A Frosty Walk Home

Ice Crystals

One of my staff (thanks Barb!) stopped by my office to tell me there were nice ice crystals that I might want to take photos of. (They know me well!)

The ice crystals turned out to be on the side of the smoking shelter outside. It's unheated, a bit like a bus shelter but more enclosed. (Considering Saskatchewan winters, you have to really want your nicotine these days.)










The details are interesting if you get a chance to look at them on a larger screen.
(Click to view larger.)

There were crystals on the inside and the outside of the glass, making it problematic to get both in focus. And it was hard to make a decent background out of a parking lot. Wide angle would give the best depth of focus but the worst background, so these were all token at full zoom on the little ZS100 (250mm equivalent) They're converted to black and white in part to make the background less distracting.

Ucluelet

We wanted to visit the aquarium so we drove over to Ucluelet for the day. Waiting for the aquarium to open I took a few photos around the dock.

Interesting reflections with a common merganser going by



This Black Turnstone (I looked it up later) was skittish and didn't really want its picture taken. In flight it had a beautiful pattern on its wings. I took photos of related Ruddy Turnstones in Belize last winter.



This crow was working on getting the marrow out of a bone of some sort. It didn't care if I took photos of it. (That's frost on the wood.)



Across the bay I spotted the white head of a bald eagle in a tree but it was too far away for decent photos. There were also jelly fish floating in the water beside the dock.

This sparrow (Lincoln's?) was also a cooperative subject, although it didn't stay in one spot for very long.



We visited the Ucluelet aquarium quite a few years ago when it was in the previous tiny building. At that time they were raising money for a new building (we donated). It was nice to see the new building - quite an improvement. It's not a huge fancy aquarium like the Vancouver one, but it's run by a non-profit society and it's interesting because it's a catch and release aquarium so everything is local. One of the tanks has been running for years. It started out with a bare chunk of concrete. The water is circulated from the ocean and the concrete is now completely covered and encrusted with a huge variety of creatures that colonized it from the water.

I would have loved to take more photos, but the sides of the tanks weren't very clear and taking photos through the surface doesn't work that great.

This sea urchin was poking out of the water, and very colorful.



A different anemone from the kind you see in the tide pools



And this starfish was just below the surface. The details on these creatures are fascinating.



This is a closeup of the top of a starfish



I didn't quite manage to get all of this snail in focus



We had lunch at the Black Rock Oceanfront Resort restaurant that had a great oceanfront view.

We also did a few hikes in the area on the Wild Pacific Trail. It doesn't seem fair that the Salal is flowering when it's full on winter at home.



This looks a bit like another flower, but I think it's just leaves changing color



The sun was melting the frost on these cedar branches



Another Bald Eagle in the distance. When we tried to move closer it flew away.



And a few reflection shots because I can't resist them. This is the reflection of a log





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Tofino

It's a bit of a drive from Victoria to Tofino (5 hrs) but it's quite a different feel on the exposed west coast of Vancouver Island, with the waves rolling in from the open Pacific, and big forest.

I took a ton of wave photos, trying to capture some of the feel of them. These weren't very big waves, but still impressive.









There weren't many birds around. Apart from the gulls, these Black Oystercatchers were one of the few we saw.



Since I was a kid and we came to the coast for summer holidays I've loved searching for life in the tide pools. I'm not sure if it was the time of year, or location, or the state of the world, but I didn't find a lot this time. There were a few anemones and a lone starfish, barnacles and mussels, sea weed, and not much else.







No shortage of barnacles:



I always enjoy the abstract aspects of the beach that the sand and water produce. This was spray from the waves in front of seaweed on the rocks:





















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