Desert Nights

The other night was a beautiful one here, the clouds were just perfect for an excellent sunset. Denise and I threw back dinner and headed down the mountain about 7 miles to the desert in time to catch it. I had spent some time on Foothills road before and knew that it was a really neat place; typical desert and no cattle fences, so you are able to wander. We also played around a bit with some night photography, I'm looking forward to the full moon

The mountains opposite the sun, big sky

The gravel road from whence we came


Octotillo and the moon


One of the many spiky things found in the desert, displayed in a poetic manner (still hurts when it jams into your leg though)


The sun slowly descends

I remember this plant has very nice flowers in late May, but I have no idea whats its called


After the sun went down, we played with an LED light and long exposures, Denise stands still for 15 steamboats.



Tee-hee...

The last few days

We've been spending a fair bit of time walking through the forest (I've accelerated from couch to 4 miles/day in under two weeks), and now that we are the only volunteers, Denise and I are on permanent dish duty for the next few days until the reinforcements arrive. But, I digress,
random photos!

As a gift to myself, I purchased a remote shutter release, so I've been playing with a few night shots. In the next few days the moon will be full, so I'm hoping to get out and do some more when the light is bright. These are the solar powered lamps that run along the pathway through the station

A little fun with 'light painting' and my headlamp. Used to illuminate the trees (with a shutter speed of 90 steamboats)


This Wild Turkey says "gobble gobble gobble" in a slowly descending tone, translated to "heyyyyy ladies"

An Arizona Sister butterfly



Sadly, I just couldn't get this one in focus as much as I would have liked. These are ants tending to aphids. They actually care for the aphids, feeding them. In turn, the ants eat the honeydew (sugary poop) that the aphids produce. Yay commensalism!

Rocks

A day or so ago (I can't really remember, time is twisted here) Denise and I hiked up to some caves. It was really nice hike up. One this about this region is the low density of trees and shrubs. You can pretty much look at a point and then aim for it, you'll eventually reach your destination. Unless rocks stop you of course.

The rock around here is very neat, though its tough to photograph its true colour in full daylight (a pinky orange)

One of the larger caves, the walls had many scrawlings of dates and people who had slept there at one point (some from the early 1900's)

One particularly cool Native cave drawing, many of the others were stripes or dots, this one showed particular care (and a fancy headdress)

Denise, in her natural cave setting

A view out the window

Feeder action

Wow, only two postings and I've already slowed down. Sigh.

The hummingbird feeders at the station are always a source of amusement and photo ops. About 3 species are commonly seen at the feeders, with a few other rare ones. Here are a few shots, enjoy
A black-chinned male

A blue-throated female (I think...)

A trio. Two black-chinned males, and a black chinned females (the females are the species that I have worked with in the past, and that Denise and I will be working on for this field season)
A magnificent hummingbird (male); can't really see it in the photo but they are a bright turquoise and blue. Very handsome. This one is pretty concerned with the other hummingbirds that are interested in stealing his sugar water

The beginning of the photo dump

I don't know whether its the heat, or the dishwashing, but I'm feeling only slightly inspired to write long tomes about the station (perhaps you can go back and read about my last trip here, not much has changed). This may end up being more of a photo blog, with only small captions. I figure the 2 or so people that are reading this won't mind :)


Denise spending some time with the resident mule deer Mickey. When I was at the station last time, there was a mule deer named Molly. Apparently she was eaten by a mountain lion (yes, there are mountain lions here, sorry Mom. ) but she had given birth to Mickey. He likes to hang around the station for the apples.


Yer standard cactus, cept without the spikes. I think these ones are edible.


A striped plateau lizard perhaps? These things are like squirrels or pigeons. Meaning they're everywhere and eventually you stop noticing them.

Its an awesome time of year to be in these mountains, cacti are beginning to flower and they add such a nice colour to the landscape

There are sycamore trees that run along the creek near the station. I'll try and get a photo later of a whole tree

Killarny to Superior OR Rocks and Trees

The next day, we went on a hike on Chikanishing Trail, which gave us some great views of Gerogian bay, and demonstrated perfectly the rocks and windblown pines in the area.

Me (without a camera in my hand for once, but only cause I lent it to Mike) with the Cloche mountains in the background

A hawk (possibly a Broad winged, or maybe a Coopers?) I chased down in the woods

Looking back at these photos, it reminds me of an Arrogant Worms song about Canada that we heard on the radio driving up to Superior called "Rocks and Trees"

"Although we don't have history

Gold medal winning teams

Heroes or prisoners

World famous volcanoes

Still what we've got's glorious

'Cause we've got Rocks and trees

And trees and rocks

And rocks and trees

And trees and rocks

And rocks and trees

And trees and rocks

And rocks and trees

And trees and rocks

And water"

True that.

Lake Superior Camping trip, day 1 Killarny Prov. Park

Hello all,

Finally, another opportunity for some great photos! Its been a while. Mike and I went on a week camping trip around the East side of Lake superior. Our first stop was Killarny provincial park. We left TO around lunchtime and arrived there in the evening, with enough time to set up the tent and head to the lighthouse to see the sunset. The scenery was beatiful and the light was perfect for a few good shots. Here is one of Mike enjoying the lake

I like the way the water in amongst the rocks reflected the sky so nicely

A gull gives me a fly by

The suns angle was perfect for this shot, making the rock looked like windblown sand

The sunset that evening was nice, but was over very quickly

I will post the hike at Killarny tomorrow