Thousands of these barnacles line the rocks along the beaches of the Pacific Rim National Park
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Can you identify these flowers? I found these along the inner harbor in Victoria, B.C. just as the sun was setting which gave me the soft light to bring out the details in the flowers.
Update: May 2013
Thanks to Beth for ID’ing this plant as a Campanula sp. (possibly portenschlagiana)
I took this photo near the park entrance to Waterton where this and one more GHO fledgling waited for their parent to come back with ground squirrels for them to feast on.
In Waterton the bison are kept in a large paddock. This year there are three calves increasing the herd size to 14 animals.
These fawns, with their bright blue eyes were in the Waterton townsite where many mule deer are found. By staying near the town the deer have access to lots of green grass and are less likely to be predated on.
Canada Day fireworks in downtown Calgary. I took this picture from a hill overlooking the Calgary Zoo
A common spider that apparently can change from yellow to white depending on what colour of flower the spider is on. This on must have been colour blind. These spiders hide under flowers until wasps or bees come to feed and then they are ambushed by the spider which bites the prey and injects venom that paralyzes the prey. (They aren’t poisonous to people)
This fledgling bluebird was quiet particular about what insects it would accept from its parents. Several times the parents would return with an insect that either the fledgling would close it’s mouth at or if it looked tasty it would take the insect, the parents would fly off and then the young bird would spit it out. I guess some insects to birds are like some vegetables to kids!
I took this photo on the trip back to Victoria harbor after seeing the killer whales. The light was perfect and to get such calm water is apparently not very common. The lighthouse is made of bricks transported all the way from Scotland.
This is an ochre starfish, which will hang out beneath the mussels until the tide comes back in and then climb up and start feeding on them. Not a bad life eating mussels everyday if you ask me.
Our guide had positioned the zodiac several hundred meters in front of a group of killer whales and turned the engine off. We waited several minutes and were just about to leave when this orca surfaced right in front of the boat and swam underneath us.
With a week left of holidays I decided to head out to the west coast. I headed over to Vancouver Island and went down to Victoria as I had heard from a friend that the killer whales were in the area. There are 3 groups of resident killer whales in this area totally about 95 animals and they feed exclusively on fish, specifically salmon. Transient killer whales, which I didn’t see, roam up and down the coast in small groups or as individuals and feed on marine mammals, mainly seals.
I took this picture outside my tent when I was camping in Ucluelet, a small fishing town located on the west side of Vancouver Island and next to the Pacific Rim National Park. The campground was next to the harbor and the eagles had a nest in a tree overlooking the campground and the harbor.
All around the inner harbor in Victoria there are numerous gardens which is where I found this Japanese maple tree.
This beaver was not happy that I was sitting on top of it’s lodge and made sure that everyone else new that I was there. After several tail slaps it dove under the water and swam back into the lodge. Over the next few days they became used to me and decided that I wasn’t worth the effort.
Owen Slater Photography 