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.

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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

An Obsession With Owls

It's been a whopping seven months since my last post! After leaving Banff (again) back in March, I've struggled to find time to get out shooting, let alone blog about recent encounters. I thought I'd try and make up for lost time with a post about a new favorite subject of mine, owls.

I photographed my first ever owl in October of 2011, almost exactly one year ago today. I began looking for a Great Grey Owl out on the prairies near Cochrane, and eventually after three long drives I found one.

Since then, I've spent many hours looking for owls both in Canada and back here in the UK. This new obsession has grown stronger with each encounter, and now I'm lucky enough to have spent time with eight different species of owl!

These species include the Great Grey Owl, Northern Hawk Owl, Snowy Owl, Barred Owl, Short-Eared Owl, Little Owl, Tawny Owl and Barn Owl.

So without further ado, here's a selection of photos to sum up a great year of unbaited, wild owl photography. Enjoy!


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Great Grey Owl during autumn snowfall (October, 2011) Cochrane, Alberta, Canada

Great Grey Owl portrait (November, 2011) Cochrane, Alberta, Canada

Male Snowy Owl in strong wind (December, 2011) Alberta prairies, Canada

Male Snowy Owl in flight (December, 2011) Alberta prairies, Canada

Female Snowy Owl in her habitat (January, 2012) Alberta prairies, Canada

Female Snowy Owl in flight (December, 2011) Alberta prairies, Canada

Female Snowy Owl on Christmas Day (December, 2011) Alberta prairies, Canada

Northern Hawk Owl (January, 2012) Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Short-Eared Owl in flight (March, 2012) Aust Warth, England

Short-Eared Owl hunting near Severn Bridge (March, 2012) Aust Warth, England

Short-Eared Owl hunting (March, 2012) Aust Warth, England

Little Owl in nest hole (April, 2012) Cardiff, Wales

Little Owl chick taking a nap (June, 2012) Heritage Coast, Wales

Little Owl chick in stone wall (July, 2012) Heritage Coast, Wales

Tawny Owl chicks in woodland (May, 2012) Cardiff, Wales

I've just got back from a trip to Sri Lanka and India, and although it was more of a holiday than a photography trip, I've still got loads of photos to sort through. Hopefully I'll be able to get most of the keepers edited in the next week or two ready for another post, don't hold your breath though!

If you can't wait for this post, I've put a few shots from this recent trip on my facebook photo page here: Cai Priestley Photography

You can also message me via the photo page or website (www.toothandclawphotography.com) if you have any questions or if you're interested in ordering a print.


Thanks for reading!

Cai

Blizzard The Wolf (2009-2011)

In May of last year, I finally returned to my second home of Banff National Park in the Canadian Rockies to continue photographing the incredible wildlife and scenery of the mountains. After a week or two of well needed photography and amazing wildlife encounters, my bubble was popped by the news of another grizzly bear death on the Canadian Pacific railway.

A grizzly sow that I photographed in early spring, had been killed the following day by a speeding train leaving her two yearling cubs orphaned. This news was hard to take and all of a sudden I snapped out of my euphoric state and came back down to reality with a thump. Things aren't perfect out here by any means. Animals are still being killed by humans in huge numbers throughout the year, on our roads, railway lines and for just simply being wild.

Now, as my time in Canada is coming to a close once again, I'm saddened to learn of the death of 'Blizzard', my favourite wolf. She was struck and killed by a vehicle on the Trans Canada Highway on the 28th of December, 2011.

A recent portrait of Blizzard from our final encounter (December, 2011) Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

I first encountered Blizzard back in February, 2010 when she was just a pup at about 9 months old. I was fairly new to wolf photography at the time so none of my photos were any good. However, I still remember the encounter vividly as it lasted well over 30 minutes, which at the time was the longest wolf encounter I'd ever had. Back then Blizzard had a jet black coat and I'll never forget the joy I felt watching her playing around in the snow with her brother Skoki.

A couple of months after my first encounter with her, I came upon an injured moose whilst out driving early one morning. Had I arrived about twenty minutes earlier, I would have seen the Pipestone wolves attacking the moose and forcing her to retreat to the safety of the Bow river. I stayed nearby for five whole days until eventually the wolves returned to see what condition their prey was in. During this encounter, I took a series of images which feature in one of my previous blog posts, 'Survival In The Bow Valley'.

Blizzard takes a break on the ice as the pack check on the injured moose (April, 2010) Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Blizzard sits patiently as she watches the injured moose (April, 2010) Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

In June of 2010, I hired a driver for the month and spent almost everyday out looking for wildlife across the Rocky Mountains, from Kananaskis to Jasper. During this time I had several encounters with Blizzard and the Pipestone wolves. Even though she was a very social wolf, most of the time Blizzard would be by herself, off on a little excursion from the rest of her family. But just when I thought she might leave the pack, I saw her one morning as she was babysitting the new litter of pups. Unfortunately I didn't see the little ones, but I could hear their yips and squeaks of joy after Blizzard crossed the road to join them in the forest. She still seemed to be a vital member of the pack after all.

Once I was back in Britain the following winter, I was eager to keep up to date with news of the wolves, especially Blizzard who I had spent much more time with than any other members of the pack. It was during this time that her brother Skoki (who wore one of the two GPS collars which help Parks Canada track the wolves movements) finally left the Bow Valley in search of his own territory. Blizzard however, remained an important part of the pack, becoming one of only only three adults. Parks Canada then darted her from a helicopter, and fitted her with a brand new collar.

When I returned to Banff in the spring of 2011, it had been almost exactly one year to the day since I had seen her last. I was rewarded with a twenty minute encounter which was like a big breath of fresh air. It was an amazing feeling to see her again, knowing she was ok and still successfully navigating her way around the bustling Bow Valley.

Sadly, this encounter began with her walking along the side of the Trans Canada Highway. I'm not sure how she got onto that dreaded stretch of road, which has killed so many wolves and bears over the years. It sometimes takes Parks Canada weeks to fix holes or damages to the wildlife fence and I've also seen gates used by construction workers left wide open for hours on end, with nobody around to prevent wildlife from walking out onto the highway. However she did it, I prayed that she would stick to using the overpasses and underpasses, and avoid that highway like the plague!

Blizzard approaches though a patch of dandelions at the side of the TCH (June, 2011) Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Other than that, I barely saw her this summer. A fleeting glimpse every now and then but that's all. The last time I photographed her was late last year during an incredible encounter with the whole pack.

Blizzard (left) and her mother Faith, looking very similar (December, 2011) Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Blizzard taking a stroll in her thick winter coat (December, 2011) Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

A magnificent wolf! (December, 2011) Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Shortly after this encounter, Blizzard took off again on one of her excursions. This time she was gone a whole month, probably looking for a territory of her own, a process known as dispersal. During this time her GPS collar, which hadn't been working for over a year, dropped off. When she returned to the pack this time, friend and fellow photographer Brandon T. Brown watched as the pups greeted her, pleased to be reunited with their elder sister after so long. However, Faith (Blizzards mother and alpha female of the pack) chased her away across a meadow. With Blizzard spending more and more time away from the family, and mating season just around the corner, Faith wasn't willing to let her stay this time. This defining moment in her life was surely the end of her time in the Bow Valley and she vanished again one last time. I hoped that she had headed the same way as her brother Skoki, who used Spray Valley to make his way into Kananaskis where there are few wolves and lots of prey.

Unfortunately it was only one week later that I saw the article in the local newspaper which read, 'Banff wolf killed on TCH near Lac des Arc'. My heart sank as soon as I saw her photo.

Unlike Skoki, Blizzard headed East out of Banff, following the direction of the train tracks and the biggest highway in the country. The Trans Canada Highway is fenced throughout Banff National Park, and Blizzard had managed to navigate around this dangerous road her whole life, using the wildlife underpasses and overpasses to cross from one side of the valley to the other. However, outside the park only some of the highway in fenced. The stretch which passes Lac des Arc has claimed the lives of so many animals over the years. A large adult cougar was killed there late last spring and now Blizzard has become the most recent animal to be hit by someone likely driving too fast at night. With no fencing, speed cameras or traffic cops to be seen anywhere nearby, this will continue to happen until spotting wildlife in our national parks will have become a distant memory.


If you want to learn more about wildlife mortality in the Bow Valley, click this link to hear a WildSmart speaker talk by John Paczkowski. His presentation is called 'Where the Wildlife Roam: Wildlife Movement and Corridor Use in the Bow Valley'.


I'll be moving back home to Wales at the end of the month, but I will continue to campaign on behalf of these animals, and try to update you on the situation here in the Canadian Rockies as best I can. If you haven't done so already, please 'like' my Facebook pages 'Save Banff's Wildlife' and 'Cai Priestley Photography' for news, updates and recent photos.

Even though I'm getting ready to leave the mountains once again, I'm looking forward to the opportunity of photographing some British wildlife for a change, lots of which I've never even seen before. I'm hoping to make several trips to the Pembrokeshire coast for the marine life and I'm exited about a new fox project which I hope to get underway as soon as I get home.

Thanks for reading, and stay tuned for another blog post about the wild horses of Alberta in the next few weeks.

Cai

June In The Rockies

Hello everyone,

So it looks like my 'one blog post a week' plan has already failed miserably! I apologize for the lack of posts recently, but my time has been spent looking for a job as well as looking for bears and other wildlife.

After returning to Canada nearly two months ago, I've finally decided to get a job so that the basic existence that I've been living, can finally come to an end. I start training in Monod's, an outdoor store, on Monday and I'm going to have to get used to a productive routine again after over a year without working. I'm also very fortunate that my new manager has kindly organized my shifts so that I still have every morning free to photograph.


The last few weeks have been pretty amazing for me. I've spent a lot of time looking for a 22 year old grizzly bear and her three newborn cubs. Unfortunately, I've only managed to spot her once and didn't manage to get any photographs. However, I had a lot of luck with other wildlife in June. I finally had a couple of wolf encounters which is what I'd been hoping for this spring. Only one of these encounters yielded a photograph but it just happens to be my favourite wolf shot to date.

'Blizzard', a two-year old female wolf - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

It had been almost exactly one year to the day that I encountered 'Blizzard' last. To see her again and spent twenty minutes photographing her was one of then nicest feeling I've had in a long time. It's so great to see that she's still surviving and looking healthy as ever!

This recent wolf photo is a new favourite of mine, but I've also managed to photograph a lot of other amazing animals over the last few weeks.

Here's a few of my top images from the last month...

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Black bear cub in a tree - Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

Pileated woodpecker chicks - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Bighorn sheep ram - Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

Grizzly bear grazing - Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

Subadult grizzly bear in fresh spring snow - Kananaskis, Alberta, Canada

Large male grizzly bear - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Beaver eating along riverbank - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Great blue heron - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Black bear resting - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Black bear cub in a tree - Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

Pileated woodpecker feeding her chicks - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Bighorn sheep ram overlooking Medicine Lake - Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

Wet black bear - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Cinnamon black bear sow and cub - Jasper National Park, Alberta, Canada

July isn't considered a great month for wildlife photography, so I won't be getting out to shoot as much this month. I'm going to focus on work for a while and I've also got my summer stall to run at the Banff farmer's market every Wednesday. The recent postal strike here in Canada meant that I had very limited stock for the first market day of the summer. The wind and rain didn't help the situation either! I'm praying for blue skies next Wednesday and hopefully things will pick up.

If you're in Banff this summer, come along to the market and say hello! I also have a 'Save Banff's Wildlife' petition with me on the stall which I will be sending to Parks Canada, CP Rail and local MP Mr Blake Richards. Hopefully it will help put them under pressure to do something about the wildlife mortality rate here in Banff as well as spread awareness of the issue.


I've recently opened an account on the popular photo sharing website '500px'. You can view a selection of my most popular photos from around the world as well as vote for which are your favourites.


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

Thank you for reading,

Cai

The Grizzly And The Sheep

I've been meaning to write a new post for quite some time now, so apologies for the delay. The last two weeks have been pretty busy for me, and the lack of sleep is really starting to take it's toll!

However, I've had so many amazing experiences since being back in the Rockies, that it's all been worthwhile. I think that in the last six weeks, I've taken better photographs than I did in my entire first year in Canada! Next weeks post will include some of these favourites.


Today's post is about an incredibly rare encounter I had a couple of weeks back. I was out early one morning looking for bears with friend and master of Canadian wildlife photography, John E. Marriott. John's many years of searching for wildlife in the mountains have resulted in an amazing ability to spot animals. I used to think I was good at this, but now I'm not so sure. I dread to think of how many lynx or cougars I've driven past over the last few years, without even realizing they were there.

After a few hours of driving around without seeing anything at all, I was saying something to John about how our luck would change soon and that we would see something amazing one of these days. As soon as I finished my sentence, he stopped the car suddenly and pointed into the trees at the side of the road. I looked up and saw one of the biggest grizzly bears I've ever seen staring down at us from the top of a ridge.

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Grizzly bear on a bighorn sheep carcass - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

The bear had just stumbled upon the remains of a bighorn sheep when John spotted him. I'm not sure what killed the sheep, but this early in the year, it was a great find for a hungry bear. As we started taking some photos, the bear put it's head inside the carcass and to our surprise, pulled out an unborn lamb foetus!

Grizzly bear with lamb foetus - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

I've heard of a similar sighting in Banff National Park once before, which took place over twenty years ago, but I never thought that I would have the pleasure of witnessing this raw act of nature myself. The umbilical cord was still attached to the lamb and I was able to snap a few frames before the bear turned away from us and lay down to eat his snack.

After he ate the foetus, which only took him about five minutes, the grizzly returned to the carcass and began feeding on the sheep. I've only seen a bear on a carcass once before this and it was quite a distance away. To watch this from just a few meters away was unbelievable.

Grizzly bear feeding on the bighorn sheep - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

Look at the size of this grizzly! - Banff National Park, Alberta, Canada

After feeding on the sheep for another few minutes, the bear decided that it had eaten enough so he left. John and I returned to the carcass several times over the next week but didn't see this monster of a bear again. I fact, we didn't see any other bears anywhere near the carcass which was a surprise. There were no ravens or magpies either which are usually the first to show up on a kill. Then one day the carcass was gone! Only the hide remained. The head and all the meat had vanished overnight, and we had no idea what had eaten it.

About two weeks later, I was browsing through some wildlife photographs on facebook when I saw a photo of a wolf standing over the very same sheep carcass. It was great to finally find out what had happened to the rest of the meat, but I couldn't help feel disheartened that I had missed the wolf. I still hadn't seen a wolf since returning to Canada and I was craving an encounter badly!

Luckily for me, the last week has been kind to me with not one, but two separate wolf encounters. Only one of these encounter yielded a photograph which I'm pleased with and I will be posting that in next weeks post along with some of my other recent favourites.


Unfortunately, I've very nearly run out of money now so I won't be shooting as much over the next few weeks. My main priority now is getting everything set up for my summer market stall which starts at the end of the month. I'm so worried that this postal strike is going to affect the time it takes for my card mounts to arrive from the states. Fingers crossed that I can get everything ready in time!

If you are visiting Banff this summer, don't forget to drop by the market to say hi. I will be selling prints there every Wednesday throughout the summer.

I will also have a petition with me for people to sign. I will be sending copies to Parks Canada as well as Canadian Pacific Railway to show them how many people are unhappy with the animal mortalities along the train tracks in Banff National Park, and with how little is being done to prevent these needless deaths.

If you haven't done so already, I would really appreciate it if you could send a few e-mails to Parks Canada and CPR explaining that this is an unacceptable problem in our protected parks. The relevant contact details can be found in my last blog post 'Another Banff Grizzly Dies'. Please take a few minutes to help make a difference.

Thank you!


Cai


To see more of my work, don't forget to visit my website at www.toothandclawphotography.com