Tucked Away
A tiny pond close to a main highway, we would have never found it on foot.
Isolated mountain lake.
Out 4x4ing on the north island. We climbed up to 2500ft.
Black Bear Crossing
Serious about fish.
Whale watching today near a Eagle infested bait ball.
On approach.
About to dive on the bait fish.
A quick dip.
Dragging the talons into the top few inches of water to grab what fish they can.
At the bait ball.
A quick glance in our direction as this immature Eagle flies over the bait fish below.
Trap-feeding
A Humpback Whale cleans up on the bait fish. The idea is to find the bait balls before the Humpys to catch the Eagle show. Once the whales arrive that ends the Eagle activity sort of a win-win for us if we arrive before the whales..
Mom and Baby Sea Otters
Floating peacefully near a raft of otters this morning.
Mother Sea Otter and pup.
She gave us some great photo opportunties. A perfect morning on the water, what a way to start the day.
Harbour Seal
It was looking for a comfortable spot to rest out of the water.
A colour varient
These two otters were a darker brown with the lighter fur around the face.
Colour varient.
These two sea otters stood out from the others we saw today they had a chocolate body and light blonde face.
Rolling
We watched as this Sea Otter rolled in the kelp. I have never found any information on why they do this; besides using the kelp to anchor themselves, I wondered if the kelp has some health benefits. Whatever the reason, they seem to enjoy a repeated horizontal roll.
Sea Otter, adult female.
From what I understand the females have the scarred noses received during mating.
Spring loaded.
A Columbia black-tailed fawn is catching up to Mom and its sibling, who bolted ahead.
Western Sandpipers
The second from the left looks a little different, perhaps non-breeding plumage. At first I thought it was a Semipalmated Sandpiper however they are not common on Northern Vancouver Island plus the eyebrow should be more defined for that species.
Black Turnstone, adult breeding
Yesterday we found hundreds of Black Turnstones along with an unexpected three Ruddy Turnstones. I managed to get record shots of the Ruddy's going back today to try again.
Spotted Sandpiper
Yesterday was a good shorebird day we saw a great variety close to a dozen species.
It takes a lot of patience to photograph Sandpipers 3 hours in one spot today. I go alone as not many of my friends have the desire to lay on the ground in the seaweed for 3 hours lol.
Long-billed Dowitcher
I had seen the Dowitchers the day before so I went back today to see if thye would torerate me, 3 hours of staying still did the trick.
