Moose, Deer, Grosbeak (20130902) A morning of exploration.

Another early morning, and off to see if we could find a couple of bull elk for photo's, no telling what we might find. The area we are going to has also been productive for moose in the past. I also think we might find some warblers as we walk beside a small creek with good cover for such birds that are beging to "stage" for their trip south. We found Old Grey befor the sun was up this morning which is a real treat, I have been watching this cow moose for the past 4 and a half years. She was enjoying a little "cattle salt".

We knew that she had a young son earlier and the year so we were searching for him, and spotted him about 300 yards away. He is looking trim and healthy. Sporting two points on one antler implies he has some good genes, and we are looking forward to see how he develops into an adult.

Every now and then I have to throw in a "landscape" shot to keep guys like Zel and Tim happy. Here is a nice looking sunrise behind a typical Alberta "ranch".

As we made our way towards our "walking" area we spotted this small Bachelor group of Whitetails. These youngsters probably won't breed this season, they will need to grow up a little more.

Not too far from this group of young bucks we had this opportunity with a "Bambi". No buttons here, so she will likely be woo'd by these boys in the coming years.

As we started walking in we found Robins, a Townsends Solitaire, a Wilson's Warbler and many others. At our first water hole very little wildlife, disappointing. We did find a Doe with her two yearlings still with her.

At our second pond we spoted this hen Mallard, her she is saying "good-bye" to us.

I grabbed this shot of a Lincoln Sparrow, a first for me, I am having a pretty good year for new birds:)

We found Wasp nests, and alot of grasshoppers and dragonflies on our walk out that provided some great "photo opps". We also found many Chickadee's on the way out and I thought I would post one here as I have typically been loading up Boreal's and Mountains as they are more unique to me, but this is Canada's bird.

We also found this immature Rose Breasted Grosbeak, I found the colouring and patterning on this bird to be pretty nice.

We also ran into a mob of Magpies, these are very tough birds for me to capture accurately for some reason.

We planned this to be a shorter trip so we did a short unproductive drive, and headed home. I hope you had a little wildlife in your Labour Day weekend.
Turbo