Oh, hai!

Yeah, it's been a looooong time! But I just flew out to Vancouver to do some birdwatching although after the first few hours I guess it's more like rainwatching with a bit of birding! Anyway, after watching 4.5 episodes of Criminal Minds on the flight, I took the train and a bus to my hotel, dumped off my luggage and went to Stanley Park. When I was here a few years ago there was a great blue heron colony and there were almost 200 nests so I was pretty excited about coming back. I had my big, heavy umbrella with me which didn't do my photography any favours. The first thing I noticed was the sound of all the herons, the second was the putrid stench! I tried taking some pics but they didn't turn out too well since I was using one hand.

So after I saw the herons I walked a little way along the sea wall and kept hearing this squeal. I saw 2 crows going after each other...except that's not what they were doing. They were dive bombing an eagle! This may be one of the Vanier Park eagles or it could be the one that I saw the last 2 times I was here, over by the swimming pool at Second Beach. I would never have seen it because of the umbrella so a big thank you to the crows for alerting me. Again, not the greatest because of the umbrella and all but eagles are eagles.

That's it for day 1. It's not even 6 pm and I'm ready for bed because my body thinks I'm still in the eastern time zone!

Last day and the flight home!

It was raining again but I've had no complaints about the weather.  Every time I go to Vancouver I end up with spectacular weather so a bit of rain won't hurt.  I took my DSLR for one final walk along the sea wall and another trip to Stanley Park, followed by a trip to Vanier Park to see the eagles one last time.

The boats and ships were out on the water:

My eagle friend made one final appearance but was unsuccessful in catching any birds while I was there.  They scattered and chased it away:

The sun rose and the fog started to burn off:

The great blue heron decided to show off its flying skills:

Watch out, gull!

And a final trip to see my eagles at Vanier Park.  Ms Vanier, you are gorgeous!

As we were walking over to Granville Island, a crow was chasing the male back to his nest:

And that's it!  Now, a few pictures from the air:

Bye Vancouver, see you next time!

Rainy morning with lots of wildlife!

It was raining from night to morning but I wanted to take a walk. The hotel provides nice, big umbrellas so I was ready to go. I didn't take my DSLR with me, just my point and shoot, so the pictures aren't all that clear. The one thing my point and shoot has is video, and it came in handy.  You'll hear the rain falling in each of the videos.

The ships look different when they're lit up:

I was walking along the sea wall, hoping to see my eagle friend and curious to see where his lookout was now that the big tree was cut down. As I was thinking this, an adult eagle flew past me, very low and out onto the rocks by the water. Of course I was excited because I'd never seen an eagle on the rocks before and hoped I could get closer. While watching the eagle, I noticed some other animals in the water swimming in a group of 5 or 6 so I started to shoot. As I was shooting them, the eagle took off. What I didn't realize at the time was the bird in its talons! I only noticed this when I went back to the hotel and watched it on my laptop.

The swimmers were otters. They came up to the shore and then ran back down to the water again:

They were SO cute!  I decided to try and follow them because I'm a stupid human who eventually realised they were going further out into the water.  I never saw them again, but I did see a very rude great blue heron who wouldn't share his fish with crows:

Remember the eagle's lookout tree?  It was cut down because it was dead and now it's been turned into a lovely piece of furniture:

Yes, a loveseat!  Now think of the size of trees in Ontario that you thought were big.  Could any of them be as big as this one?  I thought this was great, the tree has had its purpose for decades and maybe centuries and now it has a new job.

I had one day to go and I was really missing my dogs and cats, then I saw this lucky dog walker.  How cool would it be to be able to walk around Stanley Park every day?  And with such well mannered dogs?

Just before I went back to my hotel, this group of Canada Geese walked across the street and onto the beach.  We had to stop for them and they weren't in a hurry:

Wednesday: Eagles and Olympic Cauldron!

I didn't think I'd be able to walk much after all the ups and downs at Lynn Canyon yesterday but morning came (actually it was still night!) and I was back at it!

Here is the Inukshuk at English Bay. Look at what someone put on it!

Making my way to the Burrard Street Bridge and Vanier Park where the eagles' nest is. I have to go up a couple of flights of stairs and then walk across to the end of the bridge, then backtrack to the nest. If I could fly it would take 5 seconds but to walk it's about half an hour.

This little dog was having a ball as he jumped from rock to rock:

See the tall tree across the water on the right hand side? That's where the nest is.

Apparently this dog is wasted:

And the eagles are in the nesting tree! The long hike was worth it!

Just to prove I'm not obsessed with eagles and only eagles:

A wet and dirty dog is a happy dog!

Here is the eagles' nest. I would say it's about 4 feet deep and 6 feet across.

This totem pole is between Vanier Park where the eagles live and Granville Island, where I'd like to live:

This sign sums up about 75% of where I was over the week!

The other side of the Burrard Street Bridge while approaching Granville Island:

This Great Blue Heron flew over and landed on a boat!

On my way back to the nest I spotted something swimming alongside the pathway...a seal! I was so happy to see it! I had seen one there a couple of years ago and later found out the fishermen feed it, as well as the eagles.

The downside of seeing the seal? I missed one of the eagles getting chased back to the nest tree! But that's okay, more fun was to come. Here is one eagle in the tree after being escorted back by a couple of crows:

And now it's being escorted to another area of the park:

One eagle watches with a look of amusement while the other jumps awkwardly from one branch to another:

Overhead shot:

You know it's coming...The eagle has landed!

And away we go!

Weeeeeeee!!

After that we went to a few other parts of the city. This is a clock that operates on steam:

The Olympic Cauldron!!! It is smaller than I expected but I was so happy to see it. I loved the Vancouver Olympics!

What it looks like up close:

A different view of Stanley Park: