A week ago, out on my daily rounds, I noticed that one heron had returned to the Dana Point Harbor.

This afternoon I returned to welcome the birds home.  I noticed that the trees have been trimmed, but the nests were left alone, and there were birds beginning their spring activities. 

For a while, I watched this one working on his nest-building.

He worked hard to pull a twig, but before he could fly it to his nest, it dropped, and he had to begin again.

The birds were quite active, flying in circles, and from tree to tree.

 

There is one nest in a smaller tree nearby -- the tree seems to have died, but the nest survived.  It is the nest that has been used by a Black-Crested Night Heron for the last couple of years.  I hope the bird will recognize that, but it may need the foliage to be comfortable with eggs or chicks in the nest.

The usual activity was also happening in the harbor.

And I couldn't resist a few shots to show how beautiful the sky was, with its wispy clouds!

For the last 3 days we've been under a "red flag warning," and last night it was extended through Friday.  A red flag warning means that there will be high winds, hot temperatures, and extreme fire danger.  I awoke early this morning and turned on the tv, as I usually do, and the programming had been preempted by fire news. 

Let me begin this by saying that, as of now, I am very safe, 50 miles from any fire, and will be unless there should be another fire.  There is a potentially very bad fire in Glendora, next to the mountains behind eastern LA county, about 50 miles from where I live.  The fire began at 5:50 am -- by 6:45 it had burned 30 acres.  The winds are blowing at about 15 mph now, and they will likely pick up to 30 mph as the sun comes up and the day progresses.  At 7:30, they are estimating the fire to be 125 acres, there are mandatory evacuations along the edges of Glendora and homes are being threatened.  It appears that the next few days will be very scary, especially along the foothills behind and east of Pasadena.

As you hear the news, this is the Colby fire -- it is currently moving southwest, burning in the trees and treetops in old oaks and palms.

6:30 pm update

During the day, this fire has consumed 5 homes and damaged 17 others.  Two civilians and two firefighters have been injured -- fortunately their injuries are minor.  Three people are in jail -- they were camping in the mountains, and built a campfire to keep warm -- when they put paper on top to help keep the fire going, and the wind whipped up at the same time, the fire took off.  Their charges could be Federal if the fire began inside the lines of the National Forest.  People who were evacuated from Glendora homes this morning are now going home; those from Azusa, the next town to the west, are being kept out of the area for now.  That's probably wise, as there are many flare-ups, and if the wind changes again, Azusa could be in the same danger as Glendora was this morning.  The red flag warning will expire tomorrow, and the prediction is that the winds will be below 5 mph by this time tomorrow!

January is normally the wettest month in the Southland -- this year, we haven't had rain since November!  And it was still warmer outside than indoors at 6 pm this evening.  Today's high temperature where I live was 83 degrees, and the humidity 5%.  The fire season usually runs from about August till October or November -- this year it has not stopped, and the next fire season has already begun!

I am currently safe, 50 miles away from the fire.  There could be other fires at any given time, and in any given place, but the worst ones are usuallly in the mountains, many miles from where I live. 

 

Returning from my friend's home in Montecito  to where I was staying, I drove past some favorite spots in town.  Several years ago, the bluff collapsed near the Biltmore Hotel -- one of the loveliest stretches of beach and bluff was destroyed.  There was a road along the top that was also destroyed.  Rather than trying to restore the road, the city blocked it off, and created bypasses.  Ty Warner, of Beanie Baby fame, purchased a home near one end of the bypasses, and renovated it rather extensively.  This is the gate to his house.  He does not live in this house -- and has just made restitution to the government in a huge tax evasion case.

While I was in Santa Barbara, the weather was gorgeous -- temperatures in the mid- to high-70's, and sunny warm skies.  I have spoken about the down-side of this weather, but this is how beautiful our winter has been so far!

And the sunsets were equally beautiful!

When I returned home, this camellia welcomed me home, and there's a host of buds in the back yard as well.

After lunch near the University with a high school friend, we went exploring -- to a place I knew about but had not seen for many years, and one she had never seen.  About 3 miles to the west of the University of California, Santa Barbara campus is an old estate that once was used as the grounds of what was once known as the Devereux School for Exceptional Students.  A branch of a school started in Philadelphia, this was a residential school for students now considered "special needs students."  As I grew up, I was aware of the school because my dad was the Pediatrician for the school -- he used his afternoon off to visit the school on a weekly basis.  As the UCSB campus grew, they purchased the grounds, using some of the buildings as a conference center, and leasing back some to the Devereux Foundation for an "Adult School."  The area is still known as the Devereux property, and the slough that separates it from the western end of Goleta is the Devereux Slough.  I took no photos of the buildings, but the following are scenes from the road along the eastern side of the slough.

Mallard Ducks

The little splash of red in the right center is a bicyclist -- this is an active recreation area, and there is a path to the sea at the end of the road.

My friend thought this log looked like a gecko sculpture!

One of the things I wanted to do while in Santa Barbara was to visit the Butterfly Preserve to view the Monarch Butterflies.  There are several places along the California Coast where the butterflies spend the winter or have stopovers in their migration.  One of those is a eucalyptus grove on the bluff in Goleta, just north of Santa Barbara's airport.

On this map, the spot that I had seen before is where it points out Coronado Butterfly Preserve.  I walked down the well-worn trail,

following the signs to the grove.

There were butterflies there, but, at the height of their season, they were pretty sparse.

A retired engineer lives along the path, and considers himself a sort of guru of the butterflies -- he explained that two years ago there were 53,000 butterflies in the grove, last year 25,000, and this year only 2,400.  I had seen the grove at the end of the season two years ago, and remembered many more butterflies then than at this visit.  He also had opened a gate to his yard, where he has set up a number of hummingbird feeders -- he was very happy for people to see the birds, which he feeds with 43 pounds of sugar a month at this time of year!

Walking out from the grove, one sees a school across the street, with a backdrop of the coastal mountains.

For the holidays this year, I was in Santa Barbara for 2 weeks.  During that time, there was lots of quiet celebration, and just a little photography.  It was gorgeous weather, sunny and in the 70's the entire time I was there!  As I left my friend's home in the car, this is what I saw (yes, I took these from the car -- at a stop sign, or in the unused center turn lane!):

I post these without meaning to rub in our wonderful temperatures -- there is a down side to California's climate.  In all of 2013, Santa Barbara (and it's similar where I live) had only 3.26 inches of rain.  This is less than 1/4 of the normal rainfall, and it was the second year of this drought cycle.  The lake that supplies Santa Barbara water is currently at 40% capacity, which will supply the city's needs for approximately two years.  We are currently under "red flag warning," which means warm windy weather, and includes such restrictions as parking bans on 2-lane hilly residential roads, and extra precautions regarding brushfires.  Additionally, there is talk in Santa Barbara of reactivating the desalination plant which was quickly put together in the late 1980's in a similar 4-year drought.  That plant was built so quickly that the equipment was housed in trailers.  The equipment was never used, because, just as it was to come on-line, the drought ended, and the additional water was not needed.  During the interim, large portions of the equipment and trailers were sold to a Saudi Arabian country for a plant there -- and the remaining equipment is so obsolete that rebuilding would mean starting over in a process that would take 18-24 months!  In Santa Barbara, there is additional time involved, because the political and permitting environment is such that it will take that long to decide where to put the plant.  It is my hope that they will quickly rebuild the desalination plant, with permanent buildings and current equipment, and continue to run it, even in years when water is not at such a premium.  In the meantime, water restrictions will be imposed (no water for yards, higher costs to encourage lower usage, etc.) and the City will be forced to purchase and import water from the State.  This is not just a problem unique to Santa Barbara -- water is a major issue in all of Southern California.

 During the last 4 weekends, the Sawdust Winter Festival was open.  Last weekend, I made a quick visit to the Festival, and enjoyed seeing the excitement of the atmosphere and the colorful grounds.

Also, during the last few weeks we have had a lot of interesting sunsets.  For most, I have either been indoors and missed the opportunity to photograph the splendor, or in the car without my camera.  On Tuesday of this week, though, I happened to be outside just at the right time, and caught this spectacular splash of color.

One of my favorite shots from my recent polar bear trip!

Frost on roofs today
Crisp and bright, the air is cold
Winter has arrived!

This is the first morning that we have had frost on the roofs in coastal Southern California.  It will not last -- by the end of the week, our temperatures will be back to the low 70's, and the mornings will not be as cold as today. 

 

 

While I have not been as regular with posting, I do try to get out with the camera.  Last Tuesday, there was a lovely sunset that I caught from the channel at Dana Point Harbor.  

And while that was happening, this is what it looked like through the rear view mirror of the car.   A wise photographer once told me that he never shoots sunset toward the sun, but always in the opposite direction!

Time somehow seems to get busier every day!  Over the Thanksgiving week, I was in Santa Barbara, visiting family and friends.  On Friday that week, my friend and I went for a short walk on Shoreline Drive.  Because I've done this many times, it is harder to take photos that are new and fresh -- below are a few views that captured my attention.

Anacapa Island is the southernmost of the islands that comprise the Channel Islands National Park.  It is far enough away that the entire island is seldom visible from Santa Barbara -- this is about as good a view as most, with the exception that there are a chain of rocks off the eastern (left) end of the island that you see from viewpoints farther south on the coast.

Santa Cruz and Santa Rosa Islands are next in the chain, and are directly off the Santa Barbara shore.  There is a channel between them that sits about in the middle ofthis shot -- this day wasn't quite clear enough for us to see exactly where that channel is.

There are eight oil rigs visible from this park.  The sun was shining brightly, and just in the right direction to enhance the view of them.

This seagull seemed to be looking at the oil rigs as well.

The clouds were forming for a potential storm (which never materialized),

the skyline sported the typical palm trees,

And the evening shadows set in as people headed homeward.

On Friday afternoon, I was on the way to the beach when I remembered that this weekend was the grand finale for Dana Point's Elephant Parade, a fund-raiser to help the endangered Asian Elephants.  I quickly changed directions, and went to view the elephants in their final location.  On Sunday, 11/17, they would all be auctioned -- $35,000 for the large elephants, $350 for the 6" size, and $3,000 minimum bids for the in-between sized elephants.  I was quite happy to wander around and photograph my favorites, shown below.

 

You'll be missed in Dana Point, Asian Elephants.  I can only hope that your fate in the wild will be more hopeful, thanks to this display.

Post Note:  It is by chance that I had planned this post before seeing a poem about pachyderms posted this morning by murisopsis.  While I think some of the artists of this series may have seen pink elephants, it has been a magnificent fund-raising event for Asian elephants.  I'm sad to see the elephants leave, and hope that the sponsors will continue their efforts, as they project, with another exhibit in Hong Kong next year, and possible future events elsewhere in the United States.

Wow -- have I really been home from Canada for a month already?!  Between dealing with issues that almost prevented the trip and reviewing the 550 photos that came home with me, I've been pretty busy for the last month.  I did get out for a short photoshoot on November 1, a beautiful warm fall day.  The seagulls were enjoying the view (that's Catalina Island on the left of the horizon), and I don't think there's any chance of their extinction!

The creek has channeled back into it's normal straight path to the sea.

 

And the waves were lapping gently at the shore.

 

All's well with the world!

 

For those of you who followed my Polar Bear Adventure, there are several updates that have occurred in the past week.

1. At the beginning of the trip, we were warned that polar bears are wild animals, and as such could attack, or even kill, people.  We were told how to behave if we encountered a polar bear -- face it, make noise, and back up out of its way.  It was also explained that climate change has lengthened the time at the end of the summer before Hudson's Bay freezes enough for the polar bears to go out on the ice and hunt for the seals that are their food.  Thus, the polar bears we saw are anxious for the cold weather, and the freeze -- and they are extra hungry.  Over the weekend there was a serious attack by a polar bear on two Churchill residents, one taken by surprise, and the other a neighbor who came to her rescue.  Both will survive, and one has been released from the hospital at this time.  However, two bears were killed and a cub orphaned in the process.  This was the second attack in a month (earlier, a man thwarted an attack by startling the polar bear with the light on his cell phone followed by throwing the phone at the bear's face!), and the 4th this year in Churchill.  An article describing this incident can be found at this link:  www.theguardian.com/world/2013/nov/04/polar-bear-attacks-scientists-warn-warming-arctic.
2. There are now two web-cams watching polar bears.  They are sponsored by Polar Bears International, a non-profit organization doing extensive research on polar bears.  One is in conjunction with Tundra Buggy Tours (Frontiers North), and is attached to their Lodge, and the other is positioned at Cape Churchill, farther east on the route of the polar bears.  They are streaming live during the day, and one replays the days videos during the evening.  If you are interested in watchng the polar bears, they are very much like what we saw -- I watched some play-sparring last evening, and you can see how the bears move around on the now-snowy tundra.  The links are:  http://www.theguardian.com/environment/2013/nov/05/live-webcams-polar-bears-hudson-bay-canada  and the one that replays the day's activity is:  http://www.polarbearsinternational.org/myplanetmypart?utm_source=News+from+the+North+Subscribers&utm_campaign=9b32950984-October_2013_Newsletter10_30_2013&utm_medium=email&utm_term=0_384370ffc2-9b32950984-413961925 (if the links don't work, try copy/pasting them to your browser's address line).
3. The temperature in Churchill has been hovering around 0C (32F) since I was there three weeks ago -- tomorrow it is predicted to go down 10-15 degrees, which should help the formation of ice, and get the polar bears out to the ice more quickly.

Before leaving on this trip, I was asked to sign a waiver that (a) I understood that the trip would take us to wilderness areas, and (b) I understood that polar bears are wild animals and that, as such, they sometimes attack people and could even kill.  While in town, we always travelled in groups, and we heard several stories of bear attacks from the past summer.  Nobody was hurt, but there were several creative ways that the bears were diverted.  Given that background, while we were watching bears by the Lodge, we had an SOS call from another Tundra Buggy driver, saying that he was stuck in the mud.  We could see the buggy where we were, and quickly picked up a "tow strap" from the Lodge, and went to rescue the other buggy.  Closer to the scene, we could see that the driver had taken a shortcut that, for good reason, had not been used for some time.  Our driver decided to go the long way around and back in to where he was.  When we arrived, he opened the back door and climbed down a back staircase.  This is what it looked like from our buggy as he did that. 

Our driver threw the tow strap down to the other driver.

After hooking up both ends of the strap, the buggies were secured, and we were told to sit down and hold on tight.  Pulling didn't work, so he radioed to the other driver that he would have to "jerk" him out.  But, in doing that, he pulled apart the drive shaft.  We were about an hour and a half from base, and he didn't have the part or the tools to fix the buggy.  It was decided that a third buggy that was also nearby would pick up the passengers from both buggies and continue our tours while our buggy was repaired and the other pulled out of the mud.  The third buggy arrived, and, although we were not supposed to be on the tundra, we were led down a staircase similar to that on a small airplane, and across to the other buggy -- about 20 feet -- taking all our stuff in case we didn't return to the same buggy.  The lady on the right in this shot is our guide, waiting to be loaded to the third buggy.

We now had about 30 people on one bus, and off we went, leaving the two stranded buggies and their drivers behind.

We returned to our polar bear watch.  The bear that had wandered off before our emergency was still wandering, and had travelled quite a distance,

while the other was still relaxing.  He would raise up once in a while to see what was going on, then lie back down, and the first would continue walking.

Look at the pad on that back right foot! 

At one point, I looked back and saw the two buggies still where we had left them.

And we took off down the hill and across the tide flats

to find a better vantage point for bear watching.

At some point, I looked away from the bear, for a change of position -- Ooh -- FOX!!! 

A raven came to sit with the fox for a moment (I'm sorry -- I don't know why Xanga suddenly would not let me add some of these in large size, unless it's because they were pretty heavily cropped to shot the animals more clearly!)

Good news -- both buggies were good to go, and they had come to a spot where we could be transferred back to our original buggies.  We were first -- they backed us up to our original buggy, opened the back gates, and created a sort of ramp between the two.  We drove off, and the other buggy gathered its passengers (below), and we were off.

By this time, it was time to head back to the base, to the airport, and to fly back to Winnipeg and home again.

This trip included two days on the tundra, separated by the in-town tour day.  During that time, the weather changed, and we began the day considerably colder, and more bundled up as we set out to go through snow flurries to the tundra.  I normally don't show (or even take) photos of myself -- I know I was there! -- but one of my co-travelers wanted to take one, so here I am -- bundled up in lots of layers of warm clothes.

 Because it had snowed overnight, although we saw many of the same things, the animals were sometimes harder to find (or sometimes easier), and they were doing different things.  We started out past the flag trees -- here you can see the clump at the bottom that forms when the winds whip so hard they break the small trunks that are trying to form.  The larger that clump, the stronger the tree.

The roadway had begun to ice over -- we heard the crunch of our tires breaking the ice, and saw the flow of water ahead of us. 

We soon stopped for ptarmigan -- I see four in this shot (hint -- three are white)!  What wonderful camouflage!

And soon again for an Arctic Hare -- he was almost invisible, hidden in the willows, with snow on the ground.

Northern Pintail Ducks

And polar bears.

These two bears were relaxing after a bout of play-sparring (we didn't actually see the sparring, but we later saw the photos taken by another buggy tour) -- they were well aware of what each other was doing, but pretending to be comletely unconcerned.  We watched them for considerable time as they relaxed.

Another bear was wandering off in the distance.

There was always at least one other buggy within sight -- here, one from eachof the two companies.

One of the two bears got up and began to explore the patch of kelp, sitting down and getting comfortable before nibbling on a little kelp.

Notice the size of the pad on that front paw!

Eventually, he got up and walked past the other bear and off into the tundra.

The other bear was very aware of what was happening, but seemed not to notice.

Soon the bear was some distance away -- they move slowly, but with long, deliberate steps.  And suddenly we heard that another buggy was stuck and needed help from us.  Part 7, the last in this series will cover that adventure, as well as a few more animals.

The town of Churchill has one of the most inclusive museums of Inuit (Eskimo) art in Canada.  The museum was established, and is still run by, the Diocese of Churchill - Hudson's Bay.  In the days of early contact, the Catholic priests encouraged the Inuit people to learn their art by carving pieces that represented the things they did in their daily lives.  Some used ivory and bone from whales and other animals, while others used soapstone, a stone that was mined in a soft clay-like condition, and hardened after it was carved.  This museum was established to collect and preserve these carvings.  Carvings such as these have fascinated me since I lived in Seattle in the 1960's -- I have seen them in Hudson's Bay Company in Vancouver, BC, and in various places in Alaska.  We spent a couple of hours in this museum, during which time I was able to see and photograph all the cases -- below, with little comment, are some of my favorite pieces.

The next two shots are two sides of a whale vertebra -- the piece is entitled "Man and Woman Flying to the Moon on a Bird."

 

In the upper left, the man is hunting seal, and has put up an umbrella shield against being splashed.

A new acquisition that hasn't yet found its way into a case.

A mask made from caribou skin.

Building an igloo -- the Inuit peoples seldom built igloos unless they were unable to return to shore while they were out to see on a fishing expedition.

Inukshuk

Head with Birds

 

On the way to Churchill, we were delayed in Winnipeg due to a blizzard and high winds in Churchill.  That also cancelled our first activity, a helicopter tour of the area and out to the tundra to an Inuit village.  The ride was rescheduled for the morning of the day in between two tundra buggy days -- the earlier the better because winds were expected to pick up again before noon.  So, at 8 am we were at the helicopter landing for a 1-hour tour of the area.  Unfortunately, I had issues with my camera that morning that affected the quality of the few shots I took -- and realizing that, I put the camera down and watched as polar bear moms and their cubs walked along the shoreline, and as we flew over tundra and town.  I was able to save a few shots which I post here for overview purposes -- I did not edit for color saturation, so these few shots will appear quite green -- I think that may be a function of tinted helicopter windows.  Please bear with me on the first few shots -- better ones follow in this post!

We left the heliport and headed out to the tundra.  The next couple of shots really demonstrate that the entire area is a large tidal flat, with lots of pools and a few "high spots" between them.  They also show the buggy "roads," and the Lodge in the upper left portion of the shot.

Again, the next shot shows the tidal flat, with Cape Churchill on the left side of the shot.

And in the opposite direction.

Churchill sits on the mouth of the Churchill River.  In 1717, the Hudson's Bay Company built a log fort and trading post across the river -- in the mid-1700's the fort was relocated across the river, to a spot just outside the current town of Churchill, and named Fort Prince of Wales.  We will see more of the fort in a land tour of the area right after this helicopter tour.

There was always a ship not far from shore.  The town is a terminus for shipping the grain grown in Manitoba -- the grain is brought to Churchill by train, and transferred to ships to be taken all over the world.  This lasts only until the ice forms in the entrance to Hudson's Bay (probably as I write this post), so it ws a particularly busy time in the port, loading grain round the clock so it could be shipped out of the Bay before the freeze.

A couple of shots of the grain elevator and the port -- we'll see this again on our land-bound tour of Churchill.

And a final helicopter shot of the town of Churchill.  We later heard that about an hour after our tour the wind had come up and they completely shut down the heliport and put the helicopters indoors!

Back on the ground, I was able to take time to determine and correct the camera problem, and the rest of these shots will be of better quality, though some may have blurred due to being taken from a moving car. 

In two or three spots around Churchill, there was a particular type of granite that we didn't see elsewhere.  This rock is very hard, but shows some of the tunbling and scratching that is typical of glacial activity.

About 20 years ago, a film was being made in Churchill.  On a snowy day, this airplane took off from the landing strip, caught a power line, and pancaked onto the snow.  The pilot and copilot hopped out, walked to the nearest pub, and left the plane where it was.  Since it was away from town and doing no harm, and too expensive to move it, it was decided that it would stay there, and be nicknamed Miss Piggy.

From Miss Piggy's resting place, there was a nice view of the waiting grain ships.

And better shots of the granite and the flag trees.

A move of about 100 yards took us to the town dump, a favorite place to look for polar bears!  This time, a mom and her cub!

When polar bears come into town, they are encouraged to leave; if that does not work, they are trapped and removed.

And if they return or are threatening to man, they are taken to jail.  In jail, they are not fed (but remember, they aren't eating very much anyway), nor can they move around very far.  They are held there up to 2-3 months until there is ice on the bay.

Our next stop was at Fort Prince of Wales.

In the next shot, you can see both the original fort and the relocated site.

Although there had been no recent sightings, we were accompanied on this short walk by a bear-spotter -- that's his "gun," armed with 2 or 3 cannisters of tranquilizer and 2 or 3 bullets in case the tranquilizer doesn't work.  This is standard equipment in remote areas.

And our last stop on the town tour was the port. The grain is brought by train to  a spot up a slight hill from here -- when the ship is ready to be loaded, the next car is allowed to roll down the hill to the proper spot, and the grain offloaded to the ship.  In the foreground, Canada geese that didn't migrate with the rest enjoyed the spilled grain for lunch.

And on our way back into town we passed an Inukshuk, a sort of directional welcoming sign of the Inuit.

After lunch, we visited an extraordinary little museum of Inuit art -- that will be my next post.

We were late arriving in Churchill because of a blizzard and intense windstorm.  The next day was to be our first ride in the Tundra Buggy -- and we awoke to a gorgeous day.  It was sunny, about 0 degrees Centigrade (32 Fahrenheit), and not at all windy.  The buggies are heated with propane heaters inside, and the windows drop down to watch bears and other animals.  At 8 am, we were quite comfortably off and running at about a galloping 1 mile an hour!

Our roads were built by the Canadian Navy during the cold war era, when this entire area was a military base -- after the cold war, it reverted back to the Manitoba government.  The area is basically a large tide flat -- the tides range 12 feet, and, when the tide is in, the roads are even wetter than what we see here.  In mid-winter, they are frozen solid, but at this point, they are rock and gravel on bedrock.   

The area is covered with willows -- low twiggy trees -- and cedar, which the locals call "flag trees."  They are shaped in one direction because of the strength of the winds, and they tend to grow out of clumps of tree that have been kept low by the extreme winds. 

Looking back at the buggy launch site, we were able to see some relics of the military era.

Where there are no trees, there is often a ground cover of grasses.

This next section of road was covered with snow from yesterday's blizzard, and with ice beginning to form.  The ice was not strong enough to hold our buggies, so we could actually hear it crunch as we drove over it! 

Fast ice (ice attached to land) was beginning to form along some of the pools.  

Suddenly the driver stopped the buggy and grabbed his binoculars.  With apologies for the poor quality of this shot, the white birds are Arctic Swans, our first wildlife.

Another stretch of road.  In the distance, we can see Tower 1, a remnant of military days.  There are two of these towers remaining -- there were about 15 of them when the area was used by the military.

There are two companies running tundra tours -- they both have "lodges" where people can camp on the tundra.  This is the lodge run by the other company.  The left-hand section is partitioned areas for sleeping, and the area in the middle is dining area, etc.

Here you can see the fast ice forming across the pool.

POLAR BEAR!

We watched this bear for a while, and took lots of photos of him.  Frontiers North, the tour company I was with, owns the Lodge that you can see in the distance.  There are several buggies out there, taking supplies and people for the first night of the season.  We had heard that there were bears by the lodge, and that was our goal.

We saw several ravens.

Flocks of snow buntings flitted around -- they were too fast to photograph except as this one landed on the track in front of us.

As we moved on, there were eider ducks and northern pintail ducks -- again, apologies for the quality of the next two shots.

The ice was definitely beginning to form, but would fluctuate for a while with the tide.  In this stream, there are a number of rocks..

We've reached Tower 1, not far from our goal of the lodge.

And again we came to a halt, this time for a flock of ptarmigan.  Ptarmigan are a spotted gray color during the summer, but turn white to camouflage in the snow for the winter.

 We've reached our goal -- the lodge.  From right to left, there are two buggies that are partitioned with curtains to make sleeping areas, then a dining area, a kitchen, a mechanical area, and a storage area.  The lodge can be repositioned -- for the last tour of the season, in mid-November, the tourists help move it out farther to Cape Churchill, a point that juts out into Hudson's Bay.

When we get around to the other side of the storage area, we find a couple of polar bears.  These two (or perhaps Dancer and one of these two, had spent the previous night "play-sparring," and they were simply resting.  We watched them as we ate lunch -- they sniffed the air to determine what we were, then relaxed for a while, and when they smelled lunch, one of them got up and explored the other buggy that was there with us.

An Arctic fox ran past, and into the tundra.

We left the lodge, and wandered off to see what else we could find.  This is an Arctic Hare, hidden in the willows.  We had seen him near where the eider and pintail ducks were, but he was so well hidden that I couldn't get an identifiable shot of him. 

The entire area is a huge tide flat -- when the tide is in, there is much more water this far in, and the black sections in the next few shots are kelp (a form of seaweed); the yellow and orange are lichens.

On the way back to town, we even had a little driver training -- those who wanted to do so were given an opportunity to drive the buggy for a few hundred yards on a relatively smooth section of roadway.  I think there were three takers for this -- the man standing behind these two is the regular driver, "Buggy Bob."

One last chance to see a bear that day!

And we got back to the launch site just as the sun was going down.

The adventure began a couple of days earlier, on Saturday, October 12, with a night in the Hilton LAX Hotel, in preparation for an early morning flight.  I actually came very close to cancelling the entire trip on Friday, due to several minor health issues and a screaming tooth, but those were resolved, and I was able to see the sunset at the other end of the LAX runway that night.

The flight to Winnipeg included customs and a change of planes in Calgary.  The Calgary airport is in the middle of major renovation or expansion, as are many other airports, and appears to be funded, at least in part, by HSBC.

Finally in Winnipeg, I checked into the hotel in time to meet the tour group and have a short night's sleep before going on to the North.

The next morning's schedule was for a 7 am flight, which got changed to 6:45, and then to about noon due to weather.  Leaving Winnipeg, we were able to see the southern end of Hudson Bay.

And after lunch, we were definitely in the North.  The morning flight we were scheduled on was delayed by a blizzard and 90 mph winds!

 

The schedule originally called for a helicopter ride that afternoon, but, since we were so late arriving, that was rescheduled and the dogsled ride was substituted into the afternoon.  Dave Daley was the founder of a race similar to the Iditarod, this one from Churchill to Winnipeg.  We visited his kennels and saw the dogs, then rode for a mile on a small cart that he had developed for demonstration purposes.  These pelts were hanging inside his home.

Even our tour guide held one while she listened to the presentation.

And then we went outside to see the kennels.  These are similar to the dog kennels one sees in Alaska -- the dogs are chained to their houses, but spend much of the time inside.  They are anxious to run, so when people are around they are rather animated.

Dave has developed a wheeled 2-man cart for demo purposes, which he takes around a 1-mile circuit on his land so people can get the feel of dog sledding.  We each took turns on this cart, and earned our "Ididamile" certificates!  Here he explains the process.

They're almost ready -- eight dogs tied together for this demo.

And here they come around the other side of the track -- two passengers and a musher.

My turn -- this is what you see when sitting in front on the cart.

Around the house were a number of these birds -- Arctic Gray Jays!

The next day began with our first foray into the tundra looking for polar bears.

 Since my trip to the Antarctic, I have wanted to visit the Arctic to see polar bears. They are a symbol of the changes occurring in our current climate change, and I was interested in learning how this works. The closest accessible place to see polar bears is in Churchill, Manitoba, Canada, where they gather in the fall to move to the ice as soon as it forms for their winter seal-feed. From here, I flew to Winnipeg, then north for 2 hours to a small town known as Churchill, on the shores of Hudson Bay.

The ocean's current flows into Hudson Bay from the northeast, through Hudson Strait, and flows through the Bay in a counterclockwise direction.  As winter approaches, and the surface is icy, there is a sort of geographical ledge at Churchill where the ice accumulates, and becomes thick enough for the bears earlier than at other locations around the Bay.

Polar bears hunt seal from the ice during the winter.  In the spring, when the ice has melted, they move to land, and wander throughout the area, basically waiting for the next fall to come so they can go back to the ice and eat again.  They do not eat very much, if at all, during the summer months.  By this time of the year, they are rather emaciated, and anxious for the Bay to ice over.  They are quite solitary animals -- but as they move to Hudson Bay, they come together in closer proximity than at other times.  Generally you see a mother and cub together, or individuals, or occasionally two males.  When two males come together, they tend to socialize in "play sparring," or testing their physical ability to fight and conquer rivals.

Global warming is extremely challenging in this cycle.  The mating season is in the spring, but the embryo implants in the mother's uterus in the fall, just as the mother finds a place to den.  The cubs are born in February or March, and grow in the den with mom nursing them until it's warm enough to come out in the spring.  The cubs stay with their moms, nursing, for up to 2 years, at which time the cycle begins again.  What is happening now, though, is that the cold winters are beginning later in the year, meaning that the moms are more emaciated by the time of implantation, and they are less able to sustain the pregnancy.  They are also less able to sustain the feeding of their cubs, so the cubs are smaller and weaker when they emerge from the dens, and less able to survive in the wild.  Because of this, they are tending to stay with the moms for a longer period, and the moms delay their next pregnancy for another year.  As time goes on, then, fewer bears are born, and fewer survive.  When we hear that polar bears are in danger because of the lack of ice floes, it is more because of this shifted climatic cycle that there are fewer cubs and those that survive are weaker, thus unable to live for their normal life cycle.

The above photos are of the first bear we saw.  The first shows the perspective of the tundra, with the Lodge in the background -- the Lodge is effectively a series of Tundra Buggies formed into a small, self-contained "hotel," where you can stay on the tundra for several days at a time, thus saving the approximately 1-1/2 hour drive across the tundra to get to that area.  It is in a location where bears are likely to congregate -- we saw three the first day very close to the Lodge, and several on another day in the same general area.

As you see in the other two shots, polar bears are not white -- they are a more creamy color, and easily mistaken for what we laughingly called "Polar Boulders."  As we rode along, we spotted several boulders that might have been bears -- we stopped and watched for a while to see if they moved, then moved on when they didn't!  This bear may be one that is known to the guides as Dancer -- when they first placed the Lodge in its current location,  this bear was very curious, and came to watch the man in charge of the Lodge -- he reached up to the windows to peer inside, and more or less danced with the staff person.  Dancer is now about 12-15 years old, and looking very emaciated -- the guides were quite sad to see him like this.  We watched Dancer for about 30 minutes -- he turned his head several times, just checking what was happening -- polar bears have a very keen sense of hearing and of smell, but do not make much noise (they don't roar like other bears).  He eventually rolled over on his side, and we moved on.

Future posts will be more photo-heavy, and will follow our rides out into the tundra.

I've been a little mysterious recently as to where and when I planned to vacation -- and then disappeared for a week. I'm now home, and can divulge that I've spent time in Churchill, MB, Canada, on the banks of Hudson's Bay, learning all about polar bears. I just returned after about 8 hours in airplanes and airports and a couple more hours driving, and a two-hour time change -- the photos are all loaded to the computer, and I'll post more as I can get to them. For now, I'll let you know that I was perfectly safe in a tundra buggy, way above anything a bear could reach (except when we were in town as a group, and except the 30 foot walk we took one afternoon to switch buggies when ours broke down on the tundra).

Stay tuned for some exciting viewing of wildlife!

This afternoon has been another warm but lovely afternoon.  At 4:45 in the afternoon, the temperature is currently 90, the same as the day's high, but with only 8% humidity, and very light breezes, it is the kind of warm summer day I love!  I needed to try out two things -- new hiking/snow boots which I will take on a trip soon, and a couple of techniques with my camera.  To do so, I went to the regional wilderness park nearby for a short afternoon walk.  I started out crossing a bridge over the effluent from a water treatment plant that flows into a large lake -- beneath the lake I spotted some interesting reflections, and took these shots between the structural beams of the bridge.

Moving across the bridge, and along the trail a little way, I saw just a few clouds in the northern sky.  There is another small fire in that direction today,  but the firefighters had jumped on it and kept it to 30 acres -- there was only a small smoke cloud visible against the hills as I drove home.

From the same spot, I was able to see some water birds that had been calling.  I practiced technique with them a little bit as well. 

This stand of rushes in the middle of the lake has always been a favorite vista.

And this is across the lake -- the white blob has to do with the drainage or aeration system used to keep the lake from stagnating.  It's been a while since I've been to this park, and I was actually surprised to see it silting up beside the center island!

For the last few days, we have had beautiful weather.  It's been hot, but a dry heat, with wind coming from the desert -- a typical Santana Wind condition.  There have been no clouds in the sky, although yesterday I could not see any mountains due to the dust in the air.  This afternoon I was doing errands and noticed something ominous.  Compare this typical view with not a cloud in the sky

with the next two, in which there is a nasty cloud spreading from east to west.

I tuned in to radio news, and learned that there is a brush fire on the northern part of Camp Pendleton NCAS.  Ironically, the base had cancelled the annual air show this weekend, not because of fire danger, but because of the government shutdown, so there were not public visitors on base as there might have been!  Proceeding to the Harbor, I noticed that the fire seemed to be growing.

Meantime, the smoke cloud continued to grow and to blow out to sea.

I thought there might be a spectacular sunset -- there sometimes is when there's a fire, but I think the smoke had not travelled far enough to the west.  This is what I saw as the sun went down. 

It's been a few days since I've been to Dana Point Harbor.  Today was a lovely day -- clear, warm, breezy, and very low humidity -- the type of day that triggers a Red Flag (fire) Alert.  As I approached Dana Point, I was stopped for a light in front of my favorite stand of palm trees -- I've wanted to take a shot of these trees for some time, but have never had a good opportunity.

I drove just a little farther, and came to the Harbor.  It was breezy, and there were a number of boats coming back from their races.  I took a few shots from the top of the bluff,

 

Shortly after I had parked at the harbor, there was a feeding frenzy among the pelicans following a small fishing boat coming into the harbor.

There was a fuss in the tree above where I sat -- looking up, I saw that two crows were harrassing a great blue heron that was simply sitting on a branch.  The heron took off after a few fly-by's, harrassed one of the crows, and landed again after a short flight around the tree.

Looking around, I noticed one of the elephants on the lawn in front of the Harbormaster's Office.  Additionally, I noticed some little puffs of smoke behind the hill.  On a Red Flag day, this is a scary sight -- it could be the beginning of a major fire.

 

few more boats.

I was amused by this sailboat trailing a paddleboard.

This next boat was taking its sails down, then changed its mind and sailed a bit more outside the mouth of the harbor.

A Border Patrol boat motored by -- I thought he might increase speed once outside the harbor, but it appeared he was just patrolling.

There are a couple of spots in this post that I had problems with -- the editor is very cumbersome, and did not allow me to (a) increase the size of one shot to be consistent with the rest of the post, (b) align some of the wording properly (it didn't wrap the line correctly), and (c) space between photos consistently.  I hope these are issues known to the team working on Xanga 2.0.