Garden Critters - Raccoons and Birds - May 18

 

Lots of activity at the bird feeder and in the garden in general.  Very cute raccoon taking a nap in one of our big Douglas Firs.

Cold Snap - Feeding the Hummingbirds

A week of very cold temperatures in Vancouver and I'm experimenting with techniques to keep the hummingbird food from freezing.

San Juan Foxes

Its time to visit the fox kits again. Just 5 red-colored kits not the 14 we saw last year in red, grey, sand, black coats. But got to see various behaviors, much better than last time. The kits were not into 'solid' food yet. The mums still nurse them (two mums nurse one litter - apparently not that uncommon) and regurgitate food. This kit-fox was only interested to play with a (dead) rabbit. Mum tries to teach a life lesson: don't play with your food... eat it! But playing is important too for learning hunting skills.

Hunting and Gathering

Every four years a 'dominant' run of sockeye salmon makes their way up the Fraser River and 2018 was one of the big years. Reason enough to get a fishing license and gear and head out with a friend who showed me how its done. I like this sort of fishing! Within 1 hour I landed 2 nice silvery sockeye which is the daily limit for recreational angling. I went back two more times. We had one fish for dinner with friends, got another one smoked and the last 4 were cut up into fillets and steaks for the freezer. In total between 12 and 14 million sockeye entered the Fraser this year, a pretty solid number!

Only two of the fish are mine... two is the daily limit

Despite the dry summer, this year turned out to be a great one for mushrooms too. We found huge King boletes, a few nice bearshead/lions mane and last but not least lots of Pine Mushrooms (Matsutake). I added pines to my list of collectibles 5 years ago but haven't had much luck since then. So I was really hoping for a good year. Ans a good year it was! Even Peter came along for a day of mushroom hunting and we collected over 5 kg (I think Peter found more!)

Fantastic 'catch' of pines

To round out the winter menu there were also many berries to be harvested. Bags of black- and (bought) blueberries went into the freezer. And the wild blueberries were so plentiful that most of our hikes were rather slow. But the berries were so good that we ate them all and didn't bring any home.

And I was excited to see that pines went for  $33/lb at the Granville Island market. Maybe I should try to sell some next year?

Fall hikes and colors

Despite the dry summer there was an amazing display of great fall colors this year. Nice weather lasted throughout October and gave opportunity to many hikes. On the trail to Blanca Lake in the Elaho valley we discovered some huge King Boletes. We finally scrambled up Mt Jim Kelly on a lot of rubble and loose shale (not the greatest hiking). My favorite was the area around Mt Bake with easy access and well groomed hiking trails (Chain Lakes, Lake Ann, Yellow Aster Bute, Skyline divide and Railroad grade). Blueberries were fantastic too!

Blueberries and colors were better closer to Heather Meadows parking lot

Adams Lake Sockeye - Dominant Run 2018

At the beginning of October I visited the sockeye salmon that had arrived at Adams Lake. Some of these sockeye ended their journey prematurely on a sandbank of the Fraser River (and then in my freezer), but since it was a dominant year with a solid number of returning fish I could reconciled this with my environmental conscience.

Chilko Grizzlies

My second visit with the Grizzlies in the Chilcotin Mountains coincided with an unseasonably early snowfall October 2-4th. It was quite the drive on slushy and icy roads for half of the way but the Delica pulled through. When the snowing stopped 40 cm had accumulated at Chilko River. The snowy landscape was a fantastic object for photos, especially the Aspen trees still in all their yellow fall colors. Bears were frequent and photogenic too but due to the snow we couldn't get to some of the prime photo spots and I felt quite some photo-envy watching the tourboats drift down the river ever so close to the fishing bears. Maybe next time I will bring my inflatable and stay a bit longer too.

Nahanni and Broken Skull Rivers, July - August

In July and August we paddled Broken Skull and Nahanni Rivers in the Northwest Territories. We were on the water for 21 days and paddled 500 km. The landscape is protected as a Canadian National Park and is also a UNESCO Biosphere Reserve. For Peter and me this was the first river trip in canoes, up to now we have only used kayaks or rafts. But our friends had lots of canoe experience.

It took 2.5 hours to fly from Fort Simpson to the put-in at Divide Lake. Amazing untouched landscape of endless mountain ranges and big river valleys of the Mackenzie Mountains under our little bush planes (a Beaver and a Cesna).

From Divide Lake we paddled on the crystal-clear Broken Skull River through alpine landscapes past moose, bears and wolves.

Highlights along the Nahanni River were the Cirque of the Unclimbables with its sky high granite towers, thundering Virginia Falls (around which we had to portage our canoes and equipment) and the canyons of Nahanni.

On the river we saw only 5 other paddlers. This was a surprise as the Nahanni is a very popular canoe destination.

The three weeks on the river were our longest ‘expedition’ so far, requiring special preparation for the food, as the weight for the plane was limited and we had no refrigeration on the river. That's why we dried and dehydrated everything from vegetables over yogurt to tomato sauce and salsa. It worked out well and was tasty, even Jiri's spam dinner!

The North is famous for its mosquitoes but except for the last few days they didn't bother us too much. But as soon as we reached the end of the canyons the pesky insects came out en masse, so bad that we skipped the last hot springs - nobody wanted to take off the paddling jackets and expose any skin.

Canoes on board

Mackenzie Mountains and no sign of humans for hours!

At Divide lake

Broken Skull below Swallow Falls

Whitewater action

Good hiking here

Hot springs

Northern river views

One of our camps on the Broken Skull

Cirque of the Unclimbables

Virginia Falls

After the portage

Porcupine

Pulpit and gate in the third canyon

Deadman Valley (fortunately no dead man found)

First Canyon

Bison crossing!

Nahanni-Liard confluence

San Juan Foxes

In the 1930 rabbits were introduced to San Juan Island and proliferate wildly. In order to reduce the rabbit numbers foxes were brought in and their population too grew to considerable numbers.

In early May the fox kids come out of their dens. They are not very shy which makes for fantastic photo opportunities. At times we saw more than a dozen little foxes play and chase each other. Extremely cute!

Big Island Hawaii

Late February/March we visited the Big Island of Hawaii with friends. We snorkeled with Manta Rays (this time with all the tour boats around - their light displays proofed much more effective than our tiny dive light) and biked/hiked in the rain to the lava flows. We watched big waves crash on the southwest shores and explored the Volcano Park. This was our third visit on the Big Island, which in our opinion has the most variety and the lowest tourist density of the Hawaiian Islands. We were there 4 weeks before the big 2018 lava outbreak which destroyed several hundred houses between March to June and only stopped about 200 meters away from the Bed & Breakfast we stayed at in Pahoa.

2018 lava flows on the Big Island. The red cross is were we stayed.

Big waves!

Life after lava

On the way to fresh lave flows

They are actually behind the lava... not on top ;-)

Manta Rays!

More big waves

Hummingbird in Snow

Most Germans think of hummingbirds as tropical creatures so its surprising to see them in Vancouver. Ever since I found out that some of them even stay here over winter I wanted to take a photo of one in the snow. During our Christmas visit in Victoria this wish came true. When I woke up on Christmas Day a white blanket of snow covered the garden I got my camera gear quickly ready before all melted away. And sure enough, hummingbirds were already up and busy at the feeder!

Gharials

Since we finished the 3 passes trek in time we had a few extra days left before my flight was booked back to Canada. We weighed our options and opted for a visit of Chitwan park at the border to India. The bus ride there and back was excruciatingly long; it took the bus 8 and 12 hours to cover approximately 120 kilometer. I'm glad we took the tourist bus.

Chitwan Park was not quite as jungle-like as expected, but we got to see several rhinos, crocodiles, birds and two of the very rare Gavial (or gharial) - crocodiles with narrow and long snouts that are critically endangered. Tigers proved elusive although our guide pointed out tiger prints (rather small... could have been a mid-sized cougar) and a spot where a tiger attack had happened. It was fun to chat with our neighbors at the resort, a couple of bird watchers (or should I say: bird scientists) from the US.

Gharial

If they come run! That's what our guide said.

Chilko Lake Grizzlies - September

A photo club friend and expert bear photographer allowed me to tag along on one of his bear trips. Although I just had time for a couple of days between all my other travels this year and the drive was long, it was totally worth it. My usual bear encounters happen when hiking or driving and the bears almost always disappear more or less quickly. Which really is a good thing! I wouldn't be very happy about a curious bear inspecting me or my tent. But in fall in the Chilcotin mountains the bears feast on salmon and don't have much interest in anything else. It was amazing to watch these big animals for a long time and from a relatively close distance.

You are in my way!

Chilcotin River near Farwell Canyon

San Juan Foxes - June 20

A while ago I saw a beautiful photo of foxes at a friends house. It was taken quite close to Vancouver on San Juan Island. So when the flying weather looked sufficiently bad I got my act and gear together and headed down to Washington and over to San Juan.

As most things, the approximate location of the foxes can be found on the internet, but I didn't expect I would be so lucky to pull up to the first parking spot by the beach and have a fox walk straight over to me. The little fellows are completely unafraid of people, mostly because they receive hand-outs frequently. The foxes were so close I didn't pull out my longest lens a single time. Over the next few hours (during solstice sunset) I had plenty of opportunity to fill my SD cards with photos. This was a perfect evening except for the foxes fondness to take a nap right on the asphalt (enjoying the warmth of the day or waiting for food?).

On the next day I toured the remainder of San Juan Island, saw some amazingly big Arbutus trees and explored the whale watching spot at Lime Kiln State Park but only one minke whale made a quick appearance.

Pelicans! (June 17)

Every flight brings new surprises. Yesterday looked cloudy and not very promising. But the day delivered lots of smooth lift until I got too cold after two hours of airtime. I also crossed flight-paths with a group of pelicans right over Eagle Ranch! Never seen these birds here before. I know they nest up in the Chilcotin (White Pelican Provincial Park) and they certainly don’t spend the winter there but I didn’t expect their migration route would lead them right over Eagle Ranch and Harrison Bay!

 Postscript: There are more posts on local birder forum on unusual pelican sightings. They are usually up north at this time of the year.

Garden Birds

After several years with limited success this spring our hummingbird feeder is very popular with the little flyers! So far identified: Anna’s female and male and Rufous female. Its very entertaining to watch over breakfast and a good reason to have another cup of coffee later. Well worth boiling some sugar water once in a while.

Update May 16th: Mr. Rufous made an appearance too.

Every few years our cherry trees are infested by caterpillars having a good munch on the leaves. On the bright side they attract several species of warblers; MacGillivray, Willson’s and Yellow Rumped (Myrtle) warbler.

But it wasn’t just us enjoying the many songbirds in our garden. One day this Cooper’s hawk (or sharp-shinned hawk?) landed on one of our big Douglas Firs and had its lunch. Couldn't identify what sort of bird s/he caught, but it looked like a bigger one, maybe a Robin?

A while back I got some nice shots of a crow attacking a bald eagle that was resting on a fir in one of our neighbors gardens.