South Africa Bound

Well other than my Mom I am not sure who still reads my blog, but then again I haven't posted anything lately until now :)

The day is almost near to where my next adventure will begin. I leave Friday (Oct 12) for Cape Town South Africa to complete a 5 week wildlife filmmaking course. To where the first 2 weeks are spent in lectures learning about the industry from creating story ideas, to pitching them to people to get funding, and where to look for funding/jobs. We will also be getting hands on lectures with the various equipmet used and we will get to use them for the 3rd week when we go out and film.
For filming we will be heading out to a park/game reserve to capture footage to piece together a 5 min story. Then the last 2 weeks are spent editing and finishing up the 5 min broadcast quality film which will be shown on the last day for critiques.

I am really looking forward for the course for many reasons. I will be back in Africa (I loved Kenya), I will be given lectures by pros in wildlife filmmaking, I will finally learn the aspects of what it takes to get into the industry. Oh yeah and I will be riding around in open top rangers for filming :)

Of course I am a little nervous as I still haven't really planed out exactly what I want to film (I have a brief idea but haven't pieced together 5min worth). But then again working with nature nothing really goes to plan :) So I am not to worried as I am usually pretty creative when it comes to editing footage together (or at least in my mind as I have things back logged so to speak). Also I will most likely be driving to and from the Academy which will be an adventure in it self as they drive on the left.

I of course will take my camera and try to get some still pictures, I will also try to keep a better journal this time maybe make a video journal, and will try to post it often.

Well back to packing

Hope all is well
Simon

More hummingbirds

Hummingbirds

Bret bought 2 hummingbird feeders to put outside of the bunkhouse and they are attracting a lot of them now. So it is time to do some more photography here are some of the first quick shots I took tonight without much planning. I know have a couple pictures in mind that I am going to try and get which I will post if I can manage it

Trying to capture some of the sunsets

I have gone out a couple times to experiment with settings to try and capture the sunset colors.
The top is the view from the bunkhouse, lower is from the overlook

Where I am living now

Refuge Complex

This was taken from the bunkhouse (Grey Goose Lodge) just outside the front door.
If you click to enlarge the picture there are lables to the buildings

Finally getting into a routine

Well things are finally starting to fall into place more or less. As soon as I think I have the vegetation down it dies and new different stuff pops up. But still knowing the old stuff I am a little quicker so I don't have to go out much to double check veg. So that means having a full 3 days off a week, which this is really the first time. So today Matt and I headed to Idaho Falls (well a town on the outskirts) to drive around more and get groceries.

Tomorrow I think I am going to hike Caribou Mountain and try to see if I can see the flames of the big fire going on in Wyoming that we can see the smoke from here (I will add the picture tomorrow).

Black Crown Night Heron

The one on top is a juvenile the one on the bottom is an adult

Moose

While exploring some roads we came across the Mama and baby moose down the hill

What I am looking at

Finally an update

Well now that I have a little breathing room and not completely exhausted I thought I would update the blog.
Work is slowly getting there, the hardest part is the vegetation but that is coming along.

As for the people I live with they are a lot of fun. I live in a bunkhouse with 2 masters students (Bret and Diana) working on crane food bio-mass, 3 wildland fire fighters (Richie, Paul, Ryan), and my friend from college Matt who is working on the same project I am. We have had many laughs and some fun nights, including driving up Caribou mountain before the sunset which we could see the grand Tetons.
Today Matt and I hiked Bear Island which is a small Island hill in the middle of the marsh (Grays Lake) it was definitely interesting as we nearly stepped on a baby moose, which yup momma was around (150 yards) but didn't care and just turned and walked away. So we decided to go a different way up the hill.

Memorial Day Weekend

Well my weekend wasn't much of a break as I drove 15 hours back down to Alamosa to get the rest of my stuff from my apartment. I also looked at some cars but nothing. Then I pretty much headed back to Idaho to where 2 of the fire crew showed up. Which that is the bunkhouse that I am staying at right now is the Wildland Fire Fighters. One is from Masachusettes the other from Iowa

First day solo

Yesterday was my first time solo doing scans. I took the south side which is called Wayan Loop.
It was not to bad, all though I doubt I got all of the vegetation my boss is looking for (it will come in time). Other then that it went ok I just double checked to make sure I put the points in the correct field so that took a little time.
It was also an overcast day with light rain luckily no snow.

Well I am off this weekend to head back to Colorado to fully move out of my apartment. My rent was already paid for the month so rather than trying to cram everything into my car blocking my rear window completely I decided to keep some stuff in the apartment.h

Evening

Here are some sunset shots this evening, as you can see no snow. These were quick picks and not the greatest but it gives you an idea of the sunsets around here.

Day

Here is a photo taken around 3:30pm after doing some training. It snowed off and on all day until around 7:00pm but of course is melted now. So for those in the Sanluis Valley nothing new.

Ah Nothing Like Snow in May

Yup you read correctly it started snowing around 10:30am and is continuing on. Not a lot has stuck so far but I am sure if it keeps up it will.

So needless to say we didn't do scans today. So I have been working on vegetation identification then going over the protocol with ATV's which I took the one out to get familiar with.
I am on break until 1:00pm to where I will head back down to the office to work on more veg identification and other protocols.

My camera battery is charging so hopefully the snow will still continue falling until I am done this afternoon to take a picture and post it. According to the weather it is supposed to snow again tomorrow so there is a good chance.

Blue Goose Lodge/View from partway up Caribu

Week 2

Well I just started week two of training/work.

My day started off around 9:30am starting vegetation identification. So I sat in the office looking at plant books, dried plants in a folder, and the list of vegetation around the area. I started with grasses. This lasted until 11:30am when we looked out at the overcast and decided to try and beat the rain to do afternoon scans. We were able to get the south and most of the west side of the basin done (I will try to scan a map of the area)

This ended around 4:00pm then I headed back to the bunkhouse and relaxed a little while before heading out with Bret driving around looking for critters and so he could find the 4x4 trail up Caribu Mountain.

Neighbours

Well I went out driving with Bret (one of my bunk mates and a masters student working on a project) and we ran into some of our neighbours about 2 hours ago. The top picture is of a grouse (I believe it is a Ruffed grouse), the bottom is of a beaver that we were a few feet away from.

Grays lake

I am now currently working for a doctoral student in eastern ID. I am at the Grays Lake Wildlife Refuge located near the town of Wayan ID I am not sure of the population but it is low, the elevation is around 6000 feet above sea level. I am in a beautiful basin surrounded by mountains/hills and green. The bunkhouse I am staying in is on top of a hill with a large window in the living room that looks out to the west with beautiful sunsets (I hope to have pictures up soon).

My job is pretty much driving around in a truck for 5 hours a day scanning the basin for sandhill cranes (birds) then recording their numbers and the vegetation that they were in. Then after the 5 hours if there is an questions about the vegetation I physically go to where they were to take a closer look.