Mallard, GHO, Whitetail (20140312) Where is that Owls nest?

Having spoken with Jamie about an owls nest in one of our local parks he was interested in seeing where that nest is located. So I met him after work for a short cruise in the part to find the nest. The lady of the house was home, but we could not locate her mate.

As we strolled around we encountered this balance mallard drake on a log in the river. I really like the colours on this unit.

We slid through some of the flood ravaged area and came up on this mature Whitetail buck. You only need to look at the relative size of ears to the head and the thickness of the buck's jowl to see that he is a mature animal. Another indicator is the size of his antler base which is clearly visible.

A little further in the park we found this very young buck which provides a great contrast. Check out the relative size of his ears in comparison to his head. Although difficult to outline here, I believe you can see that this youngster has almost no jowl at all.  Also this yearling has never had a set of antlers as his first set of nubs are still covered with hair.

I'll wrap up this post here as we headed off for a long awaited barbequed burger for dinner. come on out to Calgary and let me find some of these gems for you.
Turbo

Eagle, Dipper, pigeons (20140311) A quickie with Tim

I am happy that I have been able to get Tim out for a couple of quick runs lately. This morning I was hoping to find him an NHO, we were unsuccessful unfortunatley. We did find this Bald Eagle on the way into the area, and it was still in position as we were returning home.

After seeing Tim off to pick up his daughter, I took a little stroll to see if I could find an American Dipper, a bird that eluded me all of last year. I did find this unit, but I did not have any TC's on so this is a bit of a "stretch" for the 300mm. You can see the membrane that it closes when it is under water in this shot.

I tried to sneak back to the truck to get my 2.0 but it was not there when I returned. In the afternoon I had to pick up the wife's car at a detailing shop and had a couple of minutes to walk around. I found a group of pidgeons and thought I would work on my flight shot technique.

I can see that I am going to have to focus much more on this skill this year.

I likeit when I am able to capture the sun on some of the brilliant colours that they can have. So I am pretty happy with these shots.

Here is a sitting bird with great colour. I find that their eyes can be a tough capture.

I also found some House Sparrows, these were the first birds that I shot with my new D7100 almost a year ago.

That was the end of my expeditions for the day. It is nice to see that things are warming up, spring and all of its colour will be on its way shortly.
Turbo

Rough Legged Hawk, Bohemian Waxwings (20140305) A little light on a cold day

After a few pretty cold days and staying home, the sun was shining today and I decided to check out a few spots. On the way over to the NHO I found this lighter coloured rough legged hawk.

He was pretty patient with me and allowed me to get a few shots. This shot of the take off is a little soft, but isn't too bad.

The NHO was not available for viewing today, so on the way home I decided to stop in and see if the "cached" meal was still in place or if it had been consumed.
There was a lot of "little bird" activity down low in the area I had to check, like this Whitebreasted Nuthatch.

The down low activity was being "covered" by several hundred Waxwings that were flitting about up in the treetops.

These are some of the most beautiful birds we get in the winter here. Their colours are just terrific.

 I spent 45 minutes with them as they worked the treetops and occasionally would just sit in the sun. They would fluff themselves up and soak up the sun.

I was able to find my little mouse still in position. I walked through much of the area where I thought a Northern Saw Whet owl might be hiding, but no luck.  The light was fading quickly by this time so I headed home. A great short term outing!
Turbo

Moose, elk, eagle, Sharptail (20140301) Great owling day Part two. Updated with Kerri's input!

With lunch behind us we thought we would take a peek for an NHO to add to the list, and maybe throw in a Northern Goshawk. We were in some "new to us" country and were rewarded with a sighting of two bald eagles, this one was very patient with us.

As we cruised through the Northern Hawk Owl location we were able to see it, but it was not in a location that would afford some shots. The northern goshawk was unavailable, but we endeavoured to persevere! Perseverance was the key to getting our next critter. There were  a lot of fresh tracks on the hillside as we passed through Sharptail country, and with the weather I was certain we should be able to find a bird sunning itself.  On our second pass we found this little "basketball" basking :)

On our way to my second Sharpy spot we found this cow moose feeding in the middle of the day. This shot doesn't show her breath as it was being whisked away by the wind. I believe I have posted shots of this same ungulate previously.

Kerri wanted to explore a specific road out to the west here and we headed out into that spot. As we traveled through the area I told her what I had seen on my various trips to that area. On our return out of the river bottom we found this small herd of elk.

So two different types of adventures on the same day. We finished the day with 14 owls in total ( 7 snowys, 5 GHO's, 1 SEO and 1 NHO) not too shabby. We were home by 4:30 and Kerri was a very happy camper. We now have 5 GHO nests that we can watch, so you can look forward to many, many, owlet shots coming in the next couple of months.
Turbo

And here are a couple of words and photo's from Kerri :
As you have already read, Turbo and I had a great day on Saturday! There were a couple of instance were I was better positioned to get some images, being in the passenger side of the truck. One was a beautiful, but somewhat nervous, snowy owl. She spread her wings and few off just as we were approaching, allowing me to get my best ever snowy flight shots. I was really happy to capture this image of the white beauty with the blue
sky in the background.

Later on, I was reviewing my images on my camera and not paying attention to the road when Turbo rolled down the window and pointed to the right. This Roughie was gliding by, again on the right side of the sun (and the vehicle, for me a least!). I luckily managed get my camera raised and focused for several shots as it flew by. If you look closely, you can see the white line of frost surrounding the eyes. With the extremely cold
temperatures, frosty-eyed creatures were a common sight for the day. I can only imagine what it would be like to fly through -40 air with eyes encrusted by frost, but this is Alberta and I'm sure our creatures are used to it.

Short Eared, GHO's, Grey Partridge (20140301) An outstanding owl day!

Kerri arrived right on time at 6:30 for our cruise out to the same spot we visited last night hoping for an opportunity for some better opportunities. The -34C temperature and windchill of -42 would not deter us :) Our morning started with a what we believed to be a GHO nest, and we made a mental note to drive by later and confirm  Next was a Coyote that was hunting, and I believe was successful. when Kerri spotted this bird on a fence post. It held for a bit then it flew down into the grass and we were able to find it. It was just as the sun was coming up 7:21 a.m.

30 minutes later with a little more light and a beautiful sunrise coming on I was able to "lengthen" my lens and the frost on the face of this bird is very evident.

This bird had quite normally "found its spot" for the chilly morning and was very comfortable in staying put soaking up the sun. So we headed out, I wanted to share a GHO nest location with Kerri. Momma here almost looks like a cat.

We didn't find dad this time around so we thought we would come back in a bit and take another "driveby" to see if we could spot him. As we headed over to our number 3 SEO spot we found a couple of pairs of Grey Partridge and this might be my best effort yet on one of these birds.

Just up the road and around the bend Kerri spotted our 3rd GHO nest of the day. This one is a little higher than I am accustomed to finding them, but there it was.
Dad was a couple of trees down in there grove, and about 2/3 as high soaking in the sun. He was well out of the way, so no shots today.

We would find Snowy's here and there, but with the breeze they were kind of uncooperative. Typically on these kinds of day we will find one cooperative bird, and today this was it.

We decide to swing back by nest 2 and see if poppa was around anywhere, and sure enough he too was basking in the sun on this frigid morning.

Sitting in the sun soaking up the available heat produces a very poor opportunity for good eye shots :)  We believe that this white unit is the same bird that I shot last night after dark.

As we were wrapping up the morning run we thought we would drop in and see if our morning SEO was still there. I strongly believe that because we had given it room and did not get aggressive with it, we found it right where we left it 4 hours earlier. It was nice to see the frost had been baked off its face.

That wraps up a super Owl morning. we finished up with 13 owls in total, and headed off for gas and a bit of chow. Hope you enjoy the post!
Turbo

Snowys and Short Eared's (20140228) A quick after work tour with Kerri

Being cooped  up in the house for two days was getting unbearable so when Kerri sent a note that she was headed out after work, I asked that she pick me up. Do to the time of day and waning light we bee-lined it out for our targeted bird area.

We found this little unit pretty much at the same time. We took our shots and moved along. On route to our second "location" we spotted this bird on a post.

A short drive of maybe 3 miles we found this "ground bird" with golden hour light.

Our second "site" netted us three SEO's and we were actually able to grab a couple of shots in the fading light of a pair flying together.

The shots that Jamie took with my camera the other night had me anxious to try out a low light snowy owl shot. Tonight I got my chance, and I am pleased with the results.

We had planned to go after 4 legged carnivores tomorrow, but Kerri thought that we should should be come back and grab some better light shots of the SEO's. I guess we will see what happens.  The weather tomorrow is supposed to be pretty brutal with -40C wind chills. The key will be to find the hunkered down critters before they find us. In under four hours we were able to find four snowy owls, four short eared owls and two great horned owls for a total of 10, not too shabby!
Turbo

Three toed, Mouse/vole (20140226) An outing cut short.

I was loving the presence of sun and thought a brief stroll wouldn't hurt. So I headed out to the park for a bit of a cruise. Before searching for the owls I headed into the area where I missed the Brown Creeper on Sunday. While lurking in the area I found this mouse/vole that "someone" had left in a spruce tree. I believe that this was "cached" there by an owl, and as such I will try and keep an eye on it.

So this had me on high alert looking for an Northern Saw-whet. It would have been a real highlight if I could have spotted one, but no dice. I did however find a male three toed woodpecker working high up on a dead tree.

Due to the height that the bird was working I couldn't get a shot of his yellow crest. I suffered a little mishap which required me to return quickly home and ended my outing. All is well and I should be able to get out again soon. Sorry for the short post, but I thought you would be interested in seeing these critters.
Turbo