Author: Richard Lee

The following pictures were taken in the vicinity of Crooked Tree, in Belize with Eagle Eye Tours in February and March of this year.

The following photos were taken on the February/ March tour with Eagle Eye Tours and were taken in the vicinity of the Jade Jungle Lodge and on day tours from this lodge.

In late February, we travelled to Tikal, Guatemala and Belize with Eagle-Eye Tours. Tikal National Park is situated in the jungle of northeastern Guatemala and is one of the major sites of Mayan civilization. It was inhabited from the 6th Century BC to the 10th Century AD. Most of the larger Mayan buildings have been largely excavated, however the majority of structures remain covered by the jungle. The site is exceptional for biodiversity, with more than 300 species of birds, five species of cats, two species of monkeys, more than 100 species of mammals, more than 200 species of trees, as well as reptiles, amphibians, abundant insect types (I still have bites that itch!) and an incredible diversity of plants and flowers. The following photographs were all taken in Tikal. I will make subsequent postings from Belize.

Roadside-hawk, on the nest.

The Lower Mainland and southern Vancouver Island provide excellent opportunities for winter birding. These are some of my favourites from this year- so far. (I am also including some winter scenery shots. This is such a beautiful area of the country!)

I had not encountered pygmy owls before moving to the Fraser Valley of British Columbia in 2019. Since then I have been fortunate in seeing them every year, generally on logging roads. It has become one of my favourite owls to photograph, because they are challenging to find. When you do find them, they will generally let you watch them for a long time period, as long as you maintain a healthy distance. Indeed, they will ignore you and will hunt as if you are not present. I have watched them catch small rodents as well as lizards, and have had them dive to the ground a few feet from me and fly right past me as if I weren’t there. The following pictures have been taken over the last five years.

The following photos span nature photography outings in 2024. It was a wonderful year for photography, and brought many surprises. These are a few of my favourite photos. I have posted some of them before. I start each week, month and year wondering what I might be able to see, and as we enter 2025, I have the same question. Wishing everyone who reads this blog, a healthy and happy year!

More eagles from the Harrison Mills area.

For those that like birding, December is a good month to be in Southern BC. On the Coast, the weather is warm enough for many migrating species such as ducks, geese and raptors from more northerly climates. While the vast majority of birds that spend their summers in the area migrate further south, there are others that remain year round. All in all, it makes for an interesting mix of birds. So far this month (13 December), more than 210 bird species have been recorded in British Columbia, while in Southern BC i have managed to see more than 80 species. This certainly is in contrast to most of Canada in December! The following pictures have been taken this month, in the Metro Vancouver Region, Fraser Valley and in the Thompson Nicola Region.

This past week, we managed to see and photograph short-eared owls in Abbotsford and Skagit County Washington. I have seen short-eared owls in Alberta, Newfoundland, BC, Washington, Ontario, Indiana and Kentucky. This has prompted a retrospective review of short-eared owl photographs I have taken. The first one, taken in Indiana has been viewed on line some 13 million times and downloaded more than 140 thousand times. (I used to post photos on a photo sharing site, Unsplash, but no longer do so after it was taken over by Getty Photographs and they changed their policies.)

Great-blue heron fly-by. 2023

There are many black bears in the Lower Mainland, at the edges of the mountains. Indeed we see them from time to time in Abbotsford and have had them in our driveway and knocking over our bird feeder. On almost all of our hiking and cycling trails we see bear warning signs. So it is no surprise for us to see or encounter bears, particularly in the autumn when the bears are fattening up for winter hibernation and the salmon are spawning. This week however was exceptional in that we were able to observe a bear across a small creek from where we were, while it rested, fished, climbed and feasted on salmon. Its actions made it quite clear that it was nervous of other more “dominant” bears in the area, and in fact we encountered a sow and two cubs as we left the site and returned to our car. The following is a sampling of photographs I took while watching.

October marks the “rainy season” in the Lower Mainland, with lots of rain, occasional floods, shorter days, falling leaves, cooler temperatures and migrating salmon and birds. But it is also a time of incredible natural beauty, if you get out, explore and observe. The following photos represent some of the highlights for me of the natural beauty observed this month.

The following pictures were taken from Abbotsford (Sumas Prairie) on the night of October 10. Experts say the Northern Lights, or Aurora Borealis, are more visible right now due to the sun being at what astronomers call the “maximum” of its 11-year solar cycle.
What this means is that roughly every 11 years, at the peak of this cycle, the sun’s magnetic poles flip, and the sun transitions from sluggish to active and stormy. The variety of colours were astounding. In several photos, you can see the Big Dipper clearly. In many photos, the traffic on the Trans Canada Highway shows as a line of lights.