June started in a not-so-typical fashion for me. Typically, by this point in the summer I am flat-out with field work (I work as a Wildlife Biologist), however, due to the above-average rainfalls across most of Canada, my work was put on hold, gifting me two weeks of light office work. This opened a few opportunities that I thought I would be missing out on, the first being a whole week in my home city of Victoria and the second being the opportunity to head north to Tofino to housesit with my partner.

Having a whole week in Victoria allowed me to get straight back into my seemingly endless hunt for the Northern Pygmy Owl. If you’ve been following my photographic journey for a while, you will likely have seen videos of me searching for these tiny fluff balls in my local area on several previous occasions. The pygmy owl has been a target of mine for the past two years but due to several factors—they’re very small, live in mountainous hard-to-get-to terrain, and I haven’t been able to spend much time in the area searching for them—I still haven’t seen one, let alone photographed one. With one week up my sleeve I decided to jump on ebird (an app that shows recent bird sightings)¹ and, low and behold, someone had spotted a pygmy owl about 45 minutes from the city a few days before—the hunt was on!

It should be no surprise to you that I spent countless hours, over a two-day period, scouring the mountainsides for the elusive bird. But, despite my best efforts, I once again came up short. Regardless of the lack of results, it was nice to check out a new area and I did manage to photograph some other nice animals during my search. The search for the pygmy owl continues…

Image 1: A juvenile Anna’s hummingbird poses on a branch.

My second week of freedom was spent with my partner, Rebecca, house sitting for some friends in Canada’s surf city—Tofino. I love spending time in Tofino; it was the first place I visited on Vancouver Island, way back in 2017, and it was the place where my love affair with this magical part of the world really began. It is a truly beautiful part of the world, a place where the mountains meet the sea and beautiful old-growth forests line the beaches. It is also home to a wide array of wildlife including bears, wolves, cougars, a ton of birds, and all of the eclectic marine mammals that Vancouver Island is known for.

As was the general theme for May and June this year, our week spent in Tofino was a wet and windy one, with a winter-worthy storm slamming into the coast on our second day there. But the rain and wind enhanced the cozy feeling of the little wood cabin we were looking after, and it even gave me the opportunity to light a fire (in June, of all months!).

After a wet-and-windy few days, the weather finally broke, leaving us with some beautiful afternoon light as the clouds parted low on the horizon. These types of conditions are some of my favorites to photograph, usually resulting in a few straggling clouds overhead and a rich, warm light painting them orange and red in the late evening glow. I am always checking the weather app on stormy days and if there ever looks like there will be a break in the clouds right on sunset, I try my best to be prepared and get out to capture it. This particular afternoon in Tofino was just as expected, a late break in the clouds creating some beautiful light for the last 30 minutes of the day.

With Rebecca tied up with surf coaching for the weekend, and my ongoing shoulder injury still keeping me out of the water, I decided to set my sights on a goal that I had chiselled out at the beginning of the year—photographing the elusive coastal wolf.

At the beginning of each year, I usually set myself a handful of photographic objectives—targets, if you will. I generally like to think of targets from both a conservation standpoint and a personal interest standpoint. For me, the coastal wolf fits both of those categories. During my four years living in Canada, I had never encountered the elusive coastal wolf. On multiple occasions, I had been camping in areas and seen fresh tracks but never laid eyes on the actual animal. For this reason, they were high on my personal interest list. From a conservation standpoint, these wolves need a voice. They are hunted freely across Canada due to a lack of regulations. For this reason, they have been at the top of my list to photograph. I want to be able to use my imagery to create a desire for conservation in the general public, and within my local community. Emotive imagery is a powerful tool for conservation, and I always try my best to give these animals a voice, especially ones that are so heavily persecuted like wolves.

With my goal in mind and a few days of light rain forecasted, I enlisted my good mate Fritzy (Jordan Fritz)² and set out on an adventure north to a remote island that is known to be inhabited by coastal wolves. Fritzy is an incredibly talented artist, who can apply his unique and beautiful style to any landscape that comes under his gaze. He is generally up for any adventure, especially to a new place with some fresh landscapes for him to paint.

We set out late in the afternoon, travelling via boat for a good stint of time and then on foot, completing the gruelling one-hour slog through a bog to our destination. In classic PNW fashion, the track was completely saturated, the knee-deep mud clawing its way up our boots, trying its best to suck us deeper with every step. After an hour of slogging, we finally made it to the beach we had planned to camp on, and unsurprisingly we were the only ones there. We quickly set up our tents during a brief break in the rain and then tried to start a fire. Every piece of wood in sight was saturated from the relentless months of rain, so a fire was not looking likely. Taking a walk into the forest to locate the bear caches I struck gold—someone had left a full bundle of dry firewood in one of the caches. Unfortunately, after an hour of us both giving the fire-starting our best efforts, we still couldn’t get it to catch on; the consistent squalls kept stopping us in our tracks every time it was looking like it might take. We both headed to bed, damp and tired. I set my alarm for 4:30 am and Fritzy told me to wake him up at 8 am.

During the night it absolutely poured, the pelting sheets of water waking me up on numerous occasions. When my alarm finally went off at 4:30 am, I awoke to the relentless rain still slapping at the side of my tent. Knowing that wolves are generally most active around first light, I drew on every inch of my mental strength to drag myself out of my warm sleeping bag and slip back into my wet pants and socks. Tucking my camera under my rain jacket, I began to walk along the beach, closely watching for anything that looked remotely like a wolf. After 40 minutes of walking, I was properly soaked and decided to head back to bed. I know—poor effort.

Awaking again at 9:00 am, I roused Fritzy and got some coffee on. The rain had finally subsided, and it was time to explore our new surroundings. Just as we were wrapping up our coffee and Fritzy was putting some food in the cache, the unimaginable happened. Two beautiful coastal wolves exited the forest a few hundred meters from our camp, completely undisturbed by our presence on their beach. I had seen them first and had to get the message to Fritzy without disturbing the wolves. “Oi, Fritzy, the wolves are here. Get over here” I said in the loudest whisper I could manage as I fumbled with my camera. All the photos in the world can't prepare you for the beauty of seeing these creatures in real life. Their elusive nature makes the scene seem totally unreal.

This was the moment I had been dreaming of for years, my first encounter with the elusive coastal wolf; only one thing wasn’t right—the shutter on my camera was jammed! This happens once every few months and it had decided to happen again right at this critical moment. It also coincided with a warning message on my camera screen, something that happens regularly due to me using an aftermarket battery pack. I didn’t put two-and-two together and thought the screen was black because of the batteries, rather than the jammed shutter that was the actual problem. I quickly tried pulling the batteries out and putting them back in, all while the wolves slowly trotted towards us, making a pass that was a mere 50m from our camp.

By the time I had figured out the issues and got the camera going, the wolves had made their way down the beach, almost blending in with the mess of driftwood scattered across the shoreline. I snapped a few photos but was completely in shock about the situation that had just unfolded in front of me. On the one hand, I was awestruck by the beautiful moment we had shared with these two incredible creatures. On the other, I was rattled at having my camera jam at what can only be described as “the worst possible moment”.

For two days we continued to search the beaches, hoping to get another glimpse of those beautiful wolves. But we didn’t manage to locate them again. The sun finally showed face and we enjoyed the isolation and peacefulness until the trip came to an end. Fritzy was hanging out in Tofino for the month and I was packing my bags for a work trip to Manitoba.

Image 2: A red squirrel pauses while feasting in the forest.

I spent the second half of June in Southern Manitoba, conducting bird nest surveys. I was beyond eager to check out this part of Canada, mostly due to the high number of new bird species I was hoping to encounter. Manitoba is positioned in such a place that it gets a nice mix of birds, some of which we don’t get in B.C, so I was looking forward to hopefully getting the opportunity to photograph some new species.

When conducting bird surveys, I am generally romping around with my camera, as I find it to be a useful tool for identification when a bird is moving quickly or perched too far away for me to see with my binoculars. This sometimes provides nice opportunities for photography, but mostly I am searching for nests rather than working angles and trying to find the perfect composition. Sometimes I will decide that sleep is more important, and only take photos while out conducting surveys. Other times, the chance of

having a unique photo opportunity is too much and I end up spending all my time outside of work, romping around the countryside trying to find wildlife or other unique birds.

Knowing that I was staying in good habitat for great grey owls, I immediately got to work exploring on my first afternoon after work. Usually when I am doing bird surveys, there is a requirement to wake up and already be surveying when the birds start calling, which in Canada during summer usually works out to be 4:00am. If you know me personally you will know that I normally put a lot of emphasis on getting at least 7 hours of sleep per night. Unfortunately for my sleep schedule, great grey owls are most active at dawn and dusk. Given the unprecedented opportunity I had, staying in great grey country, I spent almost every evening in the bush until around 10:30 pm, trying to locate the elusive ghost of the forest.

After five days of searching and thousands of mosquito bites later, I finally struck gold. Driving the normal route that I had taken every afternoon previous, I was fortunate to look out the window at just the right time and was met with the unmistakable gaze of the great grey owl. I couldn’t believe my eyes. After 5 days of searching, I had been starting to lose hope, but persistence prevailed. I spent the next few hours observing the owl making its way through a paddock, choosing a variety of perches to scan the surrounding countryside for voles or other small rodents. The light was beautiful, and I was able to capture some great shots (see below). This was a great example of studying a subject, learning their habits and behaviors, and then putting in the hours searching and finally being rewarded for it. It doesn’t always happen this way, but I am a true believer that if you put in enough hours, you’re going to see some cool stuff.

I was fortunate to have several great wildlife encounters in Manitoba, including moose, black bear, great horned owl, bison, and even a Canada lynx—my first one! I will add some photos below of my wildlife encounters from this trip.

Image 3: One of the only decent photos I captured of the wolves before they disappeared into the forest.

Image 4: A black bear approaching me in Riding Mountain National Park.

Image 5: The ever illusive great grey owl.

Image 6: A moose crosses the road, spotted on the way to work.

Image 7: Close-up of a black bear.

As I write this, I am preparing for my redemption trip to wolf island. Make sure to keep an eye out for my July newsletter.

Kristian

¹The Ebird app is used by birders to record bird sightings when in the field. These sightings are georeferenced and although you can only see the general location, rather than the exact location, it is an incredibly useful tool when looking for birds to photograph and a tool I use all the time. It is especially useful when travelling to a new place.
²Check out his incredible artwork at https://jfritzart.com