wildlife

Miscellaneous Photos Collection #5

Another in a series of blog posts where I publish a small group of photos that don’t quite fit into the regular posts. Most of these were made this year but the Coyote photograph was made in the summer of 2021.

Canada Geese Goslings Under Mother’s Wing

canada goose goslings under wing

Canada Goose Goslings Taking Shelter Under Mom’s Wing (Purchase)

Earlier this spring I visited Rolley Lake Provincial Park primarily for a quick lap on the perimeter trail. Having completed the loop, I saw this family of Canada Geese (Branta canadensis) walking towards the beach area. There were a few human families sitting on the edge of the water fishing, but the geese didn’t seem to care. They pretty much just “elbowed” their way through the group, and at one point an adult just hopped through a lunch box and kept going. I guess we know who owns that beach! After poking around the shoreline for a bit the goslings crowded under Mom’s wing for some shelter. With the size they were getting to at that point, it looks a bit crowded in there!

Finn Slough in Richmond

finn slough historic buildings richmond

Historic Finn Slough in Richmond, BC (Purchase)

These two buildings are part of the Finn Slough community in Richmond, British Columbia. Finn Slough was founded by Finnish settlers in the 1880’s and became the hub for fishing in the area. The buildings in Finn Slough were built between the late 1800’s and the 1950’s. The short bridge to the community had some warnings posted on it. I’ve heard a lot about some current residents being annoyed with the actions of photographers and visitors, so I kept to the road for this photograph. I have no doubt people who live there have had their privacy invaded more than once, it is a popular photo location.

Golden Ears (Mount Blanshard) Panorama

golden ears clouds mount blanshard

A band of cloud lingering over the Golden Ears (Purchase)

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I have quite a few photographs of the Golden Ears in Maple Ridge, BC. Many of those are panoramas like this one, but not many have clouds in them. I’ve sold a number of really large canvas prints of these images, so I made this photograph with the idea of having a few more options to present when a client is making their choice. Someday I’d like to get one with a colourful sky above the peaks, but as it lies directly north of here that is going to have to rely on some higher clouds picking up that light. One more thing for my long list of photos I hope to make in the future!

Red-Breasted Sapsucker at Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park

red-breasted sapsucker tree

Red-Breasted Sapsucker on Maple Tree Trunk (Purchase)

During a trip to Salt Spring Island in April of this year, I made a photograph of some ferns growing along a trail in Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park. Ultimately that photo didn’t work out, but as I walked further I noticed this Red-Breasted Sapsucker (Sphyrapicus ruber) perched on a Bigleaf Maple (Acer macrophyllum) trunk. I approached carefully, making a few photographs as I moved forward. As this was right next to the trail, I couldn’t give the bird all that much space, but it seems I needn’t have been concerned. As we passed it stayed still and didn’t seem to concerned about our presence. Note in this photograph some of the small holes drilled into the bark where the Sapsucker, a species of Woodpecker, feeds on the trees sap. I made this second photograph while directly behind the Red-Breasted Sapsucker as it kept an eye on me.

Bonus photo: I found this character along the trail at Burgoyne Bay Provincial Park during the same trip to Salt Spring Island.

Coyote Hunting in Sumas Prairie

coyote in hay field sumas prairie abbotsford

(Canis latrans) Hunting in Sumas Prairie (Purchase)

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Almost exactly a year ago (before the Sumas Prairie flooded from the Atmospheric Rivers) I was driving through the Fraser Valley and passed this Coyote (Canis latrans) trotting through a freshly cut hay field on Sumas Prairie in Abbotsford. I turned around and pulled over on the rural road and made this photo from the car. Clearly my car was spotted by the Coyote as it stopped and looked at me briefly, then continued on. Occasionally it would grab something from the grass, and I presume it was hunting small rodents that were disturbed by the hay cutting. After a while it turned around and disappeared in the corn field in the background.

You can see more of my newly published images in the New Images and other galleries in my Image Library.

Ladner Harbour Park in Delta

A Bewick’s Wren (Thryomanes bewickii) perched on a branch at Ladner Harbour Park in Delta, British Columbia, Canada.

bewicks wren in ladner harbour park

Bewick’s Wren (T. bewickii) at Ladner Harbour Park in Delta (Purchase)

Earlier this year I stopped for a walk around Ladner Harbour Park (map) in Delta, BC. I’ve been making an attempt to visit some smaller parks around here either as a full destination or as a stop along the way to other locations. Ladner Harbour Park has a few kilometers of trails, and I thought it was worth checking it out. This was a day of my least favourite kind of light – lots of high clouds gave a bright day but with lots of glare which meant I was unlikely to be shooting any larger landscape scenes. With my longer 100-400mm zoom lens birds are always an option, and I wound up using it for all of these photographs. The first photograph here shows a Bewick’s Wren (T. bewickii) which is not a species I think I have photographed before. I see them quite often, but they like the brush and shrubs in the understory of the forest, and are not a bird species that seems to sit still. They do seem to be rather noisy though, and often are making calls that help me know when to look for a small, darting, little brown bird that is too far away. Getting a clear shot of them is not easy due to their habitat, but I sat down on the edge of the trail and this one gave me a few chances to make photographs of it while it scampered around and foraged in the leaves.

The next photograph of patterns in the sand is something I might not normally have noticed, but I’m glad I did. This is a small spring or perhaps water draining out of this hole from higher ground in the tidal area. Either way, it made these interesting patterns in the sand which looks a bit like an alluvial fan. There is water coming vertically out of the ground on the left hand side of the formation which flows down into the stream of water on the right. In some ways it reminds me of this photograph of the Chilliwack River only in that it has the feeling of an aerial photograph. This view was from Mcneelys Trail and one of the new bridges in that section of trail.

sand patterns along the fraser river in delta

Patterns in the sand along the Fraser River (Purchase)

I am almost at the point where I need to stop photographing Herons. I like these birds a lot, and watching them hunt in fields or in the water like very tiny dinosaurs is always interesting. This particular Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) was wading in one of the ditches (for lack of a better word) running out from the park to the edge of the Fraser River. Since it was a bright but not a clear day, the light was harsh, but it did allow me to make a photo of a Heron unlike my others. I like the contour of the muddy shoreline behind it and the reflection as well. Herons, unlike Wrens and other birds, are a bit easier to photograph as they wade slowly or stay still hoping prey wanders near. One of the reasons I have so many photographs of them!

great blue heron along the fraser river in ladner

Great Blue Heron hunting along the Fraser River in Ladner (Purchase)

For birds that are relatively shy, it seems relatively easy to notice Spotted Towhees (Pipilo maculatus) when they are near me on the trail. Perhaps that is one reason they changed the name from “Rufous Sided Towhee” to Spotted Towhee? šŸ˜‰ They are larger birds and easier to spot than the Wren in the first photograph, and are often scratching in the leaves and twigs on the forest floor in hopes of finding worthwhile morsels. They are shy though, so usually when I’ve attempted to photograph them I just see what direction they seem to be working in, and get ahead of them and just sit. This one didn’t seem to be too wary of me (it is next to the dog park and a busy trail to the southern viewpoint) and seemed to find some seeds in this particular spot.

spotted towhee foraging in the leaves at ladner harbour park

Spotted Towhee (Pipilo maculatus) foraging at Ladner Harbour Park (Purchase)

For more photographs from this area visit my Delta Gallery.

Hogs Back Falls on Ottawa’s Rideau River

Hog’s Back Falls, the Rideau River and the Hog’s Back Bridge in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. Photographed from Hog’s Back Park.

hogs back falls ottawa rideau river

Hogs Back Falls from Ottawa’s Hogs Back Park (Purchase)

During my trip to Ontario and QuƩbec I visited a waterfall in Ottawa, along the Rideau River, called Hogs Back Falls (or Prince of Wales Falls, officially). Hogs Back Falls are not actually a natural waterfall, and are the result of construction of a waste water channel during the building of the Rideau Canal. Originally this section of the river was a 2000 meter long rapids, some of which is still visible below Hogs Back Falls.

fall foliage above hogs back falls ottawa rideau river

Hog’s Back Falls and Hog’s Back Bridge in Ottawa (Purchase)

The first two photographs here are from the first viewpoint we found in Hogs Back Park. It has a nice view up the Rideau River and looks directly towards Hogs Back Falls. I made this initial composition to try to portray what a visitor would see here. I often start with a ā€œbig pictureā€ photograph of an area and then try to work on more detailed compositions of individual elements that make a scene interesting. At this viewpoint we noticed a Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) hunting for prey next to a small waterfall below. Another photographer at that spot offered me the use of his 100-400 lens. I declined, but he insisted, so I put the lens on and made a few photographs which did not turn out. This lens was interesting to try, but I also knew this was the wrong angle to photograph the Heron and I could probably do pretty well at a better spot. The 100-400 is a nice lens, and there are times when Iā€™d want to use one, but not enough to buy one. Rather expensive for the amount of use I would get out of it and also quite heavy and large for my already near capacity camera bag (and back). If I was a serious wildlife photographer Iā€™d likely own one already, but until that happens Iā€™ll stick with my 70-200 and the 1.4x extender that I usually have attached (since I moved to a full frame camera).

fall foliage above hogs back falls ottawa rideau river

Great Blue Heron (Ardea herodias) fishing in the Rideau River (Purchase)

After I changed locations to a spot closer to the bridge, I was able to view and photograph the heron much easier than at the first viewpoint. The photograph above is the result. A number of people have picked it as their favourite out of my ā€œtop 10ā€ favourite images from 2018 post. I like Herons. Not only do they “pose” nicely and sit still quite often which makes a photograph easier, they seem to have an air of elegance or something about them. Except when they donā€™t. Years ago I photographed one strutting around near the Capilano Fish Hatchery in North Vancouver (Great Blue Heron at Capilano River). I still quite like that photograph, but I most remember that heron as appearing young and inexperience by trying to eat some discarded gills (from the hatchery) that were laying about. It seems gills are quite rough and hard to swallow, as the heron appeared to choke for about 10 minutes before expectorating the gills back up onto the rocks. I chalked this up to an inexperience Heron, but perhaps they just arenā€™t that bright?

fall foliage above hogs back falls ottawa rideau river

A Great Blue Heron bites off more than it can chew

The Heron at Hogs Back Falls also had an embarrassing moment in public. At one point it snagged what looked like a Smallmouth Bass (Micropterus dolomieu) and then tried to swallow it whole, as Herons do. It appears that no matter how willing the Heron, its esophagus was not up to the diameter required for the task, After several inelegant minutes attempting to choke down this Bass, it too was spit back onto the rocks, only to fall into the river. The Heron then returned to fishing for something a bit more manageable. After photographing the Heron we worked our way over the Hogs Back Bridge and photographed the Rideau River and many smaller water falls on the rocks below.

fall foliage above hogs back falls ottawa rideau river

Fall Foliage above the Rideau River and Hogs Back Falls in Ottawa (Purchase)

For more photographs from the Ottawa area visit my Ontario Gallery.

Dark-eyed Junco Nest With Eggs

Dark-eyed Junco nest (Junco hyemalis) with eggs in a ground level nest in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia, Canada.

dark eyed junco nest - junco hyemalis - eggs in a ground level nest

Dark-eyed Junco (Junco hyemalis) Eggs (Purchase)

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   In late April I was mowing the grass growing between the raised vegetable garden beds and discovered this Dark-eyed Junco nest, complete with eggs, on the ground underneath a small overhang. This is a common place for Juncos to place their nests, I’ve come across a few others on the ground in tall grass in previous years. I try not to disturb these junco nests when mowing, but I did flush out the female that was sitting on the it at the time. She did sit on the nest again about 5 minutes later, however. A week later I did take a look at the nest (from afar, at first) and the eggs were gone. We have a lot of Black Squirrels (invasive species) that love to snack on bird eggs, so that might have been the fate of this particular clutch. Crows are another likely candidate, though they are not the only other bird species that would look at these as lunch.

For more photographs of birds visit my Bird Photos Gallery.

Baby Eastern Cottontail Rabbit

A young Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) hiding in the weeds in a Fraser Valley backyard garden.

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Baby Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) hiding in the weeds

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   This baby Eastern Cottontail (Sylvilagus floridanus) was hiding in the weeds in my backyard this afternoon. The adult rabbits can be approximately 44cm (17 in) long – and a few that forage in my backyard seem even larger than that, but this little one was only about 15cm (6 in). Very small, and hard to see even when you know where it is. I initially came across this baby crouching down on some barkmulch, but when I came back with the camera it was in the weeds. While it is obviously keeping an eye on me, I tried to minimize my impact on it by putting on my longest lens and watching its behaviour for any stress. Other than some nose twitching, I never saw it move much at all. This kind of Rabbit – the Eastern Cottontail is an invasive species here in British Columbia and even so are rather abundant.

For more of my wildlife photography please visit my Animals and Wildlife Gallery.

Little Campbell River Estuary

The Little Campbell River Estuary in Surrey, British Columbia, Canada.

great blue heron fishing on the little campbell river estuary in surrey near white rock

Great Blue Heron fishing the banks of the Little Campbell River (Purchase)

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   This is the Little Campbell River just before it empties into Boundary/Semiahmoo Bay near White Rock, British Columbia. It was a bit of luck that I found this scene at high tide, as the mud here the rest of the time just isn’t as photogenic. I’ve since remembered to consult tide charts when photographing scenes along the coast such as this one or those in Crescent Beach.

little campbell river estuary in white rock, bc

The Little Campbell River Estuary in White Rock (Purchase)

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   In addition to the river itself I photographed this Great Blue Heron fishing along the banks. I often like to photograph wildlife in the context of its environment. These were quite different surroundings from the last Heron I photographed just outside of Stanley Park.

For more of my photography from this area visit my Vancouver Coast & Mountains Gallery.

Sooty Grouse (Dendragapus fuliginosus)

A Sooty Grouse (Dendragapus fuliginosus) walking warily near the trail to Table Mountain in the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington State, USA

sooty grouse dendragapus fuliginosus)

Sooty Grouse (Dendragapus fuliginosus) (Purchase)

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   Last week I made the trip up to the Mount Baker Ski area and Artist Point at the Mount Baker-Snoqualmie National Forest in Washington State, USA. First I made the obligatory stop at the iconic Picture Lake (more on that soon) to eat my soup, then I photographed some of the fall colours in the Mountain Ash and Blueberry bushes in the Heather Meadows area. After arriving at Artist Point I photographed this Sooty Grouse (Dendragapus fuliginosus) on the trail to Table Mountain. As with most of my wildlife photography, this was an opportunity I happened upon rather than directly seeking it out. Wildlife was not on my mind but there were 3 of these Grouse foraging near the trail. Well camouflaged, I didn’t even see them until one of them flew out of my way from the edge of the trail. I switched lenses and got ahead of their direction of travel, and they walked right past me. There are a lot of visitors here, so they are likely used to people, but it is still always better to let wildlife approach your position than the other way around.

You can view more of my wildlife photography in my image archiveā€™s Animals & Wildlife Gallery.