Simon Corston-Oliver

I led a nature walk today at Burnaby Lake, British Columbia. We heard Pacific treefrogs but didn't see any. Then after the walk I saw this tiny guy (~2cm) perched on top of a black-eyed Susan in the rain. #herps 🐸 🌿 #frog #treefrog

Not sure of ID. INaturalist's best match is "Cordyceps Langue-de-Serpent (Tolypocladium ophioglossoides) AKA Snaketongue Truffleclub" which sounds awesome in French, Latin or English. Belcarra, BC today. #fungifriends 🍄 🌿 #macrophotography

Ridged Tooth fungus (I think). Golden Ears Provincial Park, BC. #fungifriends #fungus 🍄 🌿 #photography

Mushrooms on a tree stump. Golden Ears Provincial Park, BC. #fungifriends #fungus 🍄 🌿 #photography

Honey mushrooms (I think) growing on the side of a log. Golden Ears Provincial Park, BC. #fungifriends #fungus 🍄 🌿 #focusstacking #macrophotography

Admirable Bolete (I think). Golden Ears Provincial Park, BC. #fungifriends #fungus 🍄 🌿 #focusstacking #macrophotography

Coral fungus. Golden Ears Provincial Park, BC. #fungifriends #fungus 🍄 🌿 #macrophotography

Mushrooms on the forest floor. Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, BC, Canada. #fungifriends #fungus 🍄 🌿 #macrophotography

A pair of Rosy slime spike mushrooms (I think). Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, BC, Canada. Handheld manual focus stack of 37 images. Canon R5+RF100. Godox V100C flash. 1/200, f2.8, ISO 800 #fungifriends #fungus 🍄 🌿 #macrophotography

My best guess at ID is Cortinarius solar. Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, BC, Canada. #fungifriends #fungus 🍄 🌿 #macrophotography

Rosy slime spike (I think). Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, BC, Canada. Handheld manual focus stack of 56 images. Canon R5+RF100. Godox V100C flash. 1/200, f13, ISO 800 #fungifriends #fungus 🍄 🌿 #macrophotography

Not sure of ID. Possibly in the genus Hygrophoropsis. Pinecone Burke Provincial Park, BC. Handheld manual focus stack of 87 images. Canon R5+RF100. Godox V100C flash. 1/200 f8, ISO 400. #fungifriends #fungus 🍄 🌿 #naturephotography

Early voting in the provincial election is going on in the armoury next to city hall. This creed seems to me to go 1, 2, 3, 100. #canada

Outside the local Salvation Army where people line up for the food bank. Do. Not. Anger. The. Bees. 🐝 #insects 🌿

Conifer chicken of the woods (Laetiporus conifericola), ID'ed with the help of the iNaturalist community. Last week at Sasamat Lake, Anmore, BC. I went past this stump a few days later and saw that someone had harvested this magnificent specimen. #fungifriends #fungus #naturephotography 🍄 🌿

Shaggy Mane (Coprinus comatus) I think. Deer Lake, Burnaby, BC. #fungifriends 🍄 🌿 #naturephotography

A male house finch. Steveston, BC. #birds 🌿 #wildlifephotography

A belted kingfisher stands lookout in the fog. Steveston, BC. #birds #wildlifephotography #monochrome #bnw #blackandwhite #eastcoastkin

A big patch of mushrooms growing on a tree stump. INaturalist auto-IDs as Sulphur Tuft (Hypholoma fasciculare). Above Sasamat Lake, Anmore, BC. #fungifriends #fungi 🌿 🍄 #macrophotography

We've had some rain so the ephemeral ponds in the mountains have water again. This Northern red-legged frog was tricky to photograph in the dark and the muck. Yesterday on the Diez Vistas trail above Sasamat Lake, Anmore, BC. #herps 🐸 #wildlifephotography 🌿

On the entrance of. French restaurant downtown Vancouver. #herps

Totem poles at Stanley Park in Vancouver. #infrared #infraredphotography #photography #eastcoastkin

The lighthouse at Stanley Park, Vancouver BC. #infrared #infraredphotography #eastcoastkin #photography

Note to self: #infrared @ 850nm with that lens and shooting straight into the sun can cause some lens flare. Stanley Park, Vancouver BC. #eastcoastkin #infraredphotography #landscapephotography #photography

Double-crested cormorant at Stanley Park, Vancouver, BC. #birds #wildlifephotography 🌿

Things you see on the way to a trail that make you do a double take: a mannequin chained by the neck to a fence holding a beer can. Squamish, BC. #photography #infrared #infraredphotography #eastcoastkin

All my favourite ephemeral ponds for frog-hunting on Sugar Mountain above Sasamat Lake, BC have dried up but there were lots of mushrooms poking through the caked mud yesterday. Not sure of ID. #fungifriends 🌿 #macrophotography

A derelict truck being reclaimed by nature. Near Squamish, BC this summer. #infrared #infraredphotography #photography #eck

A little more autumn colour from a few years ago: a cranberry farm at DeBoville Slough, Coquitlam, British Columbia. #landscapephotography 🌿 #eck #fall

We don't get a lot of autumn colour compared to other places in Canada, but sometimes there's a splash of colour in the forest. #landscapephotography 🌿

An alley in Venice, Italy. The #BlueSkyArtShow theme of #Lights sent me on a trip down memory lane. #photography #EastCoastKin

The local corvids are running a PR campaign. #birds

I have been studying Spanish with Sandra for a few months now, focused on conversation. I heartily recommend her. Her patience, gentle corrections and explanations have already made a big impact on my conversational proficiency. Contact info in her flyer here. #linguistics #español #spanish

We should have an office sweepstakes to predict which of the big AI companies bends the knee first and calls their products SI.

A female Red Crossbill (Loxia curvirostra) on Salt Spring Island, BC this past weekend. There was a bright red male too but he didn't cooperate so no internet fame for him. #birds 🌿 #wildlifephotography

I like to divide the animal kingdom into three groups: * amphibians * things that eat amphibians * things that amphibians eat Here's one of each group: a bullfrog, a garter snack and a grasshopper. Yesterday at Deer Lake, Burnaby BC. #herps 🌿 #wildlifephotography 🐸 🐍 🦗

Look what I found in a flower bed as if it had sprouted there. A set of teach-yourself Italian vinyl records. Salt Spring Island, BC. #linguistics

Best not to dwell on the question of what animal decided to sharpen its claws on this tree on my hike today. Salt Spring Island, BC. 🌿

I led a nature walk at Burnaby Lake on Sunday to search for frogs. After the walk someone pointed out this little Pacific chorus frog to us. I love that it has found the perfect point on the leaf where it bends but still supports its weight. #herps 🌿 #wildlifephotography

Lots of 💩 Teaching aids at a Metro Vancouver parks training course for volunteer nature guides. 🌿

I am (very slowly) reading "Como agua para chocolate" ("Like water for chocolate") by Laura Esquivel. Lots of new vocabulary then there are delightful discoveries like this: 𝘯𝘰 𝘵𝘦 𝘩𝘢𝘨𝘢𝘴 𝘭𝘢 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘲𝘶𝘪𝘵𝘢 𝘮𝘶𝘦𝘳𝘵𝘢 "don't do the dead mosquito" i.e. act innocent #linguistics #spanish #español

For the #BirdOfTheDay alt theme, birds that start with #RSTU: A female Sooty Grouse peeking out from a among a clump of skunk cabbage on Mount Seymour, BC. #birds #wildlifephotography 🌿

For the #BlueSkyArtShow theme of #Undulating: Salt marsh grass on the Bay of Fundy, Wolfville, Nova Scotia.