What's New at the Pond?

The Northern Shovellers are back and paired up.

 The Buffleheads have arrived and are strutting around the pond

 This one here seems to have found a mate already!

 They are a very pretty duck with the high contrast black and white crowned by iridescence on the head. It's very hard to capture the colours! 

 Then there were the Muskrats swimming around and doing?

 I can see where the "Rat" part of there name comes from.

 They are very, very agile in the water, and fun to watch.

Every day seems to bring new surprises to my birding, animal areas. Now that we have had our last snow, I hope, I can get out more often! We are forecasting temps in the double digits starting Wednesday. That is around 70C for all you unilingual folks.

Have a great day!

The Ospreys are Back!

I was taking Daphnie for a walk in the Dog Park today and noted an Osprey sitting on a nest. The Town of Whitecourt installed a telephone pole and a nesting platform in Rotary Park about 8 or10 years ago. It has produced 2 to 3 chicks each year. The post is set back a bit from the walking trail, and a sign display gives the Osprey story. It is really pretty nice! Today was snowing, blowing and downright miserable and not conducive to photography so, here is a shot or two from last year

Lets hope this years nesting is as successful as this!

The Last Two Days

The weather was good and I got out and about. Here are a few of the results. It might be a few days before I get out and about again, as we are forecast to get 20 cm of snow overnight.

The first two are of a Juvenile Golden Eagle that decided to thermal right over me. I had to get some help from Alberta Birds to identify it.

 The next two are of Common Gold Eyes that are showing up in droves.

And here we have the Canada Goose having a good stretch. They are starting to nest up and things are getting quiet on the Athabasca

The next couple are of a Rough Grouse having a bad hair day.

Finally, here is one of the 15 Elk that I came across in a farmers field.

A Couple of Surprises

Daphne and I took to the bush today to try and get out 5 miles per day in. On one of the trails, Daphne put up this Roughed Grouse and it perched right beside me in a tree.

We also came across a herd of about 15 Elk. I could not get a shot through the bush, so we moved down the road and waited for them to cross. I guessed to crossing point quite well. They came single file, in a hurry.

We also found a few geese in the slough.

All in all, not a bad day in the bush!

A Walking Day

I thought I would take a little walk today without Daphne. I found a few deer and were able to get up to them. Can you spot the three deer in this picture? Yes, sweetpea, there are three.

I kept on in stealth mode and got quite a bit closer. The only comment I have here is "Don't chew with your mouth open".

 This one was kind of sleepy/

 Oops, I think she saw me!

I did come across this goose either resting or nesting in a dry swamp.

Enjoying the Sunshine!

After a week of miserable cold weather, fog, snow and rain, I was able to get out and about. The geese are pairing up and starting to look for nesting sites. I did manage to get  a LOT of photos on the river.

 I will keep it down to eight

 Here are a couple of shots of the back end of some Tundra Swans flying over. This year I am going to try to get more wing shots of birds.

 This guy misjudged and did a hard landing.

And a Female Merlin!

Out and About With My Faithful Companion

It was another bright and sunny day so Daphnia and I did a 5 mile walk with the camera. The snow is almost gone, but it is still muddy in the bush, in the fields, on the paths and almost every where else.

We did walk up on this White Tail Deer out checking for green stuff to eat.

 These are the first Tundra Swans that I have seen this year. They looked tired and were not spooky at all.

 The swans intermingle with the Canada Geese very well, but at times there needs to be a flight coordinator on the field

 No conflict here!

 Definitely need at this landing. The FAA should get involved with this near miss!

 Don't I look great!

 Here is a slightly muddy and very tired Daphne.