Saturday, July 9, 2011

Flowers and foxes under summer rain.

Andromeda flower is only around 5mm (0.2in) in diameter.
D7000, 60mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor

It is raining for the third day over here. The temperature is +54F (12C). The same is forecasted for tomorrow. This is my favorite weather in Kamchatka, the best for photography, especially if there is a cabin nearby to dry your clothes and gear several times per day.

I started to recieve a lot of questions about what lenses and camera I use for every particular shot, so from now on, whenever time permits I'll post this information below the image. I hope that it will not distract anyone from enjoying the pictures.

D7000, 60mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor

D7000, 60mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor

D7000, 60mm f/2.8D AF Micro-Nikkor

Alisa under the rain.
D7000, 70-200mm f/2.8G ED VR II

You can view the Russian version here..

Thursday, July 7, 2011

My little local mink-"alarm-clock".

Mink on land and in water.

This little animal has made his home just outside my cabin. Thanks to him I never missed a sunrise - right around 3:50am every day this little mink starts his morning routine making a gentle noise around. Just enough to wake me up. It is slightly too early, but on the other hand the early bird catches the worm!


You can view the Russian version here..

Wednesday, July 6, 2011

The red-colored "poachers".


From far away I noticed that Mr. Sneaky Evildoer was carrying a duckling that he caught in the Kronotsky nature reserve. So I quietly sat on the sand and ceased to move, hoping to photograph him “red-handed”. But this old “poacher” is hard to trick! He sensed me too, carefully hid his prey in the grass and came out in the open “with clean hands”. Three times he passed me with his honest eyes as if saying: “Here, take as many pictures of me as you wish!”. And only after I left he went back to his hidden duck. Such a sly fox!

But my naïve and open-hearted neighbor, Alisa, was caught on camera today with the undisputable evidence!


Alisa was carrying a mouthful of nestlings together with the nest.

And this skillful fox managed to catch a big salmon in the shallow part of estuary.

You can view the Russian version here..

Friday, June 24, 2011

Summer already?


Today was the first day I was bitten by mosquitoes! So from this point on I will tag my entries as “summer”. Some meteorologists think that the summer starts when the average temperature during 24 hours goes above 59F. Well, here the temperature goes above 59F only in my cabin, which I keep heating up every day.

Alisa, my female fox neighbor, is on the picture above. She has just caught a ground squirrel and is carring it to her cubs in the burrow. Today I finally found out that she is living in a burrow that over past years was occupied by another couple, Cosmo and his ex-wife, Cosimina. I say ex-wife, because now Cosmo is still living in this burrow, and I haven’t seen Cosimina since the beginning of May. Meanwhile Alisa and Cosmo have little cubs that just started to peep out from their fortress. How many of them – I don’t know.

The reason is that Cosmo has his own views on a subject of «private property». Mr. and Mrs. Evildoer, for example, are very tolerant to my presence near their burrow, but Cosmo... Every time I am anywhere near his island in the marshes he becomes hysterical. He starts heartrending howls demanding me to leave. And I leave, offended. It is not fair that he can peer into my windows every day, but I can’t even come close?... But maybe I should not be offended, it’s just his personality, he even protects his burrow from butterflies and bumble-bees!


A male bear marking the trees with his unique smell.

A female bear mother, Yusha, is leading her "teenagers".

My neighbor, "Boyfriend", a young male bear drinking from the river.

Arctic rasberry flower after rain.


Swallowtail butterfly.


Willows blossom.


A Steller's Sea Eagle family.

You can comment here or at the original post in Russian..

Saturday, June 18, 2011

Moments of June in Kamchatka.

Female reindeer with a young.



Original post in Russian here.

Thursday, June 16, 2011

About Kizimen Volcano.

Ash cloud above Kizimen.

Almost every day my friends ask how is Kizimen eruption affecting me and my neigbors (i.e. foxes, bears and other animals). The information presented in media is very confusing.
Three days ago I went to Kronotsky Lake from the stretch of which I could see the top part of Kizimen. Visually, nothing is different here - the giant keeps erupting. The ash cloud is coving significant part of the horizont, but I can not see details behind this cloud.

Nevertheless the spring is in full blossom on the heavily covered with ashes lake banks.

*** You can read more about the volcanic activity in Kamchatka at this websites:
http://www.kscnet.ru/ivs/kvert/index_eng.php


Original post in Russian here.

Wednesday, June 15, 2011

Nine cubs in Mr. Evidoer's family!!


It is a wonderful season now: the temperature outside is very comfortable for long hikes, the trees have gentle new leaves on and there are no mosquitoes yet! There is so much to do now that I don’t even have time for sleeping eating and other necessaries of life… As soon as I got back from Kronotsky Lake yesterday I immediately went to the estuary to visit Mr. and Mrs. Evildoers. As it turns out they have nine cubs, and not five as we thought before!!! And all of the little ones look well fed and taken care of. I’ve witnessed from my hide how Mr. Sneaky personally participates in making their daily toilette! Such a caring father! And I wish you could have seen the funny and cute moments when the cubs gather around Mrs. Evildoer for feeding!

Therefore, with all this life going on around me, I do not have time to process and prepare more photos and write longer reports… Hopefully, when the weather gets worse or the life slows down, I’ll catch up!

Original post in Russian here.

Sunday, June 12, 2011

Current situation with my local bears.


For several days I will be out of reach from the sattelite internet, I am going for a long patrolling trip to check the situation on distant ranger stations. My backpack is packed and is waiting for my on the porch. Just now I closed all the shutters in the windows and enforced them with wooden boards. This is not an excessive safety measure, I have troublesome neighbors around. And I wanted to tell you about them today...



Original post in Russian here.

Saturday, June 11, 2011

The willows are in blossom.


Over here, in my ranger station here in Kronotsky Nature Reserve, all the willow trees are blooming. Do not ask me what are their specific names, I am not a specialist. But even I can differentiate at least 10 different species around my home.



Original post in Russian here.

Friday, June 10, 2011

Two morning encounters.

This is Mrs. Evildoer, Mr. Sneaky Evildoer spouse and a mother of 5+ cubs, on the shore of the Kronotsky-Bogachevsky estuary.


Original post in Russian here.

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Under summer rain.


It is raining nonstop for four days here. The rain is light and relatively warm; it is transforming the dull cheerless landscape of tundra to beautiful summer colors.




Original post is by Igor Shpilenok (both text & images) in Russian here.

Wednesday, June 8, 2011

Next generation of Evildoers is here!


Today, early in the morning I visited the estuary. When I was passing Mr. Sneaky Evildoer’s burrow entrance I saw tiny pair of eyes, still dull of being just opened… The little cub immediately disappeared in the darkness of the burrow. I kneeled down, pointed my camera at the entrance and stopped moving.


Original post is by Igor Shpilenok (both text & images) in Russian here.

Thursday, June 2, 2011

Why does Mr. Evildoer need a fishing float?


Today Mr. Evildoer has brought a fishing float to his home (as I was previously telling here).

And I immediately understood that he took this, seemingly useless in a fox daily life object as a toy for his cubs. This theory will probably make professional zoologists smile, but why not? Above is a photograph that I made while watching the 3 months old fox youngsters play in August couple of years ago. Almost all their games were around a very similar object, the fishing float! Each one of them wanted to have this toy all for himself. In addition to that, I have seen floats, heavily bitten by tiny teeth, next to almost all the fox burrows in the neighborhood.
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Original post is by Igor Shpilenok (both text & images) in Russian here.

It may be really bad for my health...


... to laugh so hard at foxes today! :)

On the photo my nearest neighbor, the fox I name Cosmo, is investigating the smell that Mr. Evildoer left on my photo-gear.

Original post is by Igor Shpilenok (both text & images) in Russian here.