Winter days out west

Vancouver Island, British Columbia. World renowned for many things, but high on that list is the jaw dropping nature at practically every turn. Vancouver Island is a major tourist destination, and my family (being from Vancouver) has made a tradition of visiting parts of the island every year. This week we found ourselves traveling along the coast of the island to unwind after what has been a pretty chaotic winter. Of course, as always, I was incredibly excited for the photo opportunities we would be presented with in such a wild and rugged place. Tofino and Ucluelet are excellent places to spot a lot of marine wildlife, but as we’re a bit too early in the year for reliable sightings I came prepared with my macro lens.

Macro is actually what got me started in photography. Long before I became a wildlife photographer I was mostly interested in macro and abandoned buildings. I still love both of these subjects, but wildlife has been the predominant goal of my photography for the last few years. This winter I have been itching to get back into macro photography, and I figured this trip would be the perfect way to break back into it. Living in snow capped mountains means macro is difficult in winter. Subjects are few and far between, and working 7-3:30 means there is very little daylight to work with for the darker months of the year. The beaches of Clayoquot sound and the Pacific Rim National Park offer a stark contrast to our white out conditions at home, and I don’t need to dig under 4 feet of snow to find subjects!

Even something as unexpected as barnacle crusted mussels can be beautiful when you take the time to appreciate them. With the right lens and conditions the details really come out.

Tidepooling is one of my all-time favourite coastal activities. Every tide brings something new and exciting to watch, from hermit crabs to sea anemones and nudibranch, you really never know what you’ll find stuck in a tidepool. Come back a few hours later and that same tidepool could have an entirely new host of critters waiting to be discovered. I really wanted to photograph sea stars, but alas could find none. Previously I’ve seen hundreds of sea stars in different locations around the area. This is the first time I’ve found none. I did find a ton of garbage, but my girlfriend and I filled my backpack and our pockets every time we visited the beach. Unfortunately, plastic and waste will also be refreshed with every tide. As easy as it is to walk by and ignore, plastic is going to be a much more prominent feature on our beaches in years to come if changes aren’t made on a grander scale. It doesn’t take much effort, a few pieces of garbage off the beach whenever you visit makes a big change if a lot of people are doing this. Change starts on the macro level, remember.

A particularly stormy night churned up a peculiar find: a squid egg cluster. I’ve seen single egg sacs before, but this was entirely new to me.

Waking up and exploring the beach every day is such a thrill to me, especially when finds like this turn up. I’ve walked these beaches hundreds of times in my life but never seen an egg cluster. We actually got to see two, washed up beside each other. Naturally I got out my macro lens to capture some images of the strange mass up close. I find the beaches of Vancouver Island to be particularly primal and eldritch, so capturing close up images of something as strange as this was very exciting to me.

Look closely and observe the spheres inside the egg sacs, the actual eggs themselves. A cluster like this can have thousands of individual squid eggs, all eagerly anticipating the return to sea with the next tide.

Hopefully some of you can see the beauty in something like this, as strange and gelatinous as it is. Look beyond that and see life ready to enter the world anew! The beach is a place of primal beauty. Life started in the ocean and crawled it’s way onto land on these ancient places, the least we can do is keep it clean of human garbage. Next time you’re on the coast and looking for something to do, I urge you to try your hand at tidepooling. Bring a beer, a camera, a garbage bag, or just yourself and some curiosity. You really never know what you’ll find!

Until next time.

A trip to the Fraser River Estuary

On a recent trip to the extreme south west of British Columbia I had the pleasure of observing a great many species of migratory bird, as well as some resident raptors that call this landscape home. For those who don't know, the Fraser Valley Estuary of British Columbia is a world renowned birding spot. This unique habitat of tidal salt marsh provides a critical wintering ground for many shorebirds as well as a large host of birds of prey. An estimated 1.7 million birds visit this region annually, making it western Canada's most productive site for birds. Couple all this with its close proximity to Vancouver and you have an amazingly accessible wildlife hotspot.

I consider myself extremely lucky to have been raised in North Vancouver, a quick hour's drive from the Fraser River Estuary. I live elsewhere in the province now, but my years of experience in the region have allowed me to find some incredible spots to seek out some incredible birds. From local churches to the expansive coastline of the Pacific Ocean, there are few places in this area that are void of bird life. 

My journey started along the coastline of Surrey, British Columbia. Recent reports of the Snow Bunting drew me in one early, fair weathered morning. Although this species frequently visits the Lower Mainland in the winter I haven't made the trek out to see them in previous years. I knew I wanted to check this species off of my life list well before I planned this visit, and thankfully I was able to do so quite early in the day. A pair of the birds spent their morning grazing a juniper bush near the shore, and to make things even better the birds were very docile. This allowed me to get close for some nice shots with the blue of the ocean as a backdrop.

The endearing Snow Bunting, a frequent winter visitor to British Columbia’s Lower Mainland.

From there I journeyed to White Rock, home of Canada's longest pier. Surf Scoters and seagulls call this place their home, but I found myself enthralled by the iridescent beauty of the Rock Pigeon. It seems that most people turn a blind eye to this species, likely because they've earned a sort of "pest" like status. While it's true that they are far from uncommon, these birds are remarkably beautiful when you take the time to appreciate them. Consider further that they're intelligent enough to be domesticated and perform tasks for humans and you have quite the special bird. Indeed these animals have served us well over the years, flying important messages high over the battlefields of the World Wars. 

The gaze of ire from a Rock Pigeon

Next I turned my eyes further west. Time to visit Delta, home to a staggering amount of birds as well as some incredible birding sites. No trip to Delta is complete without visiting the George C. Reifel Migratory Bird Sanctuary. This place is known to yield some incredible finds, although this is surely thanks in part to it's popularity. There are few places I can think of that are more well known and visited than this critical layover site for countless species. In summer the trails here are thick with birdsong, and come winter time a seriously impressive number of owls can be spotted here. I have other plans for this place however. You see, this park is also home to a massive number of waterfowl. Moreover, a series of trails in the middle of the park allow you to get right up to the shore of some sloughs, packed to the brim with all sorts of ducks. It's here that I've had the most success photographing ducks from the surface of the water, thanks to the accessibility and habituation of so many migratory species of duck.

The Mallard. Although common this duck is far from ugly.

To wrap up my exciting day of birding I journeyed to the expansive salt marshes of the Fraser River Delta. In the past I have had remarkable encounters here, sighting almost every species of BC owl at one point or another. Today I would have luck observing Barn Owls, Great Horned Owls and the newly arrived Short-Eared Owl. 

Short-Eared Owls are some of my favourite to photograph. They're active during the day which means one can observe them on the hunt much easier than their nocturnal cousins. I came to this locale with the idea of capturing a SEO in flight, backdropped by the distant mountains of Washington state. Thankfully I was able to do so, and still spend a fair bit of time watching the owls fly around in the distance. 

My envisioned shot of a Short-Eared Owl backdropped by the mountains of Washington State.