Definitely a Birb*

"A handsome chickadee that matches the rich brown bark of the coastal trees it lives among, the Chestnut-backed Chickadee is the species to look for up and down the West Coast and in the Pacific Northwest. Active, sociable, and noisy as any chickadee, you’ll find these birds at the heart of foraging flocks moving through tall conifers with titmice, nuthatches, and sometimes other chickadee species."

Source: All About Birds

One of the many cute, curious, and confident — if not bold — chickadees that was perching, flying, and foraging at Beaver Lake last Sunday. Feeding Stanley Park's wildlife is not permitted but these feathered creatures persist in seeking a hand that will feed them. I don't and won't — much as I would like to.

Rays of Light

Emanating from the sun and — as I discovered to my delight while processing the image in Lightroom — reflected from the cyclist’s helmet:

 
 

A wonderful, serendipitous convergence of circumstances recorded by the camera’s lens.

“Do not the Rays of Light which fall upon Bodies, and are reflected or refracted, begin to bend before they arrive at the Bodies; and are they not reflected, refracted, and inflected, by one and the same Principle, acting variously in various Circumstances?”

~Isaac Newton

Buffer Zone

Deep, slow inhale and exhale.

Leaving Stanley Park, October 31st, 2021

I’m posting this just after 5 AM on Wednesday morning because I need (1) to see an image of unexpected beauty and comforting calm from the recent past, (2) to occupy my mind with the familiar routine of working in Lightroom and uploading a finished photograph and (3) to take a brief respite from thinking about this. Not to be in denial or be uncaring, but to slow my racing heart and relax my tense muscles.