This is my contribution to day four of Becky’s April Squares: Top photo challenge.
A group of Mallard patiently waiting for the ice to melt on a frozen reservoir in south Cheshire.
Tag: winter
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 the Lens-Artists Photo Challenge: Chaos.
I had a couple of ideas for the challenge before thinking of some of the large flocks of birds I have photographed.
Gulls, mostly Black-headed Gulls, in seemingly random flight over Hurleston Reservoir near Nantwich in southern Cheshire. In this case I suspect that one of the local Peregrine Falcons has spooked them into flight as there’shardly two birds flying in the same direction.
Snow Geese on autumn migration take off from a section of the Last Mountain Lake National Wildlife Area in Saskatchewan. I was watching the birds from an observation tower when something, possibly a Coyote on the lake shore, spooked them into flight.
Gulls, mostly Black-headed Gulls, on the move at Hurleston Reservoir near Nantwich in southern Cheshire. In this case something has spooked some of the birds on one side of the roost and they’re flying to the other side.
Lines of Snow Geese flying to roost at sunset in the autumn. These birds are over Middle Quill Lake, Saskatchewan.
Categories
Silent Sunday: 15th March 2020
When I read the prompt for Cee’s Black and White Photo Challenge: Tables, Chairs, Picnic Tables I remembered a couple of picnic tables and some benches on the Colpoy’s Bay shoreline. As I had to go into town I made a short detour to get some photos of them.
The flood water had dropped a few inches before it froze and I took the photo.
This picnic table was mostly buried in snow and ice until recently. All the rocks around the picnic table and in the snow were thrown there by waves before the shoreline was covered in snow.
These two benches and two more out of shot are less inhospitable than they were last year. Then the water level in Colpoy’s Bay was so high they were effectively on an island and only way to get to them was by wading through the water.
After writing this post I remembered this inhospitable bench I photographed last autumn. Outside the entrance to the abandoned grocery store in Wiarton on the South Bruce Peninsula, the bench is surrounded by Private Property, No Trespassing signs. As if anyone would want to sit down and view the parking lot from it.
When I read the prompt for the Tuesday Photo Challenge – Scale I had several ideas for a post.
Landscapes taken with a telephoto where it’s difficult to get a sense of scale, extreme close-ups where you can’t tell what you’re looking at.
So, typically for me recently, I went in a completely different direction after thinking of a particular photo.
This is the photo I thought of, a Great Crested Grebe looking lost amongst gulls in a winter roost on Hurleston Reservoir near Nantwich, Cheshire. These are mostly Black-headed Gulls, there’s one Common Gull close to the edge of the frame at about 1 o’clock.
This may explain why the Great Crested Grebe is looking lost. A section of a winter gull roost on Hurleston Reservoir. Again, mostly Black-headed Gulls with a few Common Gulls, one Lesser Black-backed Gull and one Herring Gull.
If the second photo didn’t give a sense of scale to the Great Crested Grebe looking lost this one may. This is most of a fairly typical winter gull roost in the 1990s. Anywhere between 12,000 and 15,000 gulls was a normal count. If you look closely there’s a Great Crested Grebe just swimming into the frame on the left hand side of the photo.
