Humpback Whale Fluke

Tail slapping sounds similar to thunder, not quite as loud.

Humpback Mother and calf.

Mom is diving junior will follow.

Steller's Jay

I was hoping to get a Pygmy Owl on this branch at sunset, yes I'm a dreamer :) The Steller's Jay jumped on it and stayed ...alright then.

Pygmy?

Who said there was a Pygmy Owl around?

Northern Pygmy Owl

The last bit of light on my last night we found a juvenile. Funny enough a local raptor expert stated that juveniles do not make the trill call, I can tell you they most definitly do.

A sunset at Hyde Creek.

One of these days I am going to get down to the beach in the daylight and plan a shoot it is always a scramble in the low light when we see a good sunset. I guess that's what the pros do.

Hyde Creek

Stare Bear

Having a peak at my friend snoozing on a log nearby, he was closer to the bear than I was and this is almost full frame with my 500mm. I cropped an inch off the left side. One thing I do know if you are relaxed and calm so are the bears.

Bliss

Nothing better than getting the right spot. She loves to scratch you can see the areas she can't reach her winter coat is still hanging on. Scruffy is a senior bear no cubs since 2017 her last cub was Stare Bear.

Bear Cub

A bit of a story to this shot... We were on a logging road and we saw a Mom and Cub a good 500 yards away, the Mom sent the cub up the tree with a few grunts she then stood protectively at the bottom. There was a large bank off the road so other than distance she had virtical seperation from us. While I was focus on the cub climbing my friend Stuart yells at me , "Get in the truck!" which was very alarming as we were very close to the truck. Thank goodness I didn't question him I just drove for the door and piled in. Mother Bear was charging us totally unexpected as we were so far away. Thank you Stu for staying aware.

Mother Bear

The Mother from my Cub post yesterday. Easier when reviewing photos she was on the edge but very diffucult to identify at the time, from the distance I didn't hear her grunts. This is a 70% crop with noise reduction shot at ISO 1800.

River Otter and a Bullhead with a side of seaweed.

I was looking for a rare bird yesterday instead found a lovely family of River Otters.

River Otter and a Bullhead

Fluffy

That's a good bear name isn't it? : ) A new bear in the hood this year I named Fluffy, he has a beautiful thick coat.

Abyssinian fur?

I'm thinking this bear is have a bad hair day, you can bet I would never say that out loud :) It looks like it is about to kill something though.

The Stare Down

Wouldn't have been so bad if this was Stare Bear, I was thinking I wanted to be somewhere else at the time. I am pretty sure this is Trump she looks a bit different this year not as robust as she has in previous years especially for September.

Fall is in the air.

The salmon run was coming to an end the bears know they only have a couple more months to get as many pounds on as they can. Vancouver Island Bears don't really hibernate over the winter, they do however sleep more in the winter months.