Out to the ranch with Jamie (20130728)

Chores around the house have kept me busy for the past couple of days, and I needed to get out for a run. Jamie phoned @ 3:56 a.m. as my alarm clock, and arrived @ 4:26 , so by 4:30 we had wheels turning to the woods. By 5:30 we had spotted 2 GHO's, an elk, some deer, a yearling moose, our first skunk of the year, and a feral rabbit; a great start to the morning. In Old Grey country there were whitetails aplenty with fawns. This little one came running towards the road and stopped up short.

We shared a quiet spot having tea with the Sparrows busily finding food for their young.

We took a stroll into a new area for walking and enjoyed several sightings, the first was this Ring Necked duck.

Down the pond a little distance we were glad to see we had some large company. The mist was heavy still on the water and it was tough to get  a good shot. But I finally got Jamie his Bull moose in the water shot:)

We flushed a brood of Ruffed Grouse, there were at least 8 in the family. On the way out we had to stop and grab a shot or two of this rather large and colourful Thistle in full blossom.

Just as we were getting back to the lake, Jamie spotted this nice buck, unfortunately he had noticed us as well.

We found a second brood of Ruffed on the road heading out, this hen didn't mind strutting for us in the road.
There were at least 4 chicks that were flight able, flitting about.

One of our last opportunities of the morning was this Eastern Kingbird, now that I know what to look for I seem to find these birds pretty regularly.

Jamie took the wheel while I shoot this fellow out the drivers door window, sorry for the backlight, but you take what you can get, whenever it presents itself.

I'll finish this post off with a couple of cow elk that were out feeding in the early afternoon. It was a great chance to get out and see some of the great wildlife we have here in our little area of the country.

I hope everyone out there had as nice a weekend as we did.
Turbo