The raccoon was actually yawning, but it did look quite ferocious.
Seen on my first walk through Stanley Park with a group of people from Flickr.
Normally I stay away from the crowds in this park.

Then I came across this one eating a huge carp I guess it found floating in the pond.
There was two of them, and one was trying to drag it away up into a drainage pipe at the edge of pond. Quite comical to watch the aggression of each one.

After awhile I came across more in a nicer grass area, for better background.

A capture of the dad getting ready to feed a work to the chick. Missed the actual interaction of it, but oh well..

Sandhill Crane with chick

Unfortunately the second chick did not make it, but so far this one seems quite spry.
The area is closed off for anyone wanting to walk by, and these were taken where allowed.

After about 30 or so days this baby sandhill crane was hatched, and started learning fast how to swim and imitate the dad searching for some type of food in the ground.
Happy to announce the other egg hatched the next day, and have now moved off the nest to a more secure location at Reifel.

Mother still on one egg, with newborn beside.

It has been 3 years since a sandhill crane chick was hatched at Reifel, so this would be a real bonus if these eggs make it.
I remember one time a mink got to the eggs, and while taking some photos here, I saw a mink in the background. Keep guarding them mom.

A female wood duck dove down into the pond and grabbed a frog, then proceeded to flop it around with a vengeance until finally eating it. I never knew they ate these, and it is a first see for me.
I thought it might be a revenge for the bullfrogs eating her babies earlier.

Has anyone ever heard of this before???

The goslings and ducklings are arriving in good numbers. Down at the local lake within the city they thrive quite well, because there is a lot of people that probably help keep the natural predators away.
It is the problem with minks before the hatchings.
Getting right on the ground for these shots gives me an eye to eye level.

It seems the goslings are outnumbering the ducks this year.

As you can see there are quite a few on this shot.
I’m not sure if they are all from one mother.

It’s that time of year again when the little hummers build the nests around here, and one of my favourite spots to watch them collect the material is at Crescent Park in White Rock.

About each 5 minutes one or more will come to the cattails at this pond and grab the fluff from them, and with backlighting it is quite a sight.

Meanwhile I also heard some loud calls from 2 barred owls, but my search resulted in not finding them.
A couple of pileated woodpeckers were busy cracking at trees, so this park is quite active now.

It’s great to see swallows back in the same haunts at George Reifel Bird Sanctuary.   

…..however there was an error made on the housing in which,
the holes were too big and that allowed the
sparrows to take over.
Now they will make the
holes smaller to accommodate
the swallows.
I hope this works out for both species.

Last year in the summer I was in Penticton,
and Naramata with hopes of capturing quail,
and magpies.
It seems, though they were in numbers,
none were cooperating for a nice photo,
other than in the dark of trees or on the ground.

Late this March I had the chance to go up again for a week,
and said to myself this is my goal.

Finally!

---

Then the magpies were all around gathering foliage for nesting,
so they did not seem to care how close I got.

These being on the ground
was a non issue, because the sky was a bit overcast,
and was playing havoc with white balance.

The bonus of the week was seeing some bluebirds.
Heading up to Vaseaux Lake saw a bit too much snow on the road,
even for the Jeep, so on the way back down.
a few Western Bluebirds were spotted close to the road

Those are a lifer for me.

I’s funny that last week I was determined to see a short eared owl, and spent most of my day back and forth in search.
As I was ready to give up because of fading light this one appeared on a post quite close.

At least some sun was on one side, and it allowed me about 3 photos before flying.
As soon as it flew a Northern Harrier landed on a post about 3 away, and I was able to get a few of it.

OK so now I was definitely on my way
when I spotted these yellow birds on the field.
I had to see what they were.

They didn’t let me get close, but flew all around over top of me,and I took a guess they were meadow larks.

That was a pretty good day as I have never seen
meadow larks before.

A lifer for me.

—————–