After a couple of days of torrential rain (114 mm in 30 hrs) we had a break in the weather which many people took advantage of to go for a walk. All the rain at sea-level translated into heavy snow at higher elevations, and Mr. Garibaldi (2,700 m) looked particularly splendid in a new blanket of snow. There were lots of water fowl in the estuary, including a Great Blue Heron that I took a few shots of (click the image on the left or this link) – definitely need to use a shutter speed of more than 1/200 sec to get decent shots of birds in flight. Many of the ducks and geese were already exhibiting pairing behavior which shows how mild our coastal climate is (compared to much of Canada and the US). I also threw in one shot taken earlier in the week from our office in Harbourside on the north shore – an advantage of being an early bird is that at this time of year I get to see the sunrise. For the shots in the estuary, I was using the new Nikon 300 mm f4 – a nice light lens ideal for hand-held “walk about” photography.