Reindeer's pride!

Good morning from Kronotsky Nature reserve!

One of the comment to my previous post said: "You've got so many bears there, that they seem to be present on all the photos. I have a feeling that even if you'll post a picture of a butterfly or an ant, there will be a bear on the background". My friend was right! Today a bear was interfering when I photographed this majestic male reindeer.

Russian version.

The herd was hiding in the fog!

I finally found the reindeer herd today, not far from my ranger station. They were hiding in the fog from me:))

You can view the Russian version here..

Interacting with an "alien".

Early this morning I was looking for the disappeared reindeer herd again, but with no luck. Even the powerful binoculars did not help.

On my way I laid on the ground to look at the tiny starflowers. As I was adjusting the focus of my macro lens, I suddenly saw that there was a tiniest pair of black curious eyes watching me from under the white flower leaf. The flower diameter is less than 1 cm, so the Creature’s size was about 1 mm! The mosquitoes were giants next to him. I crawled around the flower and the Creature was turning to follow my movements, probably thinking what to expect from me.

For a long time we were communicating in this manner, looking in each other’s eyes, and I felt so much happiness... I felt much happier than if I’d found my herd of reindeer or photographed a “herd” of bears. I felt as if I was interacting with an alien…

You can view the Russian version here..

Searching for reindeer herd!

Both yesterday and today I spent looking for the reindeer on a maritime tundra – my task as a ranger is to observe their summer herd condition. But I guess I’m not a very good reindeer specialist – I did not find a single one for two days :(

However during my search I have had lots of frights from these serious “gentlemen”… At one point I saw ten of them, grazing like reindeer on the best pastures. No females or youth, I’ve noticed only large and very “serious” males.

You can view the Russian version here..

Fisherman's Day celebration!

The other day we celebrated Fisherman's Day! But fishing isn’t going well yet anyways. There is a lot of fish around - hunchback salmon is actively going up the river for spawning. All the bears see it, but only super-professionals can get it – those who can dive deep and get the weakened fish from the bottom. Only few bears can do it. Others are waiting for the water level to drop so the fish is more accessible.

You can view the Russian version here..

Update on Mr. Sneaky Evildoer housing situation. Happy end so far...

Estuary shore looks like a three lane highway these days, with a separate lane for each animal species.

I was in a thick fog of the estuary by the sunrise this morning. Every now and then I was hearing the bears roar and the sound of their footsteps on the water. First of all I discovered that the new burrow was also digged up, and there were no foxes in it. I went back to the old burrow (that I've shown yesterday) and noticed some fresh fox paw prints on a soft ground. So I stayed in a hide from 6 to 10am and only saw one cub peeked from one of the burrow branches that was partially undestroyed.

The morning was marvellous, after 9 am the fog cleared and the panoramic view of volanos with their snow caps was astohishing. But I could not really enjoy it. I almost lost hope and went back to my station...

At home I felt restless... And in the afternoon I went back to the estuary. I was tying up my boat to the willow tree at the shore not far from the old burrow when I suddenly saw Mr Evildoer himself through the thick bushes!! He looked at me displeased with the wet dirt all over him. Let's skip my emotions... In two minutes I found a new burrow that he was busy making under the roots of the inclined willow tree.

It looks like the foxes decided to expand the abandoned or temporary otter burrow. And based on my paw-steps observations the cubs are hiding in the remains of both burrows. I quickly went back to the boat to spare the foxes from unnessesary stress of my presence. But as I was rowing away I saw Mrs. Evildoer that was dragging a large salmon to the new burrow. I do not know for sure if all of the young ones survived, but it is already a Happy end!

You can view the Russian version here..

Mr. Sneaky Evildoer is in trouble...

Over a week I did not visit the family of Evildoers because the grass around their burrow grew too big to see or photograph them without disturbing.

And this is what happened meanwhile: a bear has destroyed their home. At least six cubs and a mother, Mrs. Evildoer, managed to survive (their burrow had 4 exits). I found them in their researve burrow half a mile away from the destroyed one. I was watching their activity for several hours, but did not see the father of the family. That makes me really worried about Mr. Sneaky Evildoer.

Now there is a high concentration of bears at the estuary (I spotted over a dozen). They are attracted by the salmon activity, but cannot catch any since the water level in the estuary is unusually high for this time of year. That fact makes animals more aggressive. Not only Mr. Evildoer’s burrow was razed to the ground. One of the bears has broken all windows and doors in the human cabin nearby; he also destroyed everything possible inside.

I am planning to go to the estuary again tomorrow...

You can view the Russian version here..

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..

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..

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..

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..

"My father's tail is my best toy!"

One of young Evildoers playing.

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

Moments of June in Kamchatka.

Female reindeer with a young.

A fox coming back to his family with a prey.

Inspired song.

The Meteorologist Creek.

A "ghost" of Kronotsky Volcano (view from the north, from the mouth of Listvennaya River).

cloudberry flowers.

Cold early morning on Kronotsky Lake in June.

Original post in Russian here.

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.

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.

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...

In early spring there were a lot of bears grazing around my station, since here, on a marine wetland tundra the first grass has appeared. But now more and more grass is growing on the volcano slopes, so the many bears have gone there. I have not seen Mr. Sturdy and Suzemka for over a week now.
But still, some bears live within a mile radius around my home near Kronotskaya river. On the first photo it is Robinzon, phlegmatic male bear, who you may remember from my previous stories. This one will probably stay away from my house, but in my absence he won't miss the chance to dig a hole in the helicopter landing site and enjoy the smell of jet fuel there (I previously told a story about how they do it here).

I also have already mentioned this family in one of my previous posts (now the mother of the family recieved the name Yusha). They constantly wonder around but do not come closer than 300 yard to my house. Now I understand why this family is so skinny. The problem is that Yusha is an overly-worried parent. She constantly finds imaginary dangers around and constantly takes her kids away from these dangers... So the family spends its time worrying instead of consentrating on finding food.

And this is "Boyfriend" (he is introduced in this story). I have chased him away with the flare from my backyard on many occasions... He is very bored without a play-mate now, when Suzemka is gone. His favorite time-passing has become to destroy and shutter old alder trees on the river islands around. It is from him I reenforced the windows in my house before leaving it.

These are the "Boyfriend" claws' marks.

Original post in Russian here.

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.