Flashback Friday – a summer owl
There are a lot of photographs from the summer and earlier which I have not found a way to share to date. I’m going to try using the Flashback Friday theme to publish some of these. I thought I’d start with a morning in July spent watching one of the great gray owls in Bragg Creek hunting in a field.
Just after 7 o’clock, I spied this owl on the forest edge, perched in a tree overlooking the field. I set up my tripod and long lens in time to catch her fly low over the grass.
This owl is one of a pair that have raised chicks in the same place for several years. The other parent was likely minding the chicks in the nest hidden back in the forest. So, the owl was busy crisscrossing the field, hunting for breakfast.
The summer sun rises early so it was fairly high by this time. The owl flew in and out of the sunlight and the shadows throughout the morning. That afforded some good opportunities to photograph that contrast.
After a half an hour, the owl was fairly close to me and I was surprised when she flew in my direction and alighted on the fencepost right in front of me. She stayed there for almost 15 minutes before resuming the hunt. A very special moment where I felt some level of connection – maybe an acceptance of my presence – that still makes me smile.
Here she flew off, dove into the grass, came up empty and returned to the same perch. A robin joined the line on this second sitting. The birds paid little attention to one another and the owl soon flew away.
A dance with Sandhill cranes
Sandhill crane couples dance with each other. I found this pair in a field west of Bragg Creek and was lucky to be able to watch them.
A few Canada geese watched the dance as well. They seemed to watch with little interest. Far less than me.
#139 in the berries
I found grizzly bear #139 between the Upper and Lower Kananaskis Lakes last weekend. He has a history of being in the news over the past couple of year (not a problem bear just one that people find with relative frequency so there are a fair number of images and articles on him). This time, he was strolling between the forest and the Kananaskis Lake road, grazing on the buffalo berries that are ripe and delicious (for the bears at least – they are too tart for my taste when they first ripen).
I left the bear after alerting one of the rangers to his presence as he was moving closer to a campground. I went for a walk along the shoreline a few kilometres away and returned past the spot an hour later. The bear had crossed the road by then and was grazing on the high side of the hill.
He has been referred to as scrawny in the past so it was good to see him looking healthy and devouring berries. He’s a beautiful bear – especially when he flashes that wonderful smile (please allow for a bit of anthropomorphization. I truly believe animals have personalities and emotions). I hope to cross paths with him again for years to come.
Stags in the hazy morning sunshine
There were two mule deer bucks nibbling on roadside grass that I came across last weekend. They were between the two Kananaskis Lakes and they ran up the hillside to the forest edge when another car passed by. This brought them into the morning sunshine which illuminated them wonderfully.
One of the stags paused at the top of the hill before disappearing behind the trees. The other walked along the ridge above the road for a few minutes.
He was enjoying the buffalo berries which are ripe throughout the valleys in Kananaskis now. I always think of these berries as being food for the bears but this fellow reminded me that they are a delicious snack for many of the animals in the Rockies.
The smoke from the wildfires in British Columbia and Alberta continues to roll across the west. That morning the resulting haze was quite heavy which warmed and softened the sunlight. Beautiful light to work with – a very small and personal silver lining to a massive issue impacting millions of people. This photo of peaks in the Kananaskis valley gives some indication of the atmosphere on that morning.
The stag kept an eye on me but with little traffic and me staying in my car had little provocation to join his partner in the woods. I left him still grazing and continued my travels around K-Country.
A grizzly bear in the fireweed
Last weekend I came across this grizzly bear late in the day along the Kananaskis Trail (Highway 40). He first came out of the forest on the high side of the hill and traveled through this patch of fireweed before slipping back into the woods.
He was in the trees briefly before continuing down the hill and coming to the road.
Meeting the pavement, he crossed straightaway – which is always a bit of uncertainty given the wildcard of a speeding vehicle. However this time the four vehicles nearby were all pulled over and no other traffic came so he had no issues.
Dark clouds rolled in and he disappeared down the bank so that ended the short visit. I headed up to Highwood Pass and watched the weather scrape over the mountains for a bit. Note: that is a great place to enjoy watching the land – the elevation, jagged peaks, often fast-moving clouds and ever-changing weather combine endlessly. When I drove back down, I found the bear further up the road in hillside of brambles feasting on buffalo berries. Failing light and falling rain softened the scene and made finding the bear and getting sharp images a challenge but I was grateful for another short visit with this beautiful bruin.
Berries and a black bear
Returning from a sunrise shoot atop the rock pile that gives Moraine Lake its name, I found a beautiful black bear grazing on berries. The patch was close to the road connecting Moraine Lake with the Lake Louise area which meant a bear jam started to build right away. I didn’t stay for long, just grabbed a couple of shots out the window from the other side of the road. Great to see the berries coming in, they are a critical source of calories for the bears in the Banff National Park.
A White-tailed doe and her little fawn
I found this beautiful doe and her fawn in Kananaskis Country – they were kind enough to stay for a minute and let me take a family portrait in the forest.
Grizzlies spring foraging in Kananaskis
The first grizzly bear I saw this year was along the Kananaskis River in May. I was watching ground squirrels playing around the field in the Opal picnic area. Then they started standing up alert and chirping to one another.
Looking towards the river, I couldn’t see anything. Then from out of the forest first one, then a second bear arrived.
They hadn’t noticed me, or maybe more likely, they had but did not have any interest in me. Happily, they padded across the parking lot behind my car and continued on to cross Highway 40.
Their interest was in foraging on the hillside and I watched them for a few minutes until they slipped back into the woods.
A spring in the step
White-tailed deer are a bit flighty so when I came across this doe munching on some flowers (another dandelion hunter as it turns out), it was no surprise that the tail came up and she took a few quick steps away. She quickly returned to grazing so I wasn’t too much of a threat – or the flowers were too good to walk away from.
Dandelion hunting in Banff National Park
In Banff National Park’s Bow Valley, the dandelions are among the first flowers to come into bloom in large patches. This draws the bears as it has to taste delicious compared to the other vegetarian items on their spring menu. I spied this young grizzly bear mowing through one of these patches that was along the train tracks. I always worry about the trains rolling through the park as they continue to have wildlife impacts. But during the short time I watched this bear grazing, no trains came by and no other distractions interrupted this bear’s snack.
Eventually she strode up the little hill, along the rails for a minute, gave me a quick look and then continued down the other side and into the woods.
Canada geese skirmishing on Frank Lake
The tall grass near the bird blind on Frank Lake is nesting ground for Canada geese, ibis, yellow-headed blackbirds, herons and more. At dusk the cacophony rising up from these residents can be surprisingly loud. There are birds chasing one another, others returning with material for their nest, food for their chicks as well as occasional territorial spats. It’s an incredible spot to set up near the trails and watch life on a marsh. On a visit there in early May the weather was warm and the sunlight before dusk was incredible.
Throughout the evening, the Canada geese were active with a couple being particularly feisty. That presented some new image opportunities that I had not yet photographed which is always exciting for me.
When the sun set, the activity level along the shoreline rose noticeably. All manner of birds flew overhead and low along the water. Some of the geese moved their skirmishing to the small pond directly in front of me. I didn’t move around and they seemed oblivious, or at least undistracted, by me – which was perfect. I stayed until it was dark and loved every minute.
Around the edge with a red-winged blackbird
I took advantage of a Red-winged blackbird’s interest in me and photographed it among the reeds on the edge of the third of the Vermilion Lakes. There were several blackbirds calling one another and flying between perches. They would flit between the little islands of long grass on the lake, the trees hanging over the water and the bushes that filled in the shoreline.
This one came closer and stayed longer than the others which gave me a few good moments to photograph.
