Every evening emerging from deep in the forest canopy, Great Gray Owls such as this one come out to open meadows to hunt for meadow voles. During the twenty or so minutes I observed this owl, it had already caught and consumed three voles. It had no reservations with my presence.
The biggest struggle I have with nature photography is getting out to my location prior to sunrise. Like most people my biological clock tells me to stay in bed. On this day, I did exactly that. I was angry that I was still a half hour away from the place I intended to photograph as the sun was rising. Lucky for me I saw a dot in the middle of a pond beside the road as I flew by in a hurry to catch the last bit of the sunrise. Intrigued, I turned around to find a loon swimming around in the dense fog. For nearly a half hour I was able to sit back and enjoy watching this majestic bird dive under the surface to catch some fish. Sometimes sleeping pays off. This experience far surpassed the experience I would have had rushing around to get a landscape photo.
Walking around in the prairies near the badlands of Alberta can be quite dangerous if you aren't paying close attention. This large prairie rattlesnake was found near some old farm equipment at the edge of a coulee just outside of Dinosaur Provincial Park in Alberta. This is one of three species of rattlesnake found in Canada.
