Moose, elk. (20140119) First outing with Grayson-- Updated with Grayson's contribution!

Grayson is visiting the GWN (Great White North) with a pile of his friends from college, and wanted to get out to see what we could find. I met him downtown and we headed out to a parking spot north and west of the city to find a place to park his vehicle. The mourning was looking very dismal, the wind was howling like a banshee, if this wasn't our only "available" day I would have recommended a postponement. We were able to find a couple of moose to start us off, they were down in a protected valley.

This cow only held briefly before she called her calf to her and they headed for the protection of the heavier timber. This is the primary reason I hat being out in the heavy wind, critters are just very spooky and refuse to hold. Here is the calf on the move to mom. From the shape and size of the "bell" this looks like a young bull.

We found a very uncooperative coyote, that we were unable to get any decent shots of while we were on the "wolf" road from New Years. The wind was absolutely relentless and I knew we had to get out of that area and try and find some where with more protection.

 Shortly after we turned around to head out the road Grayson spotted a ewe Bighorn sheep that we spent several minutes with and he should have some excellent images. I am hoping that he will send me some of his images so I can share them with the viewers.
After a long dry spell we found this "naked" bull at about 350 yards out in the willows.

While we watched this fella, we spotted two other single critters moving about in the material and this group of three that brought the total for this area to 6. These three were probably 5 or 600 yards away. The middle unit is a young bull.

Not too far from here, Grayson spotted a lone moose that I believe was a bull, it was a great spot on his part! Getting to see a couple of critters certainly makes it easier to find them as you now know what to look for. We spotted a couple of long distance Wild Horses that really didn't give us any shots, and an hour or two later we had a Northern Goshawk that evaded our camera's as well.  As we were wrapping up the day we found another Coyote, and I am hoping that my guest got some better shots than the morning animal presented.
We wrapped up the photoing with this large group of elk. This is a good piece of the herd that we found that I estimate to be about 400 animals in all. the critters in the top of the image are cattle.

I tried to get us a little closer, to see if we could get better images, and found this small bull with three cows.

The light was going to get too low to shoot any shots of the 15 Mule deer we finished the tour with. We had a little difficulty getting Grayson on the road, but these are the types of things that make trips really memorable.  I believe he enjoyed himself and am hoping he can contribute a couple of images, particularly of the items I did not get images of. Have a super wildlife week!
Turbo

Here is an account of the day from Grayson's perspective:
"MY FIRST DAY WITH PAUL

I came to Alberta from New York with a merry gang of 30 skiers but read so much about the Albertan wildlife that my packing was equally divided between what kept me warm and what abetted the taking of critter portraits. I contacted Kerri who put me in touch with Paul, and I am so glad to them both for the experience I had. 

I was so excited to be with a local guide adept at finding wildlife to put in front of my lens (and I apologize, Paul, if this was not evident when I hopped into your truck at 7am that day!). I’m a night owl and was groggy from my flight, but Paul’s overview of what we could see that day was better than strong coffee. I’m from New York and I was basically going to see every animal he mentioned for the first time!  Within minutes he was showcasing his knowledge of meteorologic phenomenon and their effects on animal behavior and I knew we’d have an exciting day. 

For example, I learned that high winds puts mice to moose on high alert because the wind spreads their scent to all manner of predators as well as masks the sound of their approach. This combined with the chilling effect of a good winter wind causes animals to hunker down in tough-to-find spots. This made a lot of sense to me, especially when I compared a moose in high wind to a human in pitch black.  A young Boy Scout walking through the woods might be fearless in the day with his decent eyesight and Swiss Army knife, but at night would be more inclined to ask questions like “was that an acorn hitting the ground, or a twig breaking underneath a cougar’s paw right behind me?” He would freeze for a few seconds, to minimize his own signals to whatever else is out there, before thinking “well that sounds like another acorn but I’m going to run as fast as I can anyway.”

A moose with his excellent hearing and sense (albeit poor vision) would feel much more like that camper in high wind because his early warning system is compromised. It is therefore less patient when answering questions like “was that the paw of a cougar cracking through the snowpack, or the clumsy racket from an amateur NYC photographer opening the door of his truck and fumblingly attaching a monopod to his camera to take my portrait?” 

In addition to his great store of knowledge, I found Paul to be a very honest and straightforward individual. This was because he spared no time in explaining that due to the heavy winds that day, the animals would be shy and skittish. Disappointment would probably ensue. 

I said, “oh.” 

But optimism was re-established when we saw a couple moose in a small grove, which quickly hurried off into deeper cover. This was the first time I had seen moose in the wild and my initial impression was “fast.” They can move-and that’s not just an excuse for my being too slow to get even a decent “evidence” shot. If that was through snow, imagine how quick they could dart across a road…which was unsettling food for thought for every one of the hundreds of kilometers I put on my truck that week on the highways of Alberta. 

We briefly missed a coyote scuttling across the road and into the forest and I began to wonder if despite Paul’s uber-pleasant company I might be resigned to seeing just the tails of things all day. I was just thinking about how heavy and annoying my camera equipment was to carry internationally when this stoic ewe presented herself on the side of a highway":

Paul T: an indication of the wind of the day:

Back to Grayson's naritive:)
"Next, we observed a clump of Bohemian Waxwings on this tree, all waiting for a bus it appears:

Their namesake comes from the vivid red and yellow wax covering their wingtip feathers. Another fun fact is they like to get drunk off over-ripened Rowan berries. 

Paul spotted this eagle seemingly a mile away, but since I’m American I will insist on including it even though at several hundred yards away it was a tough shot-

Paul was drilling into me all day what “moosy” habitat looked like, so I of course had to spot one for him just to prove I was listening…he never turned around to face us so this is my best portrait from 40 yards. 

The light was dying as we made our way home, and luckily we were able to take a side road to get near this elk couple. I say couple because there are two elk here; the male in front and the female behind him nearly perfectly in profile. Maybe she thought we were hunting. 

This is coyote. The light was dying and he’s pretty far off here scampering into the forest. Paul assured me they are nothing special up in Alberta but I’m from Manhattan and so obviously I was pretty fired up to see one.  I thank him for pulling the truck around at my behest so I could get an “evidence shot” to end our terrific first day. 

My trip to Alberta was enormously enhanced by spending the day with Paul and I recommend that anyone trying to get a serious glimpse of the wildlife to get in touch with him. Just in case you’re the type of person who wouldn’t take advice from someone who wouldn’t follow their own, I was so happy with our results the first day that I wound up taking another day off from snowboarding meet up with him in Banff- which proved to have some wonderful surprises too!"

Gyrfalcon, Moose, Horses (20140118) A morning run South

With some mild weather over the passed few days and the snow settling Sheldon wanted to get out to see if we could find a few antlers that had been shed by the ungulates. He also swore me to secrecy as he was going to take me a new spot he found.  He guaranteed that I would see moose in this area and he produced! Anyone who knows wildlife knows that you cannot guarantee its presence:)
Here is a very early morning shot of a bull crossing a fence. This is just one of 16 moose we found in Sheldon's "honey hole".

Most of the moose we found were "antlerless" but we believed that many of them were bulls, indicating we might find some "sheds" later in the morning. We cruised our hunting area and found another 8 or 9 moose, and with the windy conditions every moose reacted the same, they ran! We walked our targeted valley and found no sheds but another 8 or moose, so our numbers for the day were over 30 moose, a personal best day for me. During our walk we encountered some of the local horses.

I am pretty happy with these as they were shot on the run, and I was manually focusing. Here is another in full flight.

Beautiful animals, and they thankfully left us alone. Quite often a tame horse will start to follow you as you walk, they may even start to nudge you in the back:)
On our drive home we spotted this beauty, only y second Gyrfalcon ever.

Sorry for the poor environment with all the barbed wired and cables, but I shoot them where I find them. These birds can be quite cooperative at times (or so I am told) but this fellow had his face in the wind and was looking like he was going to leave any instant.  Please forgive for posting a second shot, but this is a beautiful looking predator, and I want to really remember the brief encounter.

In order to better represent the size of this bird here it is on top of a telephone pole.

These last two shots are cropped pretty hard, but I believe they are of decent quality that they stand up to the cropping :)  That wrapped up our Saturday morning as far as photo opps provided. Over all a fabulous day. Drop by Calgary, maybe we can have a fabulous day together.

Turbo

Various birds (Jan 2014) Griffiths Woods

There had been a Great Grey, and a Northern Pygmy Owl reported in Griffith Woods park at the edge of the city on the weekend so I spent a couple of days wondering around to see what I could find. No owls, but other birds made their presence known. This is a couple of about 200 Bohemian waxwings that were about. The day was very grey, these birds are on my list to get better images of.

On a piece of the water were three common goldeneyes. This is one of them.

On Wednesday the Kingfisher made an unexpected appearance.

 I don't often shoot squirrels but this little guy was presented in the tree with great light, so you gotta take a shot when you get a chance like that.

For this Hairy woodpecker, it was quite the opposite, I had to get deep in the heavy woods to find this fellow that was tapping on this tree.

It was a lot of time spent for very limited results, but that is the way that wildlife can treat you, there can be drought that lasts for days or weeks. Have a Great Wildlife day.
Turbo

GHO, Chick (20140112) First Winter walk

Well it is time for the winter bird walk sessions to start up again. FCPP is the spot that we start, there are always cooperative birds that "hook" the newcomers:)
White Breasted Nuthatches here are willing to come to seeds in the hand.

Downy  and Hairy woodpeckers are always present as well. Here is a female Downy.

Of course the Chickadees were also there to be coaxed in for seeds from the hand. The newbies love this experience, it works every time.

 The other really excellent hook, is the sight of an owl on the first day out:)

We spotted all four of the local "citizen" GHO's that are within walking distance of the main offices. This is the mate of the owl shown above.

While we had a great day, with heavy overcast skies, we were cautioned on what our expectations should be this year given a number of conditions that exist here in Calgary this year. So we will see what we are able to find.
Turbo

Snowy, Grey Partridge, various (20140109) Just getting out of the house.

The bride chased me out of the house today for some reason, I can't even remember now:( I took a swing out to the Ranch as there is supposed to be a Northern Hawk Owl out that way. No owl, but I did spot this nice healthy looking cow moose.

If you cannot see from that shot, this image of a beautiful Rough Legged Hawk will show you that the skies were heavy overcast, and provided very little light and Dynamic Range opportunity.

I always enjoy the opportunity to get better photo's of Horned Larks, as it turns out this is a pretty poor image. 

I was surprized when this bald eagle crossed the road and landed in the field. Another poor image due to the distance and light conditions.

Another bird that I need to get better shots of is the Grey Partridge, these birds just will not cooperate for me yet.

You know "when it rains it pours"? Well I found this Snowy Owl and it was accompanied by about 2-300 Snow Buntings.

I believe that this is a decent image that shows off the in flight barring of the Snowy's feathers.

That wrapped up my exile from the house, so I returned by 1:00 p.m. and grabbed some lunch. I was a little disappointed at the fact that I was only able to find 1 Snowy, perhaps I will find more another day.

Turbo

Ethics in Photography-- Some bad apples are tainting the water for all of us!

I understand that people come to my blog to see wildlife shots and to perhaps even read about the trips. I am going to take a little space here to discuss a topic near and dear to my heart and that has surfaced in Calgary and other areas regarding wildlife photography ethics. It initially started with local discussions here in Calgary surrounding the ethics of "baiting" owls in order to "get the shot".  The next incident was something on the Nikonians website regarding a photographer who had a very personal interaction with a young bull elk in a park down in the US.
http://www.nikonians.org/forums/dcboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=161&topic_id=166855&mesg_id=166855&page=
If you don't want to investigate the thread, the summary is as follows: A photographer did nothing to prevent the encounter from happening and as a result the elk was destroyed. The elk had become human-habituated to the point that it had become dangerous to people. The habituation occurred because people fed the elk repeatedly. That is what happens when unthinking humans want to get better photos. They feed the animals to attract them, then other concerned humans have to destroy the animals for the safety of the rest of the humans.  It doesn't exactly seem fair to the animals.
I do not condone baiting.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/banff-wolves-baited-with-turkey-by-suspected-wildlife-paparazzi-1.2489021
So now we have other Photogs who are trying to get shots of wolves in a national park by illegally baiting wolves with cooked turkey.
I recently added a link to the blog that outlines the ethics that I adhere to. I recently visited the Leslie Street Spit in Toronto. Here are the guidelines that the Tommy Thompson Park requests visitors adhere to in regard to owl sightings.

 

These are some of the reasons that I am so vague in identifying where we find various animals and birds on the blog. Please, if you see anyone misbehaving by baiting animals, talk to them and educate them on the effects they are having on the animals and what the ultimate cost to the animal will be. 

Turbo

GGO, Moose, Wild Horses, Crossbills (20140105) A recovery outing with Kerri

 Minus 25C with a -34C windchill, fresh snow and sun, what a great Alberta day! Four weeks ago Kerri and I did a trip for wild horses (20121207) and we had a great day. Unfortunately Kerri lost all of her images (about 900) as the card in camera malfunctioned, so I was hoping to try and find her some of the same subjects. She was also hoping to find a wolf, so we were taking a slightly different "tour". We found our before sun up owl in a different environment, it was hunting from a set of Aspens, we watched it make three dives into the snow and return to the trees. Here is a terrible light condition wing shot, I would have loved to have full sun for this baby!

A little further along the trail we found this early morning Bull Moose wandering in an open "choppin". This would be the first of 7 on the day, a great count on any day.

Things were rolling right along when we found this nice Rocky Mountain Ram, he was deep in the shade so the shot is pretty bland, but too nice an animal to not make the post.

In just a little while we found our sun that had been promised for the day. We had run into moretraffic then we would have liked. we passed our Wolf sighting spot from NYD and headed into heavier woods. There was a small group of birds that "popped up" off the road so we stopped and took a look.

I was able to get closer to one of the Males, these are great colour birds for a beautiful winter day.

I believe that this is a Juvenile, with just a hint of orange. I haven't found any White winged's yet but these Red Crossbills certainly added to the day.

On our way to find some wild horses for Kerri we ran into a trio of Coyotes. While they wouldn't sit still for long, we did manage a couple of shots. Even though we were on the shady side of the dogs I think I was able to produce a a reasonable image.

We found 8 of these units on the day so there was almost always something in the viewfinder.
We found this small family unit of 4 wild horses. The deep snow is really making foraging difficult for them.

The Stallion was keeping a close eye on us letting the others feed.

We were able to find tow of the same three bulls that we had found four weeks ago. One of the big bulls had already lost his antlers. They were deep in the shade and a long way off. We took shots but nothing really worth posting here. We had a super day and as evening was closing in there were deer everywhere. We couldn't find any Elk or the NPO, but still considered it an excellent day.
Turbo

Kerri sent over this portrait of the Stallion to share:)

You can see more of Kerri's great images at : http://kerrimartinphotography.com/