surrey

Storm Clouds Over South Surrey

Storm clouds from an incoming thunderstorm darken the sky over farmland in South Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.

dark thunderstorm clouds over south surrey farmland nicomekl river

Thunderstorm Clouds Darken the Sky Over South Surrey Farmland (Purchase)

A few weeks ago I had a few hours to spend at Elgin Heritage Park in Surrey. I was mostly interested in photographing birds, and was not expecting a storm. Previously I’ve found a lot of birds on the marsh areas as well as along the shoreline of the Nicomekl River. At lot of the marsh plants seemed to be flatted by previous high water, so there aren’t as many old stems for the birds to perch in at the moment, but that will change as the foliage grows this spring. After looking for Red-winged Blackbirds and other birds along the shore, the darkening sky to the north and west was of some concern. I could see rain falling not too far across the river at times, so I was wary as to when I might have to head back to the car due to heavy precipitation or lightning. I made the first photograph here from the bank of the Nicomekl and from then on the sky received more of my attention than the birds. Although, I did photograph a Greater Yellowlegs which seemed to occasionally get bogged down in the mud while foraging. The Yellowlegs seemed pretty unconcerned about the potential for rain.

storm clouds over nicomekl river south surrey farmland

Storm Clouds and Rainfall over South Surrey Farmland (Purchase)

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The wide panorama below shows the amount of precipitation that was falling from these clouds at times. At one point the rain was just across the river, and I was pretty sure I could hear it. Only a few drops on the side of Elgin Heritage Park though, which I did not mind. My gear is weather sealed but I generally don’t want to test that!

bands of rain fall from storm clouds south surrey elgin

Wide Panorama of the Bands of rain falling from the storm clouds (Purchase)

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In my most recent post I wrote about not really wanting to photograph Herons anymore and then not only photographed a number of Herons, I posted 4 to that blog post alone. I should point out that while there is a Great Blue Heron in the photo below, it is not a “Heron photo”. It is a stormy cloud photograph that merely happens to have a Heron in it, in my defense. 🙂 There seemed to be some territorial jostling going on with the Herons at the river on that day – they were chasing each other off quite often. Lots of squawking and honking sounds (these are not songbirds) with some physical intimidation can help when attempting to convince a rival to move down the river, apparently.

storm clouds and the nicomekl river with heron

Nicomekl River, Storm Clouds and a Heron (Purchase)

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For more photographs from the City of Surrey visit my Surrey gallery.

Crescent Beach Pier at Sunset

Tourists and locals watching the sunset (and mountains on Vancouver Island) from the pier at Crescent Beach in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.

sunset at crescent beach pier

Taking in the Sunset at Crescent Beach Pier (Purchase)

I recently made an evening trip to Crescent Beach for some photography. I was already in the area and hadn’t photographed the Crescent Beach or Blackie Spit area in several years, and thought I’d check it out again to see what has changed and make a few photos if I could. Places like Crescent Beach are locations I tend to prefer in the “off season” – there is less of a crowd and it feels more like being out in nature than it does otherwise. On this evening, a rare, warm evening in early April, it was much more crowded than I’d anticipated but everything still went well (only a few “yahoos”). I rarely photograph a sunset directly, preferring how that light reflects off of other things, but this sunset worked fairly well with the pier. Crescent Beach’s pier is much smaller than the White Rock Pier but still gives a nice view of Boundary Bay, the North Shore Mountains, and even the mountains on Vancouver Island (which you can see in the background on the above photograph). I think this is the first time I’ve photographed the Crescent Beach Pier itself, though I do have a photo of reflected light underneath it from a few years ago.

learning to sail at crescent beach

Learning to Sail at Crescent Beach (Purchase)

I’ve often photographed the view of Burnaby’s Metrotown area towers from Blackie Spit. They tend to provide a nice background with the North Shore Mountains’ Lions just above. While I was standing under the pier a number of small sailboats from the Surrey Sailing Club passed by with what looked like sailing class. The people in this particular sailboat seemed to be practicing leaning on one side which I think is called “hiking”. This had their sail at a near 45° angle to the water, which was would have seemed strange in this photograph I think. It took them several minutes before they were mostly upright and I made this image.

blackie spit and the golden ears mountains

The Golden Ears and Boundary Bay from Blackie Spit (Purchase)

These last two photographs show my other favourite landscape subject from the Blackie Spit area – the Golden Ears Mountains (Mount Blanshard). The Belt of Venus/Earth’s Shadow was not overly strong on this particular evening, but provides enough color in the northeast sky to make things interesting. The photo above shows a low tide at Blackie Spit. While not evident in this photograph at many times of the year once can see a lot of shorebirds running around in the area. The photograph below shows the Golden Ears as seen from underneath the pier looking northeast after sunset.

sunset golden ears at crescent beach blackie spit

The Golden Ears from Crescent Beach at Sunset (Purchase)

For more photographs of Crescent Beach and other areas in Surrey, BC visit my City of Surrey Gallery.

Redwood Park Treehouse in Surrey

The Brown brothers’ treehouse at Redwood Park in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada

treehouse at redwood park in surrey bc

The Treehouse at Redwood Park (Purchase)

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   The treehouse at Redwood Park in Surrey, BC was one of the spots I liked to visit with my parents when I was a kid. After a short walk through the woods the treehouse would appear and I always found it interesting to look at. The original treehouse (built in 1878) was constructed by Peter and David Brown, twin brothers who were given the land by their father. They planted many trees on the property instead of farming on it, and lived in the treehouse until their deaths in 1949 and 1958.

   This, unfortunately, is not the same treehouse. The Surrey Parks page says this is a replica of the original treehouse that once stood here, but the sign next to it says it is a different design. Why they would erect a new treehouse that didn’t match the old one, if the old one was too rotten to repair, is not a decision I understand. However, this is still a nice park to walk through, and I still like the new treehouse. I’m sure that kids who are as old now as I was back when I first saw this are just as interested.

redwood park treehouse

Redwoods and Redwood Park Treehouse (Purchase)

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   While the treehouse is the main attraction, there is also a grove of mature Sierra Redwoods (Sequoiadendron giganteum) which is also known as the Giant sequoia) at Redwood Park. The Brown brothers filled the area with their favourite trees from around the world. Many of the trees here are labelled with signs bearing their common and Latin names. There are a few of these species I plan on photographing this fall as well as many native Maples that look like they’ll be spectacular if the weather is right.

You can view more of my photos from the City of Surrey in my Surrey Gallery.

Winter at Crescent Beach and Blackie Spit

The tidal marsh at Crescent Beach (Blackie Spit) with the skyline of Burnaby and the North Shore Mountains in the background.

skyline of burnaby behind blackie spit and boundary bay from crescent beach

Burnaby Skyline in Winter from Crescent Beach (Purchase)

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   New Years Day 2016 was rather chilly at about 1°C, but was a clear and sunny day so I thought it was a good opportunity to photograph Crescent Beach in a different season than I had before. I also assumed that since it was rather cold there would not be many people out on the trails and the paths near the beach. I was very wrong, it was more crowded than I’d normally seen it. I couldn’t argue with the conditions though, I had some nice light at sunset and earlier when I was photographing the shorebirds at Crescent Beach along with this skyline photograph of Burnaby from Blackie Spit. I’ve photographed this view of Burnaby, BC before, but it takes on an extra dimension at sunset with some snow on the mountains. I would like to photograph the tide marsh at Blackie Spit during high tide as well, but found during an earlier day that my favourite vantage point is not accessible at high tide! I do like how the foreground works here without water, and again with the photo of Mount Blanshard below. In the first photo above the mountains are (L to R) Mount Strachan, Unnecessary Mountain, The Lions, Brunswick Mountain, Cobug Peak, Beauty Peak, Dam Mountain, Goat Mountain and Mount Fromme. The ski area on the right is Grouse Mountain.

boulders in the green waters of gold creek at golden ears provincial park

Silhouetted Tree Branches at Blackie Spit (Purchase)

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   One of my favourite spots at Crescent Beach is the Blackie Spit Wildlife Refuge Area. At the entrance to this area there is a sign asking people to keep their dogs out and away from the wildlife. I find that there are often a lot less people in this part of the park. While I was photographing there on New Years Day my main landscape lens died and I started looking for scenes suitable for other lenses. This silhouette from a maze of tree branches stood out, and I made this photograph with my longer 70-200mm lens. Photographs are often stronger when they isolate the most interesting part of a scene, but in this case everything was so chaotic I made a photograph illustrating that apparent disorder. I’ve actually made a number of photographs purposefully of seemingly chaotic scenes, I should make those into a series one day after a shoot some more of them.

belt of venus golden ears from crescent beach

The Golden Ears after sunset at Crescent Beach (Purchase)

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   This photograph looks northeast from Blackie Spit over the tidal flats, the mouth of the Nicomekl River, and towards Mount Blanshard (the Golden Ears Mountains) and Mount Robbie Reid. I have usually seen the most pronounced Belt of Venus (Earth’s Shadow) effect while up in the mountains, but on this evening the blue to purple band was quite distinct at sea level. I had to make this photograph a number of times to avoid all the flying Canada Geese flocks taking off in the evening. I made another photograph with these Canada Geese in the photograph later on, though I had to experiment with shutter speeds to get the right amount of blur (while keeping them discernible as birds).

waves at crescent beach sunset

Waves at Crescent Beach (Purchase)

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   As I was walking back to my car I noticed the waves from a passing boat created these fairly evenly space waves on the shore at Blackie Spit. The pilings here are the remains of the Crescent Oyster Company buildings which were built on pilings above the water. The Crescent Oyster Company was bought by a competitor in 1957 after which the buildings were removed, but these pilings remain.

For more photographs of Crescent Beach visit my Vancouver Coast & Mountains Gallery.

Bigleaf Lupines at Elgin Heritage Park

Bigleaf Lupines (Lupinus polyphyllus) in the forest at Elgin Heritage Park in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.

bigleaf lupines at elgin heritage park in crescent beach

Bigleaf Lupine (Lupinus polyphyllus) at Elgin Heritage Park in Crescent Beach (Purchase)

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   These are some of the numerous Bigleaf Lupines (Lupinus polyphyllus) growing in Elgin Heritage Park in Surrey, BC. On my way to photograph Red-winged Blackbirds in the marsh boardwalk, I stopped to photograph these lupines growing in some of the meadows along the way. I’ve mostly seen these lupines on the roadsides around Metro Vancouver and into the Fraser Valley, so it was nice to see them in relatively photogenic location.

bigleaf lupines at elgin heritage park in crescent beach

“Barn” nesting space for Barn Owls at Elgin Heritage Park (Purchase)

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   This is a small “barn” built in Elgin Heritage Park to encourage nesting Barn Owls. This seems like a good location for owls, I saw many small rodents (and not just baby rabbits) around the trails, especially under the boardwalk in the marsh.

For more of my wildflower photography please visit my Wildflower Gallery in my Image Library.