As the year progressed I added 1 or 2 photographs and summary text to this page that illustrated projects or trips that I’ve been working on or have just completed.
December
The Northern Hawk Owl is usually found in northern Canada and from Alaska to Labrador. I photographed this one in Schomberg, Ontario just north of Toronto. Since it arrived there are often upwards of 50 photographers trying to get a unique shot of this bird. The Northern Hawk Owl doesn’t seem to be bothered by people as it hunts for prey.
October
Aerial Photography — The photographs were taken on September 30, 2019, starting out from the Airport in Greenfield, Nova Scotia then over Ponhook Lake, Molega Lake and on to the Atlantic Coast to the LaHave Islands, Hirtle Beach and Gaff Point and on the return flight over the LaHave River and Bridgewater.
More photographs can be viewed at this link: Aerial Photography Album
September
Today, September 16, 2019 Pam and I decided to go for a hike that took us through the Nova Scotia Nature Trust’s 15 hectare property “Knox Conservation Lands” on the north side of Molega Lake. This was just over a week after Hurricane Dorian passed through Nova Scotia. We had stayed at our summer home on Molega Lake during the storm and although scary at the time the damage we experienced was minimal although it included our power being out for 6 days. Others in the area saw more trees come down or break off.
We weren’t prepared for what we saw on the conservation lands which were just a kilometer away. Along the inland edge of the Conservation Lands, the property line follows an old logging road for a little over half of a kilometer. On the other side of this road the forest had been logged right after the Nature Trust took possession of the these lands. This left a large area of land deforested with an obvious edge or tree line beginning at the Nature Trust’s conservation property. This edge is visible in the photographs. The open area created from logging acted like a wind tunnel and the Hurricane hit the tree line with its full force toppling any tree in its path along that line as well as dominoing numerous trees adjacent to the first row. In this short forest edge there were at least 50 trees down, mostly pine and somewhere between 80 to 150 years old.
Later we hiked another short trail that took us to the edge of the lake at the other side of the conservation lands and what was noticeable was that the interior of the forest suffered very little damage. On a quick inspection I couldn’t see any trees that were blown over by the Hurricane.
In the next couple of weeks I’ll be revisiting this forest to get a better idea of the types of trees affected by the storm and to count how many were actually downed by the storm.
In a forest one tree supports another if one tree is taken down then the next tree becomes much more vulnerable.
— UPDATE – I went back a couple of days later and had a closer look at the damage. At the edge of the logging road I counted 73 trees that were uprooted and of those all but 3 were Eastern Hemlock the others were 1 Birch and 2 Red Spruce.
July – August
I’m switching from the Spring Projects and exploring new forests. I photographed a beautiful forest in New Brunswick but want to return later this summer to photograph an Old Growth Forest that I missed in my late June visit at Fundy National Park. I have a list of forests that I’m hoping to get to photograph over the coming months.
During August Pam and I drove to the area north of Lake Superior to Thunder Bay. Along the way we did several hikes in the Lake Superior Provincial Park and many other trails. For me it was an opportunity to photograph the southern edge of the Boreal Forest which I’ve been wanting to do for sometime. I’d still like to get further north into the Boreal Forest and eventually to the northern end of the tree line. I’ve added a very small selection of photographs from this trip.
April -June
During April through June I’m working on 2 projects. 1. Creating an Album of Photographs on Old Growth Forests near the Humber River. 2. Shooting additional photographs for my project on the Niagara Escarpment which I hope to present on this Website during the winter of 2019/20.
I went to the Orchid Festival at Tobermory the first week of June to photograph the Lady Slippers, while I only saw 2 in bloom it was a great time to be on this part of the Escarpment before the main tourist season begins.
