Sahyadrica

Last year I was fortunate to observe a few Eastern Garter Snakes late in March. I had set out to track when and how life returned to Medway Creek, without expecting to find any snakes so early in the season. After stumbling upon many Garter Snakes and being amongst a few individuals that I photographed for the first time, I started following one unique fellow with a rather dark abdomen compared to the others around. His name is Toby and this is his story.

Toby is just another male Garter Snake in this vast country who spent the cold months huddled in a hibernacula with his fellow mates. Now he is out and about, exploring the dense woodland surrounding a fragment of Medway Creek – a tributary of Thames River in London, Ontario, with one important mission – to find a mate and pass on his genes.


(The script of narration is provided at the bottom)
If you watched the documentary, you may have had the same question in mind – was it really a female or just a trickster male? I was quite fascina…

Whenever I visit any natural area, I always observe the insects that call it home. My fascination with insects grew out of my passion for butterflies. Every naturalist shares such a beginning. It is often one organism that catches the eye, and that one organism becomes the inspiration to learn about many others. As I began photographing butterflies, I was introduced to a macro-world full of wonderful creatures that I could easily observe and photograph wherever I went. And the more time I spent with them, the more I realized how complex their role in an ecosystem is. While biologists collect samples in the field to study these insects more closely, some also prefer to photograph their subjects in the wild, and although a photograph may not serve the purpose of precise identification, it is a tool to document behavioural observations that may not be seen in a glass jar. In this article, I will talk about photographing insects and spiders using a point-and-shoot camera.
There are very…