Eagles

Every winter bald eagles converge on an area called Brackendale, just outside Squamish about 45 minutes from Vancouver. They start arriving in mid November and stay until mid February, with the largest numbers being late December into January.

The attraction for the eagles is the plentiful supply of food - dying salmon in the Squamish, Mamquam and Cheakumus Rivers.

We visited at the end of January, towards the end of the 'eagle season' but still saw about half a dozen adults and one young. The young eagles can still be the same size as an adult, but don't develop the full colours and white head until they are 4-5 years old.

We only stayed about half an hour as it was absolutely freezing - the air temperature was about -2 but with the windchill it must have been -10 at least. Next year we will take ski-standard hats & gloves rather than the ordinary ones we had with us. We are still adjusting to these funny winter temperatures.

Here are a few of the still photos we have taken. I will try and upload some video footage shortly.





This is a photo of the young Eagle - it is still brown all over.

Brackendale

Here are a few images of Brackendale.

Capilano Lake

Last Monday we decided to make good use of the sunny weather and get out & about. We wanted to go to Brackendale and see the eagles, but on the way decided to test out the new camera at Capilano Lake.

View of the lake

A close-up of The Lions


The skyride towers on Grouse Mountain

A panorama image of Capilano Lake (click it for the full-size image)

Jay Brannan

We don't often go to musical events but we had heard Jay Brannan's music via the internet and could not pass up the chance to hear him play live here in Vancouver in a small alternative venue, The Media Club.
Not quite used to the new camera so pretty poor couple of pics. Luckily Jay has much of his music on You Tube so we can link here for you to sample some of my favourite example of his poetic and angelic singer song writing.



'Say it's Possible' (So beautiful; a favourite)


'Goddamned'


'Body's a Temple'


If you like this what you hear check him out at http://www.jaybrannan.com/index.html
Buy what you can on the net so he can make an album!!

Views Around North Vancouver

On Tuesday we actually had a sunny day (quite rare this time of year!). I was out on Agents Tour during the morning as usual and as I had the camera with me took a couple few photos as I was out and about.

Below is a view North up Boulevard Park, with the lower ski slope of Grouse Mountain seen in the background.

This is looking across the sports field at Boulevard Park in a South Westerly direction towards downtown. The mountains of Vancouver Island can just be seen on the horizon.

Below is a view south down Mahon Avenue towards the water.

St. Andrews Church on St. Georges Avenue.

And finally.....a nice backdrop to the supermarket

New Years Day Dinner

Somewhat belated as usual !........here are just a couple photos of the excellent dinner David laid on for us all on New Years Day.

Wildlife

We have noticed this winter how many more birds we get in the garden than we do in the summer. Presumably this is because they come down the mountain in search of food where the ground is less frozen & covered in snow.

This video is a small compilation of some wildlife that we've captured over the past few months comprising;
Steller's Jay (blue bird) filmed in our back garden
Northern Flicker (dash of orange on head & spotted body) filmed in our back garden
Squirrells filmed in our back garden
Deer filmed in the garden of the house we rented in Golden
Eagle filmed in the garden of the house we rented in Golden

On the same day we filmed the Steller's Jay we also had two Varied Thrush with bright orange bodies but they didn't sit still long enough to film them. We will try and get some footage of them next time we see them.

Sea Otters

Apparently this piece of amateur video footage taken at Vancouver Aquarium of two sea otters floating on their backs holding flippers made it into the top 10 most viewed videos on You Tube with over 9.4 million views since March 2007.

Charlie Shakin his booty is up to 47 views now........we're getting there !

Christmas Highlights

Still experimenting with video/photo editing and have made one of a few highlights from our Christmas.

Snowy Christmas at home 2007

A brief bit of video from a snowy Christmas at home 2007, showing the garden, house, Mr C, David's new CSI XBox game and a bit of weather forecast.

Christmas Day Swim

Here's Charlie swimming on Christmas Day

Christmas Walk

Is there a whiff of Burrard Inlet in the living room ? Ah yes, that'll be Mr C !

Last year David worked Christmas Day so I took Charlie to Lynn Headwaters for the first time. This year, David was working again and as I already knew it would be too snowy at Headwaters (the parking lot was covered in snow and that usually has the least of the whole area) so I decided to make another first for Charlie (and me for that matter) and walk around the seawall in Stanley Park. I have walked parts of the seawall before, but never in it's entirity and Charlie has never been to Stanley Park before.

It was cold & wet and in parts windy so not really the ideal day for a stomp somewhere so exposed but it was lovely to do the walk and I really look forward to doing it again with David when we have a better day for it.

Here are a few pics from the walk. Due to the weather they are a bit dull & miserable but show Charlies Christmas Walk off nonetheless.

Charlie posing with a backdrop of downtown

There was a large raft of ducks, seen here with Lionsgate Bridge in the background



The lighthouse on the North East side of the park

Having a festive swim & stick fetch

Posing post swim

More swimming

Towel dryed off, ready to go home

When we got home we were surprised to find a good 2-3cms of snow had fallen while we were out, and Charlie was dismayed to remember that he had left a bone in the garden before we went on our walk. He is seen here desperately trying to find it. He does eventually track it down and quickly eats it before it can get lost again.

All in all, a good Christmas day of walks in the morning and sofa-snoozing in the afternoon. A proper dogs Christmas.

Christmas Lights

While there are a number of non-Christian or non-celebrating households, those that do celebrate Christmas and express it with festive lighting more than make up for it.

Here are a selection of our neighbours homes with their seasonal displays......

Christmas Tree

So this is 2007's Christmas Tree. It is a 6' noble fir, similar to the one we had last year. We have also succeeded in filling the space under with presents which is pretty impressive as we didn't really have many people to buy for. I guess Charlie's going to be very lucky again this year.

Merry Christmas to All

It is times like these that we miss our family & friends the most. Know that we are thinking of you all at Christmas.

Have a Very Merry Christmas and an even better 2008!

(Click Link)

Love

D & A

Work's do.

Some pics from the Work's Christmas Do.

Sprout Eating

A bit of fun for Christmas.....

Click Here For Sprout Game