Truck licking Moose (121009) Off to Lake Louise

Len and I headed out early to meet the ladies at Lake Louise, with Bull Moose being my target for Len before he heads back to Nova Scotia. Very early in the day we saw Whitetail bucks and does, followed up by a small herd of elk, and we even threw in a pair of GHO's, spotted one at a time. Then it was Mountain time for quite a while, until we got into Moose country. This turned out better than I could have hoped, we came around a coner and here were three moose: a bull on the left, a cow on the right a nd a second cow about 1000 yards further up on the right.

This cow held tight while we vacated the truck, she walked right passed the passenger window. I think this fella was hanging around hoping for some post rut opportunitiy.

We spent quite a bit of time (about 25 minutes) together with these two. The bull in particular was very accomodating and entertaining. A car went by and this brave fellow jumped into the woods until the coast was clear.

After a little re-positioning, I managed to get this shot of Len and his Bull.

I was hoping to get some different angles, and he let me know when to fire off the shot!

And after all that he thought he'd help clean up my truck. Such aGREAT guy!
As we headed down the road we found this other bull, clearly a larger unit, but he wasn't hanging around for pictures.

Around the corner we found a familiar face. This is "Paul's Bull" from a few weeks ago.

We decided to try back down the road and see if any new faces appeared. No one new, but my now favourite guy was there and he wanted to finish cleaning my truck.

I will add one more shot for this post, I am hoping he will remember the smell of my truck for a long time to come, and stop by and say "hello" everytime I drop by.

I will wrap up our morning here, with what I would call a highly successful Bull Moose search for Len. another update on later this day will be coming shortly!
Turbo

Bucks, Grouse, GGO on Sunday Morning 121007

As we were going to to be having Thanksgiving Dinner together, Jamie and Zel joined Len and I "out at the ranch for a morning run.  The idea was to stay out of the way of the ladies getting dinner ready. Len and I started out with a couple of Whitetail bucks, then a small herd of elk made an appearance.

Then Bucks just seemed to keep coming.

This is one of two others tht were in an open field.

We spotted a distant cow moose, so it was an ungulate morning to be certain! Of course the were a lot of femails around too.  We met up with Zel and Jamie, they had collected a Great Grey, and we were going to go after that until. Then just like someone switched a switched the Birdie's took over. We spotted the first Rough Legged Hawk of the season. Here is a Ruffed Grouse we grabbed on the same road that Jamie and Zel had come out, just shows you that you never know when something is going to show.

As we were coming out I had Len in the bed of the truck for a better view. Just as he started banging on the roof, I spied the same item. It was Jamie and Zel's GGO

I then took Len over to one of my favourite "mountain view" areas for a couple of those shots. It was then off to the pub for some grub, not too much though, we have turkey dinner later today.
I hope that everyone has a great "wildlife" week!
Turbo

Wild Horses and Grouse. (121006)

A Big, Big day planned for today.  We are headed into wildhorse country with the hopes of bagging a couple of Ruffed Grouse for the table. Len was impressed with the deer and elk we spotted on the way into our targetted area.  This past spring there were 230+ horses captured and turned into dog food for $$$, so we are going in to see what the population looks like this fall. Hopes are high tht we will find a couple to get some shots.  We spotted a few horses on a high sidehill and they started up the hill almost immediately. The truck footing was pretty sloppy, but we continued to climb, and were rewarded for our effort. we came around the corner and the Stallion was standing in the roadway.

It was raining so the image isn't the greatest. He had 8 more horses in his herd. Here is a shot of the herd mare, this dapple grey looked great!

Here is a shot of the rest of the herd.

With one bird in the bag, and one herd in the area, it was turning into a great day! Back on the main road and we find this lone stallion, that had obviously been in a couple of scraps, on an accessible hillside.

5 miles up the road we found a second herd of 10 horses.  Here is a shot of a couple of Mares.

It was nice to find a second herd, we also had a second bird in the bag. We stopped and picked up some gas, and spoke to the locals. When we discussed the horse situation, they were saying that there were lots of horses in the area, so that was great news to hear. With a couple of birds in the bag, and horse presence confirmed, we dicided to switch targets and head out for a Great Grey. On the road back we grabbed our first Northern Shrike of the fall and managed to grab this coyote.

Two miles up the road we found this guy. Len is starting to learn that you never know what you are going to find around each bend, or at the bottom of the dip of the road.

Things were rolling along pretty well for the day. Len got a couple of Buffalo shots and we popped around the corner and came up the highlight of the day for me:

A beautiful covey of 7 Ruffed Grouse.  They wanted to get out onto the road. I think we split them from Mom as she was on the other side of the road.  Len got some great shots, as he was able to get pretty close.  We hooked up with Jamie and got some "fresh" owl info. We had an unproductive cruise and he heded off home, as did we.  It was a long day, then across the road here comes our Owl!

We put the finishing touch on the day with a couple hundred head of elk in one of our "hot" fields.
We went down and took some photos and video, they were spread out over several hundred yards. A terrific day all around.

Turbo

Brother Len's first night- Ram, Fox, Buck, 121005

Mom, Len, and Terri, arrived @ 9:30 this morning, after a 5 hour flight so we thought that there would be no outing today.  However,around 3:00 p.m. Len made some comment about getting out. We got out later than than anticipated so we grabbed a close by track, we netted this great looking ram.

While we were shooting this guy, this Hairy woodpecker flew in for an appearance.

We spotted som eagles and a few ewes before reaching the end of the road and heading out. On our exiting we found a Doe with a pair of twin fawns, and Len spotted this nice looking whitetail buck.

 As light was fading and it was gettting dark, Len spotted this little fellow hunting for his dinner.

It was a very successful first trip out.  We spotted some elk and Len even grabbed a couple of near blak shots of a cow moose and her calf. He had a great time and was grinning from ear to ear!
Turbo

Whitetail bucks, Full moon and Calf moose 120929

I thought I would tran another "moon shot" on Friday night, it was looking pretty nice off the front deck.

Jamie and I headed out look with the hopes of finding a couple of bull moose, first spots was this small group of bachelor buck whitetails.

Up the road a way we found this Cow and calf. I was surprised that he was still nursing at this date.









Here is a shot of him just before he disappeared.

 Just 200 yards up the road were these two young Whitetail bucks that were willing to show us their sporty new Spike:)

We were having a pretty dry morning on one of our prime roads, when we spoted two Ruffed Grouse, these birds were really quite skittish, is what will help them to become adults. Here is very poor shot of one of them.

I hope that everyone has a great Wildlife week.
Turbo

Waterton Lakes Day 2 Part 2 120922

Okay how many bear shots can you take? On the Saturday although the numbers were way up, the distance was also increased significantly.  I will apologize in advance for the poor quality of many of these shots as the are at great distances, and I am only posting so you have an idea of what we saw.
But of course we have to start with a landcape shot:)

Here is a Black sow with a pair of cubs, one is black, the other is very blonde. This shot was taken at probably 7-800 yards away.

Here is anothe long distance shot. Here is another long distance show of a chocolat coloured sow with 3 black cubs, one of which has a very large whitish patch on its chest.

Here is another shot of this same bear, with its two siblings.

So that was 7 bears in two sightings, the numbers really pile up with sows and cubs.  Here is a lovely boar out getting some chow, a good sized bear, but not huge.

Here is another shot, a little loser up. We spent a full 30 minutes with this guy, I even got some video.

Here is a final shot. I had been hoping to get a bear, "standing up" all weekend, and wouldn't you know, on our last bear.

Wait, did I say our last bear, no that wasn't our last bear. Our last bear was this Cinnamon that we caught crossing the stream 250-300 yards below us. It was very late so my ISO was up to 5000.

Well that wrapped up my photo's for the trip. On the way home, we found about 20 elk, some deer, and even two Great Horned Owls. It was a great couple of days. Thanks to Tim and Zel for being a couple of good sports, and great traveling companions. 
Have a super Wildlife week!
Turbo

Ruffed Grouse, Black bears at Waterton Lakes Day 2 Part 1 120922

The Landscape guys were at it again at daylight while they were catching the sun, I spotted two far off hillside bears, then one tears across the opening and across the river,  Tim was the first one to spot it. Sorry no decent publishable shots. My first acceptable shots of the day were actually grouse.

I have to hand it to Tim he picked these birds out of tough conditions, and did a great job.

This second one is a male. Nice work Tim. Our 4th bear of the day was within sight of our fifth.
Something had spooked him as he was on the move in an atypical fashion for this type of year.

While waiting for another shot of this guy, a Coyote made an appearance.

This latest bear is one I think we might have seen the night before, he has quite a dark muzzle.