Local but uncommon mammals

Finding the silver lining during this pandemic, working from home gives us both a lot more opportunities to walk around Stanley Park several times a day. Increasing our presence in the area increases our odds of seeing new and interesting animals inside familiar spaces.

Starting off with this mouse. We were walking along the edge of Lost Lagoon and noticed it scurrying along the bank and frequently coming closer to the path to feed. While it was initially quite skittish of the camera shutter, it eventually got used to the noise and came close enough for a few nice pictures. There are at least 15+ species of mice in BC and I have little experience with any of them, so tips on this one's ID are appreciated.

 Stanley Park is also home to 6 if the 16 species of bat in BC and we saw this individual soaring around in broad daylight hunting insects from a small copse of trees near the aquarium. We enjoyed a very pleasant quarter hour or so watching it dart around on its hunt and managed to get a small handful of acceptable photos of it, despite its speed, size, and distance. Again, I don't know bat species well so I am inclined to guess it is a Little Brown Bat, but don't know for certain.

Luckily, we keep this species on our money AND there's only one type on the continent which makes identifying this North American Beaver a bit of a slam dunk. We have looked around the park many times for these guys and had zero luck, but just this past week there have been a pair with a convenient routine of coming out to graze between 5 and 7 most evenings, making them far more accessible for identification.

While it is nice to feel that nature is returning to the area as a result of people being less active in the last few months, beavers have been a regular mammal in the park for years and we have seen gnawed down trees on many of our walks. These beavers have a large lodge in the area, but are unlikely to build a damn. Apparently dams are more of a defense to keep unfrozen areas of deep water accessible to them in winter but since Lost Lagoon rarely freezes at all and never for long, they won't need this particular tactic here.

Droning on about perspective

DJI have been making increasingly impressive consumer drones for years, and I have been promising myself one ever since I finished my degree a few years back. I finally got one this spring with the announcement of the Mavic Mini, which weighs a ridiculous 249g including the battery and memory card. Once unfolded and configured, this little drone can fly for up to 30 minutes and easily reach the legal Canadian recreational airspace ceiling of 100m (the app automatically caps altitude, so its easy to safely stay within the limit).

While this little marvel can shoot video and race around at ludicrous speeds, my primary interest in getting one has been to expand the possible results of stereographic photography.

For those of you that aren't as nerdy on the terminology as me, stereographic photography is the end result of shooting 360° panoramas and then re-projecting the image to make a "little planet." I've been shooting these for nearly a decade and think they are really cool, but find that sometimes they over-emphasize the immediate foreground to the detriment of the horizon.

This is entirely understandable since my camera is usually 5.5 feet up and, therefore, there is quite a bit of immediate ground in that perspective. The image below is from the Langdale Ferry Terminal and was shot with my usual fisheye technique.

In contrast, the image below was shot in the exact same spot but from the Mavic Mini at a height of around 80 meters. Not only are the beach and tide line a much smaller proportion of the overall composition, but you can see the islands behind the ferry and terminal as well as the mountains beyond the trees.

DJI has done an incredible job of making a powerful and compact flying camera that I can carry with me on any trip. As an added bonus, its an ideal hobby to take up during times of physical distancing as you're not permitted to fly within 30m horizontally of other people, or over crowds at all, so it's a great excuse to get away from everyone around you. You're also required to keep the aircraft in line of sight at all times, so having a hawk-eyed wife/spotter is highly recommended when you need to focus on getting all your shots right.

Quarantined with a Kitty

My friend Serena is maintaining both her relationships and eye for composition by taking pictures of colleagues outside their homes, while maintaining appropriate physical distancing, during the pandemic. She asked us to participate in this series and was kind in providing the original files from her shoot for me to share on our blog and keep for the future. I really appreciate opportunities like this, since normally one or the other of us is behind the camera and we don't have enough photos of the pair of us.

On March 12, the entire office at PDFTron was told to work remotely until the ongoing Covid situation was under control. I felt fortunate to have job stability and to be working at a flexible company that could implement such a change quickly, but was also quite new to the position and somewhat concerned about meeting our ambitious next few months of targets with limited access to our team.

Kathryn was driving a ferry 3 days a week on the Sunshine Coast, which was considered an essential service, but neither of us were relishing the distance during such a stressful time. She had signed on to work that gig over the winter, with an agreed end date of March 31.

I have now worked for PDFTron longer from my home than in their office and everyone has come to terms with the challenges of distances. Kathryn is back at home, but her usual summer jobs are all scuppered until Transport Canada gives the go ahead. Even then, it will be some time until the cruise ships are in town and the demand for tourism is high enough to keep their services in demand. Throughout all of this, Wesley has been a total joy.

He is full of energy and affectionate around the clock, following us both like a little ginger shadow and making sure we always have someone to talk to. When we first got him, it felt like it was too soon but he was just irresistible, but with the circumstances of the last month he couldn't have fallen into our lives at a better time.