Eagles

 

 This is kind of a bomb of Eagles. There were two of them hanging around some open water on the Athabasca River. It was very cold -30C and they were conserving energy.

At the end you can see three ducks in the river that were watching the eagles that were watching them

I almost got a good photo of a Pileated Woodpecker that was hastily vacating the area. Unfortunately, even 1/1600th of a second did not stop him in flight.

The photos will bigify if you double click on them

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Great Day and a Revert to a Previous Time

I was asked on Friday if I wanted to go riding! Did I? You betcha. The weather was at my limit for this activity, -15C, or 5 F for you non-metric types. It was also very windy so we experienced several startles, but no unplanned dismounts, which is good. I don't bounce as well as I used to.

After about an hour or so we called it quits. Other than almost requiring a crane to get me off Monte, and being quite stiff the next day, it was a great ride!

Thanks, Michelle and also for the picture.

Yes, We gut Dumped On!

 The last 24 hours have seen a very heavy snow fall, the largest of the year. At first light, the deck, BBQ etc looked like this.

 The bird houses were slightly stacked up.

 Here is our Damsel out helping the neighbors out. She lives about 4 houses down.

The front lawn is getting slightly overloaded


The back yard even more so.

I have a snow blower in the shed that hasn't run for 2 or 3 years. The problem with it is being buried in the shed. I think tomorrow I will dig it out and see if I can get it running just in case next weeks  snow forecast is right and we get more of this

Man, spring is only 7 weeks away and I can hardly wait!

Red Poll Wednesday

It seems that we are inundated with Red Polls this year. I am afraid that the photos were taken out the window because it is just too cold to go browsing around the outdoors.

They are definitely hungry and seem to like the black oil sunflower seeds rather than the striped ones.

 I like the red cap on top.

 Some are absolutely brilliant with the colours and stripes

 Others are more drab, but still very pretty.

Odds and Sods

 Here are a couple of pictures of the Athabasca River in its frozen glory. It is very cold out today.

Even so, it is very pretty to look at.





Daphne was quite content to lie on the deck next to her best friend.








This fellow was quite the handsome guy. I have no idea who he belongs to, but I remember how wild the horses used to get when we rode up to them. Quite often we would have a mini-rodeo on the road until we could persuade the horses to go past.

Then again, there was

 this little squirrel just sitting on a roll of barbed wire enjoying a snack.

Reminiscing

Well. it was a bleary type day, dark,half raining, and half snowing. I wore Daphne and myself out on a 5 mile walk through the bush yesterday, so after a brief walk and play at the Dog Park, we headed for home. What to do? What to do?

I couldn`t find anything on TV so I started browsing some of my PVR items.

Remember the  Group?

Improvements!

 It was a great day with the temp actually getting up to +4C . Time to take the dog out for some exercise.

We took the camera and did about 4 klicks looking for wild life, but found nada.


Not even a bird was to be found,

We wandered along some bush roads for about an hour. It was a great time out. Quiet, Peaceful, and warm



 I have to put out a couple of photos from the front window, just to show that all the birds are not frozen.  


This Hairy Woodpecker had
just finished at the suet container.
 The Pine Grosbeak similarly had pigged out on the sunflower seeds

The little Red Poll was so fat it could hardly move.








This guy enjoyed getting his photo taken. At least it seemed so!

It should be possible to bigify the pictures

January Blaaas

We have had quite the run of cold weather! Too cold to walk the dog. Too cold to go ice fishing. Too cold to even do some wild life photography. I mean it has been COLD! The offer to trade places with you folks in the deep south US of A, the Caribbean, etc is still open for negotiations.

As a result, I got to browsing some of my old, favourite shots. Bare with me as I really like how the moose and Brooklyn co-existed. Brooklyn was 90 pounds, so figure out the moose size.It's too bad that people can not get along like this.

Another favourite are the three horses being released to pasture in the spring. Now why would that be a fav? Spring maybe has somthing to do with it, I think.

Alternate Paths

Today was a nice warm day and I was planning on going ice fishing when a better offer showed up. A friend with two slightly overweight horses was looking for someone to go for a ride. It was hard to say "no"to so I agreed. Monty was a 10 year old horse that might have been difficult. Instead, she turned out to be very well behaved, backing with leg pressure, turning and spinning with indirect rein. The only time I used the bit was to hold her back on the hills when it was very icy. We rode for an hour and a half through the trails in the woods. Surprisingly, I was able to get off and walk normally! We were going to go further but the hills ahead of us were too slippery. A quiet return home was the better idea

Thanks Michelle! It was fun

Now I have a few pictures taken during the -32C  session.

Once Again it is Time...

Time to say "Goodbye"  to another year  and also to wish all my friends out there in Blog Land a very Happy New Year!  Yes, I know it is early by quite a few hours, but I plan on being in bed and asleep by 9:00 pm (9;30 at the latest).

So all I can say is Happy New Year 2018 and

THE END
to 2017

On the way to coffee this morning, I went by the toboggan hill and did not see any kids sliding, even though it is a Saturday and the tail end of the school Christmas break. I do not  understand this!
Kids these days must be getting soft.

On the way home, my tires were squarish, but I managed to get back OK.

Excess Energy in the Cold!

When it's too cold to go outside, Mad Max and Daphne make their own fun!

Two fingers should bigify it.

A Sunny Afternoon at the River

There was one lone duck, a Common Goldeneye female that was swimming in some open water on the Athabasca. Either she was a late hatch, injured or just reluctant to go south, I don't know. She has a few tough months ahead of her.

This big Mule Deer was just standing, munching on some grass and enjoying the sun shine. Oh, yeah, he was keeping an eye on his harem, three of them.

This was the only doe that was co-operative.

Bush Walk

It was a very windy day, too windy for ice fishing, so I took Daphne on a 4 mile walk, looking for some critters. Even in the bush it was blowing. That let out seeing deer, moose or elk. They were all hunkered down someplace. The Bohemian Waxwings were very co-operative.

 There were three Pine Grosbeaks, fluffed up and trying to stay warm The Male,2 photos below, were exceptionally fluffy.

The female Pine Grosbeak was a little more "normal".

Just in case you were wondering what its like taking photos in Whitecourt, this is the sun at high noon. The light is only good from 10:00 am to about 2:30. Otherwise it is a challenge to get a good picture.