(2560
x 1920)
The Pigeon River Bunkhouse:
my home from September to November, seen from the backyard
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(2560
x 1920)
Jen and I baiting one of our
hair snares
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(2560
x 1920)
Checking one of our first
hair snares for Bobcat hair.
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(2560
x 1920)
Red
Pine plantation. This was a common habitat type: tall pine
overstory, no shrub layer and bracken fern covering the ground
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(2560
x 1920)
We were just checking one of
our snares when we saw this guy preying on the ground.
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(2560
x 1920)
Ostrich ferns cover the
ground at one of our hair-snares.
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(2560
x 1920)
Every time I checked this hair snare, I had to step out to the lake's
edge and take a few pictures!
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(2560
x 1920)
Driving along one day, this
spider web caught my eye in the early morning sun
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(2560
x 1920)
It's hard not to be
offended...
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(2560
x 1920)
Black River.
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(2560
x 1920)
Some lucky person's cabin
tucked away in the woods...
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(2560
x 1920)
September in northern
Michigan is a fungus-lovers dream!
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(2560
x 1920)
Near
the beginning of the season I helped out with a Lake Sturgeon release.
These nets were set up to monitor the speed at which the
young
travel downstream.
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(2560
x 1920)
My lab, where I did the DNA extractions of our hair.
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(2560
x 1920)
The work day usually
consisted of lots of driving...not usually a problem here!
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(2560
x 1920)
Low, swampy areas with Black
Spruce, mossy ground and Labrador-tea. I tried many times,
but
could never get a great picture.
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(2560
x 1920)
One of the many lakes
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(2560
x 1920)
My backyard, overlooking the
Pigeon River. Great place to write music!
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(2560
x 1920)
One of the most northern
areas we had hair snares in
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(2560
x 1920)
Fall colours starting to show
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(2560
x 1920)
This was one of my favourite
hair snares: a mere 70m walk and this view!
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(2560
x 1920)
These ferns were probably the
most common ground cover throughout the area. Here they coat
the ground in an Aspen grove.
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(2560
x 1920)
The regal toad. I
came pretty close to driving over him before I spotted him
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(2560
x 1920)
A full view of the hair snare set-up with carpet patch, urine
cottonball, visual attractants and a note to human passers-by
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(2560
x 1920)
The fall in the Pigeon River
was probably the most colourful I have ever seen.
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(2560
x 1920)
The sun briefly shone
through these clouds, lighting up the opposite side
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(2560
x 1920)
Squirrel's-eye view
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(2560
x 1920)
Leaves of a Red Maple stand
out in front of the greenery behind
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(2560
x 1920)
There's something about this
picture I like
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(2560
x 1920)
Closeup of the barbed-wire
scent
station. We ended up replacing the barbed wire with velcro
after
we got a big zero hits in two months
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(2560
x 1920)
Pigeon River is known for its Elk. I saw them on a few
occasions,
but this was the only time I managed to get a quick (and bad!) shot
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(2560
x 1920)
For a period of about a week, the colours each day were more brilliant
than the las
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(2560
x 1920)
I visited "Inspiration Point"
one
evening, played guitar, took pictures, and talked with an interesting
stranger for over an hour!
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(2560
x 1920)
Our most northern site
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(2560
x 1920)
The Green Beast, a black hole
for maintenance dollars
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(2560
x 1920)
In the north-east area,
there were lots of these Oak-dominated sandy areas
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(2560
x 1920)
An Aspen grove lit up by golden fall colour
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(2560
x 1920)
Can't complain about this
morning commute!
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(2560
x 1920)
We passed this lake almost every day on our drive out. This
was definitely its finest hour though!
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(2560
x 1920)
Golden Sugar Maple leaves in
front of the cabin are lit up in front of a perfectly blue sky
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(2560
x 1920)
My livingroom for almost
three months: the Pigeon River staff house
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(2560 x
1920)
Playing guitar in my backyard
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(2560
x 1920)
Sunset on the Canadian
Thanksgiving
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(2560
x 1920)
Danielle came up to visit Thanksgiving weekend; we were unexpectedly
joined by about 10 elderly vets who would share the cabin for a week!
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(2560
x 1920)
Fall colours from
"Inspiration Point", one of the high spots in the area.
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(2560
x 1920)
A surprise snowstorm
contrasted with the remaining fall colours
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(2560
x 1920)
I must have taken 30
pictures on my drive out that morning
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(2560
x 1920)
Blueberry plants are stand
out in the fall against the surrounding "brownery"
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(2560
x 1920)
These lichens always looked
like miniature cities to me
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(2560
x 1920)
A drive through one of the
hardwood areas, with the leaves of the Beech saplings still holding on
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(2560
x 1920)
My front yard
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(2560
x 1920)
There were alot of these areas, with low scrubby Jack Pine and ferns on
the ground
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(2560
x 1920)
Sunset at Inspiration Point
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(2560
x 1920)
The sun had sent between a
layer of low-lying clouds and the ground, creating this interesting
frame
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(2560
x 1920)
A recent clear-cut, with the
red colours of colonizing blueberry plants
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(2560
x 1920)
A nearly perfect reflection of the sky in this shallow lake
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(2560
x 1920)
For Halloween I visited Danielle in Guelph where we carved this pumpkin
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(2560
x 1920)
Jen engages in a staring
contest with a porcupine. It was declared a draw.
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(2560
x 1920)
I had no idea how slow-moving porcupines are. It must have
taken
5 minutes to climb this tree to "escape"!
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(2560
x 1920)
If I had been so inclined, I
could have grabbed him!
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(2560
x 1920)
I had to pull over on my drive
to our northern site when the sun broke through the clouds
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(2560
x 1920)
A snowstorm knocked out my power and sent a few broken branches
crashing onto my roof
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(2560
x 1920)
Red Pine plantation after the snowstorm
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(2560
x 1920)
A mild, foggy day
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(2560
x 1920)
Big-leaf Maple near Seattle
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(2560
x 1920)
Jen and I were shipped out
to Seattle to train as detector dog handlers. We would spend
the
next two weeks here at PackLeader
farms
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(2560
x 1920)
The beginning of a day trip
around Olympic National Park
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(2560
x 1920)
This is as far as we got
on Hurrican Ridge. This park had terrible information system;
we
found no information anywhere about road closures until we saw the sign.
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(2560
x 1920)
A view along the north side
of Olympic
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(2560
x 1920)
My first view of
the Pacific Ocean
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(2560
x 1920)
We kept experiencing waves of storms coming through. This one
is just passing over us
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(2560
x 1920)
Me standing where the water
meets the land
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(2560
x 1920)
According to the sign, this
Sitka Spruce is the world's largest. I was in no position to
dispute that claim!
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(2560
x 1920)
By the time we got to the
rainforest, it was almost night
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(2560
x 1920)
Although we didn't get to
enjoy full view, we did get a unique experience
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(2560
x 1920)
The effect of the flash on
the mossy branches was quite eerie!
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(2560
x 1920)
From the ridge where we were training with the dogs, a break in the
clouds revealed Mt. Ranier.
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(2560
x 1920)
We took a trip up to
Snoqualmie Pass to give ourselves and the dogs a chance to get used to
snow
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(2560
x 1920)
Me and Bruiser.
This tug-of-war was his reward after finding a planted sample
of bobcat scat
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(2560
x 1920)
Dog's-eye view of Jen
getting ready to reward CJ on his picture-perfect pinpoint
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(2560
x 1920)
A beautiful scene in the
mountains
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(2560
x 1920)
Having finished our day, we
were just getting ready to head back down
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(2560
x 1920)
This picture was taking
during our Olympic tour, near Hurricane Ridge |
(2560
x 1920)
Bruiser working hard through
the snow. It was amazing how little the snow hindered his
movement
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(2560
x 1920)
Me and Bruiser, just
finished one of our last days. We covered nearly 9km!
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(2560
x 1920)
A frozen-over marshy area;
we were lucky to find a dry path around
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(2560
x 1920)
Lunchtime on one of our last transects. Sitting in the sun,
we were almost
hot!
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