Pine Point Rapids, Whiteshell Provincial Park, Maniotba, Canada, December 2010.

Every year my two brothers and I go for a hike, usually around Christmas. Our favourite spot is Pine Point Rapids in Whiteshell Provincial Park. Normally once the snow falls this park is quiet, and sometimes you wont see a single person, and the hiking trails wont get activity for days on end.

This makes great opportunities for spotting wildlife, and creatures in these more remote areas have been pretty bold in my experience.

Although this particular hike didn't produce much beyond a few woodpeckers, ravens and a bald eagle, just the feeling of quiet was enough to make everyone happy. The bird up above is a Pileated Woodpecker. These birds favour old growth forests, where they peck massive holes into them, as seen here. Pileateds are the largest woodpeckers we have here, roughly the same size as a crow, dwarfing all the other woodpecker species in our forests. This bird was spotted in a open area that was knocked down in a wind storm I believe.

Right around the corner were the rapids, which fluctuate from raging like they were here, to barely a trickle, allowing people to cross the bare rock. I was actually surprised my old Olympus point-and-shoot camera was capable of shots like these.

This is lower down on the rapids. The rock here is a bit smoother. Eastern and Northern Manitoba is covered in granite bedrock, and this is quite close to the surface. This forms an area called the Canadian Shield, made up of the granite, and either mixed or coniferous forests. Not many plants can grow on the actual rock faces, but Jack Pines, which can be seen in a couple of these photos, are able to do so. The rocks for may spectacular cliff faces, waterfalls, outcrops and river banks. This area is very beautiful just because of that, and how remote it can be at certain times of the year.

I will have more photos of this area coming soon!!