Apex predators have a major impact on an ecosystem, both from the point of view of controlling prey density and restricting smaller predators. They are crucial to the functioning of ecosystems, controlling disease and maintaining biodiversity. On land, in the air and in water. Some of the apex predators in the Canadian Rockies are bears, wolves, Bald Eagles, and more recently, in the rivers we’re seeing or coming across signs of river otter presence in the Bow Valley. The North American river otter is an apex predator. The otter population was nearly wiped out in southern Alberta. If their population keeps increasing, it will be a great success story for nature. Since their diet includes fish, frogs, birds, bird’s eggs, small mammals such as muskrats and young beavers and more. These species will be less happy with the river otter’s return. In the last few years those of us who spend lots of time outdoors have been experiencing a rare sighting of the otters. Hopefully, in the near future, it will be less rare.
Bald Eagle
The Bald Eagle’s eyeball is almost the same size as the human eye. Given their smaller heads compared to ours, the eyeballs fill most of their skulls. While most of us have 20/20 vision, eagles have an amazing 20/5 vision. That is, they can see a subject as clearly as we can from five feet away from a distance of 20 feet. We have a peripheral vision of 180 degrees, with eagle eyes fixed in their sockets, angled 30 degrees, and have a 340-degree visual field of view. The eagles move their heads every five seconds to the left and right or straight ahead. But after they locate their prey, they look straight ahead and dive for the kill. As well, to make it easier for the eagle to spot their prey. They are also able to spot a rabbit from as far as 3.2 km away. Like all birds, they also have much superior colour vision than we do. Able to see more vivid colours, better able to discriminate between more shades, and can also see ultraviolet light. This comes in handy when being able to detect UV-reflecting urine trails of a small prey. These and other vision features help them find food in extreme conditions to survive, and are able to see me before I even know that they are in the area.
Great Gray Owl
As the “The Teddy Bears Picnic” song goes, “If you go down in the woods today, you’re sure of a big surprise”. And I was when I came across the big guy, M122, last month. I saw fresh tracks going across my path. When I looked down the slope to my right. There he was slowly moving in the woods through the deep snow. He’s challenged by moving through deep snow, as we would be. With his lower height, he walks next to the trees when he can, where the snow is less thanks to the branches above. As well, trees being darker, heat is radiated from them. Which helps the snow melt under the canopy first.
Been up since the middle of March and having to deal with a deep snowpack for a few months, every bit helps to conserve energy for the big guy. For wildlife, energy is money, and the goal is to save as much as possible until it’s needed. That could be escaping a predator or dealing with a bigger competitor. For M122, he might use his savings when there is a chance of catching prey or chasing competition away. But, one thing he does not have to worry about is being chased away. You just have to look at him to see he is good at saving.
But sometimes it pays not to be efficient. A Washington State University study was able to find the optimal speed of a bear at 4.2 kilometers an hour in a lab. But on the landscape it was calculated to be 2.2 kilometers an hour. It was concluded, the bears might forgo efficiency to take in the landscape and to forage for food. As well, it was learned from the same study that bears prefer slopes that were 10 percent grade or less. If the slope is steeper, they go up in a switchback pattern to maintain their grade preference. Plus, more opportunities to come across food.
Oh yeah, there’s another mammal that prefers the same grade as the bears, us humans. The bears will take full advantage of the hiking trails when they come across one. Not only do many of our hiking trails have their preferred grade, they also have no trees and shrubs coming across their path. There’s a small chance for one to come across a bear while hiking. But, it’s always good to have bear spray all year on the trails and even more so during the bear-aware season.
Crowfoot Glacier
For this image of the Crowfoot Glacier or part of that glacier, it was a very relaxing experience. Sitting back and looking at the whole glacier. I watched the light and shadow change as the sun rose. Looking at the rock and ice in contrast to the exposed mountain side. Zooming in and out, trying to find a picture within a picture. A Common Raven was nearby, kept me company and hoped for food it never received. For a short period of time that day, the glacier had my full attention. As I thought about the first time I saw it and all the other times since, I have looked at it from below and face to face after hiking on the opposite side of the valley. Seeing it through all four seasons, winter time is the best by far. I love the colour of the old ice, somewhere between blue and green, and the warm colours in the exposed rocks. And those few trees on the right side, well, talk about growing in the extreme. I got the picture I wanted, and I had time for my mind to wander and relax.
Red-breasted Nuthatch
Standing dead trees or dead parts of trees play an important role in the ecosystem, including providing places for nests for various birds. One of those birds are the nuthatches, which are one of the few non-woodpeckers that excavate their own nest cavities. With the Red-breasted Nuthatch, both of their sexes will help to build a nest, but the female will do more than the male. But the males will feed the females while the females work on the nest. Aspen trees, with their softer wood, are their preferred tree for nest building when available. The cavity can be up to 20 centimeters deep, taking up to 18 days to excavate. For the bed inside the nest, various materials can be used, including grass, bark strips, and pine needles and lined with fur, feathers and fine grasses and bark stripes. Both sexes will apply conifer resin to the entrance, sometimes with a piece of bark. It’s thought that this is done to keep out predators. The nuthatch avoids the resin by diving straight through the hole. With the resin, the home is ready for the family with a security measure.
Mount Rundle
For several days over the winter, we were getting great sunrises and sunsets. In the morning, as the colleagues would be arriving to work they would talk about the sunrise they saw on their way. Still, the best moment was one evening, when I noticed the clouds and let the team know we might be in for a treat after work. Instead of heading home, everyone found a high spot with a view and, for 15 to 20 minutes, watched the sky as nature puts on a show. Instead of me showing them pictures on my phone the next day, they got to watch it with their own eyes. It was hard deciding which way to look, let alone for me to decide what direction the camera was facing that evening.
During the morning of this picture, it was my day off, but I was not far from work, ready to enjoy another sunrise. Much of the sky was void of clouds, but I found a location where I was going to get my picture before going for a hike. I was hoping others were enjoying the sunrise as well, otherwise they would see the picture at a later time.
Bohemian Waxwing
There are three species of waxwings in the world, lucky us, we get to see two of them. Cedar Waxwing and, more so during the fall and winter, the Bohemian Waxwing. They love fruits, no matter if it’s in your backyard or in the wild. During fall and winter, the Bohemian Waxwings will find it, if it’s out there. As for their name; “bohemian” describes their wandering ways in search of food. The availability of which might change from year to year. They have red waxy wing tips and yellow on other wings, it’s the reason they are called waxwings. Waxy tips are a result of their diet, carotenoid pigments found in the fruit waxwings eat. From my firsthand experience of eating lots of fruits, this does not work on humans. Unless it ends up in our ears? In case you’re wondering, we don’t.
The waxwings in the picture were five of a 250 plus strong ear-full, a group of waxwing is called “ear-full” and a “museum” of waxwings. I found them enjoying juniper berries, as well as some kinnikinnick berries. All while being harassed by two brave Townend’s Solitaires. With a kilometer and half left for my hike one afternoon, I came across them on a south facing section of the trail. With little to no snow, the fruits were exposed for the waxwing to consume. Spent over half an hour surrounded by them and their high-pitched trills.
Mallard Ducks
After I took pictures of the sunset, I packed up, and I started to make my way home. I was fifty meters into my walk when I noticed something was flying. Turning my head, I noticed it was five Mallard Ducks. I’m pretty sure they were the same ones I have been seeing in the area since last summer. They were born last summer, and they had decided to spend their first winter in the Canadian Rockies. They had survived a couple of cold spells, including the long one in December and early January. Either a predator got them into the air or perhaps they were moving to the bigger open water area for safety during the night. After they had made one circle, I thought it was too late to get their picture with the remaining sunset colours. But they decided to make one more circle, and this time I was ready with the camera in hand. As they started to descend, I got a picture of them and the warm colours of the sunset.
Sunset
As the world gets more out of control, the bigger role nature plays in helping bring calm. When I’m out there, it’s a time to relax, time to breathe and time to find answers to all those questions circling in the head. I dove into the parking lot as the remaining vehicles were on their way out. I grabbed my pack and hit the trail and let my mind wander to any issues that needed dealing with. Listened to the birds and watched the trees sway from side to side in the wind as I made my way to the spot where I wanted to watch the sunset from. When I arrived, I put my pack down and got the camera ready. I watched the surrounding light change, I still had about 20 minutes left for the warm colours to arrive. I started to relax as I leaned against a tree and watched the sky. For the half hour I was there, the world’s problems were pushed away by the wind. Once the show was over for the day, I made my way to my car with my mind in a better place.
Clark's Nutcracker
The Committee on the Status of Endangered Wildlife in Canada (COSEWIC) was created in 1977. An advisory panel to the Minister of Environment and Climate Change Canada, made up of wildlife biology experts from various backgrounds across Canada. They assign risk categories to flora and fauna included in its current mandate. In 2003, COSEWIC was established as an advisory body for the Species at Risk Act (SARA). When the official list of wildlife species at risk is established, the federal government will take COSEWIC designations into consideration. Thereby, wildlife species qualify for legal protection and recovery under the Species at Risk Act.
Currently, limper pine has no status under SARA, but has an endangered status under COSEWIC as of November 2014. A pathogen by the name White Pine Blister Rust, Mountain Pine Beetle and climate change are the reasons behind this status. At the current rate of a one percent decline in its population per year, two thirds of mature individuals will be gone over the next 100 years.
Education and conservation work are taking place to help the limper pine population. A keystone species that provides high-fat food sources through its pine nuts for small mammals, bears, and birds, including the Clark’s Nutcracker. This species has a mutually beneficial relationship with limber pine. Nutcrackers can collect as many as 35,000 seeds and carry and cache them in the ground as far as 10 kilometers away. Not all get consumed by the nutcrackers; some are taken by other animals, and the remaining may take root, resulting in new limber pine trees.
Elk
Elk, like other members of the deer family, and bison, cattle, horses and many more have hooves. Which are like toenails and do not freeze. Hooves do not need a lot of blood supply, but the legs do. So they have a similar physiological adaptation as the birds, called a countercurrent exchange. Where the cold blood returns to the body right next to warm arterial blood moving down from the heart. Going back to the hooves, they act as an insulating layer between the legs and the frozen ground, snow or ice.
As well, to survive the winter, they have a thicker insulating coat. Made of two layers, a dense coat under long guard hairs. The guard hair looks like honeycomb, thousands of tiny air pockets fill each hair, helping them to be waterproof and warm. Every winter I have seen this heavy winter coat at work, being thick enough, the fallen snow on the elk will not melt. On very cold winter days, the thick coat reduces the amount of heat lost, by lying down. Less heat lost through their belly, chest and legs this way.
Elk will use stored fat to get through the winter, only around 30 percent of the winter energy requirement is met this way. Remaining energy comes from additional adaptations. Elk reduce their metabolism by one-third. They will also go into a dense stand of trees where possible, the trees hold warmer air near the ground and as well catch snow before falling on them and the ground they are on. As well, help reduce the wind speed. Some elk in the mountains will migrate to an area where terrain difference can help them reduce the amount of energy they need each day of winter.
For many animals, winter is a time of survival until spring brings all- you-can-eat buffet.
The Moon
The Moon is called “the Moon” because we did not know other moons existed until 1610, when Galileo Galilei discovered four moons going around Jupiter. If you have one single pea and a nickel, then you have a good comparison of the Moon’s size to the Earth. The Moon is 27 percent the size of the Earth, the fifth largest moon in our solar system. The Moon is the only natural satellite of our favorite planet Earth. They are tidally locked, and thanks to their rotation being so synced, we can only see one side of the Moon. And thanks to the moon, Earth is a more livable planet by controlling Earth’s wobble on it’s axis. Helping to produce a stable climate. What’s been happening the last few decades on Earth, the moon takes no blame for that.
The Moon takes 27.3 days to make one revolution around the Earth, but 29.5 days to change from a New Moon to a New Moon. The reason for that is, both are moving around the Sun, and due to the change of positions, the sunlight hits the Moon at a different angle on day 27.3 than it does on day zero. Two more days are needed for sunlight to hit the Moon in the same way it did on day zero.
Why does the Moon look bigger when it’s setting, as in the attached image, or when rising? It’s due to the Moon illusion, a trick our brains play on us.
It’s always interesting how we’re connected to the nature around us, but also what’s in space. Only 12 human beings have walked on the moon, but every human on Earth has benefitted from the Moon, providing a safer place to call home.
Pilot Mtn
The day before ended with a great sunset, the sky was lit in all directions. Many of us got to enjoy nature’s light show. In the morning all conditions pointed to a bright sunrise to the east. With the day off, I decided I wanted to get a picture elsewhere. Challenging myself to try something different for creativity, which in the end is great for the mind and improves landscape photography as a whole. I still enjoy going to the popular places to take pictures, but getting something different, even of a mountain I have taken pictures of before, is a little extra special. As well, I have been having fun trying to get images in the more traditional panoramic aspect ratio of 6x17. Not simply taking a picture and then seeing if this ratio for cropping works, but having the cropping ratio in mind before taking the picture. Thanks to the low clouds and everything being covered with snow, this black and white image worked out well as a panorama.
American Dipper
The birds got it all figured out how not to get a frostbite on their legs and feet. Feathers help to maintain core body temperature, their legs and feet are mostly tendons and bones with some muscle or nerve tissue. Therefore, avoiding the high cost of keeping the legs and feet the same temperature as the core. The blood is supplied all the way to the foot, using a countercurrent heat exchange system. Cool blood returns from the foot traveling through veins surrounding the arteries that are sending warm blood from the body to the foot. The cool blood is warmed before reaching the body. Just enough heat reaches the foot to prevent it from freezing. The way this network of arteries is wired from the heart to the feet is called rete mirable or “wonderful net”.
Another way to keep the legs and the feet warm is by perching and covering them with their feathers. As well, we have all seen this, by standing on one leg while the other is tucked into their feathers. Switching between the two as needed. So if you see a waterfowl standing on one leg on the ice on a cold winter day, let them be and go home, do a tree pose and then enjoy your favorite hot chocolate.
Bighorn Sheep
I’ll never forget when I first heard the sounds of two rams hitting their horns together. It was the middle of the summer; both males were on the roads, licking minerals. One was pushing the other, when both looked at each other before their heads collided. Even though it was not with the same force that would have taken place during the rut season, it was still very loud. As if two large boulders had collided. Rams can weigh over 300 pounds and their horns can exceed 30 pounds. The force that is used when two male collide during the rut, scientists using the equation Force = mass x acceleration, 800lbs of force. A collision between two rams can be heard over a mile away. With their thick skulls, the rams are well protected from this force and it has been found that the volume of blood pumped to the brain increases before the collision occurs. This helps to create a “bubble wrap effect”. Just for comparison, an NHL player puts 100lbs of force when hitting the puck with a slap shot. And these horns for females and males, are made out of the same material as our nails are made of, keratin. A type of protein. I get my keratin when consuming eggs.
Cascade Mountain
It was in the middle of the cold spell last month, like the ones we used to regularly get each winter. I think the morning temperature was minus 31 degrees Celsius. Second morning with temperatures in the minus thirties. To keep warm, I ran to the location, no tripod was going to be used and the camera was ready right out of the backpack. I knew the location like the back of my hand. There was enough time from two locations to shoot from, this one was the first and ended up being the better of the two that morning. Thanks to the two Common Ravens, they made the image twice as good. Both were making their way east when they saw me. Perhaps hoping for a meal or were just curious, they started to circle in front of me. I shot when they were in the right place and tried to get them and the background in focus. This image was my favorite from that morning. They aren’t blocking the Cascade Mountain and both are easily recognized.
Grizzly
There are a number of qualities or traits that can help make one a good nature photographer. I think one of them has to be being a positive person, where the glass is always half-full. If I wasn’t an optimistic person, I would be missing out on many opportunities. Every time I step outside with my camera, I think I’m going to get a picture. If I don’t have my camera when I go out, that’s when I feel I’m going to come across a unicorn made of chocolate. I do everything I can to prepare, so when that opportunity comes I’m ready to shoot. Before stepping outside, I check I have everything I need and it’s working. When I’m in the car, the camera is within arm’s reach in case an opportunity comes while driving. When on foot, I should be able to get the camera out and shoot within seconds. My pack only has what I need, everything is always in the same place. I should be able to find what I need with my eyes closed. Often with wildlife you may just get one quick chance at a picture. No time to look for the camera or figure out the setting before taking a picture. Have to be ready.
It also helps if you love being outdoors any time of the year. It’s a lot easier being happy when you’re where you want to be. You’re more likely to be looking around for wildlife signs and listening to the sounds around you. Instead of wandering outdoors and starting at your boots like the members of the many alternative music bands I watched and now listen to. While being out there, I tend to think about all the past opportunities I have come across for photography. I seem to have very short memories of the days when I came back with no pictures. When I saw this big (M122) over the fall, it was a nice surprise, but I was ready. I had the camera pointing at it within seconds.
He was coming to the end of his 23rd or 24th season, looking as big as ever. Experience has taught him where to find food and being a big bear, he can easily push off those predators that are far better than him at killing prey. The likes of cougars and wolves, he was following the pack’s day-old track when I came across him. One can’t just turn on a positive state of mind, but once reaching it with effort, life becomes a lot easier and more enjoyable. And when I come across a chocolate unicorn one day, I’ll be ready to take its picture. For now, enjoy the beautiful grizzly bear.
Pine Grosbeak
One of the birds I look for in late fall and winter is the Pine Grosbeaks. Bringing some colour to the cold days. These robin size finches have greyish bodies, topped by pinkish red for the males and yellow on the females. With their thick bills, they can easily crush seeds and remove tree buds and needles of the spruce trees. Pine Grosbeaks tend to eat lots of plants, but to make it easier for the nestlings to consume food, the adults regurgitate a mixture of vegetables and insects. They are found across Canada, but can vary in size and small colour difference. They can be tame, making it a bit easier to get their picture. On a late cold frosty morning, I saw two males and one female. They were slowly moving toward me as they fed. Even with them being tame, I stayed put to get them close enough to get this picture of a male on a frosty branch. Bringing colour to an overcast day.
Castle Mountain
Lots of great things about the winter in the Rockies, including exploring the tracks I come across. And that’s what I did about an hour before sunset. I was also looking toward Castle Mtn, I did not think the light was going to make it through the clouds toward the end of the day, it did. I still had time to get back to my car and drive some 20 kilometers to the location where I normally like to take the mountain’s picture. But there was a chance by the time I reached the spot, clouds would move in and block the light. So I continued exploring, looking at the tracks that were not there in the morning. Elk and wolves had moved through the area. At the same time, I was figuring out how to get the picture of Castle. Moving around in the knee-deep snow to find a location where the trees helped frame the mountain but not blocked the mountain. Once I got the picture, it was back to looking at the tracks and seeing if I could get some good pictures of them.
American Three-toed Woodpecker
This nonmigratory American Three-toed Woodpecker will be one of the bird species spotted during the 2021 Christmas Bird Count. Yes!! On Saturday, December 18 the famous Bow Valley Christmas Bird Count will be taking place in and around the towns of Banff and Canmore. Pop over to the Bow Valley Naturalists site https://bowvalleynaturalists.org/event/2021-bow-valley-christmas-bird-count/ to learn how you can participate. And if you live elsewhere, not to worry. The first count started in 1900, today over 2000 take place throughout the Western Hemisphere between December 14 and January 5. If you reside in my favorite country, you can pop over to Birds Canada website https://www.birdscanada.org/bird-science/christmas-bird-count/ , to find a count near you.
Due to COVID-19, certain social aspects of the day will not be taking place again this year. The pot luck dinner and the ever so popular demonstrations of how adult birds feed their offspring. Always a challenge getting volunteers playing the offspring role. I guess next time we’ll have to use regurgitated chocolate instead.
