Merry Christmas!

 May this Christmas find you safe and healthy, connecting with friends and family via phone and computer, and looking forward to squashing this pandemic so we can get together once again.  May you share love, peace, and the Christmas Spirit this day. 

Well, I'm glad that's over, By Maggie

 Hi Everybody, it's me, Maggie.  Mah Mama says I should let you know I is doin' fine.  If you saw the postscript on her last blog post, you'll know I haz had some medical problems. A couple of months ago, Mama noticed a lump under my nipple.  It didn't bother me none, but Mama said we had to get the dog doctor to check it out. 

I dunno what's worse - having to put on these silly outfits
 every year or going to visit the dog doctor!

I had to go in All By Myself!  Because of something called covid, the dog doctor only lets dogs (okay, and cats and other critters) into the building.  The humans, except the ones that work there, hafta stay out.  Not Fair. 

Anyways, they stuck needles in me and sent me home.  Then a couple of weeks later, Mama found out the lump was cancer.  Something called Mast Cell.  So then she told me I hadta go back to the dog doctor for Surgery.  Again, I had to go in All By Myself!  And before we went, Mama wasn't allowed to give me Any Breakfast!!!!!  I was Very Upset.

The dog doctor stuck me with needles again and I fell asleep or something, because when I woked up, someone had dressed me in this thing called a onesie, and I had a big incision and a bunch of stitches under it.  Stitches! What did they think I was, some kinda stuffed teddy bear who was comin' apart at the seams? Mama said I looked like a stuffed sausage in my onesie, but with fluff comin' out both ends. And that I couldn't go to the beach fer awhile because I couldn't get it all wet an' sandy. 

Me in mah onesie

Mah bum in the onesie - it snaps up around mah tail!

They did give me a bootiful hand-drawn paper bag wiv my medications in it - it even haz my name on it! I think I might use it as a Christmas stocking this year.  As long as Santa doesn't leave more pills instead of treats!  

Do ya like the bag they gave me?

Then we had to wait fer some more reports to find out how bad the cancer is.  Good News!  The dog doctor phoned a few days ago to say it was a Low Grade!  (Later, my mama got a copy of the actual report, and it says something a bit different:  On the three point scale, it is a 2 [Intermediate], and on the two point scale it is a Low Grade. But still, that's good news). Best of all, there were clean margins, whatever that means.  Mama sez it means it hasn't spread to my limp nodes, whatever they are, and so I has an Excellent Prognosis. Dogs with mast cell do sometimes get more mast cells, unrelated to the first, in other areas so Mama has to watch carefully for them. But she watches fer lumps on me anyway. 

Yesterday I went back to the dog doctor AGAIN, and this time they took out my stitches and said I don't hasta wear the onesie any more.  

Wanna see my scar? It starts from just under my right front leg, and goes down to my belly.  See?  Don't mind the dirty belly - I is not allowed to go to the groomer fer a bit so No Baths Fer Me (hee hee hee hee)!

See mah scar?

Soon I will be able to go back to the beach and run on the sand and paddle in the water again!  Dat's the best Christmas Present Ever - no more cancer, and BEACHTIME!

Ah can't wait to go back to mah beach again!  
This waz taken before mah surgery. 

Love, Maggie. 

Dancing with the dolphins and other marine adventures

Picture this:  It is late September. After five days of nonstop rain, several campervan problems, potholed logging roads,  and itinerary changes, the day finally dawns to the promise of mixed sun, cloud, light wind, light showers.  

And so....off we go, to catch a ride on one of the last whale tours of the season offered by a reputable company operating  for the summer out of Telegraph Cove.  Covid precautions are strict - a limited number of passengers, all wearing masks all the time (even on deck), multiple hand sanitation stations on the small boat and instructions to use them every 30 minutes. 

After on-ground instruction, the small group of us board the boat, and we cast off, one of the local dogs peering over the rail to bid us farewell. We're on an adventure - and what an adventure it was!

We hadn't gone far before we saw the first sighting - the blow from a whale, as the large grey humpback emerged from the water.  

The captain immediately slowed the boat and turned off the engine while we were still a long distance away - almost too far for my 30x zoom to reach. 

[As an aside: I had been hesitant to do the tour as I had witnessed first hand how disrespectful and disruptive some whale tours are.  In a hike this spring further down island  Sally and I had been having lunch on the bank of  Dodds Narrows when we spied a pod of about 6 whales just about to head into the narrows, where they would pass right by us.  Before I could even get the camera out, numerous whale boats appeared from both directions, racing against the flow of water directly toward the whales, ignoring all regulations regarding distancing, and corralling them for the sake of giving their customers a closer look.  The whales turned tail and swam quickly back in the direction they had come.  I was disgusted by the various tours' actions. 

Such was not the case on this tour.  All afternoon, at any sighting of wildlife, the engine was shut right off and we just drifted on the water, enjoying the peace, the views, and the marine mammals and birds.   And the same was true of other boaters in the area - we only saw two other boats,  and both shut off their engines and kept a respectful distance from all wildlife.] 

Often the whales, sea lions and dolphins swam right up to our drifting boat, checking us out as they dove under and over each other.  After they had moved on, the captain restarted the engine and we slowly sailed along until, in the distance, we saw more marine life and stopped once again. 

The most gob-smacking, awe-inspiring, breathtaking, mesmerizing, heart-stopping experience had to be the dancing dolphins.  There were at least a hundred of them - white-sided dolphins flying through the air, leaping over and under each other , like a beautifully choreographed dolphin version of Swan Lake. Never in my life have I seen anything so incredible. It was hard to capture good photos -  I was so  completely entranced with them that at times I could do nothing but watch, camera forgotten in my hand. 

Some came close to the boat, bursting out of the water with such speed that I missed the shot, and at other times circling around like sharks in the movies.

And then there were the whales - we saw at least a dozen, all humpbacks.  The marine biologists on board were able to identify some by name, from their tail markings in particular.  This one was named Argonaut:

If you google his name and "humpback" you will find several links with information about him - he has been a regular around the island for several years.  In fact, you can even sponsor him  through the Marine Education and Research Society , and there are even a couple of fictionalized books about him and his family - the first of two (so far - it looks to become a series) can be found here.

The whales, like the dolphins, were fascinating to watch - they would rise like a great grey submarine, float along for awhile, then the body would hump, twist, and dive, often scattering any fish, dolphins, birds, or other marine life in its way.  Humpbacks have baleen plates rather than teeth - around four hundred thin plates that hang down from the upper jaw and filter incoming water (which is then expelled through the blowhole) leaving the krill and small fish behind to continue the journey through the digestive system. They do not eat seals or dolphins like some whales do, just teeny little seafood hors d'oeuvres!  In this series of shots I took, you can see the whale preparing to dive and then displacing other sea life:

Preparing to dive

Here's a larger one of that displacement:

We didn't just see whales and dolphins, but drifted around among a diversity of  birds and waterfowl, beautiful scenery, some porpoises, seals, and even a sea otter.  I wasn't able to get a good shot of the sea otter or porpoises or even the birds, but at least the scenery stayed in one place while I focused the lens! 

Towards the end of the afternoon, as we headed back to Telegraph Cove, we stopped to watch a colony of sea lions.  They were all ages and sizes - from the very young to the huge male adults.  They were also tons of fun to photograph as they constantly popped up from rocks, made funny faces, and expressed themselves vocally as well.  And it was also hard to get a photo of any one or two sea lions without being photobombed by another!

See the photobomber?

Here I was trying to capture the 'family' - baby and two adults who I thought might be its parents, when who popped up from the rocks but Uncle Fester! 

The kiddie pool - lots of little ones having a swim!

♪ ♪ Oh Sole Mio ♪♪

With the camera on continuous shoot, I was able to capture a few things that I'd missed with the human eye.  My favourite was this little interaction between a young sea lion and a much bigger adult - the dad perhaps? (My camera shoots 10 frames per second on continuous shoot, so these shots are just a fraction of a second apart)

Do you see what happened here?  The big guy gave the little one a kiss! And in the third frame, there's
a hilarious photobomber just above the little one's head. 

We bid the sea lions goodbye, but nobody waved back.  

There was one other mesmerizing and awe-inspiring event that afternoon.  It was one of those days where the lighting constantly changed - stormy clouds, blue sky, cotton clouds, grey sky....and sudden showers during sunbursts led to continual rainbows that followed us the whole afternoon, rainbows peeking out behind picturesque islands, rainbows arching from island to island, broad shafts of rainbow plummeting into the sea, rainbow-encrusted clouds hovering just above the ocean.  

The rainbows held special meaning to me that day.  My dear friends Del and Mark had just four days earlier laid to rest their beautiful Molly-Dawg, aka Princess Molly, who never failed to make me smile when we had the opportunity to visit. 

While I am not generally given to flights of fancy, I felt Molly's spirit telling me she had reached the Rainbow Bridge, to please let her mom and dad let her know she was well, she was free, she could run like a pup, and her old pals , including King,  were there running with her. She said it was everything that her mom promised her it would be.  I was profoundly moved and as soon as I was able upon return to camp, I messaged Del to let her know.  The constant rainbows, the symbolism, the sense of peace as I thought of Molly and King and of my own dogs who had passed, moved me just as the sight of the dolphins dancing had thrilled me.  Such strong emotions, such spiritual experience. 

It was truly a day to remember, a day full of unique experiences, a day desperately needed after five days of rain and vehicle woes, a day on which one is grateful to be alive, to be so immersed in nature, to live in such an amazing part of the world. 

And it was on that note that our camping trip came to an abrupt end, for the very next day my camping and hiking buddy, Sally, tripped over a log in camp and received a severely broken ankle - one which required surgery with pins and plates and which will keep her off the hiking trails for many months.  In fact it is only this week, almost three months after our day on the waters, that she will be allowed to fully weight bear.  She ended up in hospital, I drove the campervan back home.  The rest of our north island tour will have to wait for another time. But the day dancing with the dolphins and watching the whales, all in a sky full of rainbows, will never be forgotten.

                                                               ---------

[Post script: Once again, I must apologize to followers who are not on facebook and may have missed my photos and stories this past while.  The last three months have been...challenging...for a number of  personal reasons, not the least of which is that  my Maggie was diagnosed with cancer.  Mags underwent surgery to remove a mast cell mammary tumour last week.  I am still awaiting the results of the pathology to find out what stage it was at and whether they got clean edges.  Mast cell is fairly common (as are mammary tumors, though usually in unspayed dogs).  If it is stage 1 or 2, the prognosis can be excellent.  If stage 3, then life expectancy is generally a few short months.  I should have that information some time this week.  Meanwhile, Mags is recovering well, wearing a cute little onesie which is used in place of chest dressings and to prevent any chewing or scratching of her 4" incision. I will keep you posted.  J. ]

Testing, testing, testing

This week I bought a new pocket camera - a Sony DSC-HX99,  basically the same as my last three pocket cameras, just a newer model with a few more features.  With camera in hand, I headed to the North Island Wildlife Recovery Centre.

I chose this place to test out the camera because much of my photography involves dogs, birds and other moving targets, often some distance away. NIWRC would guarantee the presence of animals and birds to photograph, and for some the zoom and the 'continual shoot' mode would be needed. Plus it is one of my favourite local places and I wanted to renew my annual pass which had just expired.

Not all the residents at NIWRC are in enclosures.
I happened to notice this guy watching me from a tree on the grounds.

After stopping to say hello to Wobbles the owl and Dougal the blind raven, I took a number of shots of Casey, a bald eagle whose badly dislocated and irreparable wing (oh how I identify with that!) meant he could not be released to the wild.  Casey was feeling quite perky - hopping around his enclosure, curious about this person with the black box in front of her face.  He was quite willing to show off the lovely detail in his feathers:

Next, I visited Farley, who has a lovely new enclosure built in which he is quite at home.  Farley is one of my favourites (of course, I say that about all the permanent residents there!), as he always looks so wise and interested, as if he is thinking hard about the humans who come to visit.

I checked out King Alfred, the golden eagle, and Elvis, the Swainson's Hawk.  Elvis seemed to be doing a little dance for me, and I realized I need to figure out how to focus on something beyond the enclosure's wires - I obviously don't have the settings quite right yet!

It must have been a dancing day for the birds, because this raven (Loki or Thor, I'm not sure which) put on quite the show for me, bobbing and hopping and wiggling his/her booty while travelling back and forth along a 3-4 foot pole near the top of the enclosure. 

Next were the Indian runner ducks.  If I had acreage again, I would have runner ducks!  So amusing, so fun to watch, with their upright bodies and penguin-like fast-paced waddle.  And they always look to me like they are smiling 😀.

A new addition are some silkie chickens, most with their big hairdos and floofy feet that look like they are wearing giant fluffy bedroom slippers.  While I'm pretty sure they aren't wild birds, they are apparently providing eggs for the diets of other birds and animals at the centre.  

This one didn't have the big hairdo of the others (is this one maybe a rooster?),
but was willing to show me the floofy feet.

One of the silkies was incredibly curious about my camera, coming right up to the wire in front of me and sticking his/her beak through to investigate.  I  was careful not to get too close or I would have some chicken-pecked scratches on my brand new lens!

And then my 'zen' place - the turtle pond, where one can sit for hours entertained by the many turtles, both red-eared sliders and western painted turtles, as well as their co-residents, the ducks, and whatever other birds might choose to stop by on their way to wherever they are going.  

Such a beautiful blue on the wing!

We hit it at bath time - the ducks were splishing and splashing and having quite a time - making a very suitable challenge for me to capture a good shot.  They seemed determined to take turns bathing in such a way that whatever one I focused on would stop splashing and the ones out of my focal point would start.  When I moved to focus on that one, they stopped and another would start.  My reflexes need some work, I think!

Excuse me! Could I have some privacy here?!!!

And then the turtles....so fun to photograph as they laze about on logs, occasionally slipping into the water and clambering back up again, sometimes right on top of another turtle.

I love the little leg stretch! 

When the log isn't long enough, just clamber up on top of a buddy!

This next one isn't a great picture, but I laughed as I took it:

If people fret about getting all their ducks in a row,
do ducks fret about getting all their turtles in a row?

And this - from a photographer's point of view, this is my very favourite shot of the day:

I'm happy with the new camera, though I do wish they still came with print manuals - the 'downloadable' pdf one is 551 pages long! Who can print off that many pages and who wants to lug it around?  I suppose Sony assumes everyone has access to it online on their smartphone, but I have no smartphone.  There's still some of us old-school Luddites around, spending mega-bucks on cameras that we have to learn to use by trial and error. 

I'm on a fast learning curve on this one, because tomorrow I'm heading out on a two-week camping and hiking trip with my Monday hiking buddy (who, thankfully, has a self-contained camper van).  We'll be going up island and have a long list of trails to check out.  The fish are running, so we're sure to see bears, as well as many birds and other critters - I'm hoping for some great shots.

My sister-in-law is staying at my place with Maggie while I'm away.  Maggie has spent the last  few days teaching her everything she needs to know:  

Next,  ya gotta give me a treat!
Hurry up, will ya?

I'll be off the grid most of the time I'm away, so there will be no blog posts for at least two weeks and likely three or more - I expect to have lots of photos to edit when I return!

Stay safe.