Geese? I don't care for these birds, Northern Flicker, Bald Eagles

Well our Sunday morning walk was back in Carburn Park, where there were promises of potential, but not much really came about.  The Northern Saw Whet has disappeared, but there is always a lot of other birds to see.  Mostly geese, as this is a major fly over area for them going out to forage in farmers fields during the day:

It was cloudy when we started out, then a little sun, then the clouds came back in making it a tough day to get good images.

We did mange to find a few eagles, here is a shot of four, wading in the river:

That was pretty much our Sunday morning walk. A GREAT way to spend a couple of hours.

Turbo

Mallard, Nuthatch, Chickadee Saturday at Fish Creek Park with Friends.

After a successful Snowy hunt, I wanted to try this rental lens out on some birds that I have a great familiarity with, so Jamie and I headed down to Fish Creek PP. I left the 1.7 Teleconverter on as it was near midday and we had a ton of light. We couldn't find the GHO's so we headed over for a Bald Eagle, little luck there, but on the way back we took the opportunity to shoot some mallards, here is one of my best:

We chased a couple of Northern Flickers around, and actually found a nest, complete with resident:

Then it was off to find Canada's bird the Chickadee, Jamie thought he would see if they would "take the bait":

At the end I thought I'd grab a shot of a White Breasted Nuthatch, this one is for my mother:

Another long post, primarily due to the photos. It was a GREAT day!
Not happy with the rental gear, but perhaps it is me.

Turbo

Successful Saturday Snowy Owl hunt with Great Horned Owl and Snow Bunting

What a difference a couple of hours makes when it comes to the outdoors. While not being able to fin any more than one owl on Friday night, Dan, Jamie and I found four Snowy's (two fairly mature males) and a Great Horned. Not too shabby! I say "we" rather loosely as it was our driver Jamie who did the critical target spotting, I was very little help! We added other critters as well; a herd of 13 mule deer, (two of which were Bucks and still had antlers), a couple of pheasants, a Snow Bunting (which was quite accomodating), redpolls, and probably well over 100 Magpies. It was a great morning, the early light was Brutal, as you see in the Snow shot, but it eventually got better. Here are a few photo's that hopefully do the outing justice:

Enjoy!

Turbo

Rental Lens tryout.

I picked up a new 70-200 F2.8 Nikon lens to try out for the weekend. The Friday morning patrol didn't provide much in the way of Photo Ops so Jamie and I decided to head out for some Snowy owls after he got off work.  We headed out to the North east, but were a little disappointed, one snowy owl. We did also spot 50-60 deer, one ring necked pheasant rooster, and a pile of Magpies, they seem to be everywhere. While we did see quite a bit on the cruise, the photo ops were dismal, so I don't really have anything to show for the first day of the rental.  Hopefully Saturday will be better, Dan, Jamie and I are headed back out to the same area for another Snowy Spotting session.  Here's hoping!

Turbo

Skunk Tracks, Spring isn't too far away:)

Bruno and I hit the ASCCA for our now regular Friday 7:30 a.m. patrol. Right away we noticed a significant difference, no cattle. This proved to be reinforced by the 15-20 Mule deer that were hanging around the east facing slope this morning. We haven't seen any deer in that area since the cattle arrived.
-17 C with a bit of a breeze when we headed out so we stayed in the sun and away from the wind for the first while. More muley's a little further along, no moose today though. We found three whitetails in an area that they "normally frequent" when there aren't any cows around, so things look good for more wildlife to start moving back onto the property. I am looking forward to seeing some elk soon. One small flock of chickadee's, many ravens and not much else. On the Aspen trail Bruno spotted some cougar tracks that were probably 2-3 days old. It was a great sunny bright day to be in the woods, the temperature rose to -1C by the time we finished up 4 hours later. A great walk.
Oh, here is a photo of a skunk trail in the snow, I really enjoyed how it "plowed" little ridges on the side of the trail as it waddled through the snow.  With these hibanators out and about, can spring be far off?

Turbo

Quick trip looking for a Snowy or Two

I wanted to get on Tuesday to fire off some shots at some Snowy owls for a set of omparison shots. I am renting a different lens for the weekend, so I was hoping to get a few shots with the 70-300mm to take note of any improvements.  Not much luck.  We were late getting away and that never helps. We had great light for the time we were out,but could only find one flighty Snowy. Other notables were Redpoll flocks, a group of snow Buntings, a group of four Grey Partridge (Huns), three coyotes, and a Pile of Magpies. Sorry no decent photo's for the Blog today, but I will be very busy on the weekend trying to find birds I've already shot this year for some Image Quality comparisons with the rented lens.  You may not see any undates until Monday. But they will be coming:)

Turbo

Humming bird nest, Kinglet

We were out to Griffiths Wood, on the West side of town for our Sunday stroll this week.  It was another dull and snowy day, so the images are very poor. I've included a shot here of a Humming bird nest, a very interesting find.

We also managed to find (of particular note here in Calgary) a Belted Kingfisher, a male Pileated Woodpecker, a group of Yellow Crowned Kinglets, and a Blue Jay.
Here is a poor photo of a Kinglet:

If these birds get any smaller, I may give up trying to get shots:)

Turbo