Catching up - PEI Birds

 The focus of my visits to Prince Edward Island is family, not photographs, but I always manage to grab a few shots of bird life on the island, even though I usually travel there with minimal equipment.

The trip this year was especially fun as we were celebrating my parent's 61st wedding anniversary and the whole family was there to participate.

I love photographing the Great Black-backed Gulls at the beach. They are huge and are relatively tolerant of people. The red spots on their bills add a bit of color but the markings were especially noticeable on this big bird - maybe a sign of age?

 The red cliffs of Rustico Beach are visible in the background.

 The Finches on the Island were exhibiting signs of disease this summer so people were asked to take down all their feeders to prevent large numbers of birds from gathering in one spot. Of course that didn't stop the Goldfinches from finding natural feeding areas such as Sunflowers and Thistles.

The Kingfishers were out in force along the river in New Glasgow and that was where I really missed having a longer lens with me.

 There were lots and lots of shorebirds at Cavendish Beach, including this Greater Yellowlegs that I snapped off the Homestead Trail.

One of my favorite bird shots of the trip was this one of a pair of Ruddy Turnstones with a Bonaparte Gull for size comparison on the wharf in Summerside. The Turnstones are not residents of the Island - they stop by on their way through during migration. I was actually taking part in a water obstacle course in the harbor (another story!) when I spotted these guys near by.

Chasing Winter

Ken and I have returned from our annual pilgrimage in search of the last vestiges of winter. In other words, we spent a week Cat-Skiing the Canadian Rockies. For almost a decade now we have been driving up to Golden, British Columbia to hop on a helicopter and get dropped in the mountainous back country along with 34 other adventurous souls. Except for one year, we have always used Chatter Creek and I still believe they are the best for a whole bunch of reasons. 

The new, black Cats are bigger and more comfortable but not as photogenic as their yellow predecessors.

 One noted change this year was that we were definitely the oldest two people there - not just among the skiers but also taking into account the two dozen people working at Chatter. It was not a position I enjoyed, to tell the truth. It was pretty clear there were those wondering just what the two old folks were doing risking life and limb at a young man's sport. The other change this year was that, although there was lots of snow, it had started to warm up and instead of powder, we ended up skiing cement most of the time. That meant working a lot harder to get our turns and it also meant the potential for injury was much greater.

Over the years we have been doing this sport we have seen a few wrecks but this was the greatest number of injuries in a short amount of time. Before the trip was over we had witnessed a torn achilles, a dislocated shoulder and a blown ACL - none of which happened to any of the twelve people in our group but it did end up disrupting the day as our guides were called upon several times to join in rescue attempts.

Our Cat of twelve guests was a mish-mash of six groups of two including one other female. Several of the skiers grew up racing and some of the lines they chose were absolutely mind boggling. I really enjoyed getting to know every one of them and appreciated their support and encouragement of the "old lady" of the group!

The end of the road. It's all downhill from here!

Early morning light.

All the Cats start out together and then split to different areas.

Looking back at the group skiing down one-by-one.

Another group is visible just off the Cat road.

Thank heavens for yellow road markers. The Cat drivers are incredibly skilled at what they do.