Sharp-tailed Grouse

Three days ago, on 17 February 2018, a small group of us headed way SW of the city - and into yet another snow storm. I kept checking to see if the trip was going to be cancelled, but fortunately, our leader had only read about the "few flurries" for the day. I had read further detail that said that a huge snow storm was moving into the area, bringing up to 25 cm of fresh snow, poor visibility, white-outs, treacherous roads! I knew taking photos was going to be a challenge, and seeing anything in the first place was going to be an even bigger challenge. So glad we went, though - even more so, that I wasn't driving, other than to our local meeting place in the city.

The main reason for the trip was to look for Golden Eagles, though of course we were happy to see anything else, too. Last year, we saw five, but this time we couldn't find any. With such poor visibility, they could still have been out there.

We did see Bald Eagles, though, and quite a few (mainly very distant) Sharp-tailed Grouse. At one location, they were on the road way ahead of us. I was able to get two or three closer shots of one of them, and managed to sharpen the 'best' one as much as I could, enough to make it just about fit to post. They are such beautiful birds. I thought we might see some small birds during the day, but we saw no Snow Buntings or Horned Larks. A very distant Great Horned Owl was seen in the yard at one of the places we always used to call in at when we were doing the annual Christmas Bird Count for the area. Also spotted a distant Merlin perched in a bare-branched tree.

Three Moose were seen - a lone Moose and then two together at a different location. The lone Moose had been standing but took a few steps and lay down in the deep snow. The other two were spotted when we were almost at the top of a steep, snow-covered back road. Our leader slowed down and, though I normally don't ask someone if they would stop for something, I did so this time. Oops, sorry, Tony, lol! We were stuck, unable to continue our climb to the top of the steep hill. Luckily, Tony is really good at reversing (and trying again)! There were also many Mule Deer to be seen, especially along the coulee.

I love the landscape in this whole area and always enjoy photographing it. This day, the weather was so bad that most of the landscape was just a faint shape in the distance, or else had completely vanished. Sometimes, it was difficult to tell if the distant shapes were actually hills or clouds!

A great day, despite the weather. Thanks so much, Tony, for the ride and for another most enjoyable day!