Snowstorm and Robin
In mid-April, snow fell regularly. The robins had arrived earlier in the month and I wasn’t sure how they would feel about the weather. One afternoon, I photographed this one for a little while. He didn’t seem to have any issues with the white stuff as he bombed through it and flew around to a few different spots around the yard.
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Common loon cleaning
This loon had a small lake to himself a week ago. After swimming around a small island once, he decided to preen. I am used to this being a relatively short session that ends with the stretch out of the water as in the image above. This time was very different and saw the bird splash, skim, dunk and flap for 15 minutes. I’m guilty of thinking that he was having great fun during his bath time. While this is not unusual behavior for loons, it was new to me for the amount of time and the exuberance displayed.
I had a great time was watching and enjoyed looking for dynamic images that I have never had the opportunity to photograph before. The head emerging from the water, wings outstretched perpendicular to the water, surface skimming while beating droplets into a fury around him were among my favorite moments. Here are a few of the images that put a smile on my face when I reviewed them a couple of days after the encounter.
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Happy Easter!
The robins have just returned to our home this weekend. It was a nice surprise from the Easter bunny to see and hear them in the backyard again.
Desirée thought the image above suggested the bird centre in the sunlight was the hope of spring emerging from darkness of winter. I liked that a lot. She has a beautiful way of seeing things.
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Equinox aurora revisited
Last weekend, I shared one photograph of the Northern Lights from the geomagnetic storm that hit earth in the early morning of the spring equinox. The aurora rippled high into the northern sky for a few hours. Desirée and I watched them for much of that time. Here are a few more images from an incredible night.
After leaving Bragg Creek to see the sunrise at Ghost Lake, the aurora faded into the brightening horizon. This last photograph of the rolling hills north of the lake suggested an echo of the Northern Lights. I’m not sure if they were there still or if it was more my imagination.
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American robin in a watercolor
Spring has returned the robins the fields and forests around Bragg Creek. I found this one stirring up the leaves below these trees. She darted between the trunks and then flew up into the branches. The diffused background from a narrow depth of field reminded me of a watercolor painting. The monochromatic palette in the bark and dull yellow grass both warmed a little with the morning sun. Her orange belly was a welcome splash of bright color.
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A hunting owl
I have photographed this Great gray owl in the same area for the past five years. When I found her hunting for field mice just off the gravel road, I set up and watched her make two successful dives from branches that hung only a couple of metres above the tall grass. I haven’t seen her or her mate over the winter so it was great to reconnect and watch the action. I particularly enjoyed watching how she flew through the open forest.
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Snowy cattails
A storm overnight cooled off the Greater Calgary region considerably on Tuesday morning. Even then I was still a little surprised to drive into a heavy blizzard on my way into town around 8 AM. I didn’t want to waste a good snowfall so I pulled into a little pond where a few ducks spend a part of their summers at. A Blue-winged teal and three Northern shovelers were paddling around the water while the snow fell.
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Spring back into winter
At some time in the middle of night, clouds rolled in and the temperature dropped. This morning there was a couple of inches of heavy, wet snow covering Bragg Creek. I drove and walked along a couple of the country roads in West Bragg to photograph the landscape after what should be a short visit by the winter spirits.
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Spring with Robins in Fernie
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Although Fernie is in the heart of the Rockies, it is deeper into spring than Calgary so the visit there over the Easter weekend was great. Robins have always been a sure sign of spring for me and I found a few hunting in a field during the rain. This one was particularly beautiful as it chirped away from its perch in a tree by the Elk River.
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Red-winged in spring
A Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus) rests between calls in a bramble of willow catkins.
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Moose in Bragg Creek (now snow-free)
Mother Nature flipped a switch a week ago and now we are free of snow and the temperatures are t-shirt appropriate. The moose probably aren’t excited about the warmer weather but I’m sure they are enjoying snacking on the new greenery. Looking at the photographs of this young bull moose afterwards, it struck me that it has been about nine months since I have had snow-free backgrounds of moose.
Regarding the moose, expect that they will start retreating for the cooler forest just after dawn pretty soon. I think it is finally safe to say we are now coming out of the mild, but very long, winter here.
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Forest owls in flight
(Please click on each picture for high-resolution versions of each image)
My friend Jeff Rhude came out to Bragg Creek to photograph along the back roads with me this morning. We struck out for West Bragg around 6am with the sun fighting valiantly to burn off the haze. The resulting soft light was wonderful and stayed with us through our first meeting with one of the owls I have photographed a couple of times recently.
We found this owl a couple of hundred metres down the fence line running at a right angle from the road. It flew to a couple of posts and we photographed it from the field facing the forest. It moved back towards the road and we went ahead of the bird to try to guess where it was going to fly next. Moving off the road, we walked into some open forest and had great views to a couple of the flights in the trees. The owl went to a stump overlooking another field and we walked up the hill to have a higher point of view.
Flying up to a knot in a tree the owl was looking past me and after a bit of shuffling it launched… straight towards me. It happened fast but the autofocus was up to the task and I kept the lens on the bird as it flew right over my head. Having that experience and some great images, we agreed to head back to the road and leave the owl to continue its hunting.
We covered a few more productive spots and we found two separate Great Grays. The last owl spent most of its time in the trees near the road but then made a great set of dives. The third attack was successful (for the owl, not as much for the mouse) and completed a good morning. If you are interested in seeing these and a few others from the day, I invite you to visit this web gallery.
Christopher Martin Photography 