that he's probably not too hungry.
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I can sympathize with
him...I tend to slop my food on my chest, too.
It started to rain
more consistently, so I decided to head back to my car, happy
with having gotten good shots of the hawks. On the way back, I
encountered a small group of yellow birds. The rain had slowed
to a drizzle, so I was able to pull out my camera and take some
photos. Unfortunately, the birds were under some trees, in the
dark, with the bright overcast sky behind them. I wasn't able
to get any good pictures of them; this is probably my clearest
shot of one.
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As I continued along,
a Steller's Jay lit on a branch almost directly above me. He was
eating a bee or wasp.
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From my position under
the jay, I found one of the little yellow guys in a bit more light.
At least, I think this is the same kind of bird. This guy could
be a Nashville Warbler or an Orange-crowned Warbler, but it's
impossible to tell from my photos.
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My final
bird of the morning was an American Robin, standing in a puddle
getting drizzled on. |
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Then it was off to
work, with no more photography until the weekend. September had
truly arrived.
Still wanting to find
those warblers,
Tom
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