Tales from my travels
The day started off bright and sunny and I took advantage of it for a small potter around the neighbourhood, first discovering the not so native wildlife, in the form of emus and wallabies. I was more interested in finding native wildlife, but the hoped for curlews were not in sight, although I did find…
One of the strangest things about coming to Canada these days is changing base from New Westminster to Coquitlam. We’re unbelievably lucky though to have a good friend of my mum’s who’s happy to not just host us, but also mother us, whilst we’re here. It’s also been a great opportunity to discover some new…
Our second trip out for the day was with a friend from Shetland to Colony Farm park. Situated on the Coquitlam river, there are great views to the snow capped mountains on one side and the Port Mann bridge on the other with a soundscape of birdsong and freight train whistles. It didn’t take long…
Having joined a couple of Scottish wildlife photography groups on Facebook recently, I’ve been getting all sorts of useful tips on where to find local wildlife. Amongst these was Nature Nuts Photography who run day trips to see mountain hares and beavers (amongst others) and also have a hide, just an hour or so away…
With one of my intentions for 2019 being to get back to wildlife photography, Jen and I went hunting for waxwings, having had a tip about where in Dundee we might find some. It was a beautiful, but very chilly morning, and having skulked for an hour and seen only redwings and fieldfares after the…
After a huge breakfast featuring homegrown rhubarb with homemade yoghurt and porridge with homemade cream I spent a little time out in the garden on the swing, before getting a lift back down to the airstrip with the guests who were leaving on the first flight. I collared the poor pilot and told him that…
Having completed our doctors’ visit we made the half hour drive from the north end of the island back to the settlement. Carcass Island is the only place that I visited on my 2009 trip to the Falklands that I’ve been back to on this trip, but I couldn’t remember what to expect or match…
Knowing that I needed to be ready to be picked up just after 11am I got myself out of the house at about 7.30 on Sunday and set off for a walk down to the beach and then across to the coast on the other side of the island and back up to the settlement. …
Despite my plans to be up for sunrise I ended up falling back to sleep and having a rather late start. When I finally managed to get myself moving I headed over in the direction of the rockhopper colony, just a 15 minute walk from the settlement. On the way, though, I was distracted by…
So far my island hopping has taken me northwest, but this week’s visit to Bleaker Island has me travelling southwards for the first time. The flight is only 25 minutes but we took a small detour, first dropping off some passengers on Sea Lion Island before heading back to Bleaker. We had some lovely views…