Archive For The “seascape” Category
A juvenile bald eagle surveys the Kitimat River from a log on a sandbar. (Robin Rowland)
Once again this year I joined the Kitimat Christmas Bird Count, helping out the Kitimat Valley Naturalists. Here are some of the best shots from that day, Wednesday December 16. 2015.
Gulls huddle together on the shore of MK Bay at low tide. (Robin Rowland)
A great blue heron watches from an old stump in the Kitimat River estuary. (Robin Rowland)
A female mallard duck in flight over MK Bay at low tide. (Robin Rowland)
A scaup (duck) in intermediate plumage on a mound of reeds in the Kitimat River estuary. (Robin Rowland) (Corrected caption, duck was identified in the field as a ringed-neck but on further review of the photograph, the consensus of the naturalists was scaup)
A red-tailed hawk surveys Haisla Boulevard at the LNG Canada turnoff just as the light fades in the late afternoon. (Robin Rowland)
The next day, on my morning walk, the neighborhood’s resident ravens followed me through the bush. Ravens are intelligent and I almost think they are posing for the camera, for this is the third time that they’ve gone to the same trees, in the same sequence, when I was there with my camera.
One of the ravens directly overhead. (Robin Rowland)
And flying from branch to branch of bare alders. (Robin Rowland)
And perched on a conifer (Robin Rowland)
The December winter sun illuminates moss covered rocks at low tide on the morning of December 16, 2016, at MK Bay, Kitimat.
(Robin Rowland)
The Hawaiian hurricanes that follow the path of the “Pineapple Express” across the northern Pacific normally dwindle to rain storms by the time they reach the Kitimat Valley. On October 9, 2015, however, what was left of Hurricane Oho was still at tropical storm strength.
I was assigned by Global BC to get storm and rain pictures. There was still heavy rain when I shot my first video at the Kitimat viewpoint.
The Kitimat estuary and Minette Bay are hidden in heavy fog as rain from Tropical Storm Oho continues to fall at the Kitimat Viewpoint, Oct. 9. 2015. (Robin Rowland)
I then drove down to Hospital Beach, expecting to get some good shots of waves pounding against the shore. To my surprise, I saw Kitimat harbour as I have never seen it. It was slack tide, the water was dead calm and the fog shrouded the entire harbour. Looking over to Rio Tinto BC Operations Terminal B (the old Eurocan dock) (Robin Rowland)
Rio Tinto’s Terminal A and part of the older smelter emerge from the fog. (Robin Rowland)
The Smit tug dock. (Robin Rowland)
Another view of the harbour looking toward Terminal B. (Robin Rowland)
The fog makes part of the harbour look like an alien world from a science fiction movie.(Robin Rowland)
Another view from the Hospital Beach boat launch ramp looking toward the Smit tug dock. (Robin Rowland)
Looking along Hospital Beach back toward Terminal A and the aluminum smelter. (Robin Rowland)
When I was back at my computer, filing the video to Vancouver, the rain from the second storm moving in began to pound down outside my window.
I was in Prince Rupert and Port Edward, BC on Friday, May 29. I was able to pay a brief visit to the North Pacific Cannery National Historic Site. I had always wanted to see the site, but in the past my visits to Prince Rupert were either in the winter, when the site is closed, or I was too busy filing to clients to have the time.
So here are some of the photos I took, converted to black and white, appropriate since the North Pacific Cannery was the longest running cannery on the west coast, operating from 1889 to 1981. It was named a National Historic Site in 1987.
The west end of the cannery site. The two small buildings are replicas of the houses that were occupied by workers from local First Nations. The large building to the left is the machine shop and First Nations net loft (Robin Rowland)
A fishing net hangs from the rafters in the First Nations Net Loft. The building was built in Port Essington and moved to the cannery site in 1937. The loft was where First Nations fishers stored, repaired and hung their nets. (Robin Rowland)
Another view of the loft. (Robin Rowland)
The main part of the cannery at low tide. (Robin Rowland)
The cannery’s old fuel dock was separate from the rest of the facility for safety reasons. (Robin Rowland)
Another view of the old fuel dock. (Robin Rowland)
An old rowboat on the cannery grounds. (Robin Rowland)
The west end of Smith Island, Port Edward, BC, captured driving back from the cannery site just as the fog rolled in. (Robin Rowland)
The CCGS Gordon Reid, a Canadian Coast Guard offshore patrol vessel, is seen on a stormy, wet and windy Douglas Channel, off Coste Island, south of Kitimat, on Sunday, Oct. 5, 2014.
The Gordon Reid is currently (as of 2200 Oct 17, 2014) towing the Russian container vessel Simushir which lost power off the coast of Haida Gwaii and threatened to run aground on the island’s pristine shores. (CBC story as of 2200 Oct. 17, 2014)
There were three “Super moons” in 2014, July, August and September. Most photographers concentrated on the night of the full moon, but the “super moon” was still super as it waned to last quarter and I photographed the moon over British Columbia’s Inside Passage and Douglas Channel while on a fishing and photography trip last weekend. So here is the September moon, shot first in Vancouver at the full moon and then the last quarter a week later.
The waxing moon, almost full, moon rises over the towers of Vancouver on September 7, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
The moon over Vancouver on September 7,2014. (Robin Rowland)
A closer shot of the moon over Vancouver, September 7. 2014. (Robin Rowland)
A while later, the moon over downtown Vancouver, September 7, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
On September 9, the super moon rises over the tops of Vancouver’s office towers. (Robin Rowland)
The “super moon” over a Vancouver office tower, September 9, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
The moon edges between the towers of Vancouver a few minutes later on September 9, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
The moon over Kitimat harbour, at MK Bay, at 6:51 am, September 12, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
The moon over Hawkesbury Island, at Fishtrap Bay, off Verney Passage, September 14, 2014. (Robin Rowland)
The moon about to set over Hawkesbury Island, September 14, 2014. (Robin Rowland)