A Rainbow Fly?

This gallery contains 2 photos. This tiny, tiny fly has all the colours of the rainbow … in a metallic hue! Photographed in the backyard on a kiwi vine leaf on June 1st.

Black-Capped Chickadee Babies

This gallery contains 2 photos. A couple of the Black-Capped Chickadees — recently named Vancouver’s city bird of 2015 — had twins earlier this spring. Even though they are about the same size as mom and dad now, they are still being fed by beak and nowhere as noisy. Here’s one of them with “bedhead”, captured on the apple tree in the backyard on a warm June 1st afternoon.

Party, California Lilac Style

This gallery contains 5 photos. Nothing sets the bees abuzz like California Lilac blooming in late spring. The honeybee clearly loves it.

Spring Brings the Hummers

This gallery contains 2 photos. Called the feistiest of the North American hummers, we first spotted Rufous Hummingbirds in mid April, and they have been making steady appearances since then (yes, even in our backyard). This female Anna’s Hummingbird was photographed at a nectar feeder just outside of the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary just before closing hours.

Colours of Spring: Blue Delphiniums

Ohhh so pretty … but only for the birds! Snapped at the local nursery, delphiniums are a hummingbird favourite, although I’ve never seen hummers sipping nectar at any nursery. That would be a nice treat, though.

A Batch of Fuzzy Babies

This gallery contains 4 photos. Canada Goose goslings at the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary in Delta were the media darlings of the month (in May).

Colours of Spring: Bleeding Hearts

A string of Bleeding Heart flowers, photographed at one of the local nurseries. Contrary to its name, Bleeding Hearts have no political leanings. Their hardy, heart-shaped flowers are lovely to look at — particularly on Valentine’s Day. Other aliases include lady-in-a-boat and lady’s locket.

Brown-Headed Cowbird

Female brown-headed cowbirds lack the brown head and the iridescent dark blue body of the males. Instead, they are pretty much grey birds. The females make up for their less-than-striking-plumage in a big way with by lustily singing, like this one is doing at the Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary.

Monkeying Around with Mimulus

This gallery contains 2 photos. A rather alliteratively-named couple of flowers, these are the Calypso mix/variety of Mimulus monkey-flowers.