White-tailed Jackrabbits - Prairie Hares - Turn White

Prairie Hare huddles in the shade. (You can't see me...)   © SB 

Signs of oncoming winter in Saskatchewan include White-tailed Jackrabbits (Prairie Hares), with legs and ears turning white.

By the full onslaught of snow and cold, these bodies of these Prairie Hares will be fully white.

The hare in these pictures was exploring a park near my house in Regina, SK, in early October.

I stayed far away, while it hid (less than effectively from me, though the passing dog ignored it), stop-motion, in a strip of shade.

(It seemed far more alarmed by the sunny stretches of grass, and leapt quickly across those. I guess dimmer light offered it at least the illusion of greater protection.)

Any strip of shade will do for this Prairie Hare,
whose legs and ears are already turning white. © SB 

And yes, I know that this morning as I write this, it is snowing... Snow that will melt... I will ignore it... 


What is this? A White-tailed Jackrabbit, or Prairie Hare

Location: Neighbourhood park, Regina, Saskatchewan 
Photo dates: October 2, 2013. 

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Fall Colours in the Cypress Hills: Saskatchewan-Alberta Border

Fall on the Prairies is a golden time when leaves glow yellow and grasses fade to tan. But at the edge of the Cypress Hills recently, I saw additional fall colours: orange, green, and the soft pinks and purples of dry branches in this hillside pasture. (I love the Prairie landscape at this time of year...)

Prairie fall colours in a hillside pasture. Cypress Hills.   © SB

What is this? A pasture glowing with autumn colours, at the edge of the hills.  Scenery shot.

Location: Very near - or perhaps inside - the Cypress Hills Inter-Provincial Park, on the Alberta side, within a mile of Saskatchewan.  
Photo date: October 10, 2013.

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Colourful Ring-Necked Pheasant on Saskatchewan Road

Ring-necked pheasants top the list of picture suggestions I receive when people find out that I take photographs of birds along rural roads, in parks, and around my backyard.

And finally, I saw one, on Seven Bridges Road to Lumsden, a small town in the Qu'Appelle Valley north of Regina, Saskatchewan. This Prairie bird was immature, and lacked the vibrant blue head and neck feathers older males sport — but its facial skin was bright red, its tail elegantly long, and its body feathers, wonderfully rusty red and gold.

Immature male Ring-necked Pheasant,
showing red face markings.  © SB

And then today, driving along the old highway north from Regina, I saw a mature male Ring-necked Pheasant, with a stunning blue, red and white head, and gorgeous body feathers. He was shy, though, and marched into the trees as soon as he saw me... Which is exactly what the younger pheasant did last month...

Male Ring-necked Pheasant, walking away from the camera... © SB

And here's the younger, immature male Ring-necked Pheasant, 
posing (less-than-totally helpfully) in the shade © SB

And yes, I'll keep looking for a mature male who will stand still in bright sunlight and pose for me, his feathers rainbow sparkling... (On roads and in parks, at least; unlike Gray Partridges, Pheasants are not going to appear in my suburban yard...) But for now, at least, I've got two Saskatchewan Ring-necked Pheasants. 


What are these? An immature male Ring-Necked Pheasant, and a mature male Ring-Necked Pheasant.

Location: Along Seven Bridges Road and the old highway from Regina to Lumsden, Saskatchewan 
Photo dates: September 9, 2013, and October 14, 2013. 

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Northern Flicker: Large Backyard Woodpecker in Regina, SK

A Northern Flicker landed on one of our bird feeders in Regina, Saskatchewan, this morning. Too big to balance on the tiny ledge, it then flew to the vines atop our backyard trellis.

This large woodpecker looks like the Yellow Shafted variety of Northern Flickers from its markings, including its bright red cap and the flash of yellow along its wings and on their undersides. This bird is also male, from the black moustache, or malar, beside its beak and beneath its eye.

Northern Flicker in my backyard.  © SB

And yes, it's large: Northern Flickers are more than 12 inches long, with wingspans of 20 inches, says The Sibley Guide to Birds. They are also beautiful and very distinctive in flight!


What is this? A Northern Flicker

Location: Backyard, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada
Photo date: October 13, 2013

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White-tailed Deer: Hunting Season (Is it safe to come out???)

I don't know when hunting season opens — nor do I want to know, as I'm far from convinced that shooting animals with anything other than cameras is a good thing — but this White-tailed Deer seems deeply, and probably justifiably, concerned!

This doe was photographed with two fawns in Cypress Hills Inter-provincial Park (Alberta and Saskatchewan), as she and her young — one tan, one grey — wandered through a deserted and closed-for-the-season campground.

A White-tailed Deer, a doe, hiding
(less than successfully( behind a tree...  © SB

What is this? A White-tailed Deer — a doe, mother of two fawns. 

Location: Near the edge of the West Block, Cypress Hills Inter-Provincial Park (Alberta and Saskatchewan) .
Photo date: October 10, 2013.

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Home on the Range on the Alberta/Saskatchewan Border

Today, driving through and beyond Cypress Hill Inter-Provincial Park (we were on the Alberta side, but the park is in Saskatchewan, too), we came across this classic Home on the Range scene:

Horses. White. Brown. Black. White and black. By a watering hole in dry grasses, among gently rolling hills... No, merely gently rolling rises of land.

Home on the Range... Horses on the Canadian Prairies © SB

What is this? A scene with horses grazing on a ranch by a lake in Southern Alberta, under heavy skies... along the Saskatchewan border. 
Location: Near the edge of the West Block, Cypress Hills Inter-Provincial Park (Alberta and Saskatchewan) .
Photo date: October 10, 2013.

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Pronghorn Antelopes: Saskatchewan's TransCanada Highway

Mature male Pronghorn Antelope beside the TransCanada Highway. © SB

West of Swift Current, Saskatchewan, yesterday, we saw more than two dozen Pronghorn Antelope along the TransCanada Highway.

These very fast moving (up to 100 km/hour) mammals have excellent camouflage — tan fur against tan grasses.

And they can be elusive.

Sometimes, a drive west from Regina along the TransCanada yields sightings of several; sometimes, none.

The Pronghorn is a native North American animal, evolving from other mammals that have been here more than 25 million years. (Now that is a long time! And my source is The Encyclopedia of Saskatchewan, whose researchers have a much better sense of long time than me.)

And so Pronghorn Antelopes are one-of-a-kind, the only surviving members of their family.

Fall is said to be a good time to see them (when the herds gather). I was hoping for great antelope encounters on our drive — and was not disappointed.

The first group of Pronghorn Antelopes were far away on a rise of land, and the third and fourth groups were only distant white and brown specks... But the second group of five of these wonderful, wild Prairie animals was clear, bright and alert, and fairly close to the highway.

Young male Pronghorn Antelope, with stubs of horns. © SB

Distant Pronghorn Antelope, on a Prairie bluff.   © SB

What are these? Pronghorn Antelope. 
Location: West of Swift Current, Saskatchewan.
Photo date: October 6, 2013.

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Northern Lights above Regina, SK: October 1, 2013

Looking south at Regina's orange tungsten glow,
 past grain bins and a field...
with Aurora Borealis sheeting through the sky above. © SB 

Yes, you can see Northern Lights in Regina! Links within this story go to other Aurora Borealis photos taken in Saskatchewan. 

The winter 2013-14 Aurora Borealis season began in Regina, Saskatchewan with a stunning display late evening on October 1, with northern lights arcing across the entire bowl of the sky... Lights so bright we stood in awe in the backyard to watch...

And then we realized we'd see these Northern Lights even better outside of town, beyond the orange glare of tungsten street lights. But it was late, and among us in the car were very early risers... And the lights had already begun to fade. So when we found a turnoff to a field a short way from the city (not as dark as our usual spot), we pulled over.

Magnificent! (See end for technical details, re: photographing northern lights.) 

The Aurora Borealis was so bright that even full-on headlights from passing pick-up trucks didn't dim the show. Mega-bright.

This was a major storm for us — for anywhere, in fact.

(Canada's national Space Weather site ranked this as a bright red 9, top of the scale for the Southern Prairies region. And AuroraWatch.ca suggested an at least 96 per cent chance of seeing the Auroras... If the sky was clear... And it was!)

Since I've moved to the Prairies and started watching for Northern Lights, I've been in awe of the fact that the stars remain so visible behind the streaks. The Aurora often looks like a cloud, a coloured mistiness that washes across the sky. And clouds — but not these lights! — block stars from view.

Look closely at this picture below... On the left half, you can see (brightly sparkling) the stars that comprise Ursa Major — not just the Big Dipper, but all of the bear, from its head through legs, missing only the tip of its tail. Above, is Ursa Minor, with a twist of Draco between these two bears. On the bottom right, Auriga, the chariot or chariotteer, with the hero Perseus in the cluster of stars above. (We are so lucky to have semi-dark skies here!)

Yes, there are clouds in this picture - there is a low, thin bank, at the very bottom left.
The rest of the sky is crystal clear, with pale green and soft pink Northern Lights. © SB

I am always enchanted when these magical displays splash out from the top of the bowl of the sky, and from there, sheet down to the horizon. Many displays are limited to just the northern horizon, so these full-sky shows are a treat. Below are two shots taken with the camera set to face straight up, to capture whatever was happening during these three-second exposures.

Northern Lights across the bowl of the sky...
This looks like an eagle's head/beak in the centre, to me! © SB

Again, the Northern Lights explode from the centre of the sky. © SB 

The Big Dipper/Ursa Major is clear in the northern part of our skies at this time of year, and in the image below, you can see it above the lights of a distant farmyard, as the Aurora Borealis sheets above and across the sky. (Draco and Ursa Minor are pretty clear, there, too.)

Aurora Borealis falls in waves across the sky, above fields a few minutes north of Regina, Saskatchewan.
Note the Big Dipper, clear above the distant farm complex. © SB 

And the next image looks straight west, showing how much stronger the lights were in the Northern half of the sky...

The lights were slow moving, but at times seemed to fall like rain. This image was taken facing west (with north at right).
The power poles from the grid road can be seen tipping (wide angle distortion) gently rightward,
while lights of an oncoming car glow brightly down the road. © SB 

At one point, a car pulled out of the field across the road, lighting the field where we were parked, watching the show. Its full-on lights provided unexpectedly great lighting for the portrait I had in progress... I'd thought I'd have to retake because of its effect on my timed exposure, but it was fine! (And besides, everyone was cold by then, and wanted to go home, and my model was the early riser with the 6 a.m. shift...) You can see that shot (soon!) on my Photography blog.

Technical details, re: Photographing Northern Lights:

• All photographs were taken using a tripod and remote; all with my Tokina DX 11-16mm f/2.8 lens (the older version, which is an excellent match with my Nikon D7000 for night sky photography); 
• All at f/2.8 and ISO 800, with a shutter speed of three seconds, to capture the most light. (So yes, pictures of Northern Lights will be often be brighter than what our eyes see, because the lens stays open longer... and, yes, photographers may tweak the white or highlights a bit...) 
• All at 11 mm, though some were later cropped to removed distractions and distortions. (My camera has a cropped sensor, so that's somewhat akin to 16 mm on a full frame.) 
• I left the white balance at Auto, though Daylight is often recommended. (In post-production, Daylight's temperature at 5500 was too green, so I reset to 5200 from Auto's 5050...) 
• I also removed the lens filter, as I've read that can create distortion... I've no idea if that's really the case! 
• These Aurora Borealis weren't moving quickly; if they had been, I'd have raised the ISO a few stops for a faster shutter speed. (1.6 seconds at 1600 ISO would allow the sensor to capture the same amount of light, for a slightly grainier image.) 
• I don't have a flashlight with a red lamp, but used my iPhone to see the camera setting when I played with adjustments. Not its flashlight, but the glow from the dim phone screen. 
• The camera was on Manual focus, set to Infinity — except for the portraits I tried, one of which is on my photo blog. The focus setting for that was a bit more complicated! (See my notes with the portrait, re: setting the focus in the dark.) 

I'd welcome comments from other photographers who've shot the Northern Lights, re: your approach and settings! 

What are these? Aurora Borealis, or Northern Lights. (The links above go to other pix taken in Regina.)
Location: Slightly beyond the city lights of Regina, Saskatchewan, in a field just out of town.
Photo date: October 1, 2013.

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