Tucked Away

A tiny pond close to a main highway, we would have never found it on foot.

Serious about fish.

Whale watching today near a Eagle infested bait ball.

At the bait ball.

A quick glance in our direction as this immature Eagle flies over the bait fish below.

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.

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..

Isolated mountain lake.

Out 4x4ing on the north island. We climbed up to 2500ft.

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 opportunities. 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 variant

These two otters were a darker brown with lighter fur around the face.

Colour variant.

These two sea otters stood out from the others we saw today; they had chocolate bodies and light blonde faces.

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 Semipalmated eyebrow should be more defined.

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 of close to a dozen species.

Western Sandpiper

It takes a lot of patience to photograph Sandpipers 3 hours in one spot today. I go alone as not many of my friends feel the need 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 they would tolerate me; 3 hours of staying still did the trick.

Long-billed Dowitcher

An adult still in breeding plumage.

Long-billed Dowitcher

Long-billed Dowitcher

This one was watching me, if I moved it would sound the alarm and off they would go, so the only thing moving was the tip of my shutter finger.

Long-billed Dowitcher

The Dowitcher is looking right at me it hears my camera shutter.

Busted

The Dowitcher was looking down my lens.

Western Sandpiper

He still has the lovely bredding colours.