Originally posted at Нос к носу.
Sunday, September 30, 2012
Good morning from the Kuril Lake.
Wildlife at a remote ranger station.
Would you call it a downward-facing bear?
Originally posted at Зверь на дальнем кордоне. and Медвежьи потягушки.
Wednesday, September 26, 2012
This is how masterpieces are made!
This is Adam Kirilenko, a famous photo-artist from Kamchatka and a very experienced traveler. At 72, Adam is hiking up volcanoes and spends months in the harsh taiga environment. Nowadays we are sharing one of the cabins at this ranger station. Adam does not trust the internet that much, but I am hoping to convince him to share some of his art with you who are reading this blog.
And this morning we saw this full rainbow over the Kuril Lake.
Originally posted at Радуга над Курильским озером.
and Вот так создаются шедевры.
Monday, September 24, 2012
Settling at a new place.
In the center of the picture is the Grassy Cape with a ranger station and a visitor station on it.
Yesterday I arrived at my new place of work. Actually, it is a old new place, because in the past years I spent many months working as a ranger on the Kuril Lake in Southern Kamchatka Wildlife Refuge. I've in different parts of the Refuge in different seasons. Here in my blog I published many stories about this place and even wrote a photo-book about this lake. My colleage and very talented photographer, Alexey Bezrukov, wrote a lot about this lake too when he spent two years here with his family also working as a ranger. I bet that both Alexey and his wife Tatyana are missing local bears on their new assignment on the Baikal Lake.
The ranger station at the Grassy Cape is my favorite place on the Kuril Lake. This place has the highest density of brown bears in Russia. During this year there were over a thousand bears recorded around the lake. Even with my own eyes I've seen over a hundred of bears per day on many occasions. Even today I've seen at least couple of dosens of them from the window. Therefore in the coming weeks prepare yourself to see many bears in my blog!
How did I end up coming here to work? Well, the tourists season is coming to an end. The season of bad weather is coming. The rangers who work here are going to take vacations during this time. Fall with it's «nasty» weather is my favorite time of year. So I am taking this opportunity to substitute unti the winter comes. In addition to being my favorite place during my favorite weather, this ranger station has the fastest sattelite internet setup in the whole park. That means that you will learn about the local wildlife news in real time!
On this picture you can see the whole station: on the left there are two ranger houses. The larger building to the right is a hotel for visitors. All the buildings are connected by wooden trails. The green square is a helipad.
It is real winter on the mountaintops already...
Yesterday on my way to the Southern Kamchatka Wildlife Refuge I saw Gorelyi Volcano. Everyting that is above 16 hundred feet is already white with snow.
Originally posted at На вулканах уже зима...
Good morning from the headquarters of Kronotsky Nature Reserve!
It is rainy here in Kamchatka; the mountain and volcano tops are covered with snow. Very slowly, typhoon is exhausting itself. For three weeks I was not able to go one place in the Kamchatka peninsula that I dreamt about.
This is a photo from my archive. Fox's "yoga" stretch.
Originally posted by
"There, on those mysterious trails, are tracks of beasts you'll never meet..."
My curious readers were asking about the ribbon of trails on the aerial photo of Uzon Caldera in previous post. It is wooden trails that are designed both to protect the fragile soils in Kronotsky nature reserve and to protect visitors for the hidden dangers of volcanic environment. The tourists should always stay on the trails when they are visiting the Valley of Gaysers, the Uzon Caldera and other famous places.
Construction and maintenance of such trails are extremely expensive given the fact that all the wooden planks can only be transported by helicopter... Keep in mind that these trails are also widely used by "the locals".
Originally posted by
Friday, September 21, 2012
Caldera of Uzon Volcano.
This is Chloride Lake in Uzon Caldera as it can be seen from a landing helicopter.
And this is a ranger station in Uzon Calder.
Morning on Kuril Lake.
Currently I am working as a ranger without a ranger station at Kronotsky Biosphere Reserve: I am accompanying helicopters with tourists and various cargos. All the photos I’ve taken so far were taken on the way. And there was only one morning that I spent outside the city, yesterday morning. It was in Southern Kamchatka Wildlife Refuge at Kuril Lake.
Thursday, September 20, 2012
Kamchatkan fall as seen from a helicopter.
Air way from Petropavlovs-Kamchatsky to Kronotsky nature reserve passes by Karymsky volcano. It is the smallest volcano (1,536 m or 5,039 ft), but the most "hard-working" one.
Click below to see several more areal pictures of the fall colors this year in Kamchatka.
Fall 2012 on volcanic plateau.
Under fall clouds.
Friday, September 14, 2012
Protected river - Kronotskaya.
Upper reaches of Kronotskaya river near Kronotsky volcano (Kronotskaya sopka).
The lower reaches by Pacific ocean.
Originally posted by
Friday, September 7, 2012
Kamchatka dreams... In less than a day they should come true...
Originally posted by
Thursday, September 6, 2012
White birds.
Two large white birds live in my backyard and fish in my pond nowadays. The stork (right) was brought in by people. He was misfortunate to get caught in abandoned water tower not far from Suzemka. We do not know how he got in and how long was he there without food or water. He became so week, that he was not able to follow other storks that migrated south in a second half of August. Even now, after a week of nourishing diet he still doesn't fly.
And egret (left), a rare bird for Bryansk region, came by himself: he got interested in abundance of fish in the pond. He learned that the dog and people are not posing a danger here, and now he is always full. The migration south for egrets will start later.
Originally posted by
Wednesday, September 5, 2012
Good morning from Bryansk Forest!
Back in the beginning of June a strike of lightening burned down equipment for my satellite internet (nothing else is available in my village), but since then I was not in a hurry to restore the access: all my energy was directed on completing the construction project on my house. As a result the living area doubled! Now my children will each have their separate rooms, and both my wife and I will have a spacious home office. There is still some finishing left – but it is not my job to do the painting. This week specialists changed my Internet equipment – so I am back online, and hopefully will be able to post more regularly from now on.
My cameras almost got rusted waiting for me to finish building extention to my house: only recently I took them out of the boxes and started exercising to get back into professional photographer shape. Every morning I ride my horse Aza in local jungles. It is not summer here anymore, but not autumn either. A wonderful time: not a single mosquito, ripen apples and water in the river is still warm enough for swimming. Nevertheless I will soon be leaving home to go far away…
Photos: Nerussa River water meadows yesterday.
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