Mother's Day Walk

For Mother's Day, Toni and Ken had us down to their place. My Ken made desserts and a salad, and Toni's Ken smoked pork shoulders, and made Carolina pulled pork, with a bunch of grilled veggies and fruit.

It was a feast.

To get in a little exercise while the men were putting the finishing touches on supper, Toni and I went for a little walk along the waterfront in their neighbourhood. I was really trying to get a little bit more use out of this massive 200-500mm lens that I'd rented, but the wildlife wasn't being all that cooperative. Usually there are flocks of ducks and geese that follow you around, and a lot of those cute shore birds that are so much fun to watch. But on this walk, for the most part, it was like walking through some post-apocalyptic scene where there are no living things to be found.

But then we stumbled onto a bird that didn't get the memo.

I guess the trick when you're using a zoom like this is to just keep taking photos, and hope that something's in focus, because I had no idea if I was focusing on anything even remotely close to this bird. My vision's not as great as I think, I guess. But one's and zero's are free, so I took a couple dozen photos, and two or three were pretty nice.

And then he flew away, so I was left to take photos of non-birds.

And then, fluttering into view, was a little acrobatic clown. A Black Phoebe.

I thought he must have been doing some little courtship dance, because his flitting to and fro over the water was so acrobatic. But when I got the photos home, I saw this:

It turns out, he's scooping up little bugs that are flying just over the surface of the water. That takes skill!

And then he got 'the big one', and took a rest.

Hey, Phoebe, you can come and eat bugs in my back yard, any time!

And then we walked back to Toni and Ken's, and stuffed ourselves, too. It was a good Mother's Day, even if I did nearly break a rib coughing up my lungs.