Elk Island National Park : Signs of spring, Bison stalking

Hey Steemians!

Sorry I've been quiet lately, work season is back and that's pretty time consuming with long hours in a short amount of time, hopefully for the next month or two. I wont be posting as much but I'll try! On a good note that means I'll be able to take another trip to the Rockies after this round of shutdown life. That's the joy of being seasonal worker with unstable income (It's still not bad, just have to plan ahead) is lots of time to explore the land around me and focus on my photography, I guess that's what I call balance...work more hours at once and take equal amount of time off. When I was in my late teens and early 20's, All I wanted was a job that I could get summer off to play around and winters off to lock myself in the house and not have to deal with the cold that hurts my face in the northern land that I call home. Well I may not have my dream job but I have my dream hours!! Alright I just wanted to give you a quick update on my silence before I begin with my Bison stalking. I'm not going away, I will still try to go look at your content and drop off my 2 cents , work at it a bit each day until I have a complete post but I will just be slowing down on posting and new picture trips until I get days off and have time to get out there and play again.

Shot 1/640 sec. f/6.3 300mm, ISO 200

Back on topic now I promise! Before my return to work, I was able to take one last day trip to Elk Island and keep looking for the elusive beast. Temperatures had warmed up again, the snow was melting and it was a beautiful day to go get some fresh air for a few hours. We did a regular up and down wishing for an easy find unfortunately that's just too easy and today wasn't our lucky day. We heard rumors that there was a small herd had been hanging around Tawayik Lake and I remembered the cute little birdies from last time, perfect opportunity to hit 2 birds with one stone (not in the literal sense, just to clarify no animals were harmed in the making of this post) I was on my way to the shack where they hang out but then I was stopped by another noise... I could hear " toc-toc-toc" in the distance. I Decided to follow my ears until I found it. Luckily It's still full of snow and no green on the trees, birds are much easier to find and located the bird. The down side, there is still 2 feet of crusty snow on the ground and that really complicates things trying to sneak up on skiddish wildlife knee deep in loud crunchy snow.

Shot 1/500 sec. f/5.6 300mm, ISO 200

This woodpecker seemed pretty chill with my presence as I walk around the tree to get my back to the sun I was staring into and get him from different angles, He knew I was there and certainly keeping an eye on my whereabouts but actually allowed me to spend a fair amount of time watching the various stages of the hole he was digging from the base of his tree. It was a first experience of this kind for me , they generally fly away when I try to get this close. I'm a big game whisperer, birds...humm not so much. At the end of the day, no matter the size of wildlife, you can only get as close as it will allow you, body language is a pretty good indicator of when and how slow to approach. After a while they become used to my presence and just carry on like I wasn't there.

Shot 1/500 sec. f/5.6 280mm, ISO 200

The picture above , I worked so hard for the right timing to catch him throwing the wood chips away from the work area, it was quite the task. I'm sure 20 minutes must have gone by and I tried to get @silvergingerman to come take some pictures but it apparently didn't like his presence and flew away as he tried to get there and we didn't get the chance to approach it again. Short but precious moment, I was pretty pleased for the posing he did for me during our encounter.

Shot 1/500 sec. f/5.6 300mm, ISO 200

Shot 1/500 sec. f/5.6 280mm, ISO 200

Now that my distraction was over, I still really wanted to make it to the song birds so on my way out of the bushes and to the back of the common cabin I went. The park is starting to get busier now that spring is here and there were many visitors on that afternoon and the birds got shy. They were still there but not flying as close this time. I went back into knee deep snow and I just stood there waiting for them to land on a near by branch. Didn't take long after I got away from the main park area within a few minutes I was surrounded.

Shot 1/500 sec. f/5.6 300mm, ISO 250

Shot 1/640 sec. f/6.3 300mm, ISO 200

I didn't spend too much time with them, just enough to get a few pictures and it was time to move on to the real task at hand, once again...find the Bison! We started making our way toward Tawayik lake's set of trails and I stopped to take a look if I could see spot a few Bison. In the distance I could see a few dark brown spots in the distance but since I have bad vision from a distance and wearing my glasses and take photos is really cumbersome I wasn't sure if it was just and illusion and started Looking around and found a set a tracks and a lot of droppings, fresh ones. Would this be the day?Instead of taking the trails I followed my instincts and returned to knee deep snow and started following the tracks left behind on the remains of the frozen marshland.

1/1000 sec. f/8 300mm, ISO 200

As I got closer, I kept looking thru my camera until I could make out what the brown shapes were. After 20 minutes of walking, I could finally confirm that they were indeed bison. They were still at a good distance but I was gaining ground. it was exhausting always sinking and eventually the herd started to slowly move behind the bushes, they may have been a little irritated at our advances. We kept going anyway slightly altering our course with plans to get them when they come out of the other side as they made their way across.

I wanted to continue following them but I realized I was starting to lose ground, this snow was really slowing me down, appeared to be getting deeper and was starting to get irritating. I suspect they might be more experienced than I am traveling in this frozen marsh, It was time to think fast and get a new strategy. We turned around and made our way out of the lake area and back to the trails that headed towards the other side of the lake in the hopes of getting there before they did so our movements didn't start a stampede since the crunchy snow, once again, complicates sneaking up on wildlife. Now that we were on a trail, it was easy to make our way and got to the lake quickly. As I passed the tree line blocking my view, I could finally see them in the distance and I was almost there. They appeared far and I was beginning to think I was a few minutes too late and they had already crossed a few minutes before we did. I stopped and looked around, not ready to give up just yet, turns out it was the rest of the herd I imagine was the final destination. It was time to pick up the pace and get off the trail and back into trailblazing mode if I wanted to be there in time for their crossing.

Shot 1/800 sec. f/7.1 300mm, ISO200

I didn't get as close as I wanted to get yet I was still satisfied of the results and decided to walk in the same direction they were heading as long as I could at least keep up. The sun was starting to come down, time was starting to run out and I was now sinking waiste deep in snow trying to keep up and getting difficult to move around, maybe it was time to turn around and start heading back towards the trail while there was still sunlight since we had been off the trail for over a half hour and didn't want to get lost. I already felt like had just I found the holy grail anyway.

We finally reached the trail, I must admit it was a relief to be back on solid snow after walking in deep snow for most of the afternoon, my legs were getting tired of the struggle. I'm glad we took the time to go on that day, since then second winter has started here in Alberta and now I'm working all night out side in -20 to -30's again. I'll be glad when real spring gets here!

Shot 1/640 sec. f/13 55mm, ISO 100

All images taken with Nikon D7000 paired with a 300mm Nikkor lens.

Cheers! xox