Waterfalls

I will be heading to Peterborough (my university town) this afternoon until Saturday. I hope to get some good shots, there are plenty of places to wander around. In the meantime, here is a shot or two of a waterfall on the Fish hatchery trail in near Bracebridge, my husband and I walked through there this past weekend.

This photo has an odd feel to it when its black and white, like I melted the film or something

A view of the whole falls

And just for a laugh, the mighty Winn Falls in the Chiricahua mountains in Arizona from about 100 ft away (I know, its the dry season there now, Im sure it can be more spectacular, its just that I hiked 4 hours to get to this point, at least it encouraged me to hike 2 more hours to find something more exciting)

Home and to Muskoka

Hello again all,

I made it back from Arizona safely, it was sad to leave really, such a great place. I have spent a few days up in Muskoka with my parents, helping them clean out the cottage. After 23 (I think) years, they have decided to sell the place. It was nice to spent a little time up there, and I'll share some photos I got over the next few days.

The essential element of every cottage is the friendly neighborhood Chipmunk. This was obviously one from last year as it remembered the "Chippy!" call as well as what a peanut was.

The epic struggle of Munk versus Nut

Now if this isnt a textbook picture of Tamias striatus, I dont know what is.

Thank you Arizona

This morning Im off to Tucson to catch my flight back home. Its with mixed emotions that I leave this place. As anyone who has spent time at a research station (or camp for that matter) would know, people start to wear on you, and the general politics around this place have become a little tiresome. However, by no means am I sick of these mountains. There seems to be endless places to wander off to and always new things to see and photograph. I will miss the desert the most. There is something about the strange noises and the warm winds down there that make that place beautiful, and everything seems to new to me. I hope that I can come back here again someday, Arizona (or at least this tiny corner of it) is an incredible state.

So thanks Arizona,

For the big skies

The beautiful valleys

The culture

The research opportunities

And the Photographic opportunities

And thank you to all those people that made this place great! Thank you also to all of you who have read my blog, I hope that you enjoyed my photos and my stories. I will see how photography treats me in the future, perhaps I will continue to post here if I get anythng interesting. Check in from time to time.

Much love

Chris

Greenhouse Trail

On my last day here in the Chiricahua's, I decided to go on a long hike on the Greenhouse trail. I would say that of all the hiking I've done around here, this one is by far the nicest. Its quite strange actually, because the trail goes up the mountains, but travels along a creek within a valley, so you get to see all sorts of different flowers and plants. And its not very desert like, there are huge pine trees so it reminds me more of BC. The trees provide some pretty good shading, so its a nice hike on a hot day.

In 1994 there was a forest fire in the area, so there are many fallen and dead trees, a good lesson in succession. Very strange to walk through though, its amazing how long it takes for the forest to come back

The tour guides in the area are friendly, but dont say much. They seem to just get freaked out by your presence and run down the mountain.

A columbine, they grow in large numbers near streams

By the streams, there were many different kinds of butterflies, though generally they were flittng around too much to get good photos.

And last but not least, I was lucky enough to run into one of these big boys, but it couldn't have cared less that I was there, so it provided a good photo opp.

In total, I hiked about 10 hrs, up to Fly's Peak, at 9660 elevation (thats higher than Silver Peak), sadly the view at the top was all forest, but Im glad I did it (even if my feet are not). I highly recommend this place to anyone interested in a good hike, the trails are not prefect, often they are rocky or falling apart in some cases (due to cattle), but it seems that no matter where you hike here, there is always an amazing view and something totally different from other parts of the area. I hope that I can come back here again soon and hike to more of the many peaks within this national park.

Snowshed Trail

This afternoon, after lunch I hiked a short ways up Snowshed trail. It was pretty crazy hot out there this afternoon, and honestly, its not the most fascinating trail in the area, but I still managed to get some good photos.

At this time of the year the cicadas are deafening (and dizzying for that matter), they are all in the trees and in some places drown out just about every other noise.

A Red-shafted Flicker, there was a group of them mobbing Jays, which have been moving around the area preying on nestlings (sadly, you never really look at jays the same after doing a hummingbird nest survey)

A butterfly, 'nuf said
A view of the valley and the mountains of New Mexico beyond

David Utterback

When I first arrived at the station, I was soon introduced to David Utterback, a naturalist and an artist who lived just up the road. His art was beautiful and lifelike and his drawings have been used in several ornithological textbooks as well as to decorate the office and gift shop here at the station. He was a talented naturalist, having a unique connection with many of the nesting birds in the area, he was often able to identify and follow individual birds from one year to the next. He was also an enthusiastic physicist, explaining theories of special relativity to me that sadly, were far beyond my comprehension.

But along with his brilliant abilities, came a tormented mind and on June 1st, he left everything behind and disappeared leaving only a note with some researchers at the station. Many hoped that he had driven off to Mexico or had run off to live in the mountains for a while. Sadly, just two days ago, his body was found up in the mountains near the station. He has become such a constant here at the station and will be missed by everyone that knew him. Heres to Dave Utterback, in hopes that he has finally found some peace.

Happy Fathers Day!

For mothers day I posted several photos of the flowers in the area, for my dad, I will post some photos of trees, of which there are plenty around here. There is a law apparently in the national forests of the US that you are not allowed to cut down dead trees nor remove fallen deadwood (this would drive Dad nuts). It provides a whole bunch of nice dry firewood and most of the people around here believe its only a matter of time before this place goes up in flames. Several fires have come close and you can see the burn areas on the tops of mountains around here that are slowly growing back. So, here they are, a few photos of trees for Dad. Happy Fathers day!

I think this is a fallen Aligator Juniper tree, which apparently burns very easily and it smells great

Under a tree

Roots hold up large rocks over a stream bed

A twisted old tree on a hill

Two Apache Pines are left of center, you can actually see part of an old burn (1996 I think) on the mountain in the background, its somewhat sparse on top.

Hope everyone has a great day

Fledged and Confused

With the prospect of facing upcoming job and perhaps grad school applications along with payment of hefty student loans, I feel akin to this Robin fledgling: overwhelmed at the necessary but daunting task of figuring out what the heck Im doing with my life. Well, thats probably not what the Robin is thinking, but it did look somewhat confused. Enjoy the photos.

A second shot at Monument

Today I was lucky enough to get a second crack at the National Monument. A few of the folks around here decided to go, and though we didn't spend as much time there, it was great to get back when the weather was nicer. Here are a few photos with much bluer skies.

Defying physics

Turkey vultures ride the airfoils over the mountains

A second Silver Peak hike

This morning I hiked up Silver Peak yet again (a 4.5 miles hike up to 8020 ft elevation, start hiking at about 5000 ft). I noticed that my fitness has improved since the last time, Im now used to the elevation and the heat. Not to say that Im not hurting right now, but again, its a good kind of hurt. We made it up the mountain much faster than last time, reaching the peak in 2hrs and 40 minutes (last time was about 4.5 hours, we stopped often to look at the scenery). Though I didn't get as many photos as last time, here are a few to share

A tiny Yarrows lizard, you can see the shed casing of a cicada in the left hand corner for scale.

These flowers (Penstomen barbatus) grow up in the mountains

A view East

A wasp roughly the size of your thumb

Me and the Chircahua Mountains

Return to Silver Peak

Tomorrow morning, once again, I am hiking to Silver Peak. I hope to get some new photos so look forward to them tomorrow evening.

Gun Country

Hello all,

Wow, two postings in one day, arent ya'll lucky? I thought I'd post some photos of a different colour. Round these parts, most people have guns for protection from animals as well as some of the illegal smuggling that goes on in this area. PD, the volunteer coordinator has some of his own, and was kind enough to offer me some lessons. Learning how to fire a rifle is something that I've wanted to learn, not to hunt animals but more as a safty measure for doing research in remote locations (ie Africa + cape buffalo). So, this morning, Freya and I went to PD's house and shot targets in his quarry. Here are a few photos, enjoy

Freya shoots a rifle while PD watches the target with binocs

Me and a semiautomatic rifle (yes, that is a target paper taped to an old fridge)

Firing a 45-70, the kickback from the gun, I beleive, will give me a nice bruise on my shoulder. If so, I will take a picture of that also as a follow up post :)

The 45-70 was the most accurate. Look at those big holes near the center, not bad for my first time.

And finally, me with an automatic handgun. Freeze desert animals!

As promised, a predator!

Hello everyone,

Because of the cloudy weather yesterday, I ventured once again down to the desert to see if I could catch another sunset. It was a bit too cloudy, though I did come up with some nice photos. When the sunset was past its prime, I stood for about 5 minutes waiting for a mocking bird that had been flitting around to land to a yucca flower spike. Suddenly a bobcat sauntered across, about 8 m from where I was standing. I was downwind at the time so it didn't notice me until it was out in the open. It turned and watched me. I slowly moved my finger to change the settings on my camera, trying not to make eye contact (I didn't want to scare it away by staring it down). I then took as many photos as I could (5 in the end), I was worried because the light was rapidly disappearing. About 10 seconds later it slunk away into the bushes. This is the only photo that turned out, but understandably I'm totally excited about it!

The Chiricahua National Monument

So, this morning we set off over to mountains towards Chiricahua National Monument, a national park filled with unique rock spires created by erosion of the rock from a volcanic eruption about 27 million years ago. Its an amazing and totally bizarre place, I would highly recommend it to anyone visiting this area.

However, not when its pouring rain. Today was our only day off, so despite the weather forcast we decided to head out. It basically started pouring as soon as we got onto the trail and soon our hands were frozen from sacrificing them for the sake of photography. Within an hour we were soaked to the bone, trying to find dry clothing to wipe off our lenses. The photos that I was able to get were somewhat disappointing, though you can get the idea of the place. I hope that someday I can return when there is a little more sunshine and its a little warmer. Enjoy the photos

A black and white photo of the volcanic spires, hauntingA volunteer from the station, Galen, sits beneath one of the rocks
A valley filled with pillars (now that I look at this photo, it almost looks pleasant outside, not true)

Me, between two pillars (courtesy of Galen Priest)

The clouds on the way home. Too bad they werent like this when we were hiking. But, it only gives me another reason to come back!!