Loons and lots more; Lac le Jeune, Briitsh Columbia

Common Loon (male)

I have done some wildlife photography in Canada before and have visited British Columbia on several occasions; for meetings and as part of an enjoyable family holiday. The chance to escape the sultry climate of near-equatorial Singapore and be amongst the cooler but frenetic activity of a Canadian spring was too tempting. I also wanted to catch up with ex-colleagues in Vancouver and reminisce about bygone times as we pioneered tertiary level cell biology research in Singapore.

The photographic shoot I was heading for was near Kamloops and organized by Greg Downing, a good-natured, gifted photographer who I had toured with previously in Costa Rica. Sometimes arriving in Canada can be an ordeal, on a previous occasion I had to endure a 30 minutes interrogation when I told them the main object of my visit was to shoot polar bears.  I thought my error was to omit the mention of a camera but Greg, inundated with photographic equipment, suffered the same fate this time and he is a regular visitor. Greg annually runs a series of three, three-day workshops he titles ‘Loons and more’.

Lac le Jeune accommodation

Lac le Jeune

Entrance foyer

My bedroom

I spent three nights in a hotel on the outskirts of downtown Vancouver to recover from my flight, meet my ex-colleague and pick up my rental car. Vancouver was generally excited because they were in the late stages of establishing ice-hockey supremacy in the finals of the Stanley Cup. They were one game up in the final series with an away game and a home game if necessary to establish the winner. History will tell that Vancouver blew both games and the long-suffering local fans with pent-up emotions partook in damaging riots in downtown Vancouver. I had an alibi….I was arriving in Kamloops at the time.

My rental car was ‘upgraded’ to a 4WD Volvo wagon that was commodious enough to aid the escape of all the Vancouver ice hockey team.  It was nice to drive though with the comfort-level of sitting in your favorite lounge chair in front of the fire and driving through the changing countryside.

GreySquirrel

Evening Grosbeak (male)

Chipmunk

Hairy Woodpecker (male)

In tropical South East Asia the weather is essentially the same all year round but in the clutches of snow and ice and sub-zero temperatures in most parts of Canada the wildlife hibernates or flies out to return to breed in a frenetic and restricted period after the thaw occurs. The thaw was a late in 2011 and the Loons, the main subject of the workshop were a bit behind schedule. In anticipation that mother nature was not well equipped with a Rolex or a rule book I had booked for six days of shoots, which was a good strategy as the main Loon action culminating in the appearance of chicks did not occur until the last day of my stay.

The accommodation for the workshops was Lac le Jeune Resort that was strategically located between two lakes, the larger of the two being Le Jeune Lake. The accommodation was very comfortable and the host and staff were exceptionally friendly and accommodating. The host was a keen wildlife photographer, which helps considerably in that they know exactly the requirements of our particular sub-species. The host’s vehicle was a source of interest with it’s own interior ecosystem and cracked windows that suggested an escape from somewhere in the war-torn Middle East.

Northern Flicker (female) and chick

Red-naped Sapsucker pair

Mountain Bluebird (male) with a caterpillar

Mule Deer doe nuzzling her fawn

Red-necked Grebe and chick

The lodge had a real home-comforts feeling. The food was fantastic. Large stuffed local toy animals sat on the beds and adorned the small conference room. Ralph the tame squirrel ran in through the front door to help itself to a small bowl of peanuts especially set aside for him. A small note warned hungry wayfarers that the nuts were exclusively for Ralph….it didn’t mention that he sucked more than he ate….so any sneaky eating might get more flavor than anticipated.

The weather was not totally cooperative during my stay but there were enough windows to do have some good shooting sessions. Each morning, or evening if the weather permitted we would go out on Lac le Jeune to photograph the antics of the Common Loons and hunt for new chicks. Our platform was a pontoon powered by electric motors front and back with a conventional gas-powered outboard for faster travelling. The electric motors were controlled by two remote controls like those found in the average domestic living room. One motor had more power than the other and Greg needed the dexterity and patience of a puppeteer entertaining a children’s birthday party to get us into appropriate positions. This was not aided by sneaky Loons who would lure you into a certain tantalizing distance and then submerge to appear, grinning, half a mile away. The lakes were well stocked with fish, which leaped from the water all around the boat. It was somewhat hilarious speaking to a companion at the other end of one of the smaller boats to have a silvery, temporary audience of startled looking fish appearing behind their unsuspecting head.

The main shooting pontoon (right)

Shooting from an aluminum boat (Greg in the center)

In between excursions onto the lake we photographed Woodpeckers, Grebes, Mountain Bluebirds attended nests in the nearby countryside and adjacent lakes. Some small suburban watercourses on the outskirts of Kamloops also provided photographic targets as they hosted various waterfowl and their offspring. There were also local birds around the lodge to shoot as they visited various feeding stations.

Excursions into the countryside were not without incident. On one occasion a companion and I, in his rental car, were surrounded by a posse of hungry, and seemingly semi-wild, horses. We decided to exit with some speed when they started chewing the wipers and rear-vision mirrors and gouging the paintwork with sharp teeth. On another occasion we were photographing Bluebirds returning to a nesting box on a relatively remote country road when a car the size of Texas approached and stopped. The driver, a large man with a Stetson perched on his head, Western boots and a large stomach corralled into jeans with a wide, huge buckled leather belt approached us as if we were about to have a saloon-style shoot-out. It transpired he was the President of the local Bluebird Society and he wanted to know how many of the distributed nest boxes were being used in the vicinity.

Redhead male displaying

Ruddy Duck (male)

Mallard ducklings

American Coot adult with chick

The sudden onset of spring weather meant there was much activity in the animal kingdom. We saw young moose grazing by small lakes and Mule Deer watching over young fawns while they grazed on the grassy slopes.

On the penultimate day there was welcome news that there were Loon chicks spotted on two nearby lakes. As the morning mists rolled off the lakes we launched several smaller aluminum boats powered by electric motors to acquire some iconic images of the chicks riding the parents’ backs.  To maneuver and shoot took a bit of skill and practice in order to line up all the elements of a successful shot. I think it was achieved and I was happy driving back in the early hours towards Vancouver as I recalled a successful and recommended shoot.

Red-naped Sapsucker flying from nest-hole

Common Loon chick being fed by a parent

Common Loon with chicks

Websites; Lac le Jeune Resort    http://www.lljr.ca/

                           Greg’s at Naturescapes   http://www.naturescapes.net/phpBB3/viewtopic.php?f=9&t=221323

Graeme Guy  August 2012

                   

            

Hummingbirds of Ecuador (part 2)

Territorial dispute

Booted Racket-tailed Hummingbird (male) investigating a bee.

Buff-tailed Coronet

          One of the main targets at Guango was the magnificent Swordbill hummingbird. This species has a beak, or bill, longer than its body. I guess for preening they have some mutual agreement to scratch the neighbour three houses down. They use their bills are rapiers or baseball bats to sort out other species. There are certain local bell-shaped flowers where the nectar would only be accessible by this species.

         After four nights we left Guango for a lodge on the Western side of the Andes. This was at a lower altitude and was host to quite a different selection of species who generally keep to certain altitudes where they exploit certain niches.

Bus that took us from Guango to Tandayalpa

The landslide that took out the road leading to Tandayalpa Lodge

         The road leading immediately to Tandayalpa Lodge had been washed out in what looks to be an irreparable mud-slide. This meant that the Lodge could only be accessed by around 200 steps. A few local lads were recruited as porters.....and their strength was impressive. They could carry three 50lb bags at once. This was also a very nice comfortable lodge especially considering that everything had to be portered in. We each had a bedroom with ensuite and everything was clean and tidy. The food was not quite as good but the staff was hard-working....except the manager, who smoked, drank beer or talked loudly on his cell phone. Strangely there was a cell phone signal at one remote corner of the main building which was good to contact the outside world. There was a young and very pleasant Canadian lad helping out at the lodge and taking birders on guided tours. We did not pursue other birds but saw several colourful species in close proximity; toucans, trogons and barbets.

A White-collared Inca in flight

Booted Racket-tailed Hummingbird

White-bellied Woodstar pair (male below)

         We shot a lot of images and evenings were fairly frenetic downloading and sorting them out. The other folks on the trip, all Americans, were nice people; a retired dentist and his wife, a retired cardiologist and his wife, a cartage contractor and a practicing dentist. You can see the heart and the teeth were well catered for in case of emergency.

When it was time to leave Tandayalpa the bags were portered down to where the bus could access......the bus was late and rain advanced menacingly over the hill. The bus when it arrived was a bit larger than it should have been and hence had a little difficulty getting up the track.....it was more fun reversing down. We made it back to Quito safely and stayed a final night at the Hilton. Linda took us out to a very nice restaurant for a final dinner together.

The lounge at Tandayalpa Lodge

My bedroom......the spare bed and computer center.

I had an early start in the morning with four flights to get back to Singapore. At times you get some friendly fellow travelers to share some conversation with and not so soon I was back in sultry Singapore.

Fawn-breasted Brilliant

A Tyrian Metal-tail chases a gnat

An interspecies dispute (Sparkling Violet-ear and Rufous-tailed Coronet)

Rufous-tailed Coronet

Graeme Guy August 2012 

Hummingbirds of Ecuador (part 1)

Fawn-breasted Brilliant

Violet-tailed Sylph

Beak envy

             The first questions to possibly ask is why Hummingbirds and why Ecuador?. Bearing in mind that I have already shot hummingbirds in Arizona and Cost Rica. Hummingbirds have always fascinated me; they are very photogenic with a myriad of different shapes and colours, they are totally indifferent to the proximity of humans and they push the bounds of metabolism and physiological dynamics almost past comprehension. There are around 325-340 species of hummers in the world with Ecuador, Columbia and Peru boasting over 100 species each. Ecuador leads the pack with 163 species, which is almost half of all species. Costa Rica on the other hand has a miserly 51 species. These little flying jewels have such a high metabolic rate that they need to feed every 15minutes to maintain their energy levels. Quite how several South American species manage the migration to North America, across the Gulf of Mexico...is hard to fathom. Apparently they need to double their weight to accomplish this. The smaller species can also flap their wings some 15-20 times per second.....amazing since the state of the art Canon and Nikon cameras can only manage 10 frames per second with advanced electronics.

         I signed up for the Ecuador trip in the middle of 2009. I managed to get a good deal on the total flights at only US$1600 all in. The main carrier ANA had some deal going whereby you were to spend two weeks in the US.....I cheated on that. The other flights were on Continental Airlines. The route was Singapore to Tokyo, Tokyo to Los Angeles, LA to Houston and Houston to Quito. I stayed two separate nights at a hotel near LA Airport to break the flights and get a horizontal sleep and a bathroom bigger than a broom closet..

         There were 6 photographers on the trip, which was organized by an American woman, Linda Robbins who for several years assisted one of the premiere bird photographers. She had an assistant, Rick, who knew everything and essentially ran the show. They reminded me of Don Quixote and Sancho Panchez. Linda was essentially OK but smoked a lot and was a little disorganized.

Quito from my hotel window

High altitude mountain pass

Traveller's fare

      

         The flights were relatively non-eventful. My computer bag was selected for an extra-inspection after the X-ray leaving Singapore....when it was opened I was horrified to see my field knife nestled in a pocket.....that was not what they were after apparently and although in full view about 15 inches from the nose of the inspector it escaped detection. I did offload it in Tokyo in a toilet bin as I did not want to be incarcerated in Japan...after reading too many wartime accounts of prisoner treatment.

         In LA I caught up with American daytime TV with Jerry Springer and accounts of how often miscreants had cheated on wives, girlfriends or their dogs. On the trip from LA to Houston I had a talkative, female music student next to me. She attended University in LA and was going home as her Dad was getting an award for shooting many deer in Texas. My hero.

         I arrived in Quito fairly late and was taken to the Hilton Hotel which was pretty nice. The next day I met up with most of the others on the trip and we went out together for lunch and dinner. Quito is a rather unattractive sprawling city in a cleft in the Andes. The Andes mountain range runs essentially through the middle of Ecuador....it is not the magnificent rugged rock range that you see down in Chile but consists of steep triangular ‘hills’ that are generally covered with cloud forest.....except around Quito that is very barren.

Long-tailed Sylph

Masked Flower-piercer

Female Swordbill

Why the capitol was built at altitude, who knows.....since there is an apparently nice coastal domain. The people we encountered seemed nice but an elderly lady in the trip before ours was pick-pocketed by a bunch of kids. The restaurants we went to were very nice and the food and entertainment was top-notch. Pan flutes were a feature of the music. In the next 10 days we went to two locations east and west of Quito, which involved quite a prolonged exposure to Quito. While there are some obviously nice houses and suburbs the majority of this sprawling city seemed to be fairly poor with many of the dwellings in a semi-finished state. Most were built with concrete blocks and it appeared that adding to the house was a long-term project whereby blocks were purchased in ones and two and added on in a never-ending extension. One could imagine that an earthquake would do considerable damage in this city although a nearby active volcano, Pichincha could be a more imminent threat. Quito, or full name San Francisco de Quito is the second highest capitol city after, La Paz in Bolivia. The thin air is not a great problem when walking around at a leisurely pace although occasionally you are aware of taking a deeper or extra breath.

Guango Lodge front entrance

Guango Lodge dining room/lounge

            The following morning we travelled over a higher mountain pass to our destination on the eastern flanks of the Andes. We missed the view of Pichincha as the summit was covered in wet clouds. The altitude of the pass was about 1500ft under the level you need oxygen tanks......the air was definitely ‘thicker’ but no headaches or rashes on extremities.

The first lodge was Guango situated in a valley still somewhat higher than Quito. We had the lodge to ourselves with a small bedroom each with an ensuite on the second floor and the dining room lounge on the lower floor. The nights were quite cool and the open fire and a hot coffee were very welcome in the mornings. The staff was hard working and the food was excellent. We shot most of the day with the high-speed flash set-ups interrupted quite often by squally rain showers. The only other visitors were groups of birders.....with Ecuador rating highly with this interest group.

Female Swordbill

Male Swordbill

Andean Emerald

Buff-tailed Coronet