Postcards from the Haze

Welcome back!

I took the title shot kind of on a whim: an eagle relaxing on a rock, very far away. Between the long lens and the heat shimmer off the ice, the whole scene has a kind of “painterly” feeling when cropped tightly. With a bit of editing, I liked the result:

Here’s a second scene, though the conditions aren’t ideal, since the lake in the foreground is clearly not “painterly”:

I plan to start looking for more such scenes. If I ever get myself to an art fair, they might make good postcard-sized prints.

The bird is a grebe, for those who want to know…

For the rest, I was all over the place this month, so there’s a bit of urban, a bit of rural, some “first time” wildlife, and my new “favourite” shot.

Rural

Heading out of the city, I saw a small group of elk for the first time. This is a rarity in southern Manitoba, so pretty special. The sun wasn’t even up yet, and they were skittish, so the best I managed was a panning shot at 1/15th of a second:

Hopefully I’ll be a bit more prepared the next time.

By the time I got to Shoal Lakes, the sun was well risen. I was hunkered down by the roadside, waiting for terns to dive, but got distracted with this view:

Moving on to hike out into a field, I finally found out how to get to this group of trees:

This little group appears in a lot of my photos of this area, and it was great to finally figure out which of several muddy overgrown trails leads to it, instead of just wandering into the swamp. I think I could camp here so I wouldn’t have to drive an hour before dawn; it would also make a great place to test my winter camping gear, since it’s not far from the road.

Of course it’s a haven for all kinds of bird shots. Here’s a series, starting with a dive-bombing blackbird, red wings aggressively flared, about to attack his rival:

And my new favourite:

As the day was ending, this duck was comfortably resting a rock. He perked up wondering what I was up to, then decided he didn’t care. The series might make an amusing animated GIF, if there were more frames:

Finally, I was treated to a coyote running across the road into a field, and managed to get a shot. People see them all the time, but I’d never caught a good view of one, now I’ve seen 4 in the last 3 weeks. It’s not a great shot, but was still a thrill. I love the look of disdain on their face, like “sigh, why do I have to deal with these paparazzi all the time…?”

Transitioning from rural to urban, just in our local “forest”:

And I’m not sure who left this behind, but it does look like a nice place to sit:

Urban

I still find the urban stuff more challenging, but sometimes the scene just pops out. This street takes garbage day seriously:

Whereas the above garbage is “in place”, this garbage is out of place, and be glad it’s black and white, because in colour it’s kind of hideous:

There was plenty of traffic over the bridge, and I took a lot of shots before finding a few that worked at all. Some were fun, and I kind of liked these, but the elements don’t line up as well as the one above: