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.
Tags: Reifel Bird Sanctuary(8), hand feeding(3), pumpkin(2), field(2), farm(2), Mount Douglas(2)
People: Noelle(7), Janet(1), Lloyd(1)
From: John Harvey Photo > Blogs for 2024 to 2005 > October 2009
Last Modified Saturday, January 21st, 2023 at 23:48:44 Edit
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