CRAZY CROWS

Crows

I feed the downtown Crows usually each day. They like to perch on my bicycle handlebars. I hand feed these Crows. Others like to perch on a nearby metal container. I call these Crows “Jumpers” as they like to play a jumping game with me!

I toss a piece of bread up into the air and they all jump to grab it! They are very agile flyers! Sometimes one will miss it but swoop back down to catch it on the second try! Several dozen Crows like this game and so the competition can be fierce at times and yes the feathers do fly!

When they see me riding down the street many join to escort me to our gaming “spot”!

There is one Crow who will take a piece of bread from my hand as I am riding. I call this one “Bandit”!

Crows are very intelligent creatures. One of their greatest strengths is in their numbers! Sometimes a Crow will foolishly grab Robbie or Rita’s treat! That’s when a Crow gets beat up and a cacophony of screaming Crows ensues! They don’t call this a “murder” for nothing! It does raise the hair on the back of your neck!

BUBBLE CONTEST

Tofino Wildlife

There were fourteen entries into the “Bubble” contest! I loved all of them! Very creative!

Robbie entered “Ooooh,it’s wet.Good thing I wore my second-best feathers today”

Hazel entered “I will never pass up any food because I am a foodie.More,more,more!”

Audrey entered “Make sure you get my good side,Wayne!”

Lynette entered “Everyone keeps talking about corvid 19.How ride! His name is Colby”

Annette entered “I’m ready for my close-up,Mr.Barnes!”

Chris entered “Wot,no silver platter?”

Martha entered “Would you please toast the bread slightly on both sides?”

Liz entered “Well,it’s about time! What’s a girl gotta do to get some decent food around here?”

Terri entered “Why yes,I know I’m smart,was there any doubt?”

Noelle entered “I’m posing!!!”

Adam entered “Yesterday’s bread?! I don’t think so…”

Linda entered “Who’s been ravin about snow? Wayne,find out if Amazon carries boots for birdies,okay?”

Michael entered “Two crows walk into a bar and start ‘ravin’ about the free food in Tofino their ‘cousin’ told them about!”

Widdershins entered “Snow!!…oh bugger! Where did the bit of bread land?”

The winner of the “Bubble” contest is Audrey with…….. “Make sure you get my good side,Wayne!”

Thank you to all fourteen who participated! I will be sending out 3 shots to Audrey of Rita posing in the snow!

CONTEST

Tofino Wildlife

We got a bit of snow a few days ago. I was about to go inside my apartment when I heard the distinct call of of a Raven! I knew there was a good chance it was either Robbie or Rita?

When Ravens call It’s called “croaking”. So I croaked back wondering If I would get a response?

Sure enough I heard some croaking just north of me in the adjacent forest! Then a few minutes later both Robbie and Rita flew over! They saw me and perched on a near by tree!

I took a chunk of bread and tossed it on the garage roof. There was about 4 inches of snow so both of them were up to their tummies in snow! Robbie came over first but was suspicious of me standing there (with my camera of course),so he flew back to the tree.(chicken)

Rita on the other hand flew right in no problem and grabbed the prize and flew off,…..with Robbie in tow!

This shot was taken when she had just landed. I want to put a word bubble coming from her.

The person who thinks up the most creative or funny thought will get a full file size of my fine feathered friend Rita!

A PINK CATS FACE

Cats Face

Cats Face is the name of a local mountain. It gets it’s name from a mica deposit that flashes like cats eyes when the sun hits it just right.

Last night we got a rare dumping of snow! One thing I’ve learned over the years is that If you want to get pictures of snow, you have to do it in the morning because it’ll be gone by sunset!

So I got up this morning at 6 am and headed out in the dark riding my bike on roads that resembled a skating rink! (I ended up walking more then riding)

Because there were zero clouds I knew the first light to come would be pink. It lasts just minutes! It’s the most delicate colour to shoot and yes very fleeting.

There is a low grade cooper ore deposit in Cats Face. Plans were made at one time to shear the top of this mountain off to make a open pit mine. Once word got out about this everybody shouted a loud “NO”! Since then I haven’t heard anymore about this proposal? Which is fine by me!

THE CAPE ANN

Tofino Wildlife

I heard from a friend that a raft of two hundred Sea Otters was around! I went out looking for it but couldn’t find them? They like to raft up in a kelp bed.

I did find the Cape Ann coming in from a exercise. This boat is designed to be able to roll. All the men are strapped into their seats and the hatches are sealed when they go out into rough weather.

ROMEO ARRIVING

Tofino Wildlife

We’ve been having rain for so long now I forget when we had a good sunset?

There is a meterological scenario I always watch for! It’s almost overcast conditions but there is a thin opening to the west. The sun will peek under this cloud layer (which acts like a huge ceiling) and light everything up! The dark background forces the foreground forward in an almost 3D manner.

Of course, when you have a fine feathered friend like Romeo It’s icing to the cake!

A SUNNY DAY IN THE HOOD

Tofino Wildlife

The Fall storms have started! If you’re a big storm watcher…..get your butt over here and you better bring your Tofino Tuxedo!

We have biblical rain at the moment with no end in sight! So if we submerge at least you’ll know where I’ll be floating!

Imagine that all of this is caused by the sun! The sun heats our atmosphere up creating huge wind storms!

All light is composed of little bundles of energy called “Photons”. Our orbit is roughly about 93 million miles from the sun. It takes a single photon about 500 seconds to get from the sun to earth. That photon hits your cheek and so you feel the warmth of that energy! That energy heats up the earth’s atmosphere which causes movement! That movement is transferred into the ocean. The ocean is in motion!

Question?…….If it takes 500 seconds for light to get to Earth, how long do you think it takes for that photon to get from where it was created (centre of the sun) to the sun’s surface?

Now,that’s a bit of a trick question,because I haven’t read anywhere two single sources agreeing on the amount of time? So the answer is somewhere between 5000 and 100,000 years!

Incredible to ponder to be honest! Imagine the next time your out in the sun and you feel the warmth of the sun. That energy was created long before everything in human history had happened and than some!

Also, consider this……….when that particle leaves the sun’s surface it has to go through the corona (the sun’s atmosphere) which for some strange reason is much hotter than the surface?

One day (maybe 5 billion years?) the sun’s fuel will begin to run out and the sun will begin to expand! It will expand so large that it will consume all of the planets!

I’d call that a bad day in the hood.

BEARS SHOT

Tofino Wildlife

https://vancouverisland.ctvnews.ca/11-bears-killed-in-tofino-ucluelet-after-breaking-into-structures-to-find-garbage-1.5642113

Many of you will remember me talking about how the last few years the salmon runs have been poor. It now appears to have gotten “real”!

It was reported on the news last night (Provincially) that 12 bears have been shot in the Tofino and Ucluelet areas! The link says 11 but you can add another one to that total!

Nobody spends more time with Bears than me.This is what I suspect is going on…………Bears need to store up on fat reserves before they den. If a bear does not get enough “fat” built up,they can die during denning?

Because the streams have been bad for the last three years in a row,”I suspect” they have started looking elsewhere? Which means some of them have migrated into our small towns in search of food. Human food has a high fat content!

Conservation Officers have never seen such a high number of bears coming into both towns before? Twelve of them had to be shot as a result!

So because humans have raped the oceans by overfishing,one of the side effects of poor salmon runs is that bears are being shot dead!

We take their food,…….they go looking for other food …….and we greet them with a 12 gauge.

My furry friends do not understand what is going on? All they want to do is get something to eat before they go to bed. This makes me profoundly sad to report this.

SPIDER-BEAR

Tofino Wildlife
SPIDER-BEAR

SPIDER-BEAR

DOES WHATEVER A SPIDER-BEAR CAN

CATCHES FISH JUST LIKE FLIES

LOOK OUT

HERE COMES THE SPIDER-BEAR

Apologizes to Bob Harris and Paul Webster who wrote the Spiderman song.

With Halloween coming I thought this video might be of interest! Actually both Linda and Babsje suggested I use it for Halloween.

We set one night aside each year where we try to scare ourselves silly. Of course it’s all in fun and there is no danger actually lurking. However, the salmon who escaped this bears clutches would beg to differ! The thing I love about this video is that I did nothing to set this up. I didn’t put that web there or tell this bear to come along at just the right moment! Because the sun had set,It was dark enough for the bear to trigger the Infra- red lights to come on!

Trust me, If you had been here when this was going on you’d be truly scared!

HAPPY HALLOWEEN