Our Vancouver Visit: Natural Grandeur

There are a lot of different birds around Bruce and Dianne's house; today Dianne spotted one she hadn't seen before, but by the time I ran downstairs to get the camera and ran back upstairs to the back door, it had flown away. I did get a pic of another wee bird sitting on the clothesline though:

After a lunch of wonderful vegetarian dim sum at Bo Kong, Miko and I were going to hang around her place, catching up, but since today was the first sunny, warm day in a while, we headed down to Stanley Park for a bit of a wander instead. While there were fewer ducks than usual in Lost Lagoon, there were more swans than ever, including this pair of young swans that were in the process of cuddling. The male arrived,
showed off his plumage,
and then they both seemed to pause in order to gauge the impressiveness of his show
before settling into a nuzzle,
all the while making the most jarring honking noises--quite startling, actually! The turtles were out in huge numbers again
and we noticed this heron, apparently sitting on a nest in the lagoon, even though the colony of herons' nests is across the lagoon, high up in several trees near the Stanley Park tennis courts. Although Bob and I used to see herons all the time on our walks in the park, I don't think I've ever seen a heron sitting at ground level (they're always standing) and I've never heard of a heron making a nest on the ground either! Later in the day, I met my friend Angus and we went for dinner at Sushiyama. Although he didn't have sushi, you probably won't be surprised to hear that I did:
After dinner, we drove around for a while, waiting to see if we had room for dessert. Along the way, we visited one of the most scenic places in Vancouver: Spanish Banks. The views from the beautiful series of beaches along Spanish Banks never cease to amaze even the most blasé Vancouverite.
That's downtown Vancouver at the far right
and Angus pointed out the driftwood frame of this shot, so even though I took this photo, I can't really take credit for it!
We arrived just in time to see the sunset
and the usual array of herons out in low tide.
While Bob and I continue to miss London, some aspects of Vancouver are pretty tough to beat.