Saturday, April 23, 2011

Happy Easter! Joyeaux Paques!

Hello Peeps! I hope you are enjoying the 3 (possibly 4) day weekend off. We got lucky the last 2 days with sunny, warm weather, which meant we were outside all day yesterday. We took Indy to Spanish Banks for a dip in the ocean and then headed over to Stanley Park for the first picnic of 2011.

While we were at the park, we were lucky enough to come across the area where the Blue Herons are nesting. It's a pretty impressive sight to see these large birds landing high up in the branches. Their nests are huge! We had a chat with a woman who was there surveying the birds and she explained a bit about what was going on in the heronry. I remember when the birds nested in the center of the park, right outside of the aquarium in the evergreens. Apparently, the entire population migrated en masse to its current location on the ocean (English Bay) side of the park because of eagle attacks. The eagles come and steal eggs or the chicks if they are so inclined and the herons are pretty much helpless. Kinda sad, but that's how nature works.

My friend Alyx has some beautiful photos of this year's nesting season. The heron photos are about 1/2 way down. I took some myself, but they weren't great-it makes me think I'd better finish doing my homework and hurry up and get my new DSLR! I'd like to return before nesting season is over and try again with the new camera.

I spent today baking up a storm in anticipation of tomorrow night's dinner. Friends are joining us. I baked some cabbage buns this afternoon (an Easter staple!) and I had to cover them and put them away-the temptation to "taste test" was proving to be too much! Tonight we'll BBQ and I got some corn on the cob. MMM! Looking foreword to switching up our day to day menus for the warmer weather fare.

I hope the Easter bunny is good to you!

1 comment:

Sherry said...

I love this vintage graphic!!

We had our first lovely warm, sunny day today but most of it was spent running errands and shopping for tomorrow night's feast.

I envy you the park and the picnic...and the blue herons!

Wishing you a joyous Easter (and I hope the cabbage buns make it to tomorrow's meal!!!) :)