Owls, Goldeneyes, Magpie (20140410) A trip down to Fish Creek

With the hope of getting some Redhead shots. On the way to the river I stopped in to see how the GHO's were doing. I was so happy to find them both sleeping and no other people around keeping them awake in the middle of the day. I slipped in and grabbed a couple of quick images. Here is dad.

 Here is mom, she has at least two little ones that she is dealing with in this nest.

The geese are back as well, selecting their trees for nesting.

Over to the river, I had the pleasure to be joined by this female goldeneye.

The great thing about having her fly in close and hang around is that the males are all chasing the females and this provided me opportunities to grab a couple shots of them as well.

Getting to watch all the aspects of the courting displays was great. This guy was giving his all to attract her attention.

 These 90 minutes were very rewarding. The light was fabulous as well.

Certainly watching the interactions was great. It was great to see them get together occasionally.

I love the shape of the head of the male, the jowlie look they have is hillarious.

On the way back to the truck I spotted this Magpie that was showing the colours in the wings and tail that the sun was revealing.

It was a great two hours down by the river in the springtime! I'll wrap up the post here, who knows next?
Turbo

Buffleheads,Goldeneyes,Redtail, Bluebirds (201404xx) Some shots from a couple of outings.

I spent a little time down at the river on Monday in order to try a few things out. I shared some time with Goldeneyes like this male.

There were a few females around but the males certainly outnumbered them handily.

The other common bird on the river were a few Buffleheads. These are the best images I have managed of these colourful birds.

They are very difficult to capture as their eyes are pretty well hidden in their dark facial feathers.

One more image of a Goldeneye, in take off mode.

Next up is a Redtail hawk from my first trip out to my new Bluebird Trail. This will be a new experience for me, you can expect a few more Mountain Bluebird shots this summer.

On Wednesday Jamie and I took a run around as his vehicle was in the shop. It was very windy and as a result we saw very little. we did manage to grab a couple of shot of a pair of bluebirds.

I always like it when we can find them and shoot them in trees.

Now for the beautiful female that this fella was wooing. They were singing back and forth to one another. They also had their summer home all picked out.

More of these types of posts coming. I hope you enjoy them.
Turbo

Coyote, Nuthatches, Junco (20140406) First Sunday walk of the spring.

Well here is it again, a spring season of FFCPP on Sunday mornings. I owe a big "thank you" to Bob for letting me know about this Coyote as he pulled into the parking lot.

I got to position myself before this unit was aware of my presence.  Bob had said it had a mouse when he first saw it. This Coyote was still hunting! Finally it saw me and headed off. There was actually a second Coyote but I didn't get any images of the two of them together.

As we headed into the Spruces we were able to find a couple of Redbreasted Nuthatches. This shot of a female was taken in pretty tough light conditions.

Down the trail we were able to find the cousin-- a Whitebreasted that provided a photo opportunity.

Down by the river there were a lot of ducks and geese, but these mallards resting on the grass caught my attention.

On the final stage of our walk this Darkeyed Junco popped up and provided me my finest image yet of one of these beautiful little bug eaters.

Lastly we were provided an opportunity to shoot this Richardson Groundsquirrel. His live will be constantly in jeopardy for the rest of the spring and summer.

When I gotr home the House Sparrows were at the neighbour's feeder. I thought I would grab a quick shot, and I was pleased with the result.

Overall a great day. Spring time has me full of optimism for more great shots to come. Drop on by and we get get some shots together.

Turbo

Moose, Swans, Water birds (20140405) More Spring stuff

6:00 a.m. and Jamie is on time for a run to the ranch. The promise of some sun has us optimistic. We started with a couple of Rough Legged Hawks and then these "golden hour" moose made an appearance.

Here is a shot of one of the three Northern Shikes that we found on the day.

We also had a terrific view of our first American Kestrel of the year.

After spying some dozen Mountain Sheep we found spotted this cow moose on the road. We jumped in the truck and got some nice images.

Like our run to the Southeast last night we found many Rough Legged Hawks on the roads.

We were also rewarded with some close encounters with some Mountain Bluebirds. These birds are usually quite unapproachable this time of year.

This male and female were inspecting potential houses for the upcoming season.

Another first for the year on the blog is this Killdeer. We found him in the stubble on side of the road.

We swung eastward and found thousands of migrating geese, ducks, and swans. Here is a small group of Pintails.

Our next treat for the day was this female Merlin. She had a Starling that she was very intent dining on.

I'll wrap this post up with these Tundra Swans that were hanging around with the Pintails and mallards.

The clouds were starting to roll in so we headed home. We also spotted 4 or 5 GHO nests, with two new ones added to the pool. I thought you might be getting sick of those shots:)  Have a great wildlife week!
Turbo

Owls, redtails, Swans (20140404) A springtime like run after work

Well folks it is starting to look like spring might actually make an appearance here in Alberta. Jamie swung by and picked my up after he got off work. While waiting for him I snapped this shot of our quarter moon.

We swung by where Lincl and I had spotted some Mountain Bluebirds the day before, but had no luck. On our way back to the highway we grabbed a couple of images of this Redtail.

I dropped by a GHO nest to share the location with Jamie, this is the first time that this little sweetheart has been on the blog.

Just up the road we spotted this Western Meadowlark. It is a very long shot but it is a decent evidence shot.

We visited another GHO nest on my route and looked in on this young lady. No other heads/bodies are visible yet.

We also grabbed a quick shot of this Redtail not very far away.

Less than a mile from out second GHO nest is where we find my latest addition to the GHO trail. This nest is very close to the road so it is easy to get a great shot.

Then as we are driving along a stretch where I was saying to Jamie, "one year we are going to find a GHO nest here!", he pipes up with: "there's one!". We will keep an eye on this one (number 10 on the year so far) but it is so far off the road and in quite a dense piece of woods we probably won't get many images here.

As we were getting ready to leave we spied Dad, and he put himself out where we could get a couple of shots. This one is of him keeping an eye on a RLH that took a couple of passes at him overhead.

Sometimes you have to feel sorry for the little critters that all of these raptors are after for their dinner. Here is a Richardson's Groundsquirrel. I expect he is doing himself no favours by hanging out in the wide open.

We finished up the day with a small group of swans heading north looking for water.

We found one more GHO on the way home, but it would not hold for us. Overall a very busy evening with a lot of targets for us to capture. More to come tomorrow.
Turbo

GHOs, Meadowlark, Merlin, MBB (20140403) A South east run with Lincol

Well today there was supposed to be sun, but the clouds would not let us see it. It has been pretty dismal the last couple of weeks. I have been out but not posted shots because they were pretty poor, due to either heavy snow, heavy cloud or both! I haven't had Lincol out since he returned to town so with the forecast we thought we might have a great day. Here is our first GHO nest that we could shoot this morning.

I was very surprised to find all the Rough Legged Hawks. On the day we probably found 50-60 RLH's.

Don't you just love those bland grey skies? Tough, tough light conditions for shooting. This next RLH is a more typical colouration for these birds.

Our next GHO nest  is quite high up and tough to get a clear shot of.

This next nest is a lot closer but is on the south side of the road, so it will be tough to get good shots later on. Today the light worked to our advantage.

It is rare to find two RLH's in this tight a proximity down here in the winter.

On our way home we happened on this Merlin. According to what I've been told this is likely a male. He was just finishing a meal when we found him.

So we started to see a little more colour the closer to home we traveled. It was terricif to find our first Western Meadowlark of the year. The breast colour really brings on the promise of spring.

As we swung through the territory where Dan and I found the fox a couple of weeks ago we were greeted with some birds that defiitely mean spring to me.

This is the first couple of days that, inspite of the weather and clouds, I have hope that we will be seeing lots of colour in the next couple of weeks. So get ready for some terrific outings to come.  If you have any doubt, talk to the guy on the post.

That session wrapped up our opportunities for the day. We did find two Snowy Owls today, this is the latest in the year that I have seen them in this area. I gotta tell ya, I am looking forward to the return of the birds and grass.
Turbo