Red fox wedding.

Right around this time of year the foxes have their mating season in Kronotsky Nature Reserve in Kamchatka. Several times I was fortunate to be a "wedding' photographer for a fox couple. And during my shift in 2010-2011 I was waiting for my neighbor, Cosmo (Кузя in Russian) to play with his mate, Cosimina. But a new female fox appeared and their relationship was complicated and hidden from an outsider, such as me. Whenever I saw Cosmo, he pretended to be very bored, yawning and chasing fleas. He seemingly avoided his partners. Eventually a new fox, who I called Alisa, and Cosmo did have several cubs, four of which were raised, I have told about them in the summer of 2011 in this blog.

Today I will show you a marriage of another couple from the River Tikhaya (meaning quite in Russian) in Kronotsky Nature Reserve. I was a wedding photographer for them in spring of 2008.

This is a groom, Lizovin.

And this beautiful lady is a bride, Liza.

Walking together.

A female fox often starts a chase, this way she is probably testing the health of the future father of her cubs. The pregnancy lasts for around 50 days, and the little foxes are born in may in deep burrows and stay there for the first month of their life. That year Liza and Lizovin raised 5 cubs.

A love triangle happened in Liza and Lizovin life as well. One day another female fox appeared and has taken Lizovin away for a day. But Liza was very wise, and she greeted Lizovin with happiness when he came back.

Below, you can find one of the photos from this story at high resolution, that you can use for desktop backgournds. I call that photo foxtrot on river banks.

New expedition plans.

Many old photographers, including myself, remember the days of film photography with warmth. It seems like at that time I used to have more time to actually photograph then now, when I spend lots of time in front of computer screen... The winter has passed, it is almost time to depart for a new expedition, but nearly half of my last year's archive are still not processed:(

On a good side, I have almost finished a new book about photographer's life in Kamchatka.
The photo above is from a folder "Kenozero - 2012".

Past Sunday I participated in a program "Otkryvashka" (Открывашка in Russian, meaning a little discovery) on Echo of Moscow radio station. This is a program for children and youth, and our subject was "Discovering Kamchatka".

You are welcome to watch it online and read the record via google translator at this link. I have announced my plans to fulfil one of my dreams, to travel to Kamchatka from my home in Bryansk forest by land. For this adventure I plan to use a military type vehicle. I plan to to take a year for the trip one way, stopping in different Russian nature reserves and national parks, telling my readers about Russian wildlife and history of nature conservation. If everything works out as planned, after reaching Kamchatka, I will spend a year there, traveling across it and recording everything. And then, hopefully, I will take another year to return back on a different, northern route.

The picture above is taken in May, when the spring just emerges in Kamchatka.

Originally posted at following
http://shpilenok.livejournal.com/174547.html
http://shpilenok.livejournal.com/175979.html
http://shpilenok.livejournal.com/173998.html

Banks of the Geysernaya River, Kamchatka

Nowadays, while working on a new book about Kamchatka I often look through my photo archives. And I often think about how lucky I was to have a chance to work in the Valley of Geysers for several seasons in the past. It is a miraculous place. And the river in the middle of it, called Geysernaya (derived from word Geyser in Russian), is also miraculous. It is only 12 km long (7.5 miles) - but so much diversity exists along it.

On picture above, a famous volcanologists, V.A. Drozdin, who has worked in this area for many years, is crossing a river.

In the Uzon volcanic caldera.

 

 

Kronotsky Nature Reserve. Lake Dalnee (Дальнее - Distant in Russian) is a maar lake in Uzon Volcano Kaldera.

 

 

 

 

 

Another view of Kronotsky Volcano.

Superior mirage?

Sometimes Kamchatka air becomes very clear and it is possible to see very far. Several times I have seen these distant mountains at the very edge of the horizon as if they appear behind the Pacific ocean. This photo is taken with a powerful 500mm lens. I am still not sure what did I photograph...

Originally posted at http://shpilenok.livejournal.com/167606.html

Abandoned settlement "Kronoki".

In winter.

And in fall.

In the middle of last century this town was very busy. There was seismological base here, military base, Kronotsky Nature reserve station. Many expeditions have started from here. The buildings have extended for a mile and a half along the coast line. Nowadays only ranger and weather station are active, the rest is abandoned. The Nature reigns here, and humans are only present to observe.

Originally posted at  http://shpilenok.livejournal.com/149469.html and  http://shpilenok.livejournal.com/167606.html

Kamchatka February dreams...

The trees on this picture are Erman's birch trees. Below is a close up picture of them from Kurile Nature Reserve, and also, using the tag Erman's birch you can read my other stories of this amazingly beautiful tree, my favorite tree.



And below are more views of Kamchatka peninsula...

... and Pacific ocean in February...

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Bear moments.

These are just seconds recorded from the bear family life on one of the river crossing in South Kamchatka Sanctuary (Southern Kamchatka Wildlife Refuge).

Cosmo from Kronotsky Nature Reserve.

I was looking through my archives in search of photos for my new photo-book and came across these photos of Cosmo (Кузя in Russian) from 2007. At that time he was much younger and playful than when I last saw him, during my wintering in Kronotsky Nature Reserve in 2010-2011. This is one of the stories from that period: http://wildlife-photo-russia.blogspot.com/2011/06/it-may-be-really-bad-for-my-health.html

What is it?

READ ANSWER BELOW (at the link):

Super-predator.

Ermine with prey...


... and without.