Bald Eagle's nest found

On a visit to Bear Creek Park off the King George Highway in Surrey, BC I found a bald eagle's nest back in mid-May. This brings to three the number of nesting sites I am aware of in this part of British Columbia: Stanley Park in Vancouver, Bear Creek Park in Surrey and Semiahmoo Bay in White Rock. I hope to get down to White Rock soon when the weather clears and is nice again.

Mountain View Conservation & Breeding Centre Society, Langley/BC

A year ago in June 2006 I went on a tour of the Mountain View Conservation Centre outside of Langley, BC. Here is a sampling of photos taken on that visit. Above are a couple of ostriches and in the photo below a cheetah.

In the photo above are a pair of zebras. I believe they are called Grevy's Zebras. There is a closer look at one in the photo below.

Then there is the addax. Below is an image of three of them plus some closer shots of one of the young from that year.

The little guy wanted to tag along on the tour but did stay behind just the same. If you live in BC's lower mainland or are planning a visit to the area, have a look at their website [ http://mtnviewfarms.com/ ] and perhaps consider making a tour of the farm run by the Moutain View Conservation & Breeding Centre Society. Tours are best arranged ahead of time. I hope you have enjoyed these photos. There are more coming soon!

The Weather: So what's happening?

So, here it is late Thursday with the day winding to a close and a week in the month of June behind us. The weather was sunny and warm with temperatures around 20-21 degrees Celsius, and from some accounts I heard, may have gotten up to 26 degrees. The humidity was in the 70 percent range. Well, all that ended Sunday when the clouds started moving in from the southwest. It was still very warm but by evening it was raining on occasion and Monday was a lost cause with pouring rain for most of the day. Yesterday the humidity was around 88 percent with a temperature at 10 degrees Celsis. So today I find it cool. I replaced the shorts that I had been wearing in the warm weather with jeans and added a sweater Still I find a chill in the air in the apartment not to mention outside. The heat has been turned off because we didn't need it with the previous temperatures. The comforter for the bed which I had planned to put away for the summer is back on the bed. It's too cool without it. So when will the warm weather return? That's anyone's guess.


A friend of mine in London, Ontario mentioned that temperatures in southwestern Ontario had been in the 30s, then dropped to around 24 and when I was chatting with her two days ago, it was between 7 & 8 degrees Celsius. That's after the arrival of a late spring and the heat wave that followed. Another friend in Pennsylvania said it got into the 90s (Fahrenheit) during the heat wave in their area (north of Philadelphia) and that was after a late spring for them as well. We certainly live in very interesting times! The temperatures are back up again and much warmer.


It's often said that you can't do anything about the weather but just accept what comes. True, we can accept it all but I often wonder how much our own human activities in polluting this wonderful planet, clear cutting forests, both boreal and tropical, draining aquifers dry plus our agricultural practices contribute to the odd weather we are experiencing. There are many theories on what is causing Global Warming (and cooling in some places) but there is no denying that it is occurring. Now what are we going to do about it or is humanity going to bicker about the causes till our extinction becomes more than a theory but a distinct reality? Just some food for thought! Any comments???

What's in flower at Bear Creek Park - Surrey, BC

Purple lilac in bloom

Korean fir

Lupins in flower (above and below)

Columbine flowers

Primrose

Cornus in bloom

Fish in pond (fry)

Male Mallard duck

Pond and view of the gardens

Rhododendrons in flower

Deciduous azalea in bloom

Perennial cornflower, Centaurea montana

Pine tree in flower (male) with plenty of pollen

Another shrub in bloom

Rhododrendron

The back gate to the garden has these wisteria flowers in bloom. Bear Creek Park is a nice quiet place worth a visit if you're in Surrey, BC. I hope you have enjoyed these photos. More to come!

Where are the bees???

So where are all the bees??? Well, I've seen a few around both wild bees and the odd honeybee but not any where as many as I remember seeing back in the 1960s in southwestern Ontario. Up until I sold my house in London I had a garden with plenty of flowers and various bees, butterflies and hoverflies to go along with them. The garden was alive with flying insects of one sort or another from the time things warmed up in the spring until the snow started flying in late autumn. The bees had lots of nectar from spring and summer heather, scotch broom, genista, roses, thyme, veronica, perennial cornflower, false indigo and many other flowers. Then I didn't use insecticide, herbicides and pesticides on any of my plants but rather organic methods more environmentally friendly than those sprays mentioned. So that meant pulling weeds by hand and companion planting instead. This means more work but it's better for the environment and all the creatures that live in it in the long run!

So back to the bees in the Greater Vancouver area. Both Wednesday and Thursday I paid a visit to Hawthorne Rotary Park and Bear Creek Park in Surrey. There were some wild bees but few of them and they seemed to be skittish. I haven't seen any honeybees lately. The last one I saw was about a week or two ago. This series of photos show a bumblebee on a perennial cornflower, Centaurea montana, taken at Bear Creek Park on Thursday afternoon. This is a solitary wild bee going from one flower to another in search of nectar. I did see another couple of bumblebees around a planting of rhododendrons but they made themselves scarce. No honeybees were spotted at either park or enroute between them. Well, enjoy seeing this one anyway!

Here's a little further information on the perennial cornflower, Centaurea montana. Go to Wikipedia.org for more details on this species and the more than 350 - 500 species found in the world.

Centaurea montana (common names include perennial cornflower, mountain cornflower and mountain bluet) is a species of Centaurea endemic to Europe. It is widespread and common in the more southerly mountain ranges of Europe, but is rarer in the north. It escapes from gardens readily, and has thereby become established in the British Isles, Scandinavia and North America.

C. montana grows in meadows and open woodland in the upper montane and sub-alpine zones, in basic areas. It grows to 30–70 cm (12–28") tall, and flowers mainly from May to August.

A flower head of C. montana seen from above
C. montana may be distinguished from other Centaurea species in the region by its usually entire leaves, and the blue-purple colour of the outermost ray florets. It may be distinguished from the cornflower, C. cyanus, by having a single (rarely up to three) flower heads, and by its being perennial, whereas the cornflower has many flower heads and is annual. The closely-related C. triumfettii has more narrowly-winged stems, narrower leaves and grows in rockier areas.

This plant is inedible; however, it is a popular medicinal plant in Central Europe.

Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Centaurea_montana"

Monkey dead from bubonic plague in Denver

Here's a little news from Reuters that might get you thinking!

Monkey dead from bubonic plague in Denver
Mon May 21, 8:58 PM ET

A Denver Zoo monkey has died of bubonic plague, apparently after eating a squirrel stricken with the disease, Colorado health and zoo officials said on Monday.
Five squirrels and a rabbit found dead on zoo grounds tested positive for the flea-borne disease in recent weeks, Denver Zoo spokeswoman Ana Bowie said.

Read more at: http://news.yahoo.com/s/hm/20070522/us_nm/usa_plague_monkey_dc_1

It's raining, it's pouring but I don't hear the old man snoring!!!

Well, that's not exactly how the words go but humour is helpful on a day like today. Outside it's pouring rain. The sky is overcast and certainly dull-looking. The weather was warm, sunny and very summer-like during the week but yesterday the rain clouds returned and began dumping that wet stuff on us once again. Yesterday it was occasional with the sun trying to make it's appearance but today the rain is pretty constant and heavy at time. Hopefully tomorrow or Tuesday will be much better weatherwise!

That being said, I guess this is a great day for indoor work. There are files to download onto CD and images to download onto the computer, so expect some posts in the very near future with recent photos taken at Bear Creek Park in Surrey. Of course, the weather was not at all like today. These photos will show clear blue skies, sunny weather and many other things, floral and otherwise. It's the Victoria Day weekend here but I hope mother nature is more co-operative where you are. Have a great weekend! Come back soon for more!