Yesterday I went out for the first gull nest survey of the season. This is the earliest I’ve started; I usually don’t venture out until the second or third week of June. Many of the regulars are brooding already, with a few nests unaccounted for as of yet.

The air was still crisp as I started and the distant calls of White-crowned Sparrows competed with the roar of passing buses. It was the first time I’ve brought my camera out with me for months, and I quite enjoyed it. Being able to share these images, even in our utterly saturated visual world, brings me some modicum of meaning.

Let’s get started with the nests.

Cambie Nest

The pair at Cambie Nest are always some of the earliest nesters and among the first pairs to have chicks.

The remnants of a small paper wasp nest.

One of our great living pianists Grigory Sokolov performing Les Cyclopes by the French baroque composer Jean-Phillipe Rameau.

Corallorhiza maculata (Spotted Coralroot)

It’s been quite a while since I updated this blog, so I guess we’ve got a lot to catch up on.

On a recent visit to Vancouver Island, I stumbled across a beautiful patch of Corallorhiza maculata, a weirdo orchid that has abandoned chlorophyll and instead specializes in parasitizing fungi to get the resources it needs to for growth and reproduction.