West Hawk Lake, Whiteshell Provincial Park, Manitoba, Canada, June 2012

Whiteshell Provincial Park is a large area. Miles upon miles of nearly untouched wilderness, home to many of Manitoba's less common and secretive creatures. Normally I spend my time there in the less traversed areas in the north and central areas of the park, but I was invited on a camping trip to a popular area in the south in June 2012.

I got there in the evening just as the sun was setting, perfect time to be sitting by the lake.

Later in the evening while having a fire I realized a deer was standing right behind me. The deer in this campground must get fed a lot, as they were quite tame and would not run away even if you were only several feet away.

The next morning offered a perfect opportunity to go out on the canoe and paddle around the lake. The morning was cool and the lake was like glass.

A few animals could be spotted, such as this female Common Merganser, a type of duck. I know this is a bit hard to see!

This lake is actually a big crater, and the crystal clear water drops in depth very fast. The rocks below me in this photo are actually about 50 feet down, even though I was only about 20 feet from shore!

As I got back to the beach a pair of Common Loons showed up, swimming around the canoe totally unafraid! Loons are quite common in boreal lakes, where they feed on fish, crustaceans, frogs and insects.

 The afternoon offered the opportunity to go for a hike around the lake and nearby Hunt Lake. The Whiteshell is part of the Canadian Shield, and so has numerous granite cliffs, outcrops and hills. Some of these have small caves, such as this one. 

After packing up it was time to head home, but not before a final appearance from another one of Manitoba's amazing animals. This is a pair of Sandhill Cranes, which are often mistaken for storks or herons. The brownish tinge to their usually grey feathers comes from iron in their food and water sources. Cranes are normally birds of open country, but this pair was in a open ditch in a woodland. 

Definitely an interesting area, but a bit to modern and crowded for my liking!

Smithers-Houston, British Columbia, Canada, April 2012

In April 2012 my brother and I went to visit relatives in BC, the first time I had been to that area. Smithers and Houston lie on the plateau between the Rocky Mountain and Coast Mountain Ranges.

Flying from Vancouver to Prince George Provided many views of the mountain tops from the plane.

After the 3 hour drive from Prince George we arrived at my relatives. They have a small lake and mountain behind their house, and my brother and I climbed it several times to see what we could find. There were lots of moose tracks!

Smithers has a set of mountains immediately behind it as well, with a ski hill.

The top of the skiing area goes above the tree line, but that is for very experienced skiers and snowboarders. This is Crater Lake pictured here.

The next evening we went for a drive to spot Moose as they came out to feed. We did end up spotting several (I decided to not include the pictures however, as they were poor quality-I still had my little Olympus camera at this point). The sunset against the mountains was breath taking.

2 days later we went for a hike up into the mountains. We were headed up to the Silver King Basin, up in the Babine Range. The snow was still think on the ground and we couldn't drive to the actual trail head, so this added a couple extra kilometers to the hike.

Despite being a vigorous hike, it offered many spectacular views. 

Once we reached the actual basin we needed to be relatively quiet, as avalanches are a possibility.

We started our hike at 7 am and reached our destination at around 3 pm. A hike of only 13 kms, but up hill the whole way and through sometimes fairly deep snow, and with roughly 50 lb packs on our backs. In the dead quiet we could often hear Mountain Goats butting heads and calling.

A view of the other side of the basin. The trees are small because it is so high up, and it can get fairly cold.

We stayed in Joe L'Orsa cabin overnight, and headed out first thing in the morning after a light breakfast. The trip downhill only took 3 hours! When we got home it was nice to sit in the hot tub and relax our sore muscles. Despite being very strenuous, definitely something I would do again. 

Bird's Hill Provincial Park/Oakbank, Manitoba, Canada, January/February 2012

Early 2012 I had some interesting encounters with some native wildlife.

 January 2012 I got a text from my former boss saying that his son had found a owl, and if I wanted it. Of course I jumped on this, and I was ready to tackle a big Great Horned or Snowy Owl. When I got there what greeted me was this little Northern Saw-whet Owl. Saw-whets normally migrate south for the winter, as they have trouble finding food  through the deeps snow and keeping warm. They get their name from their call, which sounds like someone sharpening a saw blade on a whet-stone. This one seems to have been attacked by a predator, it couldn't fly and had some blood on its wing. I took it home, and promptly got it some water and a frozen thawed mouse, which it ate fairly quickly. The next evening someone from the Wildlife Haven picked it up, but they later told me it had to be put down, as it couldn't be released.

In February I went to have a fire in Bird's Hill Provincial Park with my family, we usually go to a trail that has several bird feeders, where we often feed the chickadees and other birds by hand. On this particular occasion I noticed an animal running about the feeders which was quite a bit larger than a Red Squirrel. Grabbing my camera I ran to where I saw it. Running up the trunk of a tree right in front of me was an American Marten! Martens are members of the Mustelid family, which includes weasels, badgers, otters, mink, wolverines, and ferrets. Martens are generally arboreal, but also spend some time on the ground. Their main prey items are Red-backed Voles and Red Squirrels, both of which are abundant around the feeders. I managed to snap this quick shot of him/her as they paused to watch me from directly above.