Aurora Prairialis
The Northern Lights have been increasing their activity into the southern Canadian latitudes lately. After what seems like close to a year of quiet night skies, it is wonderful to enjoy them again.
We found these dancing lights on the prairies south of Cochrane near the end of September. It was a calm display but hopefully a harbinger of things to come.
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Rolling the moon down a cloud
We caught the first full moon of September on the first day of the month. The clouds spun and stretched across the sky during the moonrise off of the prairie west of Calgary. The moon leaped up quickly daring the clouds to dim her bright light. It was beautiful.
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Hummingbirds in the backyard
Early in the summer, we had a couple of hummingbirds that visited our backyard. We had a feeder out before we went on vacation and I had a couple of great photography sessions sitting on our deck watching them come and go. These are a few photographs from those.
This is either an immature or a female Rufous hummingbird. I don’t know this species near well enough to say which one. Certainly a beautiful bird no matter.
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A walk under the Trans-Canada
After taking back to school photographs of our kids in the countryside, we went to an underpass along the Trans-Canada Highway west of Calgary. It is covered in graffiti and offers an interesting juxtaposition with the rolling prairie. This picture of the three oldest children walking out of the shadows was a favorite from this scene.
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Juvenile Black-crowned Night-Heron over Frank Lake
After a day that started with snowfall, the clouds cleared in the evening. Desiree and I headed south to Frank Lake to see what birds were staging around the shoreline. With the unusual dip in temperature, I was unsure which birds may have jumpstarted their migrations and which would still be there. We were treated to a large squadron of white pelicans which were the main focus of our bird watching and photography. The sun fell under the clouds an hour before dusk and the light was incredible right through to sunset. Aside from the pelicans, we had several species of seagulls, great blue herons, cormorants, hawks, coots, ducks and shorebirds that came by. And, a number of Black-crowned Night-Herons too. Surprisingly to me, most of those were juveniles. Which Desiree was able to identify as Night-Herons. Which was great as I thought they were an egret or another type of heron. The young look very different from the adults in this species of heron! This photo caught the heron flying into the warm sunlight and I was lucky to have it catch the eye.
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Cat Creek Waterfall
We started the September long weekend with a family hike up Cat Creek on the southern side of Kanananskis. It’s a short walk through the forest that offers beautiful views down the Foothills and more intimate scenes in the valley. It was late afternoon and we enjoyed being in no particular rush. The trail has signs about the area’s history as main trail into Kananaskis last century as well as a short-lived period as a coal mining hotbed. We arrived at the end of the main trail shortly after 5 o’clock and had the pond below the waterfall to ourselves.
Cold but not bitterly so, the youngest kids all had turns jumping in and taking short swims. Desiree and I climbed up the cliff beside the waterfall and explored further upstream for a little while. Above the cliff edges were striped with thick moss and the stream had several small drops. However the waterfall at the end of the trail was rightfully the star of the show. It is one of the prettiest that I have seen in Alberta. That comment may be influenced by the company I was with – most of my very favorite people. Nonetheless, it was a great location to take a few photos.
The walk back in the evening light was just as beautiful. We finished with most kids sleeping on the way home. A great day.
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Storm clearing over Water Valley
Photographed north of Cochrane in Water Valley in the early evening in June. The trailing edge of a storm had lost its enthusiasm with only a ragged veil of rain left to haze the Rocky Mountains slightly.
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Perseid Meteor Shower over Bragg Creek
Desirée and I went out to look for shooting stars last night for our favorite meteor shower of the year. The Perseids didn’t let us down and we saw a couple dozen on either side of midnight west of Bragg Creek.
The Milky Way stood out against the deep night and I was lucky to catch a few crossing that incredible arch.
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Neowise on a summer night
Desiree and I went out to photograph the Neowise comet on consecutive nights in late July before its nightly tour over the northern hemisphere ended. It was amazing to see the comet so bright. With longer exposures, the tail flared out behind in a way that I haven’t photographed before. That was beautiful and I’m glad we were out there and could share that together.
The comet was difficult to see with the naked eye. With the camera, and a 6 second exposure, it stood out even against the sparkling sky.
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Loon on the lake
A quiet moment watching a lone loon between his dives under the water.
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From the archives: Port Angeles sunrise
I have to admit to missing the ocean badly right now. The pandemic has interrupted a couple of trips to the coast but a stroll through my image library helped. I landed on some images from a morning two Aprils ago where I was on the narrow strip of land where the Ediz Hook Reservation for Native Birds borders against a US Coast Guard Air Station.
The sun rose just after 6 am. I was on the shore by 5 and enjoyed watching twilight brighten the night sky. The hour seemed to glide quickly past – as is often the case when I’m out photographing landscapes. Not before I had managed a few different scenes of the blue hour on this interesting spot along the Olympic Peninsula in Washington State.
When the sun was up, I did a little beach combing. Walking through the wash of the tide, I found a few interesting miniature scenes. This one was a favorite of mine.
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Early summer flowers in Kananaskis Country
On a walk in the hills above Sibbald Flats a couple of weeks ago, we had a great time following a stream into the forest. Flowers clung to the rocks in odd spots along the water’s run. I broke up the hike with a few shots of them along the way.
If you are interested in the names, just hover over the picture and you can see them.
