October 2009

Happy Thanksgiving!

David and Dominique generously offered to host a Thanksgiving party this year.

Honestly, we aren't over enough for Noelle to see us as anything but strangers. Over time, her sense of "strange" was overcome by the desire to touch the adult food left on the coffee table.

Taking photos at parties is hard at the best of times. With very few exceptions, taking pictures of people eating is just plain rude. Playing it safe, you wind up with blurry macro shots of food unless you bring a tripod (hello?) or the dinner table is lit up like a retail store.

Toddlers don't seem to mind so much if you take photos of them eating - especially if you are willing to do your part in helping them eat. Given some well purried turkey dinner, you are both sure to have a good time.

Thanks David, Dominique and Noelle for the dinner and entertainment!

Vancouver Island

Helen and I went to see the parents for the weekend. We took a few walks outside and I took a few photos.

One of my favorite places in Victoria is Mount Douglas. Mount Douglas has a stand of Garry Oak at the top that reminds you of what Victoria may have looked like many years ago. The view of the surrounding area ties the ocean and land together and shows how Victoria really isn't as flat as the lower mainland.

Reifel Island

Reifel Island is an interesting backwater within the Greater Vancouver Regional District. The Island in the fraser river is mostly covered in farm land (the Reifel Island Wildfowl Refuge is the only other large land user). The Agricultural Land Reserve probably keeps this island in it's agricultural state while the next island over (Richmond) gains condo towers and sprawling big box stores.

Every year the Snow Geese land for a few weeks on their passage south. They gleen something from these fields and I have no idea what - these are pumpkin and potatoe fields so I hard to believe they are eating unharvested food.

Our goal for the day was a Reifel Island Bird Sanctuary. This is a fun destination all year round because there are so many birds that are habituated to humans, but also the possibility of seeing a real wild bird.

My favorite cheaky bird for this trip was a chickadees. We saw a child hold out her hand with bird feed in it and the chickadees would fly down to eat out her hand. Helen tried the same, but it turns out the feed for the ducks isn't appropriate for the chickadee's - it's too hard and the birds can't break the seeds open. After flying down and investigating, the chickadee bit Helen's finger. Seems to me the bird wasn't pleased.

The Sandhill Cranes at Reifel are a real treat. These birds are large, not common outside of the sanctuary and frequently seen in the park. Most people haven't seen a bird this size in the wild so when they are out, they impress people. I'm gaining quite a collection of Sandhill crane photos.

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