Coffee Time! #22

Greetings everyone! Well, the weather certainly has cooled off a lot and we have had some rain. Up to 1/4 inch (6mm) in places, which is not really a lot, but enough to lower the fire hazard from extreme to low. To me, it doesn’t seem like we had enough rain to lower it that much, but I’m not an expert. I do know the forests have not been so dry in many years.

We are still categorized as being in a drought here, the rain didn’t change that at all since it didn’t soak into the ground much. The plants and trees will drink up that moisture rather quickly. But the ground is dry right down to bedrock, which in this part of the country isn’t very deep. Because the ground is so dry down deep it means that the forest fires are burning much deeper than usual.

Canada Geese enjoying their lunch.

That makes them harder to put out and stop them. It also means that everything burns down deep, so it takes much longer for the forests to regenerate themselves. Some of the largest fires here in western Canada are 158,000 ha (390,000 acres), 219,000 ha (541,000 acres), 308,000 ha (761,000 acres), 504,000ha (1.25 million acres), 182,000 ha (450,000 acres), 170,000 ha (420,000 acres), 191,000 ha (472,000 acres).

That isn’t even all of the biggest fires, just some of them, plus there are a lot of fires less than 50,000 acres in size. Unfortunately the fires didn’t get as much rain as we did. Along with destroying land, people’s homes and towns are threatened by many of these fires. Plus there are millions of birds and other animals that are being destroyed by these fires too, as they seldom can outrun these fires.

White Pelican with the “sail” on it’s beak showing it’s now of breeding age.

And this year, apparently, about 95% of the fires are human caused. In other words, they could have been prevented. On another note, my indoor and outdoor plants are doing well. The plants on the balcony are doing well and beginning to bloom so nicely. I will have to take some photos of them to show you next time. I haven’t been out much lately.

It has either been too smoky or there have been those cold showers that hamper getting some nice photos. I prefer sunny weather for photos, my camera doesn’t do so well in low light conditions, such as rainy weather or even heavy clouds. That can really dull the colors of everything. But I still think that sunny weather is the best.

Closer view of another White Pelican, not breeding age yet.

I will take pictures in dull, rainy or cloudy weather if necessary, but sunshine is best. There were a pair of orioles building a nest in a tree across the street. I could see it nicely from here, though getting a good photo at that distance would be hard. However, it was nice to have the orioles around, they have a beautiful song and it’s nice a loud.

But, the crows must have been watching them and they got at the nest. The orioles tried to fight back, plus a number of grackles and red-winged blackbirds came to help them. But the crows won and destroyed the nest. Now the orioles have moved elsewhere. So sad.

A nice family portrait of Mallard ducks.

They must have moved far away because I don’t hear them singing anymore. It’s early enough for them to try another nest though. Oh well. I was hoping for photos of the orioles at least, even if I couldn’t get a photo of the nest. Well, that’s all for today. Have a wonderful day and God bless!

Steve and Muffin.

©2025 Steve McLeod.