Whitetail Bucks, Bighorn Sheep, elk A trip with the kids. (121227)

Jamie graciously agreed to be chaffeur for our trip on Wednesday. We started the morning with -24C, with the hopes of some sun and warmer temperatures. While the morning started slowly, we did manage to spot three or 5 Rough Legged Hawks, first we have seen in some time. With our last 6 days staying below -20C there is great photo-frost everywhere. I thought I would throw in this tree.

We found a pair of moose in the open and tried to find a spot to intercept them for a better photo op, but no dice, while Laurel stayed in the truck she saw 5 moving through the trees, we didn't get a single shot. During our investigation to try and find where these moose where headed we found this nice Blue eyed horse. Apparently the "blue" comes from a lack of pigmentation, also accounting for some of the white on this particular animal.

A couple of long distance Coyotes, and another couple of RLH's kept our eyes sharp. On our trail to the Northern Hawk Owl area we ran across about 50 Rocky Mountain Sheep in two difernt herds. You can see that this Ram has "chipped" his horns in battle for the ladies of the herd.

We stopped in Canmore for fresh coffee, lunch, and facilities usage, then we were off again. In the area of the Canmore Olympic facility wefound this handsome fellow.

He was traveling with this other smaller buck which has already dropped one of his antlers.

I don't know if this is a signal or not, I got of idea that this fellow was "flipping us the bird".

We cruised through Spray Lakes and, while there were lots of freshg tracks, we couldn't find another moose to photograph. We had some White Winged Crossbills, Pine Grosbeaks, and some Pine Siskins(I believe). On the way out to Highway 1 we found this group of 5 elk. Here is a version of Dr. Doolittle's "push me pull you".

We finished up the trek wiith a full moon rising over the horizon.

We spent quite a while in the truck, and everyone arrived home in great humour. It was a great day spent with super company. Have a great wildlife holiday season!
Turbo