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 Table Placemats

Add a touch of nature and whimsy to your dining experience with this wildlife-themed placemat. 

Sanderlings are tiny -- and surprisingly, quite approachable -- migratory shorebirds which can be easily found on Vancouver beaches in the coldest winter months. This one was strolling quite leisurely on the shoreline. Photographed on a very sunny and busy winter afternoon at Boundary Bay Regional Park.

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Sanderling Gazes at Reflection in the Water Placemat

Add a touch of nature to your dining experience with this wildlife-themed placemat. 

My attempt to photograph a Rufous hummingbird feeding from the hot pink fuschia flowers on a sunny evening in late June 2016 ultimately proved to be fruitless ... but this Western Tiger Swallowtail butterfly who came to pose in its stead was a wonderful consolation prize!

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Beautiful Western Tiger Swallowtail Butterfly Placemat

Add a touch of nature and whimsy to your dining experience with this wildlife-themed placemat. This is my second visit to Surrey's Elgin Heritage Park, and I really wished to see a Golden-Crowned Kinglet again, my first photos of it on a deciduous tree being nothing but blurs. My wish was granted with one of several accomplished singers in a giant fir tree, a high-energy, multi-tasking (being able to sing, and flit from branch to branch while hunting for insects) Golden-Crowned Kinglet, who nevertheless proved to be a challenging subject to capture.

Cute Little Kinglet Causes a Stir in the Fir Placemat

Add a touch of nature to your dining experience with this elegant, wildlife-themed placemat. 

Being an escapee from an Oregon farm did not diminish the appeal of this adult male Mandarin Duck, whose flight to freedom was rewarded with a constant supply of bird seed and the company of Wood Ducks at Piper Spit. I was gifted with the privilege of his metamorphosis over many agonizingly slow months, as I watched him exchange his post-breeding plumage for the magnificent feathers and stunning color palette that make him a dream to photograph (and a hit with the females of his kind). Mother Nature left nothing to the artist's imagination when she made this creature! Photographed at Burnaby Lake in mid-October 2018.

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Beautiful Mandarin Duck in the Pond Placemat

Add a touch of nature to your dining experience with this wildlife-themed placemat.

About 100 Snow Geese were making use of Garry Point Park as a layover point on Easter Sunday. At one point, the flock broke into two, and one of these decided to exercise their wing muscles with brief but stunning aerial maneuvers at sunset -- a dramatic show of unison and grace.

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Snow Geese in Sunset Flight Placemat

Add a touch of nature to your dining experience with this placemat. It’s not every day that you see big blue fir cones in Vancouver. The abies koreana is an endangered fir found in the mountains of South Korea. This is one of (at least) two such trees planted on the grounds of the UBC Botanical Garden.

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Big Blue Korean Fir Cones Placemat

Add a touch of nature to your dining experience with this whimsical, wildlife-themed placemat. 

On a very memorable Boxing Day 2017, these diminutive Green-Winged Teals were waddling daintily on the frozen ice with many others of their kind on the marshes lining Burnaby Lake's Piper Spit--proving to be very co-operative with the photographers. The same could not be said for the more standoffish Buffleheads, who were many yards from sight.

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Cute Little Trio of Green-Winged Teals Placemat

Add a touch of nature to your dining experience with this wildlife-themed placemat. 

A tiny Sanderling looks for a fine seafood dining experience on the shores of Boundary Bay Regional Park in mid-February 2017.

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Sanderling Wanders Wintry Shores Placemat

Add a touch of nature to your laptop or computer with this wildlife-themed mousepad.

Last year, I was fortunate enough to encounter the female Yellow-Headed Blackbird at Manning Park. This year, I saw not one of these rare visitors to Metro Vancouver, but three adult male Yellow-Headed Blackbirds (and at least one female)--the former calling attention to themselves with their golden heads and breasts, less-than-melodious birdcalls, and frequent sparring matches with the more familiar Red-Winged Blackbird males in the marshes of Iona Island.

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Striking Yellow-Headed Blackbird in the Marsh Mouse Pad

Part brainteaser, part assemble-it-yourself art, this challenging, wildlife-themed puzzle is great for improving muscle memory.

The humble but prolific anise hyssop (hummingbird mint) is the flower of choice for hummingbirds, and the ease with which these small fragrant pink (or red or orange) flowers grow makes them popular with honeybees, bumblebees, and many other insects too. Taken earlier in the summer of 2016, when an abundance of visiting Rufous hummingbirds meant more feeding opportunities for these little red birds (and more contenders for the resident Anna's hummingbirds meant more opportunities to photograph the feisty  little migrants and challengers).

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Rufous Hummingbird Feeding on the Anise Hyssop Jigsaw Puzzle

Part brainteaser, part assemble-it-yourself art, this challenging, wildlife-themed puzzle is great for improving muscle memory. 

With water beading off his inflatable crest, and a simultaneously striking and conservative palette of blacks, whites, and cinnamon brown, the adult male Hooded Merganser is one winter duck species that makes you stop and stare. They will swallow large fresh pond fish whole by stretching that normally hidden neck of theirs to a foot in length. This handsome, unperturbable gent was swimming in the ponds at the local wildlife sanctuary--not surprised to see so many humans moving in a like direction--in late December 2019.

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Stunning Hooded Merganser Duck in Pond Jigsaw Puzzle

Add a touch of nature and whimsy to your travels with this wildlife-themed luggage tag. The perfect choice for bird lovers!

This male Downy Woodpecker announced himself quite vocally with a trademark chip-chip-chip repertoire just before making an appearance on this dead tree. He proceeded to peck away at his perch, oblivious of the solitary camera lens trained on him and the many walkers on the trail.

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Cute Downy Woodpecker on the Tree Luggage Tag

Add a touch of nature to the holidays with this elegant, wildlife-themed ornament!  

Usually the Northern Flickers I meet like to keep a rather "discreet" 50-foot distance between themselves and the photographer. For some inexplicable reason, this male Red-Shafted decided that he was best admired, not just high up in the tree, but on the ground as well ... some 6.5 feet away!

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Red-Shafted Northern Flicker Woodpecker in a Tree Metal Ornament

Use these wildlife-themed tiles to protect delicate surfaces, tables, and countertops from hot pots, or as accent pieces for the dining room or kitchen.

This male Pekin Robin decided to satisfy his curiosity of the approaching humans, and flew into a large tropical tree to observe us from under the large leafy cover. Our initial encounter was all too brief and disappointing, but this second meeting yielded the opportunity to study this wonderfully dressed and beautiful singer in much greater detail and length. Our subject must have noticed this, as he was unusually still and not hopping from branch to branch!

An Indian subcontinent native, this Old World babbler is so popular that many other countries want to claim it for their own, and so, it goes by other aliases, including Pekin Robin, Pekin nightingale, Japanese hill robin, and Japanese nightingale. 

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Colorful Leiothrix / Pekin Robin Songbird Tile

Part brainteaser, part assemble-it-yourself art, this challenging, wildlife-themed puzzle is great for improving muscle memory. 

7 Killdeer were frequenting the mudflats near the pumphouse at Boundary Bay Regional Park / Centennial Beach after the first snowfall to truly blanket the region and turn normally flowing watercourses into frozen lakes of ice and snow. In my admittedly short 2 years of birding, I have never encountered Killdeer at this time of the year (winter is a week away), let alone under the current weather conditions. Photographed in mid-December 2016 during an unseasonably prolonged cold snap.

Based on the original photography of W.H. Sim. All Rights Reserved. See more at zazzle.com/walkswithnature

Sanderling Gazes at Reflection in the Water Placemat

Sanderling Gazes at Reflection in the Water Placemat

More from Walks with Nature

Other table placemats from various stores