Sunday

Sunday, May 18th, Day 9.

This day can be described in one word. W.O.W. as in, wickedly ooawesome wonders. We woke up, bright and early at 5:30, to an awesome breakfast that Lilly and Jean-Claude had prepared for us. We had plenty of homemade bread and toppings to choose from. Delicious. However, the weather was not favorable, as it was rainy, cloudy, and general sucky weather for photographs. So Sean said, ohhhhh kkkkk back to bed. We all took some naps for a few hours and waited for a break in the weather. We set out again later that morning for Elk Island National Park.

Elk Island was about a 30 min drive from our B&B. It is a fenced in park that is home to many animals, including Bison (Buffalo), Coyotes (Awesome dogs) Moose (THE MEESE WANT THE FOOD IN THE WOODINISIT), Elk (I see you admire my noble bearing, like a hybrid of a deer moose thing), various birds (pretty ones, what happened to petey? HIS HEAD FELL OFF), and Beavers (Dam). The set up through is pretty much like Jurassic Park, free range throughout the park in your vehicle on the dirt roads.

So, it was still a bit cloudy as we made our preliminary run through the park on our recognisance mission. We saw a heard of buffalo, but the lighting was pretty crappy. The park was huge, and the more we drove around the more the wather seemed to get better. Lots of time you would just random turn the corner and a Bison would be just sitting there, eating or shitting or something. We got some really sweet/funny pictures of one who really had an itch, and was scratching his face and body on a post. Memories.

Lunch time. We went to a small little picnic area and starting cooking food. Paul has a sweet small grill that runs on propane, and we cooked up some steak and potatoes and made sandwiches. While we were there we met a couple with their three children who were from South Africa that had moved to Canada. The father was a doctor so knowing mom and her endless barrage of questions, we were happy to talk to them for a while. They actually were very nice and intriguing and we spent a good hour chatting with them about South Africa and Canada and George Bush and Gameboys. Good times. After lunch we headed back out.

After lunch we went around again to good spots where Paul thought some animals would be. His instincts proved to be righteous. We got some great pictures of buffalo and when I say great pictures, I mean like the buffalo was right next to the car or within 30 feet of us. Many times Paul would jump out of the car after a Buffalo, and we would be close behind. While I decided to make a few dumb videos, they got some good pictures. Probably one of the highlights of the day would be one buffalo that had become used to us being around him. We were watching him graze for a while in a field, when he literally sat down right in front of us. We were on one side of the road and he was on the other. I got lots of sweet pictures (and some sweet videos as well)

After our amazing Bison model shoot, we decided it was time to stake out a beaver dam, you know, old school stake out, seriously. We parked our truck on the side of a road next to a big lake, and within the lake was a huge Beaver lodge, as well as a Beaver dam. Damn. So, let me lay out the plan for you. Earlier in the day Paul and I scouted out a spot on a hill overlooking the lodge and damn. Paul and Dad would go to that spot, meanwhile, Mother and I would stay in the sides of the car. This way we had two different angles to hopefully capture some beaver shots. We had cameras and binoculars and hand signals, we were ready to go.

Paul planted some fresh trees on the damn as a beaver 'trap.' All around us there were lots and lots of fresh logs that had been chewed the night earlier. Usually beavers won't come out into the night but Paul said if we relax and watch as the sun went down we might get lucky. Boy, we got lucky.

We were sitting for about 30 or 45 min or so when we spotted 3 beavers coming down stream. Awesome. For the next hour or two, we just sat in our spots shooting away. Paul and Dad had a much better angle of the lodge and the beaver, but they had the better cameras. Mom and I though got plenty of good views and I got some decent photographs. I got some bird shots too, as well as some audio clippings of the wild life, including some coyote howls. Totally worth it.

It was getting dark, and late, around 9:00 PM, so we decided to pack it in. We headed home and grabbed some frozen pizza on the way. Jean-Claude and Lilly are awesome and just fun to be around. Tomorrow is another day at Elk Island.