Cattle Point

With a warm beverage, these folks seem to be enjoying the pale winter sunshine on this rocky outcropping. This is a great spot all year round! Happy New Year to everyone. - Fern

New Phone with Camera

I recently got one of these new cellphones with a camera and have been enjoying taking occasional snaps with it when I don't have my dslr with me. This was one of those moments when it was great to be able to reach in my pocket and catch these two gulls on the top of the poles before they flew away. - Fern

Rock

This is one of a half dozen minute islands in Victoria Harbour. And this one is like the others in that it is basically just an enormous rock sticking up out of the water with a light dusting of soil here and there in its cracks, dips and depressions. Despite its Eden-like lushness at certain times of year, Victoria is not generally very fertile in the agricultural sense because it is built on rock and often the soil overlaying the rock is very shallow. The underlying bedrock not only shows up in the islands in the harbour but here and there all around the city. It's a rocky place.

Fungus Friday

These mushrooms growing out of the side of a decaying log in Thetis Lake Park have clearly sensed which way is up despite the contortions of stem this requires in this situation. My question is, since they have none of that light sensitive substance, chlorophyll, how do they know up from down?

Double-crested Cormorant (Phalacrocorax auritus)

Two weeks ago I posted a photo of some Double-crested Cormorants relaxing on an island in the Inner Harbour. That's about as close as we usually get to these birds who seem to be much shyer than many of the other local waterfowl, so I was happy to see this one swimming around relatively close to shore in Sailor's Cove. These birds are called "Double-crested" because of the two large white crests they wear above their eyes during breeding season.