I have seen several wood lilies in the Rocky mountain parks but this is the first and only yellow variant I have come across. It was surrounded by the more typical rust coloured form. Unfortunately these plants are becoming more rare as people continue to try to transplant them, with little success, to their gardens.
These two males took a break from feeding along the Bow river in Banff National Park. Harlequin numbers have been down over the past few years and this year an effort is underway to try and catch as many as possible for banding and placement of radio-transmitters to help researchers figure out why.
Another photo from the vault. This was a few years ago in Jasper National Park. A goldenrod crab spider, which is an ambush predator, managed to catch a much larger bumble bee when it visited a chive flower to collect nectar. The spider hides under or adjacent to flowers and waits for a pollinating insect to come by. You would think that the bee would be able to fly away in time, but the spider is very quick and has powerful, fast acting venom which is injected into the prey to paralyze it. The spider holds on while the venom takes effect and then devours its meal as is. No web making required.
This photo is from last year as well. The cliff swallows routinely nest under the bridge just before the main gate and whenever I heavy truck goes over the bridge they on mass, fly out from underneath. For a few minutes they circle from above to make sure it is safe to return to their nests so I set up on the bridge with my wide angle lens on a bright sunny morning and didn’t have to wait too long before a truck went past and I was able to catch them in flight with the mountain range in the background.
I’m going through images from last year that I haven’t gotten around to posting. This is from the buffalo paddock in Waterton Lakes National Park. The herd crested over a hill just as the sun rose above the landscape allowing me to create this image of a young male calf having some golden grass for breakfast.
An early morning start paid off when the dense fog lifted just in time for a beautiful sunrise with Mount Rundle reflecting in the calm waters of Vermilion Lake in Banff National Park.
It was a great year for snowy owl sightings in and around Calgary. A bumper crop of lemmings in the north last year resulted in a population explosion of snowies that were seen as far south as Texas. One even made it over to Hawaii where it was promptly shot! I photographed this one several times throughout the winter near the town of Balzac.
I took this photo back in January in Banff National Park. I was photographing the light hitting the mountains when I spotted this raven off in the distance. As luck would have it, it was just high enough in the ski with just enough light to freeze it mid flight as it flew across the frame. The mountain in the background is Mount Rundle.
On the way to the ski hill I took a short detour to scan for wildlife and was I ever rewarded for it. I slowly pulled up to a clearing that looks down onto the Bow river and couldn’t believe my luck. A lone black wolf was racing around and leaping in the air at a flock of ravens fluttering just above it! Not knowing how long this would last I pulled over and snapped off a few not so great photos before it was apparent that the wolf was going to stick around and finish off the bone it was protecting. Once in a better position, I got to watch and photograph this young wolf for about 45 minutes as it periodically chased after ravens and magpies in between gnawing on a bone.
There are several researchers that believe if wolves are raised in close proximity to ravens, they become accustom to each other and the wolves will not try to harm ravens. I’m not sure this explanation fits for every case, particularly in a food limited environment. In this particular case, the wolf seemed to enjoy displacing and chasing the ravens but he didn’t seem to really want to kill them as he had several opportunities where he easily could have. See below for several other photos documenting this interaction.
After a few games of chase the raven, a young adult wolf sits down to enjoy it’s bone. The ravens kept their distance, each with just enough room between the wolf and each other to get airborne in time to avoid capture.
While the ravens gave up, two magpies decided to give it a try but with quickly put in their place by the wolf, who drove them off with a sudden burst that nearly resulted in the demise of a magpie
With the bone buried under the snow, the wolf trots off along the frozen bow river to catch up with the rest of the pack.
My luck at finding bears swimming or cooling off in lakes and streams around Alberta continued this fall. I hiked I short distance to a wildlife corridor passing under the Trans Canada Highway adjacent to the Bow river and couldn’t believe my luck. Just across the river was a big male grizzly walking along the bank. I fumbled with my camera which must have made enough noise and movement that he spotted me and took a few brief quick steps before deciding I wasn’t anything too intimidating. I figured he was going to continue along the bank around the corner and disappear into the thick bushes. I lost sight of him for a few moments and started walking back to my car thrilled that I had seen even just a brief glimpse of him. When I came around the corner I couldn’t believe that he had jumped into the river and was swimming across it! I ran down the bank to try and get some decent photos but I was too high up on the opposite bank and the sun was directly in front of me so I didn’t get very good pictures. This one was taken as he hauled out of the freezing water and made his way into the thicket.
Owen Slater Photography 