Blue Tailed Skinks
Two of them, they seem to be a little camera shy …
Northern Map Turtle
Five Lined Skink
Eastern Ribbon Snake
Fishes!
Sharks
We had so much fun attempting to photograph these sharks at Ripley’s Aquarium in Toronto, again the goal was to make it plausible that they are in the wild … I’ll be back for sure!
Sea Turtles
What a delight to be able to capture some Sea Turtle images that I missed on my snorkelling vacation – and not to require scuba gear at Ripley’s Aquarium of Canada. It seemed to be an easy task however the goal was to make it appear to be in the wild, it took some time and lot’s of waiting.
River Otter – the moment your back is turned lol
Fox
White-tailed Deer
I don’t go out of my way to photograph the many deer in the Beaver Valley as I figure that they are better off being afraid of people and steering wide of gardens, cars, and people in general. I do love watching them and seeing the little ones in the spring and getting to recognize family units, who are the leaders and which guard the young, I find it really interesting. We had a small family live for many years in our apple orchard until they became hunted and I really miss them, so I was thrilled to see a new herd visit.
This beautiful herd was right at home. Using my car as a blind I quietly rolled down the driveway to a good vantage point … of course they noticed the rolling car and gazed my way briefly before departing back into the valley.
Pine Martin
Pine Martin
Pine Martin
Red Squirell
Pine Martin
Slabtown Dam – spawning run of Trout and Salmon
There is still action on the Beaver River, the fish are becoming more colourful as the run continues and they reach the end of their journey.
Chinook Salmon spawning run upstream
Introduced from the west coast, these fish have made themselves at home in Georgian Bay, swimming up rivers like the Beaver River to spawn. They made it to the second their falls at Slabtown, where 50 or 60 sat under the falls with tails too long to fit, then they attempted to swim up the falls which were entirely the wrong angle for their efforts, most faded due to exhaustion and floated back down stream. In some of the photos you can see how the heavy fish would jump the first tier just to land heavily into the cement. It was kinda sad to watch, this dam could easily be re-engineered to help the fish.
Rainbow Trout swimming up the Beaver River
Fish were moving up the Beaver River during the fall spawning Run to get to the nesting areas. Rarely do I see so many jumping, so tonight was special. There seemed to be Chinook Salmon and Rainbow Trout. Why are the Rainbow Trout with the Salmon? Because they are actually wrongly named Salmon! These fish were jumping at the Slabtown Dam, so they had already made it through the Thornbury Fish Ladder, and Clendenam Dam. In the calm eddies you could see many larger fish resting.
This photo above is one of the very few that made it 🙁
Above: Chinook and a Trout leap at the same time, the heavier fish landed with a thud on the cement and the trout made it to the second stage of the falls.
Monarch Butterflies
While on the Bruce Peninsula I learned some interesting Monarch info… they currently flying south along the shore line, we saw at least a dozen, perhaps more. They overnight in the cedars and sometimes will cluster in them. While some will make the whole trip to Mexico, along the journey 7 generations are produced. The extra little bug in the first photo is an Syrphid. Next time your up in the Bruce Peninsula look in the cedars for sleeping Monarchs, you might be surprised how many you find.
Milk Weed Bugs
hmmmmm who knew? Milk Weed Bugs, finally a simple and fitting name. Done. these are Milk Weed Bugs. I just had to post them for that simple reason.
