Well the week was wrought with wondering what we were going to do this weekend. Well with fresh snow and -23C temperatures I headed out solo. With the success that we had last weekend I was hopeful that I would have a bountiful day. There is just something about cruising up a road knowing that no one has been there before you. The anticipation is fabulous! I saw one cow moose on the road in. Fresh tracks, then 50 yards later she appeared. I LOVE fresh snow. I stopped at the end of the road and took in a cuppa tea. On the way out I spotted her again, and this time I saw a second moose that I would judge to be a bull based upon his bell. It was still snowing pretty hard, this is the cow.
The trip out was uneventful, I checked for Sharptails but found none on our first road. As i was heading over to our second Sharptail road I spotted a single cow elk. I stopped and watched and soon I was able to count 21. As the lead cow would edge further into the field more and more of her followers would jump the fence and move into the open. After a bit of a jump a little "shake" was necessary to get rid of the building snow.
I watched them for about a half hour before the lead cow took them back into the woods deciding not to cross the field and move closer to me. Here they go back over the fence.
No luck on our second road for Sharptails so I headed back in on my first road, there were no new tracks of another vehicle, so any new tracks would be fresh!
I stopped and spent some time looking at some fresh weasel tracks. They were likely made my the short-tailed weasel that Jamie and I found in the area earlier this year. At the end of the road I grabbed another cup of tea and found this Northern Shrike.
On the way out I found some very fresh wolf tracks, but I couldn't find any hair. The indication from the tracks was that he heard the truck coming and headed off the side of the road. My next subject I found while I was on the phone with my brother in Nova Scotia. This Rough-legged Hawk provided me a driveby opportunity.
Len was on his way to Eagle Watch in New Minas, Nova Scotia so I thought it was appropriate that I had an opportunity to shoot this Baldy as we talked.
I was in the process of changing locations and decided I would see if I could find a Snowy or two to top off my day. I was speaking to him about the Short-eared owls that had been found in the area where he was, so he decided to take a little look. So this was a first for Turbo's Track and Tour as I was guiding him to look for a specific environment from 3000 miles away. As we were chatting he says "there's an owl!' So he stopped and took some shots. While he was doing that I spotted this Northern Goshawk.
I missed the best chances to get this bird in flight. From the shot above you can see the brownish colouration of this bird indicating that it is a juvenile bird. Here it is in the air.
I finished up the day with this beautiful Snowy. It was very cooperative and held the the whole time I was shooting it, and even after I had left.
A profile image of this beautiful bird. Just a fabulous subject with a little "golden hour" lighting.
A fabulous day! The ability to share some of it with my brother and actually do a bit of a "tour" together made it extra special. Put some wild in your life, and take along a family member, you won't regret it!
Turbo
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