Boreal Chickadee (four photos)

Posted by Steve Boer on February 12, 2022
Posted in: Nature, Photography, Travel, Wildlife. Tagged: , , , . 2 Comments

I was blessed last weekend to have this boreal chickadee (Poecile hudsonicus) sit still (well not really still but at least in the same spot) on this branch for over a minute. Allowed me to get several pretty decent shots. This was the first time I noticed how much blue is in their back feathers. These guys are not very common around here compared to the black-capped chickadees, and I’m fairly sure I’m seeing the same individual every time, although you’d think there might be at least a pair of them.

Boreal chickadee perched on a branch looking right beak open
Boreal chickadee perched on a branch looking down eating seed
Boreal chickadee perched on a branch side view looking left
Boreal chickadee perched on a branch looking up and right
If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

SupercaliFRAZIListic (six photos)

Posted by Steve Boer on November 21, 2021
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Ice, ice, baby. It’s supercaliFRAZIListic in Edmonton right now. These frazil pancake ice shots were taken downtown #yeg yesterday. The water can’t freeze solid yet because it’s moving too fast and so the ice crystals group together and form these lilypads as they swirl around and bump against one another while they’re rotating.

Frazil pancake ice in river with blue sky reflection
Frazil pancake ice with bridege in background
Frazil pancake ice in river closeup monochrome
Frazil pancake ice in river monochrome
Frazil pancake ice in river portrait mode
Frazil ice pancake with a face shape

If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

Waxwings (four photos)

Posted by Steve Boer on November 10, 2021
Posted in: Nature, Photography, Travel, Wildlife. Tagged: , , . 3 Comments

Some waxwings seen in Whitecourt, AB. I thought they were Bohemian waxwings, except that no other photo I found of a bohemian showed the stripes on top of the head like you can see in a couple of these shots. So, if anyone has a species ID they can give or any insight I would love to hear about it!

Bohemian waxwing
Bohemian waxwing
Bohemian waxwings
Bohemian waxwings

If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

Elk Island Alberta (six photos)

Posted by Steve Boer on October 13, 2021
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Spent an evening out at Elk Island National Park here in Alberta last weekend. It’s only about a 45 minute drive from home near Edmonton and has some nice scenery and wildlife to offer. The fact that it is a dark-sky space helps seeing the stars at night. We saw a few animals before it got too dark to photograph them. A bison wouldn’t take his eyes off me on the side of the road, and during a short walk we saw a few beavers and what I think might have been a snow goose. After that we found a picnic spot to have a fire and some snacks, and start taking shots to make a star trail photo. An hour and a half and 195 images later, I reset for a shot of the Milky Way galaxy with some trees that were lit by our campfire. I also made a time lapse video with the star trail shots, please check it out on my youtube.

Bison at Elk Island
Beaver at Elk Island
Snow goose?
Elk Island sunset reflection
Star trail at Elk Island with reflection
Milky way galaxy with trees lit by campfire

If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

A few random shots (three photos)

Posted by Steve Boer on October 6, 2021
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I finally brought my camera along on a walk the other weekend and took a few pictures for the first time in over a month. A Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus stolonifera) with nice red leaves for fall, and a couple of birds. The woodpecker is a female black-backed woodpecker and the other is a nuthatch looking a little wary about taking a sunflower seed from my wife’s hand.

Red Osier Dogwood (Cornus stolonifera)

Black backed woodpecker female

Wary nuthatch

If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

Drumheller Alberta (six photos)

Posted by Steve Boer on August 16, 2021
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We made it back to the Drumheller, Alberta area again this summer. I always enjoy this desert, badlands landscape. I hope you’ll take the time to check out all six photos in this post. You’d have to be a dumb feller to not want to go to Drumheller!

Yellow cactus flower with badlands landscape background
A close up of a yellow cactus flower
Famous Hoodoos in Drumheller Alberta on a sunny day
Rock isolated on textured sand with a bush
Hoodoos in Drumheller Alberta with shallow depth of field
Fake tilt-shift effect on Drumheller hoodoo site

If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

Edmonton Skyline

Posted by Steve Boer on July 27, 2021
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Edmonton at night with the Walterdale Bridge. The light trail in the sky was a helicopter.

Edmonton at night with the Walterdale Bridge
Camera: Canon EOS 5D Mark IV, Exposure Time: 20s, Aperture: f/8, ISO: 100, Focal Length: 24mm

If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

Great Blue Herons (three photos)

Posted by Steve Boer on July 23, 2021
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We’ve been seeing tons of great blue herons this year and I’ve been loving it! Shallow water in the river has made fishing easier for them I think so they’ve been hanging around. In fact we see one almost every day if we take the time to look.
Please click on the photos to view them full screen on my web site and check out this video of one of them catching and eating a huge fish in slow motion!

Great Blue Heron hunting in a river

Great Blue Heron hunting in a river

Great Blue Heron taking a step

If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

Some random ducks (three photos)

Posted by Steve Boer on July 7, 2021
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Here’s a few ducks that I’ve seen in the past few weeks. The first is a male mallard of course. The second is a male redhead, and the third I’m pretty sure is a scaup. Not sure if it’s a greater or lesser scaup, but either way this one was gearing up for attack mode. He kept chasing all the mallards away from his young even though they weren’t bothering anyone… Please click on the photos to view them full screen on my web site.

Male Mallard duck swimming in a pond

Male redhead duck swimming in a pond

Scaup duck going into attack mode

If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!

Close encounter with a moose (four photos)

Posted by Steve Boer on May 29, 2021
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So last week we walked up to the pond to see the baby geese (see previous post). We had gone a little farther up the path where someone suggested we might see some warblers. What we ended up doing was having a close encounter with this young moose! This was more or less in the middle of town, so quite a surprise to see a moose here. I’m not sure if it might be the same animal as we often see in a park on the other side of the river about 5km away, but it’s possible. Anyway, the moose was for the most part happily stripping the leaves off of poplar trees and eating them, although she did get spooked a couple of times by people and cars in the parking lot of the condo building that was right there. Please click on the photos to view them full screen on my web site.

Young moose profile

Young moose in a funny pose

Young moose close to town

Moose on a city trail
If you enjoy my photographs please consider making a purchase. All of the proceeds from the sale will go directly to help support our friends volunteering at the Seed of Hope in South Africa which is a great organization really making a difference in the community. Every little bit makes a difference, even a small digital download for your desktop!