A 52 week photo project interspersed with photos from the past 40 years.
Throwback Thursday travels back to Saskatchewan, Canada in the late 1990s.
In the autumn one of my regular locations for Snow Geese and Sandhill Cranes on autumn migration was Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area in Saskatchewan. One afternoon there was large clouds of smoke to the north west. A couple of times flocks of Snow Geese would take off and fly in front of the smoke.
I never found out what caused all the smoke.
A photo of the setting sun taken with a telephoto. I had a couple of teleconverters stacked behind the lens to make the sun as large as possible in the frame. The specks around the sun are very distant wildfowl. I was hoping for a large V of Sandhill Cranes to cross the sun but they wouldn’t cooperate.
One from the archives taken in early autumn when the wildfowl and Sandhill Cranes are gathering up ready to head south for the winter. Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada in the late 1990s.
This week’s Cosmic Photo Challenge is Wings Across The Skies.
There was some obvious choices for me. At the same time, a bit of a challenge because of the range of choices.
I picked this shot of Sandhill Cranes flying to roost at sunset because they cross the frame, from one side to the other. In other words, wings across the frame. The photo was taken at Little Quill Lake, Saskatchewan, Canada in the autumn. The Quill Lakes area is a staging area for Sandhill Cranes on their way south for the winter.
Throwback Thursday travels back to Saskatchewan, Canada in the 1990s. At this time of year the Sandhill Cranes are gathering together ready to head south for the winter. It wasn’t unusual to see flocks of hundreds of birds in places and a few miles away there could be a family party of four or five by themselves.
One of the staging areas was around the Quill Lakes wetland complex. It is also an important staging area for Snow Geese on autumn migration. I had a few locations around the northern end of Little Quill Lake that I visited at sunset to photograph the various flocks flying over to their roost sites.
Sometimes I would isolate small groups, other times I would shoot wider for larger groups. I picked this shot of five Sandhill Cranes because they appear to be flying in a loose formation. I find it interesting that the wing position of each bird is different.
A bull Bison poses for its portrait. The way its eye is mostly closed makes me think it’s having an afternoon nap.
One from the archives taken on film in the 1990s. Photographed from the back of a pickup truck on a Bison ranch at Kelliher, Saskatchewan, Canada.
