I’m an animal lover. I’m a wildlife and nature photographer. I’ve always had pets, always cared for them to their dying days. . .
But I think some folks are ignoring reality when it comes to animals.
Humans are terrible? Sure, some are, hopefully not too many. Of course we’ve had huge impacts on wildlife, not to mention on each other.
And factory “farming” is gross and disgusting.
But have you ever watched a large cat disembowel an ungulate, and start eating its stomach and organs while the ungulate is still alive?
Ever watched an eagle or an owl stripping flesh off of a still-quivering rodent?
Ever seen a 12cm coho smolt gulp down a 6cm chum fry?
Is that somehow better than us killing?
Nature is not Disney. It never has been, and it never will be.
I think Disney and its ilk have done a huge disservice to children who’ve fallen under their spell.
Predators are not sci-fi movies or documentaries. Predators are daily life, starting from plankton all the way up the food chain to carnivorous mammals. . .
That does not mean that humans cannot reduce their footprint by reducing meat consumption etc.
But let’s not somehow put wildlife up on pedestals as shining examples of harmony and love and whatever. . . .
Something I think we need to keep in mind when thinking about issues such as “culling” wolves and seals, or working with species at risk, or habitat loss, or sustainability, or climate change, etc., is that here in British Columbia, our homo sapiens species has gone from a population of about 55,000 in 1851 to some 4,648,000 in 2016.
That’s an 85X increase in only 165 years.
And our population continues to grow at 5.6% a year.
Caribou? Elk? Wolves? Seals? All a drop in the bucket compared to our numbers. . .
Spent a lovely hour or two down at Centennial Beach in Delta, BC, wandering the beach. It was pouring rain in Burnaby, but only overcast further south.
Looking north toward Vancouver
Looking south
Looking at a reflection in the pond
It was a fairly quiet day for birds, but I did chase this Northern Flicker around a bit
I had a wonderful time wandering the beach, shooting various shells and other beasties. Such a wonderful array of patterns and colors.
It was a late start to salmon spawning season on Byrne Creek in SE Burnaby, BC, this year and we have seen very few fish compared to past years. It’s a mystery that’s troubling.
We saw one chum, and several coho today. We also processed — measured and assessed spawning success — a few dead coho we found.
Unfortunately, this coho female did not spawn before dying. That’s sad to see, particularly since we’ve been getting so few salmon back the last few years.
We also saw this big coho on its last fins. It was barely moving.
NOTE: Streamkeepers have training and permission to monitor spawning salmon and collect data when the fish die. It is illegal to interfere with spawning salmon.
The carcasses are cut in half after they are assessed, to ensure we don’t double count, and are returned to the creek to provide nutrients to the ecosystem.
Photos of today’s incident in Byrne Creek in SE #Burnaby.
A volunteer streamkeeper on his way to Edmonds Skytrain Station this morning noticed the mess.
Called it in to the City, and hope they can find the source.
From Griffiths Pond near Edmonds Skytrain Station I backtracked it all the way to where the creek first appears above ground near 16th. The flow was from higher than that, and was dissipating by the time I got there.
I have not seen any distressed or dying fish, so we might have dodged a bullet, yet again. This has happened a few times over the last few months. Not good.
We have spawning salmon in the creek, and later I will check the sediment pond further downstream, though if it’s this thick down there I likely won’t be able to see anything.
Fish ladder at Griffiths Pond
Heading upstream to where the creek comes out of pipes near 16th.
We walked the dike near 72nd along Boundary Bay in Delta, BC, today, and then spent an hour or two at the North 40 Park Reserve. Lots of great “shooting” opportunities!
This shot of a Short-Eared Owl pursuing a crow is my fave of the day. Dunno if it would actually whack the crow, but it sure looks pissed off : – ).
I took several hundred shots of Northern Harriers, and these were about the only ones I’d publish : – ).
