Tag: American White Pelican

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots

David M14 Comments

This is my contribution to the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots.

I ran through a list of locations in my head and one location quickly made it to the top of the list. Last Mountain Lake, also known as Long Lake is a prairie lake in south central Saskatchewan, Canada. The northern end of the lake is a National Wildlife Area which includes the Last Mountain Lake Bird Sanctuary.

I thought I would put a post together covering a 12 month period.

A section of the National Wildlife Area at sunset in the winter.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots

 

A recently arrived male Yellow-headed Blackbird displays to attract a female in the spring.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots

 

An American White Pelican in the summer. The keel on the bill means it’s a breeding adult.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots

 

A section of the National Wildlife Area at sunset in the autumn.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots

 

A flock of Snow Geese taking flight in the autumn. The lake is a stopover location for the species on their way south for the winter.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots

 

A section of the National Wildlife Area at sunset in the winter.

Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Special Spot Shots

A Photo a Week Challenge: What’s For Dinner.

David M13 Comments

My contribution to the A Photo a Week Challenge: What’s For Dinner.

Fish.

Flying Osprey with flying fish.

 

Apple.

Female Common Blackbird.

 

Poppy seeds.

Eating Poppy seeds.

 

Bugs.

July Squares: Mountain Bluebird.

 

Fish, again.

American White Pelican with fish.

 

Caterpillar.

Eurasian Blue Tit feeding young.

American White Pelicans.

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Throwback Thursday travels back to Saskatchewan in the summer of 1999.

I spent most of the day in the Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area. I found a flock of American White Pelicans feeding in a channel where a marsh drains into a section of the lake.

It was a hot day and I wanted to get as close to eye level with the birds as possible. That meant either lying on the bank in the sun or setting up a tripod in the water and sitting behind it in the water.

I had a Uni-Loc tripod with me so it set it up in the water. The Uni-Loc tripods are different from most tripods with the legs in effect reversed. Which means that they can be submerged in water up to the bottom of leg lock. There’s no need to strip the legs down to drain the water and dry the locking mechanisms out unless you go above the leg lock.

The birds were feeding by drifting down the channel letting the water carry them along. These three Pelicans are swimming back up the channel to start again.

Trio of Pelicans.

Friendly Friday: Day Trip

David M6 Comments

This is my contribution to the Friendly Friday Photo Challenge: Day Trip.

There was a couple of bird photography locations in Saskatchewan, Canada that I used to spend the day at, Little Quill Lake and the Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area. Here’s a selection of photos from the two areas.

A frozen marsh at dusk, Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan.

Frozen marsh at dusk.

Striped Skunk in the spring, Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan.

Unexpected encounter.

A frozen section of Last Mountain Lake, Saskatchewan in winter.

A frozen Last Mountain Lake.

Snow Geese on autumn migration, Last Mountain Lake, Saskatchewan.

A gathering of Snow Geese.

A Marbled Godwit preening in the spring, Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan.

Preening Marbled Godwit.

American White Pelicans in the summer, Last Mountain Lake, Saskatchewan.

Feeding party of American White Pelicans.

Sandhill Cranes flying to roost at sunset in the autumn, Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan.

Living sky.

CFFC: 5+ Items

David M8 Comments

This is my contribution to Cee’s Fun Foto Challenge: 5+ Items.

As the challenge is 5+ I decided to go with a selection of six photos.

5+ young Eurasian Blue Tits.

Almost ready to leave the nestbox.

 

5+ tree trunks.

Tree trunks in the autumn.

 

5+ Common Merganser ducklings.

Ducks in a row.

 

5+ Borage seeds.

Borage plant seeds.

 

5+ red berries.

A group of red berries.

 

5+ American White Pelicans.

Feeding party of American White Pelicans.

Tuesday Photo Challenge – Outdoors

David M11 Comments

This is my contribution to the Tuesday Photo Challenge: Outdoors.

As someone who is primarily an outdoor photographer I had plenty of photos to pick from but I needed a theme to follow. So I decided to go with as wide a variety of subject matter as possible and to start in the 1970s and end this summer.

One of my earliest photos. The negative for the first version got lost or damaged so I reshot the scene next time there was snow. Trees in snow, Hatherton, Cheshire, England in the mid 1970s.

trees in snow, Hatherton, Cheshire, England.

Entering the start/finish straight at around midnight at the Le Mans 24 hour motorcycle endurance race. Le Mans, France in April 1982.

Night racing

Light beam on a hillside at Loch Arkaig, Scotland in the autumn of 1985.

Sunset light beam.

A Red Fox in a hay field taken in Faddiley, Cheshire, England in the late 1980s.

Hunting Red Fox.

A Borage flower bud photographed in Nantwich, Cheshire, England in the mid 1990s.

Borage plant.

An American White Pelican at Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area, Saskatchewan, Canada in the late 1990s.

breeding adult American White Pelican

Waves and rocks at sunrise on the Lake Huron shoreline in Southampton, Ontario, Canada in the early 2000s.

Rocks and waves.

Canada Day fireworks from the dock at Colpoy’s Bay. The fireworks are in the town of Wiarton a couple of miles away across the bay. Taken on Canada Day last year.

Fireworks for Canada Day.

Colpoy’s Bay and the Niagara Escarpment at sunrise this summer.

Colpoy's Bay at sunrise.

Friendly Friday: Ebb and Flow

David M6 Comments

The latest Friendly Friday Photo Challenge is Ebb and Flow. It got me thinking about some of the locations I have photographed birds over the years.

A couple of locations in Saskatchewan stood out, in particular Last Mountain Lake, especially the National Wildlife Area that surrounds the northern end of the lake. Bird numbers would vary massively over the year.

In the spring the area is a stopover location for species such as this Killdeer. Some will stay in the area to breed while others will carry on north after feeding and resting.

Stretching Killdeer.

 

In the summer the area is a breeding location for species such as American White Pelicans. These birds are feeding in a channel where a marsh drains into a section of the lake.

Feeding party of American White Pelicans.

 

In the autumn the area is a major stopover location for Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes on autumn migration. This is a section of a Snow Geese flock, the birds can number in the thousands.

A gathering of Snow Geese.

 

In the winter the lake is frozen and partially snow covered. There are no water birds left in the area although you may see the occasional flock of Snow Buntings. It is however still a good location for sunsets.

A frozen Last Mountain Lake.