2013: A Year In Review

Ouch, it's been an entire year since my last blog post. Apologies!

Anyway, happy new year everyone! I hope you all enjoyed the festivities of Christmas and have all recovered fully from your NYE antics.


It's time to look back over the last year and share with you some of my favourite images from 2013.

It's been a slow year for me photography wise. I've been focusing mainly on saving up for some new gear in preparation for my return to Canada. Telephoto lenses can do some serious financial damage as most of you know, so I've been knuckling down to 61 hour weeks in call centre to try and hit my target! With only one day off a week, my wildlife encounters have been few and far between.


I started the year in Cambodia where I was visiting my mother on her travels. The main target for me during my visit was the critically endangered Irrawaddy dolphin. These relatives of the orca live in the Mekong river and in Cambodia their population is estimated at around 70 individuals. I spent five early mornings and late evenings out on a boat trying to photograph these odd looking dolphins. Unfortunately, they rarely ever spyhop or breach so capturing anything other than a dorsal fin was next to impossible. After nearly a week, I only came away with one image that I was happy with.

(click on an image to enlarge)

Irrawaddy Dolphin - Mekong river, Cambodia

Long-Tailed Macaque - Siem Reap, Cambodia

Praying Mantis - Kulen Hills, Cambodia

Tailed Green Jay - Bokor National Park, Cambodia

Angkor Sunset - Siem Reap, Cambodia

Since returning from Cambodia early last year, I've barely left the country. I did manage a few day trips within Wales though and had the opportunity to photograph some cool native species for the very first time.

Whilst hiking along the Wales Coast Path on the Gower Peninsula with my brother and some friends, we came across my very first adder. I've been wanting to see Britain's only venomous snake for years now so this encounter was truly special to me. Adders are usually seen on mountainsides, heathland or in woodland but this guy was curled up on a rock right on the edge of the clifftop enjoying the sea view. I didn't have my telephoto lens with me on this occasion so these were shot with my wide-angle.

European Adder - Gower Peninsula, Wales

European Adder - Gower Peninsula, Wales

I also made three separate trips to Skomer, an island off the Pembrokeshire coast which is home to thousands of seabirds including Atlantic puffins. I hadn't seen puffins since I was little so it was great to finally spend a few days with them once again.

I tried for some flight shots but failed miserably. The speed in which these tiny torpedos come at you is quite scary and my old Sigma lens was far too slow to keep up. Luckily the red campion was in full bloom on the island, creating the perfect backdrop for some portraits.

Atlantic Puffin - Skomer, Wales

Atlantic Puffin - Skomer, Wales

Atlantic Puffin - Skomer, Wales

And finally, a couple of shots from my favourite part of South Wales, the Glamorgan Heritage Coast. I tend to head down there on most of my days off, weather permitting of course. There are several amazing beaches which are great for landscape photography and it's a great place to look for owls and other birds of prey too.

6 Shot Nash Point Panorama - Glamorgan Heritage Coast, Wales

I had an amazing encounter with a little owl chick there back in the spring, one which still makes me laugh every time I think about it. This owlet was only a few weeks old and the look on it's face told me that it had never seen a human before. I returned to visit him and his sibling a few times throughout the spring/summer and was pleased to see them grow into proper little owls before fledging successfully to search for their own territories.

Little owl chick - Ogmore, Wales

So 2013 was a relatively slow year for me in terms of photography, but I'm still incredibly grateful for all that I've seen and done.

Now if all goes well with my visa application, I should be heading back to Banff sometime in the next few months. Wish me luck though, there's only 2000 visas left for 2014 and it's first come first serve!!


Thanks for reading,

Cai

The Great Bear Rainforest

Last September I spent a week on a sailboat off the coast of British Columbia, looking for wildlife to photograph. The main goal for the week was to find and photograph the spirit or Kermode bear which are only found in the Great Bear Rainforest.

The Great Bear Rainforest - British Columbia, Canada

The ancient Great Bear Rainforest is one of the largest tracts of temperate rainforest left in the world (2 million hectares), and is home to thousands of species of plants, birds and mammals. Each year millions of salmon return to the streams and rivers of the forest, providing food for magnificent creatures such as orcas, eagles, wolves, black bears, grizzlies, and the rare spirit bear.

After three days of searching with no luck whatsoever, we heard about a white bear sighting and quickly made plans to visit the same area the following day.

The next morning we met with Marvin who is one of the local Gitga'at spirit bear guides. He took us to an inlet called Cameron Cove and after walking along the beach for a while, we turned and headed into the rainforest.

It was clear that a bear had been in the area due to all the half eaten salmon carcasses that were covering the forest floor. Marvin also found a bite mark and some white hairs on one of the trees so we knew we were in the right place.

Now we must wait...

After several long hours sitting in the rain, staring at the same stretch of river waiting for something to happen, someone whispered, 'spirit bear!!'

We all turned and were completely amazed by what we saw...

The Spirit bear - Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada

The spirit bear walked straight towards us through the river and then paused to look at us. He was only a few feet away yet he acted completely natural. He walked along a fallen log and splashed about in the water as he tried to catch a salmon for lunch. This unbelievable encounter lasted only a few minutes but it was the most adrenalin fueled bear encounter I've ever had. These animals are so rare that there are believed to be fewer than 300 in existence!

After this encounter, the rest of the week was spent photographing some of the other amazing animals along the coast.

Here are a few of my favourites from the week...

Orca spyhop - Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada

Grizzly bear fishing - Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada

Coastal sunset - Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada

Peeking pine marten - Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada

Harbour seals - Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada

Humpback whale tail - Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada

Bald eagle - Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada

Spirit bear fishing - Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada

Humpback whale spyhop - Great Bear Rainforest, British Columbia, Canada

After an incredible week of wildlife photography, I flew back to Vancouver before departing Canada altogether and heading home to Wales. This trip was easily one of the best that I've done and that was on a year when the salmon run was poor. Hopefully I can return to do the same trip again when the run is strong and the spirit bears are easier to find.

The Great Bear Rainforest is under threat from logging and hunting, but the main cause for concern right now is the oil tankers. The oil company 'Enbridge' plans to ship thousands of galleons of oil to China using tankers that would have to navigate between the jagged islands along the BC coast. This means a spill would be inevitable and the consequences would be horrific.

The entire Great Bear Rainforest would suffer as well as the thousands of First Nations people that live there. These people rely on the sea just as much as the other animals in the rainforest. If this wilderness is to remain as wild and as beautiful as it is now, then this plan must be stopped.

To find out more about these tankers from coming to the Great Bear Rainforest, please watch 'spOIL'. This great documentary will teach you everything you need to know about this proposal, as well as telling you what you can do to help.

As I was watching this film, I was surprised to see myself pop up in it briefly! At minute 21:47 you can see me walking along the beach with my camera gear as we made our way into the forest. The incredible spirit bear encounter that I had was also filmed and you can get a real idea of what I experienced when you watch this.


All photographs are available to purchase. Please send me a message via my website if you have any questions.

Thank you for reading,

Cai