Northern Flickers, GHO's, Downy Woodpecker (20150402) First Walk of the spring.

With the Winter walks wrapping up last week this week's walk is a tradition of starting at FCPP Headquarters with a look at the local owl families. Here is a shot of Dad of family one.

As I was taking this gentleman's portrait a couple of male Northern Flickers made an appearance and put on quite a show.

It is great o see all their colour on these birds as the dance around and present.

They "dance" on the ground trying to intimidate their rivals in order to win the hearts of the nearby lady.

We then headed over to see Mom 1 with one of her owlets. Apparently there are three small ones in this nest but we were only to see one of them.

Even 20 minutes later the two Flickers were still jocking for position for the rights to court the local lady.

Next up was a quick trip to take in the second family of owls.  Here is mom, with her tail bent back, and one we can see just the down of one of her young 'uns. This is the third year that they have nested in this same tree.

With some of the kids not being in school this week we had three young ladies with us. The kids always love feeding birds from their hands, when they get the chance.

We wrapped up the walk with a peek at some Mallards. As I have said before I love when I can capture their heads with the blue hue.

That was this weeks walk. I hope that you get to put some wild in your life this week.
Turbo

Varied Thrush, Ruffed Grouse, Trumpeter Swan (20150329) The Ranch always has lots to shoot.

While out with Kerri yesterday on 1A we were able to hear but not find one of my target birds for the year. Last year, quite by accident, Jamie, Tim and I found a Varied Thrush and I managed a quick photo. I have been searching for them ever since. This morning Jamie and I had a couple of great encounters and were able to capture a couple of shots. These are birds that typically hide out in the heavy spruce forest and this is about all you might get to see.

But these birds are really quite striking (in my humble opinion) and worth the work and effort to finding them in a little better light.

After out great Thrush encounter we stopped up the road, as Jamie had heard another calling. While we were standing around he also announced that he heard a grouse drumming, so we went on the hunt.

It took us about 45 minutes to find this fine fellow out in the sun drumming up a storm. I only had my monopod so the video is quite shakey but take a look at him in action here. I thought that this gentleman deserved a proper portrait!

We heard another bird drumming and I managed to get a quick view of him, but hea walked off his log and we were not treated to another photo op. On our way out we managed to locate another Varied Thrush and grabbed our best images of the day.

These shots are at pretty high ISO ranges and very short shutter speeds. But every now and then you can get lucky and get a decent capture.

But usually you get a lot of motion blur and very unclear photos. Here is one though that I actually like. You can see the orange blur from the eye brow and the throat as this bird exits, stage right!

Jamie with his full frame camera has much better images and they can be found on his Flickr link. We missed out on a couple of Northern Shrikes but did find this Rough-legged that didn't do the customary "void" prior to take off.

We had made a swing by the "swan pond" in the morning and noted some 40-50 swans present, but they were all far off. On our "bear road" we did get pretty close to a trio of Trumpeters and watched them for a bit.

Just as we were leaving Jamie spied another first of the year for us two Killdeer on the pond's edge. Yet another remider that we need to slow down a little at this time of year to see everything that is around!

When you get out this week to put a little wild in your life make certain to take a little extra time and look around closely!
Turbo

Great Grey, Bighorn Sheep, Tundra Swan (20150328) Will the 1A be lucky for Kerri and I today?

Well here we go again trying to find some great subjects on 1A. Last weekend Kerri and Simon (GhostBear Photography) think they spied a Fisher in the area so Kerri and I were off on the hunt. If you srea dedicated "Turbos" follower you know I have very little luck on 1A, and today was not an exception. I did manage to find this Great Grey Owl (on Kerri's side of the road?) on our pass through to the north.

We went up to the end of our road and turned around with little else visible. On the way back through the Owl had not moved and allowed me to take a shot from a little closer.

Our day was pretty unproductive as we continued on. We found a Rough-legged and  a long distance Northern Shrike, but it was windy and rainy and nothing was "holding" for photos. That was until we bumped into this herd of Bighorn Sheep rams.

This obvious "leader of the pack" is an impressive specimen. Here he is with some of his band of brothers.

Here is a portrait of the big guy. I believe I have seen this chipped horn on the left side before in my travels.

Here is one of his followers on a bit of a trot, they handle the rocky ground like it was grass.

As we wound our home homeward we found a number of ponds that contained Swans, I expect that there was a mixture of both Trumpeter and Tundra's like this one.

I'll wrap up this post with this Rough-legged hawk. It was a terrific reminder for us that, with the spring and all the new comers, we have to make certain we look all around all the time. We had been watching one of Jamie's favourite ponds, thinking we had seen a Blue-winged Teal, and almost missed this bird.

So keep your eyes open when you are out there getting a little wild in your life!
Turbo

Striped Skunk (201503) A trip to CEI for Swifties will guarantee an encounter with Flower

Each time we make the trip out to Cochrane Ecological Institute to see if we cna photo the Swift Foxes, we spend some time with "Flower". He is a very human friendly Striped Skunk. He hasn't been de-scented so when he gets to being a bother hanging around your feet you need to be careful about how enthusiatically you help him on his way:)  Here is Jamie with Flower on our very first visit.

So I thought I would throw in a few shots that I have captured, when he is not too close to photo.

Here he is grabbing a little drink of water. As Jamie  notes on his Flickr Page
Skunks are typically nocturnal but Flower seems to be up all day long.

While Flower is a fascinating subject in his own right, he can be quite distracting as you are trying to sit still and wait for a Swifty to appear.

But with enough patience and a few tricks, he can usually be convinced to leave you alone, and he is on his way.

It certainly is a treat to have this little fella available for photos as my encounters in the wild tend to be about once a year. And, the subjects are no where near as cooperative:)  Put some wild in your week!
Turbo

Coyote, Magpie, House Finch (20150319&22) a couple of walks at Carburn Park

This week's walk was at Carburn Park and I had a little extra time and energy on Thursday so I decided to do both a Thursday and Sunday morning walk. My main body is in the shop for service so I reverted to my back-up D7000. I have to do some fine tuning with it so these images are not the best. Here is a beautiful Whitetail that just lay in the warming spring sun, one of about 7 deer we found.

My next target was this Common Goldeneye that I snuck up on. I was hoping that I wouldn't disturb it, but it ended up taking to the wing.

The Thursday trip also treated us to a spingy singing House Finch "announcing his presence with authority!"

Our Sunday morning started great with this little Brown Creeper, we looked for it on Thursday but couldn't find it. These are very tough birds to find and shoot.

This next image is my best Black-billed Magpie to date. These typically "black and white" looking bird have alot of colours in their feathers if you are able to capture them just right!

As we were finishing up our walk this Coyote broke out across the pond from the area we had just come through. I love it when I can grab them with all four feet aff the ground. This is a healthy looking animal that has wintered very well.

While I am not a big squirrel shooter, I thought I would add this critter showing off how it can hang from its hind legs on the tree while it grabs a bite. Also note the "red" colouration in its tail. This is a dark phase of the Eastern Grey squirrel.

The GHO's that have nested in the parking lot here at the park for the past couple of years have moved further back into the park. Hopefully they won't be harassed by the people too much this year. This is Dad stsanding watch over the nest.

Get out this week and be certain to put a little wild in your life! It will do you good!
Turbo

Swift fox, Golden eagle, White-throated Sparrow (20150311-15) A bit of a hodgepodge of trips

Over the past couple of months I have been preoccupied with personal stuff involving the house and other items so I have been re-miss at getting some images up here on the blog.  A coupleof trips have been made out for more swift foxes with minimal opportunities. On one trip I was able to find this soaring Golden Eagle.

On the third night out watching for the "Swifties" I spent about a minute with this little critter.

I was watching it through the camera lens and thought it was gently settling in as it cautiously put first one paw then the second.

The little fox seemed to be getting comfortable as it looked like it was about to rest its chin on its paws.

Then in a flash it was gone! You might even say "swiftly" :)
This next set of shots were from one of our Sunday walks that for the most part was uneventful until we found this early returning Song Sparrow.

 On the same morning this recent arrival also held nicely for the group, obviously resting from a long distance journey.

Another great surprise for us on the day was this White-Throaded Sparrow.

There was some discussion as to wether this was a recent arrival or perhaps a bird that has over-wintered here in Calgary. I really like these birds:) So you get a second shot.

I'll wrap up this post here, but don't worry I have more material coming shortly.
I am hoping that in my absence you have been able to get some wild in your life!
Turbo

Swift Fox Special post (20150311) An endangered specie post

While I focus my energies on wildlife and finding animals in the wild I have been provided with an opportunity that I just couldn't pass up. In the past I have had dealings with the Cochrane Ecological Insititute (CEI). Please have a look at their Facebook page: CEI . They have been working to re-introduce the Swift Fox to Canada and the United States. They have a 20 acre enclosure where they allow the foxes their freedom. It is in this enclosure that I have been able to capture the following images and videos over the past couple of days.

This fox received its name from the speed it is able to attain on the full run. It has been clocked at over 60kph which is quite a feat for an animal only 12 inches tall.

These nocturnal creatures are not often out in the daylight so these shots were taken in late evening and as such are of poor quality, but I thought I would share them with you.

It was a joy to see this critter on the run, was an impressive burst of speed!

This next "dog" was quite a bit closer. I was very happy to get this shot before it disappeared as quickly as it showed up.

The evening wrapped  up with last shot. The fox laid down right there for a while then moved to the other end of the small den enclosure you see in the shot.

What a special occasion!  So I had to go back the next night to see if I could get more images. The wind was up and these little fellas don't like the wind. I did get a little bit of video that I will share here. The first is of the wind bothering the senses of one of these little critters, see it here.
This next video is when this fox decides to get up and move, check out the body skake as it leaves the sun. My last video of the evening is pretty late in the evening, when all of a sudden a second fox appears and settles in for a bit of a nap. You can see the other fox all curled up on the left side of the frame. These video's are best viewed full screen. I hope that you enjoy them. To understand more of the small wonders see the fact sheet here.
I hope you enjoy these! This week, put a little wild in your life!
Turbo

Another timely link, Thanks to Mike Kelly for the link.