Whitetail deer (20111128) Grey Cup Sunday

After seeing my results of the morning run, Jamie was keen to head out looking for Snowy's in the afternoon. We had discussed getting out a lot further from home, but with the wind and time of day we decided to try and find the same birds I had seen in the morning. 60 kph winds with gusts to 100 had downtown Calgary shut down, but we managed to find a couple of items to photograph.

At dark we managed to find this doe, thought the city backlights made for an interesting shot.  Of course at this time of the year Bambi's daddy is never far from the ladies.  This fellow looks like he is on the downward side of maturity, but still a healthy specimen.  It was dark when we found him so the photo is a little blurry.

Turbo



Snowy Owls Back to back Posts

Having found a couple of GHO's last Sunday night I wanted to try this Sigma Lens out in in the morning low light conditions.  Things got a little hairy when I couldn't locate my area with the two GHO's, but perseverance paid off and I was rewarded with two nice Snowy Owls this morning.  This is the closest to home I have been able to find them.  The wind was howling (60 kph with gusts to 100), and they had a tough time staying on their perches.  The first one I spotted was pretty spooky, while the second one was a lot more cooperative.

Turbo

Northern Shrike as a target

After a tough week of downs with no ups, my wife sent me to the camera store to rent a camera for the weekend (mine is back at Nikon getting checked out for focus issues).  I picked up a trusty D90 and was able to secure the lens that is on my wish list right now, a 120-300mm Sigma 2.8 with 1.4 teleconverter.

Jamie got trapped into a the search for the elusive Northern Shrike.  We were unable to come up with that particular bird but we did manage to find many Rough Legged Hawks enjoying the blustery day. I have shot above with three hawks all together, I have never seen them travel like that before, I am expecting that they are a family unit.

We also managed to find two GHO's late in the evening, Jamie did a great job of spotting one on a hay bale in the field about 80 yards off the road.  I was surprised how well the 2.8 lens performed.  I have also included a shot of one of two Muley bucks we managed to spy on the afternoon.

Turbo

Dark Morph Rough Legged Hawk (20111120) A Quick Sunday evening drive

Another chilly day, so I stayed pretty close to the tube today, -21 with a -29C wind chill. At 3:30 p.m. I decided to do a quick explore east of the house to see if I could locate an owl or two. I had found one juvenile earlier this year so I knew that there had to be others around. Home by 5:30, caught a nice sunset and a dark morph Rough Legged.

By the time I found the Owls (two separate GHO's) it was too dark to get any photos, but I know where they live and will be back with more light sometime to get a couple photo's. I saw a lot of whitetail deer (probably 40-50 head count).
Turbo

Red Fox (20111120) Wild Horse Country

With the mercury firmly destined to stay below the -15C mark and a morning temperature of -20, Russell and I headed out wild horse country. It's a long drive, and hauling butt out of bed @ 4:30 to meet up at 5:45 is tough on a Saturday morning.   There has been a lot of logging in the area and this was my first trip up there in over a year. Things were pretty slow at first; a deer or two, here or there but really nothing special.  Slowly the numbers started to pile up, three horses, then within the hour another 14. While investigating a hillside Muley doe, we ran into a fox(35 yards).  My first for quite a while. While it was "aware of our presence" it was busy hunting. We watched, and sure enough there was the telltale signal that it was about to pounce.  I tried to capture that with the camera, but we were in heavy shade (the kind that you only experience in the mountains), so the photo's are blurry.

Overall a very successful day we managed; 20(+-) deer, 19 wild horses, a fox,  a Ruffed Grouse, quite a few Rough Legged Hawks(6-10), 3 or 4 coyotes, and wrapped the drive up with a herd of 30+ elk within 10 miles of the city limits. I am very unhappy with the shots that I took today, but I thought that I would share a couple of Fox photos with you. It looks like the camera is headed back to the shop to find out what is wrong.

Muley Buck Great Horned Owl (20111112) Lone evening drive

The weather today was supposed to be brutal so I wasn't anticipating getting out at all, but I finally pulled the plug and jumped into the truck for an evening spin. I managed to find this fine fella courting a lady:

A little later, on the drive home, I found the GHO that Jamie and I had uncovered last week. He was out on the prowl for dinner, I am certain.

With it being quite windy you can see his ear tufts being blown sideways.  One other GHO on the trip home, but it was too dark to get a shot.  I believe that this is the second time that I have seen that particular owl as well, so now I have a couple that I can find in the evening or morning light.

I have also updated the Blog page with a link to my website, drop by and take a peek!
Have a great evening!
Turbo

Ruffed Grouse-Rememberance Day (20111111)

As a tribute to the men and women who have served our country in all capacities, on Remembrance Day each year I go out do something that in a lot of places only "free" men get to do, I go hunting. Rarely for the kill, mostly for the comradeship and spending time with nature in the GREATEST country in the world!

This morning was no different. Sheldon picked me up pretty much on time, an hour earlier than the past couple of weeks due to the time change, and that was tough!  I found this fella on the walk into the Perch, my best Ruffed Grouse shot in some time, so I hope you enjoy.
Limited animal movement this morning and nothing of significance to report.
The wandering drive home revealed surprisingly few Rough Legged Hawks, maybe 7, compared to the 50+ in the same area as last week with Jamie. The bulk of the migration must be complete through this area.  Have a GREAT day!

Turbo

Initial Post Great Horned Owl (20111106)

Welcome to Turbo's Track and Tour initial blog post. I have been thinking of this for a while now and thought; "there's no time like right now to get started".
As I am about to initiate my Photo guide and tour pass time, I thought I should have a little history for people that may want to know a little more about the types of excursions you might be able to enjoy.
   This morning November 6th, 2011 Jamie and I had two targeted species, we were after: owls (primarily Great Horned) and Rough Legged Hawks. We got started about 30 minutes later than I would of liked to, and that was my fault due to the time change last night, but all was not lost. Thanks to Jamie's keen eye, we managed to spot one GHO in the morning 8:40 a.m.. A first for me, actually as it was in an old grainery on the edge of a farm property. So we now know where this fella roosts and will be anxious for the opportunity to return and see if we can get some better photo's.
The balance of the morning was spent hunting down Roughies, it was pretty dry except for the many Muley and Whitetail sightings ( probably 15-20 critters) and about 8-10 coyotes. Once we swung west of of the Okotoks line it was like there was a switch turned on and the Roughies were everywhere. It was a great morning for Jamie, who got to see about 50 of these large birds of prey in about 2.5 hours, with many shooting opps.  As an added bonus were are positive we finished the day off with a Northern Shrike, only my second sighting ever. So all in all a Great day. Home by 1:00 p.m.
Thanks for taking the time to read, as I am off to work on the "Turbo's Track and Tour" website.

Paul T