Going After the Rails! 120708

Dan hadn't had an opportunity to try out the blind that I had lent him earlier in the year, so he wanted to get out on Sunday and see if we could see some Yellow or Virginia Rails. I meat him at 4:30 a.m. and we were off to the "country". A short ride later and were were cricing sloling along a very nondescript slough. we park the Jeep and walked the area and very quickly decided that we didn't stand a chance in a blind even though we could hear the little rascals around us. As it continued getting lighter I grabbed a shot of this juvenile RWBB.

After leaving the "Rail" area we cruised around and found these fin looking specimen's.

This fellow's two buddy's decided to stay down in the fog and retreat to the creek.

With such a dry spell for seeing Meadowlarks they seem to be everywhere these days.

We traipsed around to a couple of spots, the coyotes and young we saw were quite a way off. Then on one of my facourite roads, Dan stops and is looking out his window when I see this guy right beside us!

I relly like how their toes are thick enough to keep their claws from rubbing on the perch, keeping them nice and sharp for duty.  If you look close you can see the shadow of the talon does not meet the actual claw. One of my best to date of this gorgeous predator. "Getting ready to fly."

I believe I may have mentioned that there is talk of bringing the mighty bison back to Banff national park and re-introducing them.  I would love the opportunity to find these beasts in the wild!

We checked out a a couple of spots that were on Dan's list. we found a huge bull moose that was too far away for photos, somenesting Snipes and this Solitary Sandpiper.  They actuallynest in trees, although not in this tree.

I managed this shot of a Redtail getting ready to Launch.

A pretty decent day overall, we also found some Pellicans, a red fox, and a series of butterflies, but a guy can only post so many images.
I hope everyone has a "Stampeding" great week!

Turbo