Stellars, Bucks, Bulls (20140925) Waterton Elk video Day one part two.

We had a little time before we could get into our motel room so we took a trip up to Cameron Lake. While we were there, we found a couple of items in the water. My first shot is of either a minnow or a local fry. I initially thought it was a Stickleback, but now I don't know what it is.

The secret to finding fish in the water to shoot is not to look for the fish, look for the "shadow!". The colouration of fish is intended to be camouflaged, but the sun reveals their presence very readily. Here is what I am certain is a much older Eastern Brook Trout. While the fish itself is very small its tail has grown considerably. The "square tail", white front lined fins, the markings on the head and what look like spots on the side is what direct y thinking to a "speckled trout" for this capture. Notice again how easy it is to spot the shadow:)

Our next find is a bird we have always been able to locate at this site and that is the beautiful Stellar's Jay.

I thought that this turned out pretty well as a head shot:)  I believe this bird is a juvenile as evidenced by the white on the eyebrow. My understanding is that these are blue in the adult.

Here is the same bird in heavy shade, and all fluffed up. These birds are one of the reasons I look forward to our annual trip to this "neck of the woods".

Our evening run while numbers wise was really quite good for bears, I believe we spotted 8 in the evening, they were all extremely far off. But we were provided with other subjects to shoot like this little whitetail buck.

Just up the road about a kilometer we found this little guy. There was a larger buck in the woods that we could get a glimpse of every now and then, but no images were taken.

We also were provided with this Ruffed Grouse sighting due to Jamie's great ears. He heard this bird in the brush as we drove by, then when we backed up, it flew into this bush and modeled for us.
As we are here a full week later than we normally are, we thought that on our drive back to our beds we would check the rutting elk. Here is one of the many bulls that were present in the large field.

As you would expect when there are many bulls in the same field, an occasional conflict erupts. Here is  a short video shot very late in the evening, on my Youtube channel: Very brief bull elk battle.
I will shutdown day one here. I am very concerned regarding tomorrow's outing as there is so little food available. Stay tuned for Day Two.
Turbo