Tag: wildlife

Day 11: Out of the Way Puffin Viewing

July 20, 2013
Newfoundland2013

Saturday we checked out of our Old Salt Box Co. house. We had enjoyed our stay at Evelyn’s house in Herring Neck. We would definitely return or try another of the homes.

20130720_D7K_9889 (1)

The girls enjoyed the straight staircase.

The girls out front.

Our final destination was St John’s, but I suggested we head to Elliston on the Bonavista Peninsula. Elliston use to be called Bird Island Cove because of a couple of islands that are close to land that were popular nesting areas for seabirds. Elliston has one of the closest land views of puffins with hundreds of nesting pairs. Here are the girls heading for the puffin viewing.

There were a few puffins on the land side.

This guy was collecting materials for his nest.

We got amazing views of the puffins up close.

I sat in the grass and one kept walking closer and closer.

There were hundreds of puffins. In the background you can see the other puffins on the island.

Angela trying to get up close and personal with a puffin.

Claudia doing the same.

It was just as cool to watch them take off and land.

These guys were on the island side.

The island full of puffins.

It was an amazing experience, we didn’t know what to expect when we got there, there was no way we thought we would get that close to them.

There was a puffin muskoka chair near the road.

If you ever get to Elliston, drop by the puffin viewing site. This week was also the Elliston Puffin Festival at the Municipal Grounds.

Elliston is known as the “Root Cellar” Capital of the World. There were a couple that were open that you could walk into.

The inside of the root cellar.

Just drive around and you’ll see them in the sides of the hills along the roads or near the houses.

We made a quick stop in Trinity. Trinity is one of the most notable “heritage communities” in the province.

Todays drive. A. Herring Neck B. Elliston C. Bonavista D. Trinity E. St John’s

Day 10: Twillingate

July 19, 2013
Newfoundland2013

The view for our morning coffee.

Today was shaping up to be a good weather day.

Our Salt Box home.

After some early cloud cover the sun was starting to peak out.

The scenery never gets old. It’s like being in the Newfoundland and Labrador television commercials.

We headed to Twillingate to do a whale watching tour.

We drove around to kill some time before the tour.

Claudia looking over to Twillingate South.

The Tanabe’s in Twillingate.

On the dock with the mermaid. The Mermaids in the City ran in St John’s in 2006. Kind of like the moose in Toronto.

Heading out hoping to see some whales. There were no icebergs around.

Burnt Island.

The Longpoint Lighthouse.

Early on there were no sightings.

And then we saw a minke whale.

And followed it around.

Then there were three fin whales.

The fin whales are up to 23 m in length.

The girls were happy to see the whales.

The weather was perfect. What a difference from yesterday.

Angela and Gillian looking at her pictures. (I got heck from the girls for originally captioning this as “Angela and Claudia”)

After a couple of hours we headed back for shore.

The girls back in Twillingate.

That was our boat.

We took the drive out to Crow Head and the Long Point lighthouse. Looking down at the waves crashing the rocks.

Angela at the edge.

The lighthouse was built in 1875.

Claudia holding up the lighthouse.

The girls goofing around.

Another “I thought we were done with these…” photos.

St Peter’s Anglican Church is one of the oldest wooden churches in Newfoundland. It was completed for 1844.

We took in the Durrell Museum.

The polar bear that came to Twillingate in 2000 on the ice. It had to be destroyed and was eventually returned to the town for tourism purposes.

At the end of the road was French Beach. There was a run of capelin, the black in the water.

Some rocks to climb around on.

This local boy was catching the capelin with his net.

Angela giving Mom fits.

There was a pet cemetery.

We found some root cellars.

One of the boat house across the road from our house.

We took a drive to Merrit’s Harbour. Here is Claudia hanging from the cliff.

Claudia managed to climb back up.

A root cellar in Herring Neck.

The end of day.

Our drive today. A. Herring Neck B. Twillingate C. Crow Head D. Merrit’s Harbour

Day 5: Sea Kayaking

July 14, 2013
Newfoundland2013

Today we packed up from our first cottage and headed to Norris Point to do a sea kayaking tour with Gros Morne Adventures. The guided tour was 2 hours and goes out onto Bonne Bay.

The girls investigating a dead jellyfish, some things haven’t changed.

The girls getting instructions.

The kayaks were setup so the person in the back had to steer with their feet.

Angela was steering for her and Gillian.

I was in a single.

Susan and Claudia looking for sea life.

There were lots of jellyfish in the water.

Gillian and Angela working out their differences.

More jellyfish.

The weather was great, a little overcast when we started and then the sun came out.

An ugly fish.

Back on our way along the coast.

A juvenile bald eagle that we followed down the bay.

A freshwater waterfall flowing into the bay.

We saw a river otter down near the falls.

There was another bald eagle that we saw on our way back.

Overlooking Norris Point.

When we got back on the Viking Trail we saw our first moose. It was at the side of the road, and it started walking along the side before going down a side road and disappeared.

We headed back to Deer Lake to get some groceries before heading to our second cottage in the south end of the park.

Angela thought we were done with these types of photos.

After dinner we headed out for a drive to Woody Point.

The lighthouse, built in 1959, the original lighthouse was first built in 1919.

A historic fish store.

Looking down the South Arm.

We are staying at the Middle Brook Cottages in Glenburnie.

This is Middle Brook.

The brook is located next to the cottages. This is an old bridge, the newer bridge is in the distance.

Angela getting her feet wet.

Gillian taking pictures of the brook.

Todays drive. A. Rocky Harbour B. Norris Point C. Deer Lake D. Glenburnie

Out to Saskatchewan

June 14, 2013
Work Posts

I spent four days this week driving around the province. Between Monday and Wednesday afternoon I put 1868 km on a brand new Jeep Cherokee that only had 23 km when I picked it up. The final destination was Pinehouse.

Pinehouse Lake map

I was also out at Flat Valley on the Monday, looking for a location to setup a solar powered collector down the road.

The rental after one day.

The last time I was here I had to cut a trail through the forest to mark out a clearing, here is the result.

Despite all the clear cutting, there were still some flowers in the clearing.

Saw a squirrel on one of the wood piles.

One time I was walking back to the car and when I looked up I spotted a moose down the road.

It kind of watched me for awhile before crossing the road and heading into the forest.

The next morning I saw a couple of more moose at the side of the highway heading into Beauval. There was a small calf with the mother. It is behind the mother’s head.

The moose were going through their annual molt.

I was finished sooner than I thought I would be, so I changed my flight from Friday to Thursday and headed back to Saskatoon Wednesday afternoon. Saw lots of deer, a few wolves, moose, a rabbit and had I duck fly up from the side of the road and almost hit my windshield.

Saturna Island

January 19, 2013
Work Posts

I spent the past week on Saturna Island. It is pretty quiet this time of year on the island. Not a lot of options available for food, so we have to buy groceries in Sidney before catching the ferry over to the island. My flights were good, our flight from Toronto to Vancouver arrived 17 minutes early, that has never happened before.

There was a backlog at the Superport on the mainland, so there were a lot of container ships sitting among the islands.

The weather for the week was forecasted for sun, but that changed with an inversion. It was snowing when we left the site the first night.

There was a bit of a sunrise on Wednesday morning.

The feral goats are still around.

Thursday morning we started the day with a power failure, it was a planned shutdown to replace some of the poles, it was suppose to be back up by 9:00am. It did allow us to take in the sunrise at the B&B.

We stayed at Sandy Bay B&B.

We had a good day of weather on Thursday and were able to go up to Mt Warburton Pike for lunch.

Looking over towards Pender Island.

There were a couple of bald eagles.

We took a drive down to the Saturna Island Winery.

Back at the site the deer were out in the sun.

After work we headed out to Winter Cove. We did the trail out to boat pass (the middle of the photo).

Along the trail.

There were a few sea lions in the water.

Catching the sunset over Winter Cove.

This is Boat Pass.

A view of Mt Baker in Washington state.

Along the beach in Winter Cove.

When we got back to the cottage, there was a bald eagle sitting on the shore rocks.

Our final day started off in cloud and fog.

The container ships were still sitting there.

Fort Smith, NWT

October 19, 2012
Work Posts

After 10 years in this job, I have finally made it to the Northwest Territories. This past week I was in Fort Smith, NWT to locate a new monitoring site in Wood Buffalo National Park. Fort Smith sits on the border with Alberta and the National Park straddles the border with the majority of the park in Alberta. Our new site will be on the NWT side.

It was more of tramping through the bush marking trees that will be cleared for a new site.

In the existing clearing, the wood bison are frequent visitors as noted by their calling cards. The white stuff is snow.

This vehicle was along Highway 5, not sure what the story is behind it. It looks like it either hit a wood bison or a moose. The bison graze at the side of the road, but they don’t move that fast, so it’s hard to believe it was a bison that was hit.

We only saw four wood bison, but I think 3 and 4 were the same. The wood bison harvesting (hunting) had just finished the past weekend, so they may have been deeper in the bush.

Here is a close up of the wood bison as I drove past.

Not often you come across warning signs for buffalo.

Wood Buffalo is the largest National Park in Canada and has the world’s largest herd of free roaming Wood Bison. There are over 5000 in the park, along with about 5000 wolves to keep them in check.

It was looking like it was going to be a nice day when we were leaving, although a little chillier. I was flying Northwestern Air from Fort Smith to Edmonton.

My flight out of Edmonton to Toronto was late 30 minutes leaving Edmonton and then as we approached Toronto we must have circled about 4 times, resulting in us arriving 50 minutes behind schedule.

Around Island Falls

September 20, 2012
Work Posts

We lucked out with the weather this week, only the first morning was a little chilly with frost on the car windows and on this dandelion.

The Snow Geese were headed in the right direction.

Our ride for the week was a Jeep Liberty.

The site is located at the Island Falls Hydroelectric Dam, this is the A-Dam Spillway.

On the way out of the site we encountered this guy.

He was just sitting on the road, not in any hurry to move off to the side.

I took some video of the bear as I was slowly driving towards it, eventually it bounded off into the bush.

We were staying at a fishing camp about 20 km’s from the site.

This is our cabin at Slim’s Cabins.

The cabins are located on the Churchill River, only about 8km by boat to the dam. The camp offers fishing, fly-in fishing and hunting. The main catch are Lake Trout, Pike, and Walleye.

The Hydroelectric Generating Station was built in 1928-30 by the Churchill River Power Company, which was a subsidiary of the HBM&S Co. (Hudson Bay Mining and Smelting Company). It provided power to the Mine and Smelting operations in Flin Flon, Manitoba. Today it is owned by SaskPower.

Up until the late 60’s there was a townsite of company owned houses for staff. Our site is located on the old townsite. Although they have long since torn down the houses, the sidewalks still remain as you can see in this photo.

The only remaining building from the townsite is the Commisary.

The two-storey Comissisary can be seen in the distance along with the old sidewalk.

These two photos show the location of the townsite in relation to the power station.

The Comissary is in the bottom right of this photo.

Another look at the A-Dam Spillway

Some video of from the Spillway.

Had time to visit the Josiah Flintabbatey Flonatin statue in Flin Flon.

The history behind the name of the city. NHL hockey players that were born in Flin Flon include, Bobby Clarke, Al Hamilton, Gerry Hart, Eric Nesterenko and Ken Baumgartner to name the more famous ones.

The flight to and from Winnipeg was with Calm Air. I flew up in a Saab 340B and an ATR 42 300 (below) on the way back. The Winnipeg Airport Terminal is quite nice now, a big step up from the old terminal.

Day 5: The Cabot Trail

August 10, 2012
PEI2012

Today we were touring the Cabot Trail. We approached the Trail from the east side and went counter-clockwise so we were driving on the outside lane most of the way.

Claudia at the first Lookoff, the first of many we would stop at through the day.

Once we entered into the Cape Breton Highlands National Park, we stopped at the Keltic Lodge to do the Middle Head trail. The map said it was approximately 3.8 km.

Along the trail.

The trail provided some great views.

Coming through a meadow.

The trail ends at a headland.

There were a couple of bald eagles on a rock outcrop.

There were also a lot of seabirds.

The scenery doesn’t get old.

Big sea gulls.

Some kayakers on our way back.

Next stop was Lakies Head.

Looking north.

Angela at Lakies Head.

Susan.

Angela hanging on for dear life.

Gillian climbing back over the top.

Claudia taking her turn.

Nothing like exploring over the rocks.

Around the bend from Lakies Head was Green Cove.

The scenery there was just as spectacular.

The weather held out for most of the day, while we were driving and getting in and out of the car we had overcast or the odd time sun. The only time it rained hard was when we were driving back to the hotel.

Claudia and Angela looking for bugs or sea creatures.

Gillian at Green Cove.

Angela and Claudia running from the waves at Black Brook Beach.

Watching the wave just about to break.

Claudia in her element.

Lunch was in Pleasant Bay at the Rusty Anchor. Susan and I had the lobster.

The girls in front of the restaurant.

Looking down towards the Rusty Anchor where we had lunch.

Looking south from the Veterans Memorial Lookoff.

The last stop of the day was at La Bloc Beach, it was a rock beach with lots of flat stones.

The girls walking the beach.

Final photo of the day at La Bloc Beach.

It was a full day on the Cabot Trail, the guide books say it takes 3-4 hours to drive the trail and you need 1-4 days to experience it. Having spent close to 10 hours, it is easy to see how you could spend a few days.

Touring Saturna Island

January 26, 2012
Work Posts

My last day on the island was forecasted to be sunny.

Some of the wild turkeys that roam the island.

Up at the site the feral goats were out sunning themselves.

We had some time before catching the ferry back to Swartz Bay. You can drive up to the top of Mount Warburton Pike. The elevation is 1316 ft (401 m).

The views from the top are spectacular.

We were able to see a bald eagle while we were up on the summit.

It was out to East Point. Almost half of the island is part of the Gulf Islands National Park Reserve. This is the Foghorn Alarm Building.

Tumbo Island in the distance.

These are the rocks at Boiling Reef. Can you see the Stellar Sea Lions and Harbour Seals?

The Harbour Seals were scattered on the left and the sea lions on the right. The wind was carrying the sound of the sea lions roaring.

A closer look at the Sea Lions.

Tumbo Island.

This is Winter Cove.

The ferry dock at Lyall Harbour. The 4:10 ferry goes to Swartz Bay, via a transfer at Mayne Island. From Mayne Island to Swartz Bay there was only ten vehicles on the ferry.

I always enjoy the ferry crossings and the scenery. Probably because the lighting often reminds me of some of Uncle Tak’s paintings.

It was back to Sidney, BC on Thursday night and then a flight back to Toronto on Friday morning.

Saturna Wildlife

January 25, 2012
Work Posts

Not as many deer around the island as in past years, only saw two at the site all week. The new residents around the site are feral goats. The one day I counted 17 goats in the herd.

There were some young ones, and a baby kid that was bleating away.