All photos © Robin and Arlene Karpan

Wildlife photography for us this past year was mostly about birds and whales. Highlights included Baja California Sur in Mexico, where we had amazingly close encounters with gray whales plus saw and photographed a surprising number of birds.

Then there was a trip along the north shore of the St. Lawrence River in Quebec. It’s known as the whale route, where it’s possible to see a variety of whale species fairly close to shore. We were especially fortunate with minke and humpback whales. Our main destination in Quebec was Mingan Archipelago National Park, famous for its spectacular erosion monoliths, which we wrote about in this posting.

The Mingan wildlife highlight was spending time at Île aux Perroquets  a tiny island home to a nesting colony of Atlantic puffins and other seabirds.

We also had a lot of wonderful bird activity close to home. Every spring, bufflehead ducks go through some fascinating mating rituals, and this year was no exception. We also had some new sightings near our farm in Saskatchewan’s Thickwood Hills, including endangered loggerhead shrikes and black-necked stilts, which are not common this far north.

Here are a few of the our most memorable photos:

More common to the Galapagos Islands, the only place where these birds nest in North America is in the islands of Mexico’s Gulf of California. An especially wonderful place is Conception Bay, north of Loreto, where it is possible to take a boat tour through the protected water past a series of islands loaded with birdlife. We wrote about our experiences in more detail in more detail here.

Brown pelicans often sport a bright reddish-burgundy neck during breeding season, but it is unusual to see both red and yellow necks at the same time.

Ojo de Liebre Lagoon near Guerrero Negro on the Pacific coast of Baja California Sur has a reputation as one of the best places in the world for whale watching, and it certainly didn’t disappoint. We were so close that we could literally reach out and touch them. We covered that experience in  more  detail in this posting.

One time when we’re glad not to be too close to gray whales is when they launch themselves into the air and come down with a huge splash.

The wetlands near Guerrero Negro were especially rich in birdlife. Here, a willet flew low over a calm wetland, making a perfect reflection.

The peninsular pronghorn, a subspecies found only in the Baja California Peninsula, is smaller than the pronghorn we see farther north. It is considered an endangered species with only a handful left in the wild. Fortunately, a pronghorn recovery program near Guerrero Negro is having some success in gradually increasing their numbers.

We took a Zodiac trip through seven islands that make up the Sept Isles Archipelago. We saw several minke and humpback whales, including this one breaching.

Puffins nest on this tiny island in Mingan Archipelago National Park. We stayed overnight in the former lighthouse keeper’s residence and had amazing access to the comings and goings of these and other seabirds. We wrote about that experience in this posting.

We were able to sit on the beach and photograph puffins as they flew directly over us between the sea and the cliffs where they nest.

While the puffins stole the show on Île aux Perroquets, it was also home to several other seabirds, including razorbills.

We had a lot of fun watching the greater black-backed gull, the world’s largest gull. It had an innovative way of eating. It would pick up a shellfish, fly over a rocky outcropping, and then drop it to break it open to get at the flesh inside.

One way that a male bufflehead tries to attract a mate is to half-run and half-fly across the water surface while splashing and making a big fuss.

The antics in the previous photo must have worked. Here, the happy couple is flying in unison over the wetland.

The loggerhead shrike is a threatened species in Canada, found mainly in southern Saskatchewan and parts of southern Alberta and Manitoba. We were pleasantly surprised to find a pair near our farm in the Thickwood Hills for the first time. Normally, they don’t venture this far north.

Long-eared owls are fairly common in our area, although they are often elusive. While we have photographed them before, we especially like this peeking-through-the-forest view.

Harriers are reasonably common in our area but they tend to be challenging to photograph because they constantly dart around.

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