Moose, Elk, Rough-legged Hawk(20150221) A snowy Saturday drive.

With wild and wooly weather around the alure of fresh snow couldn't keep Jamie and I from heading out to see what might be wandering around out there. We found this early morning moose with another. the weather was still pretty tough.

Next up was a herd of about 200 elk. They had been bedded down nearby and we could see where they had been out on the road earlier. Unfortunately I have no postable images (and you know they have to be bad for me not to post them :) ) so I am hoping that Jamie might have something that I can use. One of primary purposes of the trip was to see if we could find any Sharptails. As it turns out we foudn a group of four very cooperative birds. The light was still pretty brutal, but here is a little evidence.

We also spotted this Northern Shrike. It allowed us to get close, but we were underneath it. It just wouldn't come down to offer us a better angle.

Next up was this Coyote. We had just missed him catching something as he gulped down the last morsel just as we arrived.

Our next sighting was another herd of Elk. This group was smaller probably closer to 100 heads. This is just a few of them.

The find of the day for me was this beautiful bull moose we found feeding on the aspens. I have uploaded and linked this video here. This might be largest bell I have seen here in Alberta.

This stretch of road, out closer to the mountains seemed to be the only place we were able to find any Rough-legged Hawks. I believe Jamie might have another contribution to make here too.

We got word from the mechanic that his truck was ready so we headed off to town. We found one more herd of about 80 elk on the way. Put some wild in your life this week.
Turbo