White Sands

White Sands National Monument is a playground for the imagination. 

The landscape is reduced to simple forms and only the angle of light makes the difference between something stunning and nothing much at all.

 So it's best to visit at sunrise and at sunset when shadows are long and colours more intense.

And it helps to have a someone along - in this case the lovely Gail - to add a point of reference to the endless sea of gypsum sand.

From the ridge tops of the dunes it feels like you can see forever!

An endless sea of sand but not a drop of water in sight.

 Under-exposure brings out the glitter of the gypsum crystals.

The gypsum washes down from the mountains dissolved in water. The water has no outlet except through evaporation and a bed of dried gypum remains, which eventually forms the dunes.

Only the hardiest of plants like this yucca can survive the shifting sands.

A group of Amish visitors arrived from Pennsylvania to play on the sands while I was there.

The White Sands, at 275 square miles and visible from space, is the largest gypsum dune field in the world.

Doulble click the photos to enlarge.

Bosque del Apache

American Avocets

It was not the best time of the year to visit Bosque del Apache National Wildlife Refuge, a wetland habitat for migrating waterfowl on the Rio Grande. That would be in the winter months when Sandhill Cranes and Snow Geese gather here by the thousands on their way north.

A pair of American White Pelicans

Gambel's Quail

A female Pyrrhuloxia, related to Cardinals

Green-tailed Towhee

But even now it's a spectacular place to visit for a novice birder like me.

I saw over 40 different species of birds in a couple of hours, including ten that were firsts for me!

Taos

The guidebooks say artists are attracted to Taos for the landscapes and the light. After half a day here, I can understand. At 7000 feet, the air is thin and the light intense. It had snowed all morning and when the sky cleared I experienced a sublime mix of colour and form, the likes of which I've rarely witnessed. Here are a few of my images today.

Santa Fe, New Mexico

 Set high in the Rio Grande valley, Santa Fe is surrounded by rugged mountains and mesas.

 Established as a provincial capital by the Spanish in 1610, Santa Fe is one of the oldest towns in North America.

 Its unique architecture reflects the adobe style of native pueblos.

 Azure skies and the high desert climate attract artists and visitors from around the world.

Bald Eagles Return

Cootes Paradise Marsh

mother bad eagle on the first successful nest

Since DDT was banned in Canada in 1989, birds of prey such as bald eagles have begun to recover. Today, Gail and I went to Cootes Paradise Marsh to see the first successful nesting bald eagles on the Canadian shore of Lake Ontario since the 1950s!

Bald Eagle from my Eye-to-Eye Birds of Prey Book

The nest with chicks was high in a white pine tree and the mother could be seen on the nest with a spotting scope provided by the Royal Botanical Gardens staff. But the real thrill was hearing the pair call each other and then seeing them fly together low over the trees. Quite the birthday thrill for me!

with RBG staffer Lindsay and spotting scope

Beautiful Sky Tonite!

I thought I might find delight in the big bright sky today. Wheeling birds thru the window pane overlooking Guelph's St. George's Square ...stay tuned for the video!

Window View

6pm and it's snowing

The view out the window of my new apartment overlooking St. George's Square in downtown Guelph was pretty bleak today. So I've re-interpreted my image of it with the help of some digital editing effects.

the snow really stands out in this 3D cross-view

Posterizing pictures is something that comes easy for the Grade 5 and 6 students that I teach through the Focus on Nature program. It's a little harder for me! But I like this one.

Executive Director

I started my new job today as Executive Director of Focus on Nature, the environmental education group with whom I've taught nature photography in 25 classrooms of young students last year. My goal will be to raise that to 40 classes or more this year.

A couple of highlights of the day were seeing an article in the local newspaper titled "New Boss at Focus on Nature" and receiving a warm congratulations in the mail from Guelph's Mayor Karen Farbridge. And over 50 'likes' and comments on Facebook reminded me that I have a lot of support out there in the wider community too!

kids having fun with their cameras out in nature keeps me motivated

Bells & Belles

Gail & I had lunch today with my sons Daniel and Trevor at Jamie Kennedy's Gilead Café in Toronto. Good food and airy ambience. It was a chance to meet Trevor's new girlfriend Megan before he heads back to Montreal and his Master's program in Environmental Science at Concordia.

Simon, Gail, Daniel, Amanda, Trevor and Megan at 507 Queen East

My old office from 1984 to 1993

After lunch we headed over to Dan's girlfriend Amanda's apartment on Queen Street East which just so happens to be where I had my first office/studio for 9 years in the 1980s! It was so familiar - and beautifully decorated in a young and trendy way - but  somehow it seemed  smaller than I remember it.

The Galaxy Garden

The Galaxy Garden resides in the Paleaku Peace Sanctuary in Honaunau Hawaii

My friend Jon Lomberg, with whom I recently stayed in Hawaii, has designed and built something unique on our planet, a beautiful garden that reflects the scale and components of the Milky Way, our home galaxy.

The gold sphere represents a magnified Solar System

The Milky Way is so vast that all of the stars that we see with our naked eyes would reside on leaves only a few inches apart in the garden. Our sun and solar system would be but a few molecules wide.

Jon & Simon by the fountain representing the black hole at the centre of the Milky Way

The Galaxy Garden also gives a measure of the scale of our galactic neighbourhood. Andromeda, the galaxy next door would reside about a 1/2 mile away, the local Virgo super-cluster of galaxies would occupy 40 miles of the Hawaiian coast, and the known universe would roughly be the size of Planet Earth!

A 3D cross-view of the Galaxy Garden

Mantas

 I went snorkelling with manta rays last night! We floated on the surface and let these enormous but harmless creatures swim up to our lights and cameras. They swam very close letting their huge mouths and bellies slide by us as they scooped up the plankton attracted to the lights.

Kona Snow

Coffee tree in bloom

Today the coffee trees here on the Kona coast of Hawaii have erupted in white blossoms, a yearly phenomenon the locals call Kona snow. It's a beautiful sight and everywhere the air is filled with the sweet scent of jasmine, of which the coffee plant is a member.

Due to the mild climate and rich volcanic soils, Kona coffee is highly prized. I'll be sure to bring some beans home with me!

Kapoho Tidal Pools

Convict Tang in the coral gardens

The Kapoho Tidal Pools on the Puna Coast of Hawaii have the best snorkelling I have ever experienced. The waters are shallow and crystal clear, the corals are huge and colourful and the tropical fish are plentiful and approachable.

Moorish Idols

 Because the waters are shallow I'd recommend wearing an extra "skin" or Lycra body suit. I didn't and paid the price with a few scratches on my arms and legs.

Unicorn Fish

Be sure to take along an underwater camera that shoots video. These images are stills that I made from the HD video I shot.

Line Butterfly Fish

Lava Flows

 Yesterday I hiked out to the place in Hawaii where lava flows into the sea.  At first, in daylight, there's not much to see. Just billowing steam with hints of red.  But as night falls the multiple entry points reveal themselves and put on quite a show!

 The liquid lava oozes slowly downhill, flowing effortlessly across the previous flow that may have been laid down only hours before.

Seeing new land being created and feeling its furnace-like heat is an experience I won't soon forget.

Swimming with Wild Dolphins

 Aloha from the Big Island! Gail & I are visiting friends Jon & Sharona Lomberg this week at their home on the Kona Coast. The calm blue waters are home to spinner dolphins who come to rest during the day in the quiet shallow bays.

 They are called spinners because of their spinning leaps into the air which I watched from the shore. Soon I and a few other curious onlookers were in the water and swimming beside them!

These masters of the sea are not shy, in fact they're quite playful, but this is their time to rest and sleep. Since they still need to rise to the surface to breathe, they let each hemisphere of their brain sleep alternately.

If you should one day find yourself swimming among dolphins, please respect them by keeping your distance. Don't swim at them. Let them swim to you.