Banff Wildlife Part 2

Here is the next installment of animal photos that I took on my trip to Banff in early April. It took me quite awhile before I saw my first elk, which I found rather frustrating. I went to Banff with the expectation that the place was literally crawling with elk, that they were wandering around town, next to the highway, on the golf course, everywhere. I was even more aggravated when I would spend my days driving all over the park, not a single elk to be seen, only to return at the end of the day to have someone tell me they saw one walking in front of our hotel.

One day I took a long walk on the golf course, where elk were often spotted, but I saw nothing but birds and squirrels. There appeared to be random sections of the course fenced off (I'm not a golfer), which I thought was odd until I realized they were protecting the greens from being grazed by elk and deer.

Elk Cervus canadensis

Finally one day, I was driving back to the hotel by a back road and there was this beautiful male elk with a great set of antlers. He had a female nearby, and they calmly grazed while I took photos with the remaining light of the day. I stayed well back and used my long lens. I could tell that they were far more skittish than the big horn sheep I had seen earlier. The male watched my movements and kept his antlers towards me at all times.

For the rest of the trip I often drove down that same road and saw the pair of elk grazing nearby each time I went. One day I brought along a friend to show her the pair as well, but alas, they were nowhere to be found. I was just about to turn around and drive away, when we saw the cars slow down and stop ahead of us (a good sign that they had seen some wildlife). We drove on a bit more and saw a whole herd of elk! There must have been 30 animals. They hung around the same area for the next few days and I saw them often.

The following picture is of a different pair of elk that I came across on one of the last days of our trip. My husband was along for the drive and he was able to see this pair as well. They were also wary and nervous around people, I managed to get a few photos before they disappeared into the forest.

A different perspective

Daffodil

Sometimes a new angle can create an interesting photo.

My secret reason for homeschooling

There are lots of reasons people choose to homeschool their children. I'm not going to go into all of them, you can take a peek here if you're interested. My secret reason did not make the top ten. I suppose I shouldn't be surprised, it's not a particularly honorable sentiment, it won't make a great slogan or lead a movement. I homeschool my children because I'm too lazy to take them to school.

The Nuthatch did go to school for 6 months. We enrolled him in Junior Kindergarten when he was four years old. Here is his 'First Day of School' photo.

The Chickadee had just been born when he started school. At first it wasn't too hard. The weather was warm, the Chickadee was happy to sleep in her car seat on the ride to and from school.

The drive to school only took about two minutes. It's a ten minute walk to get there, but with the 2 year old Bluejay in tow it easily turned into a 20 minute walk (40 minutes round trip). At some point the Chickadee would wake up and decide she was hungry. We did walk a few times but in my sleep deprived fog it was soon ruled out as an option.

Then, it was winter. Fall jackets became winter snowsuits and boots. The clock was always ticking as I tried to convince a toddler and a 4 year old to eat breakfast and get dressed quickly. (The only thing a toddler does quickly is make a large mess when you aren't looking.) By the time I had corralled everyone into their car seats and made the round trip to school at least 20 minutes had passed. We would go back home for the rest of the morning and repeat the whole scenario at lunch time.

Then the Chickadee was not a newborn anymore. She needed to nap in her crib. I would take the groggy baby out of her crib in the morning to drive the Nuthatch to school, and then she would be awake for the morning, and right about when I needed to pick him up again, she would be down for a nap. Never wake a sleeping baby, anyone?

The 2 1/2 hour 'break' that I got in the morning while the Nuthatch was at school was spent caring for an infant and entertaining the Bluejay because his playmate was not at home.

It seemed like a lot of work, and I wasn't convinced of the great benefits he was receiving at school. Did I mention that I am a former public school teacher? Granted, I taught grade 7, but I knew that a lot of the time spent at school was taken up with snack time, recess, a visit to the library, listening to a story, doing a craft and so on. I can't imagine how much time was spent trying to get the attention of a bunch of four year olds. I had trouble getting the attention of one 4 year old. I could do all that at home with a lot less effort. My laziness was getting the better of me.

So, at March Break of the Nuthatch's first year of school, we brought him home. He's been home for a year now. I no longer have to rush everyone to get ready for school. My time spent as Mrs. Chauffeur is now time spent as Mrs. Teacher. Our lessons take under an hour (this year he would be in Senior Kindergarten). The Nuthatch and Bluejay have lots of time to play together.

...mothers work wonders once they are convinced that wonders are demanded of them.

Charlotte Mason, Home Education p. 44

Sometimes when I mention that I homeschool I hear the comment "How do you do it?", or "I could never do that!" implying the monumental effort I must be undertaking to educate my children. I just smile and shrug and think to myself of the monumental effort it took to take my child to school. "Sending him to school was too much work" doesn't seem like quite the right answer. They work wonders taking their children to school, and I work a different kind of wonder at home.

Banff Wildlife Part 1

Big Horn Sheep Ovis Canadensis

I saw a lot of wildlife while in Banff. This was the first animal I saw, and I must admit that I didn't even know what it was. I thought it was a mountain goat. There was a group of them standing in the middle of the road. Later I learned that mountain goats tend to stay way up high on cliffs and do not venture down onto the road.

Young Big Horn Sheep

I saw these sheep a number of times. There was a beautiful road near the town of Banff that lead to Lake Minnewanka that I was compelled to drive down every few days. It was even more amazing since spring had slowly been arriving during the two weeks I was there and I could see changes every time I went.

I often saw them standing on the road and licking it. I don't know why they were doing this. Some animals need to eat small stones to help with their digestion, or perhaps they were licking salt off the road, I don't know. I'm not even sure that they salt the roads in Banff National Park. Salt would have a negative environmental impact on the surrounding lakes that the park management would want to avoid, they might just sand the roads there.

What you don't see in these pictures are the 6 or 7 other cars and the crowd of people that had also pulled off the road to look. The sheep ignored all of us, although at points I could tell they were bothered that people were coming so close and they would move off a little ways. I actually saw a father put his 8 year old daughter right in front of the large male so he could take a picture! During my stay I was wondering if our society's move to a more urban lifestyle has caused us to lose some of our common sense, but that's material for another post.

All of my photos were taken from the car window, the sheep were very close and I was using my longer zoom lens. At one point, the sheep were not moving off the road and I actually had to drive my car around them. I could have reached out my window and touched them (if I happened to be lacking in common sense). They were very used to people and cars.

Female Big Horn Sheep

Wide angle photography

While in Banff I attempted to take some wide angle shots using composition suggestions that I picked up in a book entitled 'John Shaw's Nature Photography Field Guide'. John Shaw's books are great, they have a clear style without being too technical, and his photos are amazing. His book 'John Shaw's Landscape Photography' will also explain how to take this kind of shot.

This shot requires some planning and setup. First of all, you need a tripod. Because I had the Chickadee with me, and we were traveling, I didn't bring mine with me, which ruined some of my other attempts. The reason you need a tripod is because you must set your aperture as high as it will go, which will result in your shutter speed being too slow to hold your camera in your hand. These shots were taken at F-22. This gives you a great depth of field. In the above photo, that means the rock and the mountain will both be in focus.

Next, you set your lens to the widest angle it will go. I used my 18-70 mm zoom lens and set it at 18 mm.

The next part is the time consuming, body contorting, tripod adjusting act of composing the photo. You need to choose something interesting to place in the foreground. In the above picture I chose a boulder. You will need to get very very close to this subject. I was probably less than 6 inches away from the boulder. Then you work on getting an angle that includes your subject and the background in the distance.

Now you're ready to take the picture. Your shutter speed will probably be slow because the aperature is so small, hence the need for the tripod.

If you're interested in learning how to take this shot, read John Shaw's books, he explains this much better than I did. (His photos are also much better than mine).

Bird Feeding Update

While we were away for 2 weeks the squirrels became desperate. Not only did they eat all the birdseed, but then they proceeded to eat the bird feeder.

Here is my no melt suet. It appears to be melting.

A fly on the hand is better than an owl on the arm

Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus

We went to Banff because my husband was working at a conference. It was an international programming contest for university students. The students participate in regional contests and those who win travel from across the globe to compete in a grueling 5 hour challenge against the best in the world. It is a great event, with lots of energy and excitement.

As a special surprise one day before dinner, we were treated to a visit from a birds of prey exhibition. There was a Kestrel, a Golden Eagle (who had been blinded in both eyes), a burrowing owl, and a few others that I don't remember.

The star of the show was this Great Horned Owl. The owner had raised the owl from birth, and he was quite comfortable with people. Many many people held this owl that evening. When you watch the video, look for the part where the owl leans in for the photo shoot. You can also hear the Chickadee yell 'Bird!' in the background at the beginning of the video.

My sons were not present at the conference (they were staying with their grandparents) and did not get to hold the owl. They did see the video when we returned, and were disappointed that they did not get a turn. My husband consoled the Nuthatch by pointing out that a fly had landed on the Nuthatch all by itself, and the owl had to be put on Mommy's arm. So it was better to have the fly come to him of its own free will.

So, if you're feeling jealous that I got to hold an owl, you can go in your backyard and hope a fly will land on you, all by itself. You should feel better after that.

20 Minute Makeover

Our city is having a 20 minute makeover today. The idea is that everyone is supposed to go outside at 2 pm and pick up garbage for 20 minutes. Since the afternoon is naptime, we decided to go this morning. The Nuthatch decided he wanted to get the garbage at the edge of the road. He was quite interested to learn that the street sweepers will come by one day and clean up that garbage.

The Bluejay picked up some garbage, but for the most part was just happy to walk along in his own little world. He was rather distracted by the backhoe loader that was repairing the street, and forgot what he was doing.

Last year I picked up some gardening gloves for both the boys. They are wearing them to protect their hands. The Bluejay called them his 'garbage picking gloves'.

At the end of our trip around the block we had a bag full of garbage.

The Nuthatch took this photo and was quite pleased with himself. I was pleased that the subject that he chose was his sister. Very sweet. I think the blur in the middle is where Chickadee moved her hand.

The Many Faces of Mount Rundle

I'm back! I've just returned from a two week vacation in Banff National Park. For obvious reasons, I did not want to announce my departure online. I was able to get in a post or two while I was away, although I didn't have access to my photo software and wasn't able to upload photos until the end of my trip when I posted the sneak preview.

The sneak preview photo was a bank of spruce trees growing on a mountainside in Kootenay National Park. I took a drive up the mountain pass from Banff into Kootenay one morning after a fresh snowfall. It was spectacular.

While in Banff I managed to take a whopping 900 images. Banff was so amazing I felt like I could wave my camera wildly around my head while pressing the shutter and I'd have a ton of great photos.

This is Mount Rundle. It is located next to the town of Banff. It took me several days to get over my sense of disorientation and start to figure out which mountain was which. They looked different depending on what side of the mountain you were on and even what time of day it was and whether or not they were covered with clouds.

I became particularly fond of Mount Rundle. On the western side (see the above photo) it was gently sloping and covered with trees.

View of the western side of Mount Rundle from the top of Sulphur Mountain.

In the Bow Valley, near the town of Banff is an area of marsh land called the Vermillion Lakes. Mount Rundle is on the left, and Sulphur Mountain is on the right.

And on the eastern side, it was a face of steep cliffs, striped with layers and layers of sedimentary rock, lifted and exposed for all to see. The Bow River can be seen as the frozen white patches in the foreground.

Mount Rundle (left) is separated from Tunnel Mountain (right) by a U-shaped valley carved by a glacier.

This is a view of the peak from our hotel room early one morning.

Sneak preview

I have lots of fantastic photos that I will start posting next week. Here's a sneak preview of things to come. In my world it is still winter. I am going to miss it when it's gone.

Subtlety in Nature

I've been thinking lately about where you find nature. It truly is everywhere. Sometimes it is there in a hit you over the head, wow, isn't that amazing, National Geographic special, picture postcard type of moment. Other times it is more subtle, and you have to look carefully for the grey lichen on the grey rock, or the weeds growing in the pavement.

Nature is always changing. Depending on where you live, there might be a particular season when nature is at its most spectacular. Don't skip getting out in nature because the weather is extreme or it looks dull outside and you're certain you won't find anything interesting. Challenge yourself to discover something new.

After looking at the subtle things in nature for awhile, if you happen to find yourself in that take your breath away setting, the moment will be all the richer. You'll appreciate the lichen and the squirrel tracks as you hike along the shores of a mountain lake, listening to the songs of cedar waxwings in the lodge pole pine forest.

Nature doesn't always wear her wedding gown, you need to hang out with her when she's in her housecoat and slippers to really get to know her.

Relaxation for sale

Yesterday I spent the day at a fabulous spa. I don't go to spas very often, so it was quite a treat. While I was there I overheard a woman saying "Now, this is a good reason for working!" What she was saying was that she worked so she could make enough money to be able to afford to go to this particularly expensive spa and relax.

I started thinking about this concept, working hard so you could relax. It seemed like a bandaid approach to me. The spa experience was wonderful while I was there, but it didn't carry over and have any lasting effects after I left.

I am always secretly amused at the array of products and their long list of pseudo health benefits.

...created to revive vital energy, uses the essential oils of: lemongrass, refreshing and uplifting; ginger, invigorating, stimulating, incites courage and confidence; and sandalwood, centering and grounding.

Taken from a brochure of products
available at the spa I visited.

Can you buy courage and confidence? Somehow I doubt it.

As a homeschooling mom to young children, I have chosen a lifestyle that does not usually result in trips to the spa. I do, however, get exhausted, frazzled, and easily irritated. It would be nice to think that a trip to the spa could cure all of that.

It's easy to blame my exhaustion and irritation on the kids, and the obvious solution would be to get time away from them. I have fantastic inlaws that watch the two older boys for a day or two every week, and this gives me a chance to recharge, but it is not the answer.

The real problem is that I stay up too late after the kids go to sleep, trying to have a moment of precious 'me time'. It sets up a vicious cycle. I need sleep, or I become grouchy. The kids pick up on this and become more challenging. At the end of the day, I need more 'me time', away from the difficult kids, and I stay up too late. Repeat, repeat repeat.

Next time I visit the spa I am going to pick up a refreshing bottle of "Go To Bed Early". I'm sure it will do just the trick.

I don't have access to my photo software at the moment. I'll have pictures again soon, but for now there are only ramblings and musings available.