trees

birds

Here is a selection of the birds that we are seeing around us here. Most of them are very common but still fascinating to us because some are not found in Europe. For example the Hummingbird in the top left corner. It is only native to the Americas and fascinating because of its fast wing beat that enables it to fly even backwards. Some species are really tiny and often seen around blooming bushes, almost looking like insects. The American Robin has a beautiful voice and is easy to identify with its red breast.

Yesterday we saw a red winged blackbird (top reight corner) which I found quite impressive. It didn't look at all like the european relative that we know as "Amsel". Herons, crows and seagulls are seen a lot during low tide scanning the beach for clams, crab and whatever else is eatable. The screaming crows are very annoying when they try to mob other birds or animals (squirrel). Sometimes I even wake up because of their noise in the morning.

The bald eagle can be seem circling large bodies of open water all around the coast and there are even several eagle nests close to the city.

Tourist attraction 1

I think today we visited the first real tourist attraction in Vancouver since we arrived. The Capilano Suspension Bridge. Its just 20 minutes from our house by car (when there is no traffic, otherwise up to one hour). Since we have a car for this weel we figured we have to capitalize: Get out of the city, do something we don't usually do etc. Except for the tourist stuff around it the forrest around the Bridge is really nice and its a good way to show tourists that might not go to the forest otherwise the beauty of it. We also went for a walk in the Capilano River Regional Park nearby where it is more natural and there are less tourists. We watched two bald eagles chasing some other bird (which was also pretty big).