#30 No Lynxes

Hey there,

yes, I know I'm a bit late - sorry! 😋

On Saturday, we had the last day of the group and we squeezed Brenda, Don, and Bob into two tents so they might have another chance to photograph the lynx. Lori was dropped off at a different spot. We saw ptarmigans early in the morning, which she really wanted to photograph. But when I picked up Lori in the afternoon and she said she didn't see anything, I thought to myself: Damn, there will be a lot of negative comments tonight. Then I started the truck, drove one meter, and luckily there was a ptarmigan sitting there. Of course, I immediately told Lori to take out her camera. The change in this woman was really fascinating, she was incredibly happy after seeing those birds. If I had known how rare and popular these birds are, maybe I would have taken more photos of them back then 😁 Unfortunately, Brenda, Don, and Bob had a very boring day without seeing a lynx. I felt really sorry for Brenda and Don, but they had six different wild animals in front of their lenses, which is really good. So Bob is the only customer from the group who saw a lynx. On the way back, we also saw the cow moose with her calf again. It was such a beautiful moment, which was only disturbed by my own grumbling. I was so annoyed again that I didn't have a camera anymore, and unfortunately, my phone battery was dead. However, I still have to learn to simply enjoy the moment. In today's world, where everything can be captured with a phone and I'm really good at it in this area (😅), it's not that easy (for me) to just let the moment happen and enjoy it.

On Sunday, I drove into town for the first time because I had to take Bob, Lori, Brenda, and Don to the airport. It was my first trip to Williams Lake and believe it or not, my German shower playlist was playing the entire time. No one minded, and Don always said that he might learn some German like this 😁. After dropping them off at the airport, I had to run some errands in town and then went back to the airport to pick up David, who returned from his polar bear workshop. The total travel time was really exhausting. On the way there, we had a lot of snowfall, and the roads are not cleared as well as in Germany. On the way back, we had a lot of deer next to and on the road, and it was dark. After that, I was really exhausted 😴

The new group that started on Sunday consisted of only two people - Karen and Dan. They are two friends from the USA and they are both older but looked really young. Dan, who is 75, looked like he was 50, and Karen, who is 82, looked like she was in her late 50s. I have no idea how they managed to do that 😅 By the way, Karen has a lot of allergies and things she can't eat. This included two A4 pages - including garlic (which will be important later). In addition, Karen injured herself at home last week, so she couldn't walk fast or carry anything. The first two days passed and neither of them saw anything at their spots, but when I picked up Karen and we were driving along the highway, suddenly an owl (owls are incredibly popular in wildlife photography) appeared from the left and the chase began. With one eye on the highway and the other constantly following the owl, I felt like I was shouting at Caren where the owl was. Then it was behind us, I found a place to turn, drove back, and continued following the owl. Then the owl caught a mouse in front of us (would have been an amazing photo) and then sat on a log on the right, and the whole time I kept calling out to Karen: Here! There! Over there, at three o'clock! There it is! Right in front of us!!!! And Karen kept saying: What? Where? Whoo? Oh man, I can tell you, we had a lot of fun, but Karen then explained to me afterwards that she has very bad eyesight, and yep, she definitely confirmed that 😅 By the way, she didn't manage to take a single photo of that owl. Fortunately, we later found the great gray owl, the other owl that everyone wants to photograph. Luckily, the owl was sitting on the power line, so Karen (who of course didn't see the owl at the beginning) could take photos calmly.

Thursday was the best day for Karen and Dan because Karen had a fox at her spot that made her extremely happy, and Dan had a coyote, which is fortunately his favorite animal. So both of them were really happy on Thursday. In the evening, we had dinner and Jenny had to cook separately for Karen. When Karen asked what was on her bread because it tasted really good, Jenny said: This and that and garlic. Karen then asked: Garlic? And Jenny said: Yes, but really just a tiny bit, and you had it yesterday and didn't notice. At that moment, I thought to myself how stupid one can be to handle people's allergies like that, and Karen's face didn't show pure joy either. And Jenny was also not right with the statement that Karen didn't notice anything because after dinner, Karen asked for a new roll of toilet paper for her tent since she had used a whole (!) roll on Thursday. Now Karen also knows why she didn't feel well that day, so that was really one of the dumbest actions by Jenny.🤦🏼‍♂️

On Friday, Karen and Dan didn't see anything again, and since it was their last day, this is now the first group without lynxes. I felt sorry for Dan, especially since he has photographed all cat species in the world and only the lynx is missing. But well, if you have four different spots where lynxes were only seen at one of them and they have probably been driven away by the coyotes, then the probability of seeing lynxes is almost zero. Jenny and David can be really lucky that Karen and Dan were so relaxed and didn't mind at all that they didn't see any lynxes. If it had been Lori, Bob, Simone, or Sabrina from the previous groups, last night would have been completely different. But both of them were still happy, she had her fox and the owl and he had a coyote.

Today (Saturday), both of them left, and since we won't receive the last (finally!) group until March 6th, I actually got a day off today. My first day off since February 4th (funny, exactly one month ago). I'm no longer in any tent myself and I'm not allowed to take photos with the camera anymore. On one hand, I completely understand that, it was a big mistake on my part and really stupid, but on the other hand, I have learned my lesson. But it's not my equipment and therefore not my decision. But it's so annoying, since the incident, I feel like I see a lot more animals to photograph, and I'm always frustrated because of course, I've now developed a taste for it. Once you can take photos with a proper camera, you don't want to go back to just using your phone - when you're "on top," you don't want to go back to "down" 😁 But as I said, I have to learn to simply enjoy these moments.

Since I spend more time at home as a result, to Jenny's delight, I also have more time to work on the construction site. Why not search for new lynx tracks and lynx spots when I can spend my time at the construction site?!

Today, however, I will spend my day in bed watching Netflix and just relax.

Until then.

Samuel

P.S. Yes, I know that some of you were hoping for a photo update last week, as it has now been six months. However, I didn't have time - until yesterday. So now you have a new update - Bear regards.