#31 It is done

Evening,

I know it's a bit off schedule for me, but the world won't end, right? 😁 After my day off, we started again on Sunday. Cleaning the cabin and moving into my old cabin so that I have a functional bathroom again and now even functional Wi-Fi after all this time.

On Monday, David picked up the last guests for this workshop. Theresa and Thomas were a couple from Singapore. But before the guests arrived, I had to dig out a quad from the snow that Jenny had gotten stuck in. After this training and when David came back, I had to drive to two spots again. Since winter came back and it snowed for three days, I went out with a snow shovel to clear a visible path and also to change the toilets and check the tents. It's not that easy to shovel the snow with just one hand. The other hand holds the bag as far away as possible and also has to make sure that it doesn't break 😅 Then on Monday, I drove the couple to the spot where we had previously seen lynxes. They had "only" seen the fisher martin for the first few days. The photos were so cute, especially one where he stuck out his tongue. Extremely adorable! After three days, we always change locations, and this time we let Theresa & Thomas decide. Theresa chose a different spot, but she didn't want to sit there alone, which I completely understand after seeing the wolf tracks there 😅 So I had the honor of sitting with Theresa at this spot. But before I left early in the morning, Jenny and David approached me and told me that they wanted to give me the camera back. I was very surprised. Even more surprising was the fact that this time it wasn't Jenny who stood up for me as "the first", but David. I think that's because the day before I looked at my pictures with him and he was positively surprised. He said I have very good photos for my first times and I can catch the perfect moment 😁😎📸 I've spent a lot of time with these birds by now 😁 But of course, I was happy because I had been wanting to get the camera back for a long time. On the way to the spots, I actually managed to spot the elk on the highway and quickly took a few photos myself before we continued driving. So Theresa and I were sitting at our spot and waiting. I saw fisher martens and fox tracks and I really hoped to see the fox because the customers reported that it is either red, black, and/or gray. I have no idea, but since foxes have a very fluffy coat in winter, I want to see it. However, after about an hour it became clear to me that I wouldn't see anything if I didn't tell Theresa not to move. I almost went crazy🤪 It took three attempts before she understood what I was saying. After this hint, she was extremely quiet and then something happened that I didn't expect. All the birds were gone and it was dead silent, which means that there could be a big animal nearby. You imagine that your senses become sharper and then you start to hear voices....and suddenly those voices get louder.... and then three men come out of the woods. I just thought: What the fuck?! Who are they and how? HOW did they find us here in the middle of nowhere? I took my binoculars and tried to see what kind of men they were and then it simply said Police on their suits and I just thought: Shit! What does the police want here? Shockingly, there are only three official police officers between Bella Coola and Williams Lake (453 km distance) and they really managed to perfectly turn off the highway onto the road by chance and then follow a different path to follow my truck tracks? Very strange. Anyway, I crawled out of my tent at least, to nervously ask if there was a problem. They asked me what I was doing here and if I was hunting. After I denied this and explained to them that I was here taking photos with a customer, they were actually satisfied and after a short small talk, they left again. However, they really couldn't be quiet and they talked quite loudly, so I knew that we wouldn't see anything except the birds, but that way I could learn even more about bird photography 😊 In the evening, Jenny and David explained to me that they weren't the real police, but something called "Police" and it's possibly similar to the local regulatory agency. They probably found us because someone called or the helicopters spotted us. Currently, the elks are being counted by helicopters here and the hunting season just ended, so people might have thought that we were hunting illegally because there are also elks in this area. That's the best explanation for me.

So after picking up Thomas who had the fisher marten, I was luckily able to find two owls right away. The problem was that one owl kept flying around, so I always had to quickly turn on the highway. Plus, this owl is not very big. However, the great gray owl was sitting reliably on the power line again, so we could all take some photos. We were really lucky with the wildlife on the roads. However, the lynxes stayed away. I was really sorry about that because both of them were very nice and you somehow wish that they would show up, but more on that later (yes, it might get longer here). However, Thomas was very understanding and said that this is just nature and you never know where and when an animal might appear. In the end, I always tried to read (or guess 😅) the freshest tracks and then hope that at least these animals would come back. Unfortunately, the fresh lynx tracks didn't help, so on Saturday evening we sat together for a cozy round and Jenny told another story (the customers heard it for the first time - and me for the fourth time 😵‍💫) and I stared tiredly at the fake fireplace and suddenly Jenny's voice became louder and she almost shouted: THERE'S A LYNX! And I just thought: Huh? What are you talking about now? But no joke, for the very first time since Jenny and David have been living here, a lynx ran along in front of our living room window. It was too funny! What a curious ending. Sitting in the cold for five days and not seeing any lynxes, and then suddenly one appears right in front of the window during a cozy evening. Unfortunately, it was too dark to take photos, but at least Thomas & Theresa got to see a lynx. So the last evening also meant seeing the customers one last time, as I could always sleep a little longer on the departure and arrival day. So I said goodbye to Theresa and Thomas. And with the departure of this last couple on this Sunday, the last workshop ended, and I really had a day off today. I used it to finally do something that I have wanted to do for a long time: photograph squirrels 😅 So cute! Also, a few days ago I discovered a black bird with a yellow stripe, and I also wanted to capture that bird. So today I sat outside with the camera and waited for the squirrels and the black bird, which is a red-winged blackbird, to appear, and I could continue practicing my wildlife photography.

Conclusion

Thus, the workshop time is officially over and it is time for a conclusion. Let's start with the tips (you can estimate the second photo, the penultimate photo is the solution), as this was the first information I had about the workshops. Already when I found the job advertisement (October 2022), applied, and Jenny replied to me, I knew that I would do something with tips, as her first email included the tasks that I had to do, and one of the tasks was helping out (carrying the bait, carrying the cameras, ....) during the workshops, which should be rewarded with tips from the customers. Jenny wrote back then "a lot of tips" and I thought to myself.... okay, so between $50 - $80 would be very good tips for me. So I expected around $550 - $880. However, I never expected to receive so much in tips. If I were to exchange the US dollars into Canadian dollars now, I would have earned over *drum roll* $1600 in tips. It is so unbelievably surreal for me that people could give me so much in tips 😅 However, I am also proud of myself because I know that I worked hard for this money. But wow! So many tips 😅 So that is definitely a very positive aspect.

Not so positive:

I may have had a little too high expectations when it came to seeing wildlife. Whenever Jenny and/or David talked about the workshops, it sounded like the spots were right in the wildlife's living room and you had a very good chance of photographing wildlife (lynxes, wolves, coyotes, elk, foxes, ...). But I "only" saw the fisher marten and the lynx. I saw most of the wildlife on the roads 😅

Furthermore, I found it disappointing that there wasn't really a search for new spots or it felt like we just accepted the situation that the customers wouldn't see lynxes for their money. Of course, you can't influence nature, but if I've been sitting at a spot since February and I've never seen lynx tracks there, then you can't really claim that it's a great lynx spot just because lynxes have been seen there in previous years. It's simply not the case this year, maybe because of the wolves (+ possibly the coyotes) that have driven the lynxes away?! Who knows, it's just nature. But I also find it a shame that during the last two groups, I had to work at the construction site again instead of sitting in a tent. But it's not my decision. However, some decisions are again inconsiderate (in my opinion), but Jenny wants it that way, and therefore, I do it that way.

Since I don't want to end the post on a negative note, here are the

Positive aspects:

I have had an incredible experience. I was able to dive into the world of nature photography, which is fun. My experiences with different people and the conversations in the cars got better from group to group. In the evenings of the first group, I was simply tired, but in the second group, I was able to entertain more than half of them on the way to the airport. My English naturally also improved through that. So I have made a very positive development in that respect. I have already talked about the tips, and therefore, the last positive aspect:

Of course, I am also incredibly happy that I had the camera and the opportunity to experience something like this. People pay a lot of money for it, and I was paid to sit in the tents and wait for wildlife.

Which animals did I see during the workshops?

- Elk

- Ptarmigan

- Fisher marten

- Lynx

- Great gray owl

- Other small owl

- Bald eagle

- Golden eagle

- Wild horses

- Various birds

- Coyotes

And that, in turn, is something. I think these were truly unique experiences that I will remember for a long time because I probably won't have this opportunity again anytime soon ❤️😁

So it was an interesting experience that sometimes pushed me to my limits, but these are the experiences that remain, and therefore, it was worth it.

Wishing you a good start to the new week.

Until then.

Samuel