Category: North American Wildlife
A pencil mouthed, blue belly, yellow finned, pelagic fish. Anyone know what this is?
I chose to go to Akumal because I had read that Leatherback and Green sea turtles nest along the beaches, but I figured I would have to be very lucky to see these endangered turtles. Not the case…I must have seen 10-20 turtles each day feeding on the sea grass in the swallow waters right in front of the place I was staying.
I didn’t photoshop this photo to get this ‘artistic’ effect. It is due to what is called a Halocline; mixing of fresh and salt water that creates this oily like appearance in the water. It is only present near the waters surface. This photo was taken in a lagoon called Yal Ku near the small town of Akumal
This nest, built out of moss was on a steep cliff next to a series of rapids near the Akamina road to Cameron Lake. There were three chicks nearing fledgling age that somehow managed to stay within the nest while extending their heads out to get fed by their parents. The two adults fed these chicks every 5-10minutes and tended to the nest. The fecal sacks produced by the chicks were removed by the parents and dropped into the rapids to wash them away.
An American dipper holds onto the slippery rocks after catching several insects along the river with the rapids splashing around the bird
An American dipper partially submerges in the rapids to search for insects to bring back to the nest.
Just like clockwork it took all of 5 minutes of sitting along Akamina lake before I heard an animal moving through the forest on the opposite side of the lake and this moose appeared along the water’s edge. She moved around the lake towards me feeding along the way. Once she finally figured out that I was there she only briefly looked at me before going back to feeding on the plants around the lake.
After about 30 minutes of feeding by the lone female moose a yearling bull moose joined her in the water to feed.
These marmots are found only in western Canada and the United States and are typically found at higher elevations. This one was hiding in the rocks surrounded by tundra at about 12000 feet.
Owen Slater Photography 