Tundra Swans

Tundra Swans can take off just as easily from land or water with their necks extended straight out. Tundra Swans are North America’s most abundant swan species. They are species of low concern, being allowed to be hunted in some states and parts of Canada. But on the other hand, Trumpeter Swans are a species that is continuing its comeback after almost being decimated by the late 1800s. Thanks to its features being used in hat fashion, as writing quills and for other uses. So, the Trumpeter Swans are protected in places where Tundra Swans can be hunted. The problem we have in these places is that we birders sometimes make mistakes in identifying these two species. Let along those hunters who may have less knowledge about the different swans.

The good news about this family of Tundra Swans, one adult is in the front, followed by three juveniles and one other juvenile and adult outside the frame. All six were spotted in Banff National Park a few days ago, where no hunting is allowed. There were a few of us on the shore of the lake, enjoying watching them before they decided to move on. As they slowly make their way south where the water will stay open during the coming cold months.

Reflection

Another fall colour season is behind us in the Canadian Rockies. I got some good hiking done to see the fall colours in the valleys and higher up. As always, each hike was different. On my return from one hike from a pass to the parking lot, I encountered 315 people and 41 dogs in an hour and a half. I beat my old record of 11 dogs. Birds most spotted or heard were Pine Grosbeaks, Mountain Chickadees, Golden-crowned Kinglets and hanging out by the trail with a bit of attitude, Spruce Grouses. The surprise bird encounter was two Bald Eagles perched on the larch trees next to a small alpine lake. Unfortunately, they saw me before I saw them. They were in the air before getting any pictures. For mammals, nothing bigger than red squirrels.

For this picture, it was a hike past Boulder Pass. A nice break from the previous well loved Lake Louise area hike. Throughout the whole hike, I saw less than 30 hikers, and one baby blanket by the side of the trail. Whose owner was quickly found. It was a cold morning, which is great for hiking. I was happy to get to the lake, the wind was just starting to pick up. I still had to take 20 to 25 seconds long exposures to get a calm water look to my side of the lake. Once the pictures were out of the way, it was time to put on a few layers and sit back to enjoy the views and my first food of the day.  Another great fall hiking season is behind me.  But I have a lot of images and the larch needles I will keep coming across in my pack and outerwear to remind me of the great hikes until next year.

Elk

Another elk rut season ended a few weeks ago. The dominant bulls, like this one, started getting much-needed rest and, even more importantly, putting on the weight they lost during the rut season. The bulls that were successful during the mating season can, on average, lose up to 30 percent of their weight during the rut. But success during the rut season can lead to a shorter life for the bull. From injuries that the bull might have sustained fighting other bulls, being more vulnerable to predators before they recover from the rut season, or the cold weather arriving soon after the rut. The dominant males also lose the protection a herd offers after the rut. They either deal with the winter on their own or they join a few other males to deal with the winter. Including males, they were fighting during the rut. All is forgiven in the elk world, or at least until the next rut.

Rainbow

Back in school in our science class, when we pointed white light toward a triangle glass prism, it came out of the prism in the form of a rainbow. Light of different colours bends, or refracts, by different amounts. This separation of colours is called dispersion, creating the rainbow colours. Not only does this occur in a prism, but dispersion is also caused by ice crystals and what we are more familiar with, water drops in the form of rain. In the last two cases, the light is coming from the sun. Helping to create much bigger rainbows, but the colours are the same. With a rainbow, the colours are in this order: red, orange, yellow, green, blue, indigo and violet. Red is on the outside of the rainbow.

Under the right conditions, some of the light does not come out of the raindrops to form the primary rainbow. This light repeats the process to form a secondary rainbow. But this time the colours are reversed thanks to an extra reflection in the rain drops. Red on the inside and so on. Since more of the light came out on the first opportunity, the secondary rainbow is much fainter. By this process we can get third and fourth rainbows. But each would be fainter and harder for our eyes to see. Inside the primary rainbow where all colours come back to our eyes at the same angle, we see bright white light. Between the primary and secondary rainbows, where no light comes toward our eyes, we get darkness. And if the sun is not behind you and trillions and trillions of water droplets not in front of you, and all not at a particular angle to your eyes. Then you just see the rain.

For this rainbow, which lasted more than half an hour, I saw it forming from home. I saw where the sun was and how fast the clouds that were dropping water were moving. I thought I had a good chance of getting out and getting a better picture than the one I would get from home. But due to the location of the sun and the rainbow, I was not able to get a picture of the whole rainbow. Plus, for the middle section of the rainbow, there was not enough rain for the colours to stand out. So I decided to get a closer look at a section of the rainbow. You can still see the order of the colours of the primary rainbow and also the images show the inside is lighter than the outside area of the rainbow.

Above the Clouds

One thing about hiking, scrambling, or climbing is that you need to make sure you not only reach your destination safely but also come back safely as well. Sometimes that means turning back before reaching your goal. This was on my mind when my original hiking plans changed a couple of weeks ago. I had instead decided to head up to the Big Beehive above Lake Louise. It had snowed the day before, and I would be encountering snow and ice on the trails as I got higher. The lake’s elevation is 1,731 meters, and the Big Beehive viewpoint is 2,164 meters. There were low clouds covering the valley, and my hope was to be above them to enjoy the views. But the first goal was to reach Lake Agnes for the sunrise and then deal with the possible tricky and exposed switchbacks back of the lake to the Big Beehive in the morning light. Two-thirds of the way up, I started encountering snow and some ice on the trail. The ice was thin and broke up as I stepped on it. I reached Agnes easily in time to set up for the sunrise. I was in the upper part of the low clouds, it cleared up enough to see the peaks in the back and the setting moon was as well. I started chatting with two friends who were visiting from Oregon as the clouds rolled back in. They were visiting the Rockies for a few days.

We talked about the local area and Banff NP before I packed up and said goodbye. I headed for the back of the lake to see if I was going to make it to the Big Beehive viewpoint. Before I even got to the switchbacks, there was more snow on the trail and thicker ice. That area does not get too much direct sunlight at this time of the year. The switchbacks were good for ascending but looked risky for the return trip. I started going up, deciding I would go down on the least used, longer, and safer trail located on the south side. As hoped, the viewpoint was above the clouds and the views were great. I stuck around there for half an hour or more, enjoying the sights, taking pictures, and having a snack while preventing two Clark’s Nutcrackers from taking my food from my hands. Much of the ground and the trees were covered with snow, it was a winter wonderland at the top, with larches showing their fall colours under the snow. As expected, no problems while coming down. As well, part way down, I was also able to get a nice black and white picture of the peaks on the other side of Lake Louise. Perhaps something to share in the future. While walking along the shores of Lake Louise, I was thinking about doing another short hike in the area. But after seeing the day before "Christmas shopping" like crowd, I decided I would spend my energy somewhere else.

Yellow_rumped Warbler

The fall migration of birds started in late August. Many species have moved on to their winter homes, some are on their way and others will start that journey soon. Timing depends on the food they require on their journey, how far they must go and how cold weather they can stand. Last week I saw an Orange-crowned Warbler and a few days ago, a Wilson’s Warbler. But the warbler I’m more likely to see around this is the Yellow-rumped Warbler. They are not as common as they are during late spring and summer, but with a little effort I’ll come across one or two. Just yesterday I heard its familiar chipping sound. One was moving among the branches of a balsam poplar, looking for insects to feed on. Not a lot of live insects around this time of the year, but many dead ones are stuck to the branches. When I got this picture, there were several birds, Yellow-rumped Warblers, Golden-crowned Kinglets, Mountain Chickadees and at least one Ruby-crowned Kinglet that almost made a complete call that we are used to hearing during spring and summer. Probably a juvenile that was practicing for a later time. And this being the fall colour season, I had to try getting some of the colours in the background.

Elk

We are midway through the elk breeding season, or as it’s most often called the rut. As the days start getting shorter, it affects the melatonin levels in the elk.  Melatonin is a hormone that the brain produces in response to darkness. It helps with our internal clock and with sleep. This in turn causes hormone changes in both bulls and cows. For the males at the start of the rut, the antlers mineralize and they shed the velvet. The males will start rubbing trees, to get rid of the velvet. They become more aggressive thanks to the higher testosterone levels during the rut and will start sparring with other males, against trees, shrubs and more.

This is why it’s even more important to be a safe distance from bulls during the rut season. By mid October, the bull’s testosterone level will go back to normal and once again the males will start hanging out with other males to pass the winter. This large bull was making sure I got home safe after work as he watched me through the woods.

Mount Temple

You do all the planning to go for a hike, with the hopes of coming back with a few good pictures.  Load up the camera equipment, a few extra layers, food and water, first aid kit and some odds and ends. You get an early start to the hike. But once you get there, as often happens, the weather has other plans. The hike was great but no pictures were worth saving. Then there are those days when the hike starts late due to weather. On your way to the trailhead you see the fog start to burn off as the light starts coming through the clouds. And then the right parts of the mountains light up to get the pictures you want to keep before you even start the hike. Once again, nature decides when to put on the show and you just have to be ready to click. 

Grizzly

Out here in the west, where black and grizzly bears live on the same landscape. Trying to tell them apart from the fur colour, when you have never seen them or perhaps just a few times can be challenging. Particularly if you’re thinking black bears are black and grizzly (brown) bears are brown. About 70 percent of the black bears are black, in the Rockies, 50 percent are black. They can be white, blonde, cinnamon, light brown, chocolate brown or black. And the fur colour of grizzly bears varies as well, from white to blond to almost black.

So, in the Rockies, you might have to use other physical characteristics of the bears to figure out if it’s a black or grizzly bear. One can easily get that information on the internet. This dark eight-month-old grizzly cub was hanging out with its mom and her brown-coloured sibling. When someone asked out loud, "what is a black bear doing with two grizzly bears?" They got a quick answer with the correct information, leaving them with more knowledge than when they arrived. Giving them greater appreciation for bears.

Bald Eagle

Out of the two eagles that we can see in the Canadian Rockies, most of us will see the Bald Eagle. To see the Golden Eagle, you must spend a lot of time at higher altitudes. Bald Eagles can live 20 to 30 years in the wild, with some weighing near 6 kg and having a wingspan of 2 meters or more. They are impressive birds to see up close. The same can be said about their nest. The largest Bald Eagle nest on record was 2.9 meters in diameter and just over 6 meters tall. And the weight was almost 2 metric tons. That’s around 4409.25 pounds. 

Several years back, a nest that was being used by a mating pair stopped being used. They started using a new nest they built. The eagles knew something was up because it was long after the tree holding the nest came down. Even with the old nest spread out from the fall, it still came up to my waist. I can still recall looking at all the branches they had gathered over the years lying on the ground.

This mating pair was done with the nesting for the season and were hanging out last month. For a couple of hours, I watched them through my binoculars, every now and then pulling out the camera. Together, the called out several times, watching them react to other birds, including a close flyby of an Osprey. It’s not too often you get to watch a pair of Bald Eagles from forty meters away in the Rockies. Time just flew by.

Sundance Range

After taking pictures in the direction of the sunrise, the sun was still rising behind the mountain range to the east. I did a 180 and looked toward the Sundance Range. There it was, a picture of a light blue sky, clouds covered with warm morning light and mountain range lit by the reflective light. The sunrise I hoped for. After taking the pictures, the camera was put away. All bundled up from the cold air, with the exception of the face feeling the cold wind passing by. I spent some time watching the surroundings wake up to the rising sun, before deciding to head down.

Grizzly

Last year, in May, F142 came out of her den with her second set of cubs, three of them. A rare sight, to see a grizzly with three cubs. But the large family was not going to last. A month later, a large male grizzly, M136, tracked her down at Lake Louise. Popped out in the open where you rent the canoes, swam across the lake and chased the cubs below Lake Agnes. When the dust had settled, F142 had made her way to the back of Lake Louise, only to be joined by just one of her cubs. It is easier to raise one cub than two or three.  But this female now not only has to show the cub where to find food and how to be safe. But also be a playmate to its cub. The female would be spending time playing with all her cubs, but would get a break when the siblings play among themselves. Also, the cubs are less likely to get hurt when playing with someone in their weight class. No major injuries are likely to occur, just cuts and bruises that heal fast. Play fighting is an important part of a cub’s life. It gets them ready when the fights are no longer part of the play.

This picture was taken in the middle of June, when both were taking it easy. Enjoying all the dandelions they could eat. She, while eating in a small meadow, first smelled and then saw a large male grizzly approaching them. She wasn’t taking any chances. They both ran for cover in the nearby woodland. For a mother grizzly, rest never lasts too long. Always must be on the move to be safe in the wilderness.

Least Chipmunk

The least chipmunks are the smallest species of chipmunk. Their total length is between 16 to 25 cm and they weigh between 25 to 66 grams. They are active during the day, feeding on seeds, berries, nuts, fruits, and insects. If you had a chance to see them, you would have noticed they can be very agile. Being able to run up to 7.7 km/h when needed. And because of their size, they have a few predators; hawks, owls and members of the weasel family. Least chipmunks do not hibernate, instead during winter they go into a torpor state. Becoming less active, with reduced temperature and metabolic rate. Waking to eat cached food when needed. Mating takes place between March and May, gestation lasting 28 to 30 days. A single litter consists of 3 to 7 young, each one born hairless and blind and only 5 cm in length. If the female loses her litter soon after birth, sometimes they can breed again the same year. They can live two to three years in the wild and up to six years in captivity.

This one had no family concerns, as it was busy feeding on chokeberries along with a couple of robins and a thrush.

Bow Lake

We are well into the hiking season now. But also, in the warmer part of the summer. One way to avoid the heat is to start the hikes early and be at the highest point before the middle of the day. And when possible, be near an icefield. I met all three requirements last week when hiking near Bow Summit/Pass. Taking off from the new Peyto Lake’s parking lot, which had few vehicles when starting out. Visitors were heading for the lookout for the famous alpine lake as I made my way to the top of the summit trail. With the cooler temperatures in the morning, no marmots were heard or spotted. But few pikas were active and a handful of bird species were spotted. Great views from the top, which got even better when the clouds started to move in. I sat back and ate, while enjoying the views and the single digit temperatures before others would be hiking in my direction.

Ruby-crowned Kinglet

Weighing in as much as two pennies. This small bird is full of energy as it forages for food through the branches of shrubs and trees. Rarely giving you enough time to get a clear picture of it, let alone being able to see the male’s ruby crown all lit up with some back light. The crown patch is normally hidden, except when the excited male is singing in spring or summer. Being tiny in size, it is assumed from metabolic studies they can live on 10 calories per day. That works out to 2 grams from a 10-gram piece of my favourite chocolate bar. With that said, there is no need to feed them chocolate or any of our food. Give them space and they will happily prey on various types of insects and consume small amounts of seeds and fruit.

Black Bear

Most of us think about what goes in the mouth of a bear and not what comes out of the back end. In this case, this black bear is consuming buffaloberries and other berries that can be found at the bottom of the valley. And as the summer continues, more options will be available at higher elevations. But just as important is what comes out of the back end of the bear. Any ecosystem that has bears, they are the chief dispersers of seeds in berries in the area. Let’s take buffaloberries as an example. If an adult bear can consume more than 200, 000 berries per day. Then close to the same number of seeds will get dispersed out on the landscape. And that’s just one species of berry. Anything fruits they eat with seeds in it, the bears end up helping the plant the fruit came from spread on the landscape.

Bighorn Sheep

Many mammals, like the bighorn sheep, have lost or are in the process of losing their winter coat. Before winter arrives, they grow thick fur to survive the long winter. And for the summer, so they don’t overheat, they lose their winter coat. During hikes, you will often come across clumps of fur that have fallen off the animals. Some birds will use the fallen fur for the nest building. I have seen chickadee take fur from dry wolf scats to help build their nest. Certain mammals not only grow thicker fur for the winter but, like snowshoe hares, arctic foxes and some weasels go from a darker summer coat to white for the winter. For the prey, it makes it easier for them to hide in the snow and for the predators, it makes it easier for them to hunt. For some of the mammals, they will have a topcoat called "guard hair" and a much thicker layer of underfur. This adult male bighorn sheep was at the bottom of the valley looking for minerals to lick, and its mates who had already gone back up the slopes for safety.

Mallard Duck

Mallard Ducks are found across North America and Eurasia. With Mallard being so widespread, leading to a number of populations around the world. Some of those populations have changed enough to be considered separate species. Two examples are the Mexican Duck and the Hawaiian Duck. Mallards tend to pair well before the spring breeding season. With Mallard Ducks, only the female incubates the eggs and looks after the ducklings. As this female does with eight ducklings. Mallards are strong fliers, reaching 90 km per hour. The Mallard’s sound or quack, we are so familiar with is the sound of a female Mallard. Males have a much quieter sound. This female was quiet when I would see her sitting on the nest, watching me across the water as I walked by on the trail. Only five days earlier, she was still on the nest. The morning of this shot, the family was resting under the warm morning light.

Takakkaw Falls

Yoho Valley in Yoho National Park is a very cool place to go. A few years ago, I was able to cover all the trails, enjoying all the falls I came across or could see from or near the tails. Takakkaw Falls is the most popular one by far. Helped with the falls being a short walk from the parking lot. The falls have a total height of 373 meters, making it the second tallest waterfall in Canada. “Takakkaw” means “magnificent” in Cree. No matter, if you are looking at it up close with the water spray hitting your face or across the valley from the Iceline Trail, it is magnificent. Unless I’m in the parking lot early in the morning, I tend to watch it from a distance. Zooming in and out with the camera to get the picture. The falls are fed by the Waputik Icefield throughout the summer, but if you want to see them in their peak conditions. You must visit the area in late spring when there is heavy snow melt.

Hummingbird Clearwing Moth

Around this time of year, it’s so easy to get distracted when outside. There is no better time to observe nature’s diversity in flora and fauna. Providing so many options for subjects to take pictures of. And I am a person who can be easily distracted by nature. I remember coming across a large adult moose when, from the side of my eyes, I saw something in the air. I had to take a break from the moose to have a better look to identify the ducks flying over my head.

The other week I was out birding and kept getting distracted by all the insects I was seeing, particularly the butterflies.  With variety and quantity. I came across several meters of wolf willow shrubs, with various insects and several western tiger swallowtail butterflies attracted to their flowers. Birding came to a quick stop as I started taking pictures of the large butterflies. About 15 to 20 minutes in, I noticed another large insect was moving among the flowers. Not one but two hummingbird clearwing moths. Last year I thought I had one in front of me, only to later learn it was a beautiful, white-lined sphinx moth.

These clearwing moths have a wingspan that’s up to 5.5 cm long. From a distance, they move around the flowers like hummingbirds do and part of their wings are clear. That’s how they got their name. Unlike many other species of moths, these are active during the day. Making it a lot easier for me to spot them and get all the pictures I needed.