Winter Morning - Duck Lake

One of my favourite scenes. Even on a cold winter morning.

The Barge Run

Three or four times a week, week in and week out, City Transfer tows a barge of semi-trailers between

their terminal in Richmond and their terminal at the Mill harbour and back. A good deal of the retail merchandise sold

in Powell River stores arrives this way. Here we have Catherwood Towing's Sea Imp IX pulling the City Transfer

barge back south on Malaspina Strait, having just rounded Grief Point on one of our poor weather days last week.

At Powell Lake

From the archives : watching floatplane C-GZCK leave the marina harbour and fly up the lake.

The photos were taken 6 years ago to the day, December 29, 2010. The airplane is a Found Bros. Bush Hawk XP -

according to the internet, only 31 were built.

On Its Own

This very young, and very small, Snow Goose, apparently lost and on its own last week,

decided to sit and rest in the dead centre of the parking lot at the head of the Seawalk.

And not in the least bothered by me and my camera, though probably too young

to know any better. It did sit up for the portrait, and went back to resting when I was done.

No Matter The Season ...

... it's always a terrific view at Mowat Bay Park.

Reading Material

Checking out the magazine racks at the Library earlier this month.

Merry Christmas!!

The best part of Christmas - sitting down for dinner with family and friends.

On His Way!

Put out the cookies and milk, he'll be there soon.

Gingerbread Creations - Part 2

The Gingerbread House and its "lawn" ornaments in the Town Centre Hotel lobby.

Gingerbread Creations

Gingerbread Creations in the lobby of the Town Centre Hotel.

Cleaning Up

Captain Jan Bevelander on the Curve of Time.

When you don't have a deckhand, you do the job yourself.

Mural - Michigan Landing

Part of the Michigan Landing mural on Willingdon Ave. Michigan Landing was used by the Michigan-Puget Sound Logging Company

for log sorting until 1918. In 1927 the area was turned into a community playground, and renamed Willingdon Beach.

The beach trail is the old rail bed this locomotive rode on.

Scoters

Scoters, winter ducks in Powell River, come in 3 varieties. The top photo is a male and female pair of Surf Scoters,

middle is a male White-winged Scoter, and bottom, a male Black Scoter.

The Surf Scoters are by far the most common, I only see a handful of White-wings each year, and haven't

seen a single Black off the Seawalk in several years.

They eat crayfish and mollusks, as in the above photo, which does say something for their digestive system!

Unfortunately these birds are in decline - the size of the flocks of Surf Scoters we see from the Seawalk

the last few years pales compared to what was here 20 years ago.

Short Lens

This is what you get when you spot 2 eagles but don't have the long lens with you.

On The Westview Wharf ...

... hoping those clouds scud on by.

Rest Stop

Maybe not the best place for a picnic in mid-December,

but still a nice spot for a bit of rest.

On The Seawalk

On the Seawalk, looking back from the very end, on the last day of November.

Puttin' On The Ritz

Lots of the Ritz! A display at one of our local grocery emporiums.

The Last ...

... of Saturday's snow on Sunday, on the new walkway that borders Complex Way.

Odd Bird Out

The last few winters have seen a small flock of Snow Geese over-winter here, and again this year it seems. The

birds in this photo at the JP Dallos field are all youngsters - bar one - though there were 3 adult Snowies out

of the frame. While the odd bird out in the centre may look familiar, it is not a Canada Goose. It's a Cackling Goose,

smaller in stature than our familiar bird, with a stubbier beak. I see a few here every winter, though with a very

cold winter in the forecast, all these geese may move on yet.

Meandering

Meandering above the pole line, in October.
With all the poor weather lately I've not been out as often as I'd like,
and I'm resorting to photos just slightly out of season.

Dunlin

One of our smaller winter visitors is the Dunlin, arriving here from Alaska and the Arctic.

They are a pleasure to watch when feeding, with the head continually bobbing up and

down in what the books call "sewing machine action".  So a group of Dunlin

feeding at the waters' edge is interesting to see!

The Hulks

Hulk # 10 - YOGN 82 - no longer on site

In yesterday's post I noted that one of the mill breakwater ships - YOGN 82 - was no longer on site. Here

I'm showing what a few of these 10 - now 9 -  "hulks" look like in archive photos from the last time I took

snaps of these old ships from the water side, June 2014.

Hulk # 4 - SS John Smeaton

Hulk # 3 - SS Thaddeus Merriman

High Tide ...

... at the Mill breakwater. This view looks empty since the Mill moved YOGN 82, the old ship

that extended the breakwater at the mouth of the harbour.

Ramsey's Yellow Fish

Powell River artist/muralist Luke Ramsey has been in the news recently, having been named

Victoria's Artist in Residence for 2017. He has also just completed a local workshop for budding teen muralists,

some of whose designs he will paint in the Teen Room of our new Public Library, and he is commissioned to do

murals for the new BC Children's Hospital surgical floor. I caught his one-man show at the Madrona Gallery in

Victoria a few years ago, and sought out his most recent large Victoria mural (on Cormorant St)

 this past spring. While his art is admittedly not for everyone, it is interesting. The small work pictured here can

be found on a fence on Cranberry St (across from Magpie's).

There is always a comic around - note some wit has stapled a fishing lure in front of the mouth!

The Man Himself

Making an appearance in Sunday's parade.

Now, And Then

The Wildwood switchback trail last month, and, below, 8 years ago to the month.

Since the 2008 photo was taken the wood railing has slowly

disintegrated, and there isn't much of it left complete.
Which is a shame.

Aboard The Queen of Burnaby

This is an archive photo - Feb.'11 - as I'm hoping the next time I take a photo on the ferry to Comox,

that it will be on board the new Salish Orca. She left her build site in Gdansk,

Poland on Nov. 22, and the journey should take "between 45 and 55 days".

After more crew training, she should be in service here in "early 2017".

No Trespassing

When one looks at the Google Earth map of Powell River there are a

lot of trails to be seen that look inviting. When I checked out this one, even aside
from the locked gate and the sign, it wasn't that inviting after all.

Back to the map.