Tag Archives: Southern Gulf Islands

Blog, Just Because, Wanderings

Duck Season

Winter time is duck season around Saturna. Duck and other birds spend time around the island, before going back up North… This is a trio of Harlequin ducks males (Histrionicus histrionicus – don’t you love that latin name?), swimming by the rocks.  More info about Harlequin Ducks here.
Harlequin Trio. Photo © Andrée Fredete

Their paddling leaves nice tracks in the water… Just below the tracks, you can see the circular “dive” of a feeding duck.
Duck tracks in the water. Photo © Andrée Fredete

These flashy birds (well, the drakes are flashy anyway) are only around our waters during the winter, and return to mainland rivers and streams to breed and feed during the milder months.

I took the photo at the top of this post, of unexplained ripples and wavelets in the water, because it was intriguing. There were no boats nearby…

Blog, Inspiration

Foggy Sky

It was a very foggy week. Day after day, the ferries were sounding their way across the waters. The bigger cargo ships also signaled their movements with their horns. Fog is quiet, but it is also noisy…

One day, in the late afternoon, I looked out the window and this is what the sky looked like.

January Light, Saturna Island. Photo © Andrée Fredette

I also noticed a lot of activity on the water surface: seals and birds, looking for food, were rippling the water, leaving temporary tracks…

An hour or so later, the sun was still trying to burn through the thick fog blanket. Nearing sunset time, the colour of the sky started to change completely, going from grey to gold… with the golden results that followed…

January Light Beam Later2
And finally, the fog thickened, and blocked the sunset over Pender Island…

January Sky, before sunset. Photo © Andrée Fredette

Around here, it pays to look out the window on a regular basis.

Blog, Wanderings

Mushroom Circle

On the British-Columbia coast, the fall of 2013 was an exceptional fruiting season for mushrooms, in both variety and quantity. That November, while going from A to B in my neck of the woods, I chose to take a shortcut through the forest instead of following my usual path. That shortcut was tricky to navigate, there were lots of obstacles in my non-existing path and I was paying attention to where I was putting my feet.

At one point, I looked up to figure out where I was headed, and this is what I saw:
Cercle de champignons WL

It was a jaw-dropping sight. These short-stem russulas (Russula brevipes), growing in a circle that had a diameter of at least 35 feet!

Some of these russulas were massive. Here is a close up with someone’s hand, to show the scale. Massive.

Cercle de champignons Dimension
So, if I ever needed an excuse not to follow the usual path, this is the perfect one. Get off the path, and go wander in the woods! (…and into my old photo files, too…)

Blog, Just Because

Eagle Chat

This is a short clip of a noisy, talkative eagle. This bird was voicing some objections to another eagle’s presence, a few hundred meters away. Obviously, some important rules of etiquette were not being observed.

 

 

 The background noise you can hear throughout the video is the sound of a CSL “self-unloader”, a large cargo ship which is unloading gypsum onto barges, right here, in these beautiful islands…

CSL Gypsum Unloading onto barges, in Plumper Sound, Southern Gulf Islands, BC

Apparently, the eagles were too busy with their territorial discussions to care. But that engine sound, lights, and dust can get annoying when they last for days…

Blog, Photo Wednesday, Wanderings

Lion’s Mane Jellyfish, on the Dry – Photo Wednesday

Today’s picture is from my old files of things that live around here…

During a walk on the beach at low tide in the summertime, quite a few lion’s mane jellyfish were trapped at low tide, and dried up.  Some of them can be quite sizable, and if you try to lift them (not with your hands, but with a stick, say, or a paddle if you are in a kayak), you find out how heavy these creatures are…

This one was high up on the beach, blown there by wind and wave action, dead and drying up. It looked like a fine glass object. Abstract art. I am guessing that this is the pattern of what passes for “muscles” in a jelly.
Lions Mane Jelly Dry WL