In August, Mary and I took an excursion with Adventure Canada entitled “Circling the Midnight Sun”. This trip took us along the coast of Baffin Island, across Davis Strait and along the coast of Greenland. On the sea portion of this excursion, we traveled 1449 nautical miles, crossed three time zones and crossed the Arctic Circle four times. We had an exceptional time! The following photographs were of four polar bears, sea ice, whales and icebergs seen along the way.
A few photos from early July taken in southern BC.
The following photos are a selection of some of the many I have taken in the province over the last few months. As is usually the case, most pictures I am showing are of birds.
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
