I must admit to having a very blasé attitude towards most of the photographs I’ve taken. You know, what’s there to get excited about in a photograph when you’ve already experienced the real thing. Well, most of the times, that is. This is an exception. I’ve looked at this over and over … and it still amazes me.

If you are looking at this on the small screen of a phone, you may not be able to see what I’m talking about, but full screen on an iPad … or if you check it out on a computer screen … it’ll definitely jump out at you … I hope.

What am I talking about? Well, in the first part of the video … that I took with a drone ( not the last part taken with my iPad) … the water of Portage Lake is so calm it actually looks like the land is floating in mid air! And the reflections of the trees in the lake almost look like the roots of the trees hanging down from that floating land. You can look at either side of the lake to get the effect … or even try to take in both sides at once. The more I look at it, the better it looks. I hope you can see what I’m talking about. But if not, just enjoy it for what it is.

I had one of the very first drones DJI put out … but this one I have now is a little marvel. And with things like this, it really opens up a whole new photographic world.

Music track: Take Your Time by Dan Libowitz.

Tags:   Portage Lake Optical Illusion Floating In The Sky Floating Calm Lake Dan Lebowitz Music Track DJI Mini 3 Pro

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I saw this yesterday in the Gulf of St. Lawrence just south of Sally’s Cove on Newfoundland’s Great Northern Peninsula and decided to go check it out.

It’s no wonder the cod stocks have not rebounded here in this province even though there has been a moratorium on that fishery for 31 years (since 1992). Because of the liberal do-gooders, the seal herd is no longer culled annually. And these huge brutes are not just eating cod and other fish in the ocean, they turn up in the rivers as well … doing their part in decimating the salmon stocks.

Soundtrack: Rainy Sundays by The 126ers.

Tags:   Gulf of St. Lawrence Western Newfoundland Seals Newfoundland Sallys Cove Great Northern Peninsula

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In Newfoundland, well off the beaten path, there are many little hidden jewels like this one here.

Otter Pond is fed by the much larger Lake of the Hills. And Otter Pond Brook … part of which you see here in this video … flows down into Lloyd’s River right where I’m parked. Lloyd’s itself flows through King George IV Lake Ecological Reserve, on down into Red Indian Lake a few kilometres from where this video was taken, and then the mighty Exploits flows out of Red Indian down into the ocean. The Lloyd’s/Exploits is the largest river system in Newfoundland.

If you think we have a lot of freshwater in this province of Newfoundland and Labrador, you’d be right. There are 31,340 square kilometres or 12,100 sq miles of it …. covering 7.7% of the total surface of area of the province and accounting for 3.5% of the actual freshwater area of Canada. Very little … if any … of it polluted. A very precious resource … which will no doubt become even more precious as the years go by.

We spend quite a bit of time exploring this region and the surrounding area … during all seasons. It’s not totally isolated but only rarely do you see anyone else.

As a little side note to that, though, last May 22nd about 4 kilometers before you get to this falls we came upon an RV parked along the side of the road right near the river. That was a little unusual … especially at that time of year. We went on past, checked out the falls, took a few photographs, and then headed back. On the way, we stopped and chatted with the folks who had just been getting water out of the river … pristine, unpolluted water … remember. It was a young couple from Germany with two little twin ( I think) boys about 3 or four years old … and a dog. They had shipped their RV from Germany into Halifax, crossed over into Newfoundland by ferry and were planning on travelling to St. John’s and then turning around to drive completely across Canada … then up into Alaska … and then perhaps down into Mexico for the winter. Quite an adventure! Oh to be young again!

To get to this out of the way place they had to make a right turn off the Trans Canada Highway on to Route 480 (The Burgeo Highway), then part way down turn off on this dirt road you see here. The road does eventually meet up with the Trans Canada Highway again near Badger … but it’s not exactly smooth driving. Guess they had checked it out on Google Earth and wanted to get off the beaten path. Anyway, there wasn’t much room where they were parked … and they were right by the river … so we told them if they drove another 3 or 4 kilometers they’d come to this scenic falls … a bigger area to park and trees on the right as a safety barrier from the river.

We often wonder how they made out and if they are gone back home by now.

Music: Terrier Waltz by Nat Keefe and The Bow Ties. Bluegrass style music seems to suit this area.

Enjoy.

Tags:   Otter Brook Falls Otter Brook Newfoundland Waterfalls Western Newfoundland Landscape DJI Mini 3 Pro Lloyds River Drone Video Water River Brook.

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Not very green at the present moment … but give it a few months.

This is a VERY interesting place! If you are ever in the area, you should definitely check it out! Approximately 500 million years ago, the rocks you see here at Green Point were formed on the bottom of an ancient ocean. Fossils have been discovered here that define the boundary between the Cambrian and Ordovician periods and makes Green Point a world geological benchmark.

In 2000, Green Point was designated as an official international reference point for the world's geologic time scale. It was in contention with 6 other sites around the world.

If you look at some of those rock formations down there, at first glance they almost appear man made. But I assure you they are not. At least, I don’t think man was around 500 million years ago.😀

Soundtrack: Quarantine Waltz by Nat Keene and Hot Buttered Rum

Tags:   Green Point Gros Morne National Park Newfoundland Western Newfoundland Nat Keene and Hot Buttered Rum

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We’ve had Tree Swallow nest boxes on our property here in the city for quite a few years now … and they’ve been used every year since we’ve installed them. It’s been a joy to watch these little birds from the time they arrive in late spring until they leave when their brood has left the nest. They are very friendly little birds and show no fear of us whatsoever. In fact, they will let me get close enough to touch them … even hopping on my outstretched finger to go for a ride as this video will show you. flic.kr/p/tERzU6

But until this year, our observations have been restricted to what we could observe from outside the nest box … mating, taking in nest building materials, and bringing back various types of insects to feed the young birds … which, in the later stages, we could see poking their head out of the nest box hole to get fed. This year, though, I installed a camera on one of the boxes and it’s been quite a pleasure seeing the nest building from inside the box, eggs being laid … one a day for six days (in the morning), the tiny little things hatching out, and then being fed almost continuously by both parents during the daylight hours … until now they are almost ready to fledge. A couple of them are already able to climb up to the hole to get fed. A a couple, like the one in this video, are testing their wings while in the box.

Hope you enjoy this little video.

Tags:   Tree Swallow Tachycineta bicolour Tree Swallow Chicks Nest Box

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