My Saturday Bird this week is the Marbled Godwit (Limosa fedoa), a large shorebird (wader to the British) and the largest of the four species of Godwit.
The vast majority breed in the mid-continental North America, followed by eastern Canada and the Alaska Peninsula, USA. Most of them winter on the Atlantic, Pacific and Gulf coasts of the U.S. and Mexico.
This individual was photographed in a marsh between Little Quill Lake and Middle Quill Lake in Saskatchewan, Canada in early summer.
This is my contribution to the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Distance prompt.
As a nature and landscape photographer I have been social distancing for decades. I started thinking about some of the locations in Saskatchewan where there wasn’t another human being for miles. Especially in winter when some farmers move into town, just because there’s a farm 5 miles away doesn’t mean there’s anyone living there. For some of these photos I was miles from the nearest road.
A frozen section of Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area at sunset in winter.
Whitetail Deer at dusk near Punnichy.
A frozen section of marsh at sunset, Little Quill Lake.
A Striped Skunk in the spring between Little Quill Lake and Middle Quill Lake.
Sunrise reflected in a frozen slough near Punnichy.
This is my contribution to Jez Braithwaite’s Water Water Everywhere Photo Challenge #16 although in this case the surface water is frozen. You would probably have to cut through a couple of feet of ice to get to liquid water.
A frozen section of marsh at Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada. A few months earlier the area had been a staging area for thousands of Snow Geese on autumn migration.
Throwback Thursday travels back to Saskatchewan in the late 1990s with one of the slides I made a digital copy of over the Christmas period.
For anyone wondering if that’s -40 Celsius or Fahrenheit it’s both, they’re the same at -40.
This is a section of frozen marsh at Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada at dusk. It was my first winter in Saskatchewan which is probably why I remember the temperature. Strangely enough, I don’t remember it feeling particularly cold but I was 22 years younger then. These days I don’t like -10°C although the damp cold in Ontario seems to chill you more than the dry cold I remember from Saskatchewan.
This is my contribution to day 19 of Becky’s October Squares: Lines photo challenge.
Lines of cloud, a horizon line and reeds forming lines. A frozen section of marsh at Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada in the winter.
For anyone wondering if it was -40° Celsius or Fahrenheit it was both as they are the same at -40.
This is my contribution to the Friendly Friday Photo Challenge: Remote.
My first thought was of some of the remote spots I visited when living in Saskatchewan, Canada in late 1990s. I once had the passenger side front wheel of my truck disappear into a hole at a water level control connecting Little Quill Lake and Middle Quill Lake. It was at the end of several miles of rough track that stopped at the water control point. I had to pile rocks in the back of the truck to get the rear wheel on the ground and the front wheel out of the hole.
Another time at a section of Little Quill Lake I managed to lock my keys in the truck and had to break into it with an old piece of barbed wire that I had stripped the barbs off.
Here’s a photo of a sunset over a marsh at Little Quill Lake. It was winter so I was probably the only person within 10 miles and it was -40° at the time.
A contribution to Becky’s July Squares: Blue photo challenge.
Just in case anyone is wondering if that’s -40° Celsius or Fahrenheit, it’s both. When you get down to -40° it’s the same.
I picked this shot because this part of Ontario is under a heat warning with temperatures in the 30s with the humidity making it feel like the 40s.
A frozen section of marsh at dusk. Part of Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada.
