The heat, the harsh light, the position of the sun and the simple fact that many animals seem to have the good sense to stay somewhere cool during the hottest parts of the day can make finding something to photograph feel almost impossible. So, rather than wandering farther and farther in search of wildlife, I decided to try something different. I went wildlifing from my balcony. This sounds considerably easier than it was. I am not particularly good at sitting still. I like

Most of us move through our days quickly. We walk familiar paths, drive familiar roads, and pass through parks, shorelines, neighbourhoods, and parking lots without really seeing them. Our minds are often somewhere else—on our to-do lists, our worries, our stress, our grief, or the weight of whatever season of life we happen to be carrying. But if we stop, even briefly, and truly pay attention to where we are, another world begins to appear. It is a world that has been there

On Saturday, I spent part of the day doing fish monitoring in Bee Creek, an urban stream that, at first glance, could probably be mistaken for just another little creek running through a developed area. But Bee Creek is much more than that. It is an important ecosystem, a nursery for young trout, and, judging by the fish we met, also home to some very colourful personalities. Across our monitoring sites, we found 14 fish in total. Fourteen tiny reminders that this creek is al