Macro

I've been meaning to do some macro photography indoors where I can set up a little better. As I was getting organized, this spider walked across the floor so it was my first subject. I think it's an Ant Mimic Spider.

What I was planning to take photos of was one of the ubiquitous Yellow Shore Crabs. Turn over a rock on the beach and you're liable to find these. I didn't pick the best time as the tide was high and there wasn't much beach. I could only find a couple of tiny ones (about 1/2 inch).

While I was searching for crabs I came across this hermit crab (Pacific Hairy perhaps?) with a shell that hardly seemed big enough.

In case you're wondering, these were all alive and well and released back where I found them. (Except the spider, it got moved outdoors.)

Here's my quick and dirty "studio":

Gear: OM-1 camera, macro lens, Really Right Stuff tripod and ball-head, Lume Cube led light (plus lots of natural light). The white bowl makes a good seamless background and it's generally too slippery for small creatures to climb out of. (As long as they don't jump or fly.)

Neighbors

I finally got up the nerve to take my good camera out in the kayak. There hasn't been a lot to see, but the last couple of times I've seen an osprey and a kingfisher. I'm not too worried about tipping the kayak, except when I'm getting in or out, when there's always a chance on the slippery seaweed covered rocks. I keep the camera in a dry bag clipped to the kayak when I'm not using it.

I decided to start by going around the little island (Colvile) in front of our place. The first thing I saw was this ochre sea star. Purple is the most common color, but they can be orange, yellow, reddish, or brown. Sea star wasting disease has killed a lot of the sea stars, so it's good to see them around. I saw a few more on the island, mostly tucked away in corners and crevices.

Continuing around the tiny island, I spotted a bunch of small shore birds. They were quite skittish, moving away as soon as I got close. And even when they didn't move away, they were in constant motion hunting and pecking in the seaweed. My latest camera (OM Systems OM-1) has AI bird detection, but I couldn't remember how to turn it on, and in the process of trying I was changing all kinds of other settings. In the midst of trying to get some photos, and steer the kayak from drifting into the rocks, it was a bit of a challenge. I did eventually get it turned on and it did seem to help. Taking photos with a long telephoto from a rocking kayak is always a fun challenge. Later, with the help of the iNaturalist Seek app, I identified them as Black Turnstones.

Moving further around the island, I first heard and then spotted a pair of Killdeer. Although they are known as shorebirds, I've actually seen them more often in dry grasslands (which is where they breed).

There's often a Great Blue Heron on the island. I'm not sure if it's the same heron or just a good spot for herons in general. When they catch small fish they often shake them, maybe to kill them? I caught the spray from this one.

I must have got a little too close because it took off and flew to the main shore, where I got a few more shots.

The evening before, we'd spotted another visitor to the island - a mother harbor seal and her baby. (We saw a similar mother and baby last August.)

By the time I made two slow loops around the tiny island it was time to head home. It's great to find so much of interest so close, despite being in the city.

See all 16 photos in this album

Paragliding at Five Springs

Thanks to Shelley for putting together her video of me flying at Five Springs (Wyoming) in June.

I love it here. It's a nice launch and a good landing area, and I've never seen another person flying here. (That might be a negative to most people, but it suits me.) The launch is within walking distance of the small campground at the top, and the road up is paved. And the vertical is small enough (500m) that you can hike back up. Usually there are good thermals and reasonably long flights. Unfortunately, although you can't tell from the video, conditions this trip were not great for flying, there was a lot of wind and often from the wrong direction. That was disappointing after two years of no flying due to Covid. But it was still great to get back in the air.

Scroungers

We were sitting eating ice cream at the Oak Bay Marina when a boat pulled in right in front of us. Soon after, a harbor seal showed up and then a gull. Both of them seemed to be hoping for fish scraps from the boat. In the past people fed the seals at the marina, but that is no longer allowed.

It was nice to have the seal hang around so we could get a better look. Usually all you see is something like this (from a distance) and then it disappears.

Of course, the other ever present scroungers are the house sparrows. They tend to be in constant motion, making them tricky to photograph despite being so common. The other day one tried to grab a piece of my pastry out of my hand. Usually it's only the gulls that are bold enough to try that.

Print of the Week

This is Prairie Smoke or Three-flowered Avens near where we camped on the Blackfoot River in Montana. After pollination (by bumblebees that push their way in), the flowers turn upwards and open up. They then develop seeds with long fuzzy hairs which are the origin of the "prairie smoke" name.

We finally have our picture hanging system set up so I can get back to printing regularly. Viewing photos on the computer just isn't the same as a big print up on the wall.

Marmots

There are lots of Yellow-bellied marmots at Five Springs. Usually they would disappear as soon as they spotted you, but this one was a little more cooperative. Maybe it felt safe with an escape route right behind it.

Marmots are large ground squirrels. Yellow-bellied are one of the smaller ones. Wikipedia says they live in colonies, but I only saw individuals. They make a whistle sound as an alarm cry, leading to their nickname of "whistle pigs".

Photos of the Day

My photography tends to be feast or famine. I didn't take many in the winter, even though, unlike Saskatchewan, it's definitely warm enough. (If you dodge the rain.) But since spring I've been taking lots. In the first six months of this year I took almost as many as all of last year. This batch of photos was all taken on one day, first in an early walk before work, and then later in the day on another walk to do some errands.

I didn't even make it out of our townhouse complex before starting. This is a Flowering Dogwood, as opposed to the native Pacific Dogwood which has mostly white flowers. "Flowering" Dogwood seems like a silly name, since the other dogwoods also "flower".

Although it was early (7:30am), it was warm enough for the bumblebees to be starting. They can't fly if their muscles are too cold, but they can vibrate their wings to warm up.

There are lots of Canada Geese around these days. This year's juveniles are looking almost like the adults now. These ones were feeding on the abundance of seaweed (algae). Of course, I like the background reflections.

I was walking along the path when I heard a strange croaking squawk. Maybe a Great Blue Heron? But I couldn't see any by the water where they usually are. Finally I spotted it in the top of the tree above me. It was an awkward angle for photographs.

I'm accumulating quite a few photos of oystercatchers, but I can't resist their bright red beak and eyes. It's hard to see against the dark background but this one had a mussel in its beak. I wonder how it was going to open it?

Early on a sunny morning is a good time for reflections. Here's one of many. (Good detail if you look closely.)

I got stopped outside our townhouse by the Calla Lilies.

Later, walking by the nearby marina, I noticed a good size Red Rock Crab. I'm always amazed how many crabs there are, especially since the otters and birds seem to pull out a never ending supply.

I noticed another crab, but this one was a Northern Kelp Crab.

I see the crabs quite often, but then I saw what looked like a sea cucumber, which I haven't seen before in the harbor. Sure enough, when I looked at it on the computer, it was a Giant Californian Sea Cucumber. It's fun to see this sea life without even leaving the walkway.

After a coffee stop at Cafe Fantastico, I saw this mother mallard and her ducklings in the water feature by the next door condos.

And where there's water, there's reflections.

I liked the color contrast between these purple flowers (some kind of lavender?) and the red leafed bush behind.

And a final quiz - before you look at the caption, can you guess what this is? (less than 1/2" long)

See all 50 photos in this album.

Print of the Week

This is another one from Wyoming, a Two-tailed Swallowtail.

Shelley and I were hiking and this butterfly flew by us. I paused to see if it might land so I could photograph it. It finally landed about 50 feet away from us. I couldn't really see it, but I had a pretty good idea where it was, so I got my camera out and started moving closer. Shelley was skeptical whether it would sit still long enough, but amazingly it did. It didn't let me get that close and my longer telephoto lens would have been better but I managed some decent shots, including a lucky shot of it flying away.

It appeared to have picked this particular flower, which was the only one like it in the vicinity.

Elk

On our recent road trip in the US, we spent some time at Five Springs, on the edge of the Big Horn mountains in Wyoming. This is one of my favorite spots for paragliding, hiking, and nature photography. One day we went for a hike along a ridge with some high alpine meadows. We were lucky to see a herd of elk with lots of young ones. We were far enough away that they didn't immediately leave, so we got a chance for some photographs.

It was hard to get an accurate count of them since they were moving in and out of view. But there were lots, I would guess 30 to 40 in total. One of them had a radio collar. (right most)

I took lots of photos but they're all quite similar.

Despite sensing our presence, they were still calm enough for this mother to let her little one feed.

Ambush

I saw a bee on this plant, but it wasn't moving, which is unusual. Looking closer I found a crab spider (Goldenrod crab spider?) had ambushed the bee. It was quite hidden but it was preoccupied enough with its meal to let me pull some leaves back to get a better view.

I went back a little later and the spider had turned the bee around so it could "eat" the other half. (They inject digestive fluids and then suck out the resulting slurry.)

When I checked in the morning at first all I could find was the empty husk of the bee. Eventually I found the spider hiding a few inches away.

I think the plant it's on is Wolf Willow (native), although Pl@ntNet identifies it as Russian Olive, which is related but not native (from Asia). But Russian Olive is a small tree, whereas these were bushes. The flowers smelled nice.

Photos of the Week

The Western tent caterpillars are numerous right now. People don't like them, but they are actually quite attractive.

My sister Clare would be proud of me for spotting a hummingbird, but it was up in the top of a tree where it was hard to get a good photograph.

This Black Oystercatcher was the opposite, it was on the shore below me so the angle still wasn't ideal. I probably would have overlooked it, but I heard someone say "I wish I knew birds better" so I looked around to see what they were talking about. While I was taking photographs of it, another couple came along and exclaimed about the colorful beak and eye. The man asked if I sold my photographs to National Geographic. I said no, to which he replied, "Oh well, I guess it's still a good hobby." I hope so, since only an extremely small fraction of photographers sell their photographs to Nat Geo.

I'm still getting used to Great Blue Herons being so much more common here than in Saskatchewan.

Now that the weather has finally warmed up a bit (coolest May on record) the bees are coming out. There are certainly plenty of flowers for them. A lot of them are bumble bees, but they are hard to identify when they are buzzing around. I think this is a Yellow-faced bumble bee. It was a large one, perhaps the queen herself out foraging while establishing a new nest.

Western honey bees are the most common honey bees, despite being non-native. They are the honey bees used in commercial honey production.

I'm not sure what kind of bumble bees these were.