Snowy's, snowy's, Horned Lark, Grey Partridge. (20140209) A very frosty morning

With my knee still providing me with discomfort I thought a cruise for Snowy's might be in order, it had been some time since Jamie has had the chance to shoot these beautiful birds.  It was very cold but the promise of sun had us anxious to get out and shoot.  As we moved through the early hours. The white birds were hard to locate. It is a pretty slow day when I decide to stop and shoot a Landscape or two.

It truly was a beautiful morning, but we moved into and out of ice fog, at times it was so thick our visibility was severely restricted. you can see a little in the background here.

We got to see our first Whitetailed Jackrabbit in the wild out here this trip and I am expecting Jamie to supply a shot for the blog here. The Grey's were out in full force too. 

It was 10:15 before we found our first target bird which put us way behind schedule considering Middy and I had 7 by this time 10 days earlier. Even spotting this bird was tough as we were "in the fog".

After a second "building bird" we ran into a large flock of horned larks. I got out of the truck and tried to sneak up (doing a belly crawl) to see if I could get a decent shot, what do you think?

Our next "white bird" treated us to a first ever as I have watch eat a mouse/vole, it was a long way off, but it was a bit of a treat:) This next owl, we were able to spend a little time with and watched as it hunted in an area for a while. unfortunately here it looked away as it took off.

By Lunch time we had found 5 different birds, and things picked up in the afternoon. Here is another image of the same bird, doing a fly by. 

An hour later I was finally fortunate enough to have a bird on my side of the truck. With the wind the birds were very skittish and would rarely offer us a close shot. I am expecting some additional images from Jamie as he had the privilege of being in the "shot gun" chair and was provided more opportunities than I. It remained cold all day as you will see from the frost on the wires in this shot.

We spotted many more birds in the afternoon, including this "fence bird". 

We also spotted a Prairie Falcon at one point but it took off and flew what seemed like for miles. As a total is was a record best day with  15 different Snowy Owls spotted, and we were still home before dark a highly successful day! 

Drop by to Calgary and get me to find you a snowy or two for your photo album:)

Turbo

Here are some comments and images from Jamie:

Our first out of the city Whitetailed Jackrabbit

"The conditions during the first part of our drive are obvious in the Gray Partridge 

and Llamas photos where the wind was howling and the surface snow blowing up almost whiteout conditions."

Jamie
You can see more of Jamie's great images at: http://www.flickr.com/photos/crzycnuk/with/12553264964/

Leucistic Rough Legged hawk, Elk (20140208) S late Saturday run with Jamie

Since I buggered my knee on Friday I was not in any condition to walk, and Jamie was willing to take a leisurely cruise with a little exploration. When Jamie arrived he mentioned all the accidents that happening in town, so we took the long way out of town. We were late in spotting the Leucistic hawk on the first pass by so we had to swing around and try and get a couple of shots. Sorry for the back end views but this bird was very spooky!

Here is a shot without the wire, but I had to crop more because the bird was further away. These shots show off how light the body and wings are in comparison to a regular Rough Legged.

So even with a late start we were doing well. Our next spot was this "gang" elk soaking in the sun. All in all there were about a hundred head on the hillside.

As I took Jamie through a "new" road to explore with fresh snow we found this deer along with about 10 others at various spots along the opposite valley side hill.

On our way home we found some fresh grouse tracks, and with our recent experience with the Sharpie, we were hoping that we would find another cooperative bird.  What we found at the end of the tracks all we found was this little depression and these wing prints.

We found this healthy looking Coyote, hunting so we were able to get stopped and grab a few shots before it ran off.

It was a great leisurely day cruising around exploring. Come on out, we'll do a cruise together!
Turbo
Here are a few of Jamie's shots from the day: The Leucistic RLH.

Our plump, maybe pregnant Coyote.

Here is one deer, of 5 that were on the road in front of us.

See more of Jamie's great shots here:
Jamie's flicker presence

Cougar hunt :) (20140207) A walk with Bruno out at the Cross

Well this is the easiest time of year to find out where the big cats are hanging out. With lots of fresh snow, it is easy to find where the Cougars are traveling. It was cold and breezy (-34 C), so we walked with the wind starting @ 7:30 a.m.
We were not seeing any wildlife, but we did spot sign. There were deer and elk tracks around and we found this wing sweep in the snow.

As we walked the creek bottom we found many cougar tracks. Then we found this drag mark where a cougar had killed a deer and hauled it off the hillside to the other side of the creek.

This portion of the trail was easily 100 yards or more. Here is a shot where the big cat changed direction by 90 degrees.

That trail is 10-12 inches deep with spots that are 14-16 inches deep.  It would appear that this is mom doing the work as there are tracks on top of the drag marks that would represent a kitten following the meal on its way to the table.

We followed the "trail" for a little while, but decided to stop at the creek. The trail was about 2-3 days old, but a great find for us.  As we descended the Pine Creek hill down to the Aspen tail, we found more evidence in the form of tracks. It took us almost 5 hours to do the loop which is much longer than normal. I was exhausted and strain my knee pretty severely. It was good to get home and into a nice hot shower. I am hoping my knee holds up for our next scheduled walk next Friday.
Turbo

Moose, Elk (20140206) A trip out with Tim, the first in a while

Tim and I hadn't been out in quite at while and we finally managed to agree on a time. We were keeping an eye on the weather and things were looking all lined up. We got hooked up and headed off, with good weather and great hopes. We spotted this trio of moose, a bull still with his antlers and a couple of lady friends.

Within 30 minutes we found several others, like this frosty faced cow.

As we passed through the front of the park we found our favourite herd of "citizen" elk.

The run up 1A was pretty uneventful, with little to be found in the way of wildlife. We were occasionally surprized by small groups of White Winged Crossbills. This male is a great example of some brilliant colour in the middle of our deary winter environment.

Tim's eyes were as sharp as ever, finding this mature bull resting off the side of the roadway.

I had an appointment in town and reluctantly had to hurry through the day. Tim was a good sport, and understood. I hope we can get out together again soon!
Turbo

Sharptail Grouse (20140201) As promised a series of great (IMHO) Sharpie shots.

Rarely do we get the opportunity to view such a "flighty" bird at such a close distance.

I am very happy that we were able to spend 5 full minutes with this bird in the morning while on our way to our destination. And since we left as we had found it, undisturbed and comfortable, we were able to find it again almost 3 hours later in very close proximity to where we left it.

It was terrifically entertaining to watch as this bird walked around in the snow, jumping for berries and then getting up into the bushes.

Seeing how these graceful birds, not unlike all grouse as far as that goes, get their chow without any hands:)

I believe it is also a great opportunity to better study the feathered feet and sharp tail that gives this bird its name.

We were really appreciative of being allowed into its environment and life for even these 15 minutes so that we could be enamored by its presence.

These are the types of encounters that keep us heading out to the woods, if it is not with a grouse it could be with at bear or moose.

Amazingly even with all their familiarity with their surroundings and environment occasionally even nature stumbles or loses its balance.

But then again, they are also provided the tools that allow them to "recover" with no harm done.

And, just as with this morning, we left the bird just as we had found it. No harm no fowl:)

While this bird treated us exceptionally well, we were also very pleased with our encounter with the Rough Legged Hawk earlier in the day, so I thought I would throw a shot of that bird in as well. This was just prior to "take off" :)

I hope everyone had a great wildlife weekend, and are looking forward to "then next outing"!
Turbo

Rough legged, Sharptail Grouse, Snowy (20140201) A trip with Jamie finally:) With Jamie's additions!

Jamie has been tied up with some "stuff" and has needed to get out for a bit but unable to, so we finally got a chance today.  For some reason since he has moved to the south he has had a hard time arriving at the agreed to time, today was not an exception:) We had put a lot of thought into where we were going to go, and decided to do a walk on a new piece of property and do a little exploring. The day started with a couple of Coyotes, a silhouetted Sharptail grouse was our next spotting. Next were a couple of moose that were resting comfortably. The next moose were a mature pair that were feeding in the shadows.

We continued to see game and birds pretty constantly, then we ran into a very cooperative Rough Legged Hawk.

This is the closest that I have ever been to a RLH, with the gorgeous light I was able to use the 600mm and get some great shots.

After I got my shots, I went back to the truck and Jamie made his approach and got his shots. I am looking forward to seeing what he has that he can add to this post. We had made a loop or two in the area where there was supposed to be a Northern Hawk Owl, but we had no luck. On the road to our hiking destination Jamie spotted this lone Sharptail Grouse. Easily the closest either of us has been witha great shooting opportunity.

We did a little more cruising and spotted two herds of elk bedded down enjoying the morning sun. We then did our hike on snowshoes for a couple of miles. It was a great workout.  As we were leaving we decided to check in on our "friendly" grouse. Sure enough we found it.

We spent almost 15 minutes with this marvelous bird. We watched as it moved between bushes and fed. Picking at buds on the trees and even jumping to get at the last of the years rose hips.

Who knew that they jumped like that? Don't you just love the feathers on the feet? I believe that I will do a complete supplemental on this one bird, it should be coming in the next day or two, I hope that you enjoy it. I will leave you with one more image. BTW none of these has been cropped:)

 As you can likely tell, our beautiful blue sky disappeared and we were now dealing with overcast skies.  We received a call from Kerri giving us some pretty precise instructions as to where to find the NHO, so we headed out.   We were able to find it, but it was pretty much out of range so no shots were taken. So we headed over to Snowy country to see if we could find any "evidence" prior to getting home. I spotted this Prairie Falcon in a tree by the road, but it wouldn't hold for a shot.

Then just up the road Jamie spied this bird on the post and we grabbed a couple of images.

So we finished up the day with three more Snowy owls, a Coyote or two and even a Whitetail. All in all a super day, and we even got a little exercise, OUTSTANDING!  Drop by Calgary, and we can get out for an outstanding day.
Turbo

Added by Jamie on February 7th 2014.

Another great couple experiences out with Turbo today, first the closest I have ever been to a Rough-legged Hawk.  As if getting fantastic close-up shots was not enough, I was in the right place at the right time to get him taking off.

Next up was a single Sharp-tailed Grouse feeding in some shrubs along the side of the road..  Usually I only see these birds flying away from me as they are usually very hard to get close to.  This one however was ok with our presence and allowed for some great shots.  

This one is in mid-recovery from a little slip on the branch.  It was remarkable watching this grouse go about its daily business uninhibited by our appearance.  These are just a couple highlights of a great outing on a great day.

Jamie
See more of Jamie's great shots here:
Jamie's Flikr presence