Horned Puffin in flight

“My truest feelings for my Saint Paul Island experiences were self-expressed spontaneously and subconsciously when, as our plane taxied down the runway on our return home, I choked up at the thought that our unique week together was over. Special thanks go to you, Chris, for your special help: giving me physical support to deal with the slipperies in the early days before I developed my sea-legs, directing me to good spots for close-up photos, helping me get into and out of them as needed, and especially for your converting me to use the Manual setting for my exposures. The true value of the latter became evident as I scanned my photo results on the computer. I confess I was plenty tired physically at the end of our week, but it was a week that in retrospect I would not have missed.”

— Charles Wyttenback Cape Cod | Massachusetts | USA

Coastal Brown Bear Mother with cub

At the end of a very long day hiking around Katmai National Park (Alaska) in the rain knee-deep in mud this mother and cub seemed to look as wet and muddy as I felt - smile. As always in Katmai, we respect the bears from a distance, but they usually tend to gravitate to my group as a trusted shield from the roaming adult males (called boars) and move closer to us. I can see from the timestamps on the images that we spent 44 minutes waiting for both of them to look our way at the same time; we were lucky to have the added bonus of the cub touching mom :)

Since the sky is much brighter than the bears, it was extremely bright and washed-out in the image, so I replaced the background sky to make the scene resemble more closely what my eyes saw.

Crested Auklet Preening

“As an experienced wildlife & landscape photographer I would highly recommend you attend one of Chris Dodds' workshops - I have attended a number of Chris' workshops and each of them reflect Chris' caring. I just attended the St. Paul, Alaska workshop - typical of Chris' professionalism, and expertise. He only takes you to those unique shooting opportunities when he is convinced that the shoot will provide you the experience you are seeking. In the Saint Paul Island workshop's case he has visited this unique special remote island for over 25 years. The local small population obviously respects Chris and they do all they can to assist the experience. You shoot from a variety of locations, with many types of birds, complimented by wild fox, sea lions etc. Chris has the talent to assist both experienced and novice photographers - he makes sure you get the opportunities you want, and if you need extra help he enjoys jumping in and helping you. If you had to summarize Chris' workshops in a few words - Great well researched locations, tremendous local knowledge, dedicate to your photographic results being all you could possibly want.”

— Wynne Powell British Columbia, Canada

Parakeet Auklet After the Storm

Saint Paul Island is, for all intent and purpose, in the middle of the Bering Sea. When there is a storm, it is usually quite a storm with heavy rain and high winds. The birds stay out at sea, or on/in their nests to protect their eggs/babies. It is after the storm when the birds start to arrive back at the cliffs in big numbers. It can be overwhelming, at times, seeing the number of birds swirling around. This is when we fight the urge to photograph the flying birds, and focus our lenses on the perched birds that seem to come out to stretch, or linger on the cliffs to rest. Even though I used a small aperture to try to get some details in the sky, the resulting image has very little detail, so I replaced the sky to add some drama to this image.

Black Bear

A Black Bear curiously watches as I maneuver around for a better angle. A much more passive encounter than the last Black bear I saw in Alaska that bluff charged me a couple of times, but that is a story for another day - smile.

Tufted Puffin dorsal view in flight & Top 10 Puffin Facts

Top 10 Puffin Facts:

10. Puffins only possess Technicolor bills—and their matching orange feet—during the spring breeding season. Just before winter sets in, they shed the colorful outer bill, leaving a noticeably smaller and duller-colored beak.

9. There are four species of puffins, three of which are slightly distinguishable from one another. The Atlantic and horned puffins look quite similar, with the exception of a blue-grey triangle at the base of the Atlantic puffin’s beak. During the mating season, straw-like feathers protrude from the crown of the tufted puffin’s head. The fourth species, the rhinoceros auklet, doesn’t look like the other three – it’s ashen colored, with a rhino-like protrusion during the breeding season. But it’s still technically a puffin.

8. The puffins’ genus name, Fratercula, comes from the Latin for “little brother.” The name refers to the sea bird’s black and white plumage, which was said to resemble the robes that monks once wore.

7. A puffin weighs about the same as a can of Coke.

6. Puffins lay just one egg per year—and usually with the same mate. Like some penguins, both parents take turns incubating the egg and caring for the chick.

5. Puffins may chatter up a storm at their breeding colonies, but they remain perfectly silent while at sea.

4. There are currently eight isles around the world named Puffin Island—so named because they all are or once were home to large colonies of puffins.

3. A puffin can fly as fast as 55 mph. Compared with other auks, which tend to stay just a few feet above the sea, puffins usually maintain a cruising altitude of around 30 feet.

2. brilliantly colored beaks of Atlantic Puffins also light-up -- like a glow stick! -- when exposed to ultra-violet (UV) light.

1.Puffins are one of the few birds that have the ability to hold several small fish in their bills at a time. Their raspy tongues and spiny palates allow them to firm grasp 10 to 12 fish during one foraging trip. They thus can bring more food back to their young compared with other seabirds that tend to swallow and regurgitate meals for their chicks.

Least Auklet Portrait

Also known as the Knob-billed Auklet, the least auklet (Aethia pusilla) is a seabird and the smallest species of auk. It is the most abundant seabird in North America, and one of the most abundant in the world, with a population of around nine million birds. They are able to locate their nest sites from the previous season, even when covered with snow. They sit where the nest is and take possession of it once the snow has melted.

Red-faced Cormorant in flight with nesting material

Also known as Red-faced or Violet Shags, this Red-faced Cormorant brings home some nesting material to its nest on the cliffs of Saint Paul Island, Alaska.

Deriving their name from the Latin term Corvus marines (“sea raven”), cormorants are highly adapted for underwater hunting. Their bodies are streamlined and somewhat flattened beneath, the neck is long and subtle, the wings broad, long and blunt, and the legs powerful and set far back. Using their lean bodies, they thrust through the water and along the seabed to flush out prey.

Parakeet Auklet Calling

Did you know?: The Parakeet Auklet makes a series of rhythmic hoarse calls and a quavering squeal. Their function is unknown but could be associated with defending its burrow from intruders and strengthening the bond with its mate.

Parakeet Auklet Dorsal View

The Parakeet Auklet is named for its unusually shaped bill, which is almost round like that of a parrot. We don't know for sure, but it is thought that this unique bill shape helps them to feed on their favorite foods like slimy jellyfish and zooplankton.

Tufted Puffin Portrait

I could spend hours perched on a cliff in front of a bird at the minimum focusing distance of my camera. I love the slight reflection of the cliffs in the eye of this Tufted Puffin.

Q: “Chris, I met you at the Toronto photography show in Dec 2019” (ProFusion where I was presenting for Sony) “where you were showing your Sony work. We spoke and then exchanged some emails later - I was inquiring if you ever used auto iso etc. 
Looking again at your portfolio, I had some questions on your technique to achieve the amazingly clean backgrounds that you do. I bought a Sony RX10m4 .. enjoying that ……… Also wondered if you are doing any virtual seminars. Thanks” - Ken Wagner

A: Hi Ken!

The trick to the out-of-focus backgrounds is to find a subject and angle that offers a distant, but pleasing background. Even with a slow lens with a maximum aperture opening of f/11 will produce pleasing out-of-focus backgrounds if the subject is at the minimum focusing distance and the background is far enough away.

I have a bunch of virtual seminars booked with camera clubs, but none scheduled for an open audience at this time; stay tuned here for an announcement in the future.

Tufted Puffin In Flight with nesting material

Sitting on top of cliffs with my lens pointed down tracking seabirds might be one of my favourite things to do. This is a Tufted Puffin bringing some nesting material back to its rocky crevice nest.

The Tufted Puffin is among the Alaskan seabirds facing the challenges of climate change and dying in large numbers. Be sure to read more here:

Unusual mortality of Tufted puffins (Fratercula cirrhata) in the eastern Bering Sea (May, 2019)

Pribilofs Gray-crowned Rosy-Finch In Flight

Despite being about 15 % larger than the other two distinct and recognizable breeding populations of this species, it was still rather difficult to get a decent in flight photograph while sitting atop the wind-blown cliffs of Saint Paul Island in the rain with a super-telephoto lens. The wind was howling and the Finch would occasionally stall as it looked for insects on the cliff directly below me.

Crested Auklet Calling

The Bering Sea in winter, framed as it is by Alaska and Siberia, is frigid, stormy, and dark. But remarkably, some birds seem right at home there. The Crested Auklet is one such bird. And they have some unique qualities. Crested Auklets bark like Chihuahuas. Also, these seabirds exude an odor of tangerines from a chemical they produce that they thought repels ticks, but may, in fact, be a form of communication (read more HERE). They nest in immense colonies on Bering Sea islands, and remain nearby through winter, in flocks of many thousands. The auklets present a superb natural spectacle - sight, sound, and smell!

Horned Puffin Dorsal View In-Flight

A Horned Puffin returns to its nest in the cliffs of Saint Paul Island, AK. Very similar to the famous Atlantic Puffin, the Horned Puffin has different bill colors and a longer fleshy "horn" above each eye during the breeding season.

The Horned Puffin is among the Alaskan seabirds facing the challenges of climate change and dying in large numbers. Be sure to see my recent post:

2020 Alaska Seabird Die-offs

Thick-billed Murre (Brünnich's guillemot) in flight with fish

Here's a Thick-billed Murre bringing a meal to it's baby on Saint Paul Island, Alaska. Catching a reasonable image of this species in flight can be challenging with their top speed of 75MPH (120KM/H). This bird may have flown up to 160km (100 miles) and dove down to 100 meters (330ft) to catch this fish; that's a lot of work! The oldest recorded Thick-billed Murre was at least 28 years, 8 months old when it was found in eastern Canada in 2009. It had been banded in Nunavut in 1982.

Crested Auklet in flight

Here’s a Crested Auklet in-flight image from Saint Paul Island, AK. We spent an incredible day perched at the top of the seabird cliffs on an incredibly windy day. The seabird activity was over-the-top. All of the stars were out and preforming for us: Crested, Parakeet and Least Auklets, Horned and Tufted Puffins, Red-faced Cormorants, Northern Fulmars, Black-legged and Red-legged Kittiwakes. It was a spectacular day!

If you missed them, be sure to see these related posts:

Crested Auklet sends fragrant signals

2020 Alaska Seabird Die-offs

Crested Auklet sends fragrant signals

Here is a Crested Auklet from Saint Paul Island, AK. Saint Paul Island is part of the Pribilof Islands in the Bering Sea between Alaska and Russia.

The tangerine-scented crested auklet is the first bird found to send fragrant signals.

Whenever I have been to seabird colonies over the years, I often smell seabirds before seeing them. Most often, the smell at a seabird colony is quite foul, especially on a hot sunny afternoon after some rain. When I smell what can only be described as someone peeling a tangerine next to me, I know there are Crested Auklets nearby - smile.

Crested auklets sniff necks when they meet. The birds seem to use perfume to make themselves attractive. When birds meet, they press their bills against each other's necks - feathers here have the strongest smell. It's not known what the perfume signifies. It could convey the bird's quality as a mate - well-fed birds might be able to produce more scent.

The perfume is a blend of oils, but how it's made is also a mystery. Oil from the auklets' preening gland is odorless, but bacteria on the feathers might break it down into something smellier. The birds only smell during the breeding season, with males and females becoming equally pungent.

Many birds, including vultures and pigeons, rely on scent to find food and navigate, but the use of chemicals to signal to others was unknown. The auklets open up a new field, says physiologist Bernice Wenzel of the University of California, Los Angeles.

"It's too soon to say whether [these signals] will turn out to be common," says Wenzel. "The important thing is that more research of this sort should be conducted."

Join me for my Saint Paul Island, AK workshop this July to learn more CLICK HERE.

2020 Alaska Seabird Die-offs

2020 marks the sixth consecutive year of seabird die-offs in Alaska. Alaska's northern oceans have been experiencing record-breaking, above-average sea surface temperatures. Seabirds eat zooplankton and cold-water fish that are both reliant on cold water. If the cold-water fishes have relocated because the ocean is too warm, or less zooplankton are reproducing in the warmer water, then the seabirds have a more difficult time finding enough food. Coldwater fish are fattier and provide more calories and nutrients for the birds, so even if they can find warm-water fish to eat, they may still have trouble meeting their calorie needs.

The seabirds affected in 2020 are:

• Crested Auklets

• Horned Puffins

• Common Murrs

• Short-tailed Shearwaters

• Northern Fulmars

• Black-legged Kittiwakes

Most of the dead birds appear to have died of starvation. Murres, for example, have a high metabolic rate and consume 10-30% of their total body weight every day. Changes to their food supply can impact their basic functions such as flying, feather molt and weatherproofing, and thermal regulation. Seabird die-offs also impact the entire population because of the reduction in breeding adults and the low productivity rate (success of eggs becoming chicks and becoming adults). Some species have experienced reproductive failure because the females are not in good enough body condition to produce eggs.

Join me on Saint Paul Island, AK for the trip of a lifetime. Learn more HERE.

August 4th is International Owl Awareness Day

Here’s a Great Grey Owl to celebrate International Owl Awareness Day!