May 26th, 2023

It's been a couple of weeks since I did a Photo Safari report so I think it's about time!  Yesterday, Joy and I headed out to Curry Creek (as you can clearly see by the sign).  Because this is the time of year when the temperature starts to rise and the rain begins to fall, we decided to head out extra early hoping to miss the worst of the heat and humidity.

To our surprise and delight, the weather was gorgeous.  It was very mild with a lovely breeze.  The downside was the the grey and gloomy sky which isn't ideal for most photographs and the concern about possible rain.  But what's life without risk.  Off we went anyway.  I will call this the Very Grey Day Hike because it was.

We had a good strong rain the night before so, right off the bat, there were beautiful raindrop photo ops.  Love those!  For some reason, I find raindrops very difficult to properly capture. Not sure what I'm doing wrong but whatever it is, on this particular day, I got it right.  Woohoo!

When we started out, we were completely alone. It's not a very well travelled preserve so it's not unusual for us to be the only humans there, but on this particular day, in a short time,  other folks began to arrive.  One pair brought not just their cameras, but even camp chairs  and drinks so that their bird watching and photographing could be done in style.  Tip 'o the hat to them!  Smarties.  They set up near the Swallowtail Kite's nest which was one of the things we wanted to check on.  Joy and I feel I little protective of those particular birds because, we were the ones who discovered that they were there at all, saw them building the nest and reported it to the city who got all excited about it :)  Our report:  The babies are growing!

One of the funniest and most unexpected moments of the hike came when Joy looked up and said, "Oh My Gosh!  Ducks!"  Then she pointed, not down toward possible water, or even the trail but up, very very up.  I following her pointer finger and sonuvagun!  There were the ducks in the the trees.  Tree Ducks?  Yup.  I can honestly say that I have never before seen a duck in a tree.  There were three of ducks and they were not just in a tree, they were in a very very tall tree, like maybe 4 stories high?  It's hard for me to judge the height of a tree.  What on earth is a Duck doing hanging around in a tree?   I don't know why I'm surprised, they are birds after all.

There were other birds, of course. We could hear them all around us but we heard far more of them than we saw.  Still, managed to capture a few:

I think we saw cardinals more than anything.  Perhaps because that gorgeous red colouring stands out even on a foggy, grey, gloomy day?  Regardless of the reason, I do not mind one single bit:

I found the trees especially compelling on this hike.   I think it was something about the quality of the light.

Saw two beautiful butterflies and a cute little moth:

As always, I happysnapped a lot of botannicals!  I will try to sort out just a few of my favourites:

I guess that about sizes things up.  For you, the Very Grey Day Hike!  Well, to be honest and Fair about it, this was for Joy and I too.  

Wishing you a wonderful Memorial Day Weekend!  Have fun and be safe.  Hugs all 'round.