Chickadee Photo Art » Interlake

Snowy Owl

Sharon — Fri, 27 Jan 2012 12:00:05 +0000

We are fortunate to have these beautiful arctic birds visit our area each winter. The Snowy Owls can often be spotted sitting on the tops of hydro poles, signs along side our highways or outbuildings. These owls are diurnal, meaning they are active both day and night. Their preferance for higher perches allows them to scan their hunting territory ( in our case the open prairie fields ) for small rodents or rabbits. They breed in the high arctic where their prey would be lemmings and sometimes ptarmigan. Both parents are fiece defenders of the nest and young owlets. The Snowy Owl featured here is either a female or immature bird as it has fairly extensive black markings. An adult male would be mainly white with fewer dark areas. Their bill is black, their eyes yellow and feet are heavily feathered. Snowy owls can weigh in the 6 pound range and have a wingspan of up to 59 inches which makes it one of our largest species of owls.

This snowy only moved when its head turned around to look the other direction. My neck hurt just watching it !

Enjoy !

~Sharon

Manitoba Scenes

Sharon — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 04:51:47 +0000

** New Photos Gallery has been updated **

Got a little delayed in updating postings here as a new grandson arrived a few weeks back so you can imagine that I have been a little busy lately. Anyway, I have so many new photos to share from this past summer and will be posting as usual every four days. Today I thought some late summer & fall photos of rural Manitoba would be timely. With the winds we experienced last week most leaves have blown off the trees now but fall is still a most beautiful season and happens to be a favourite season of mine and many people that I know.

Below: Cooks Creek

Below: Canola Field in the Interlake area

Below: Country church near Portage la Prairie

Below: Farm Field in the Carberry area

Enjoy!

~Sharon

Nesting Birds: Killdeer

Sharon — Thu, 04 Aug 2011 11:00:25 +0000

The nest below belongs to a Killdeer. They don’t really build a proper nest, instead laying their eggs in natural indentations on the ground, quite often in the open along roadsides and fields. The nest below was in an open area of a little campground in the Interlake and she used a hollow of a rock as her nest. There were children running around and playing in the area. These birds don’t seem to make any effort to hide their nests at all. The nesting killdeer will use the injured bird routine to lead predators away from the nest, running along the ground away from the nest and pretending they can’t fly away. It must work as the killdeer population appears to be a thriving one.

Below: Adult killdeer

Enjoy!

~Sharon

Muskrat

Sharon — Fri, 29 Apr 2011 11:00:02 +0000

Related to Beaver? No. Related to a Rat? No. It is said they are more likened to an overgrown field mouse. Thick, richly coloured fur which keeps them warm in the icy cold waters throughout winters. They build little mud/reed lodges for sleeping and eating in.

They are active during the later hours of the day. Muskrats do not have webbed feet and their tail is bald; both feet and tail are sparsely covered with fine hairs. Their tail is long and more round than flat and does look like a rat tail. They use musk glands to scent their trails and communicate. Muskrats are found in slower moving rivers, streams and marshy areas and inhabit virtually all areas of North America. Valued for their fur, they are trapped in large numbers and they have numerous air borne and land predators. In spite of this their population remains healthy. There are many fascinating facts (how they have adapted to eating underwater) about these mammals which have so well adapted to their aquatic habitats. Check out the following Muskrat Fact Sheet at Hinterland Who’s Who

Below: A good view of the hind feet

Below: A muskrat’s tail – round and bare

Muskrats use their front feet like hands to grip their preferred food like cat tails.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

SANDERLINGS & a correction notice for Birds Gallery

Sharon — Sat, 12 Feb 2011 12:00:37 +0000

First the Correction Notice . . . There are a few birds in the Birds of Manitoba Gallery that are NOT native to Manitoba. They are: Stellar Jay, Rufous Hummingbird and Clarks Nutcracker. These birds are native to Alberta and British Columbia. Thanks to a very astute birder ( Gary B. ) in Winnipeg who pointed out that not everyone viewing the gallery may know this - I had placed them in the Manitoba Birds gallery simply because they are “birds” . . . A new gallery has been added entitled ” Birds- Other Provinces”.

Now on to the Sanderlings . . . These pretty little shorebirds reside in the Arctic regions but I happened upon them on the shores of Lake Manitoba during their migration period. They scooted in and out of the waves along the shore and searched the sand for food. I hope you enjoy these photos of our migrant visitors.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

Manitoba in years gone by . . .

Sharon — Mon, 07 Feb 2011 12:00:48 +0000

This past year our family held its first reunion and as a result many old photos were dug up for scanning and presentation. So today I thought I would stray away from the norm and share a few of the old photos – dating back as far as the 1930′s. There are a few of Winnipeg’s 75th Birthday Celebration showing Portage Avenue in 1949. Views of Lockport on the Red River from the late 40′s or early 50′s and a few of rural farm life. My mother had a box brownie camera – not sure if she took these photos or not.

Below: Harvest time showing the threshing machine throwing straw up onto the mound. Note the metal wheels on tractor and wagon and the very thin rubber tires on the truck to the left. Our best guess is 1930′s. The large barrels would have been filled with gasoline and the horses to the right would bring the crops loaded on wagons to the threshing machine set-up. Not all farmers owned the machinery so neighbours would help neighbours in getting the crops off. These crops would have been truly Organic – no pesticides or fertilizers during this era.

Below: My father & aunt cutting wood and my grandfather splitting wood at the family homestead in Silver, Manitoba. No wood would mean no heat or cooked food. Harvesting cordwood was a very important part of homestead life. Everything was prepared in wood stoves during this time.

Below: Lockport, Manitoba. Note that even during this time there were fishermen in the fast waters just like there are now in the summertime. This photo is from the late 1940′s or early 50′s.

Below: Photos of Winnipeg’s 75th Birthday celebrations. The parade of Aboriginal horsemen in full dress at Portage and Main. The second photo shows a mortgage rate sign at 4.5% which I thought was rather interesting as well. These celebrations would have taken place June 5 – 11 in 1949 according to Winnipeg historical records.

Enjoy!

Sharon

Wild Cucumber

Sharon — Sun, 21 Nov 2010 12:00:32 +0000

Greenish-white flowers on tangled vines that twine 10 – 20 feet using tendrils to hook onto bushes. The fruit is green, large and oval shaped with spines. These plants typically grow along creeks and moist places. The fruit is chambered and contains several large flat seeds. Below, photos of the vine climbing trees, unripe seed pods, ripe seed pods which have burst open to distribute their seeds.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

Interlake Autumn Drive

Sharon — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 12:00:57 +0000

These photos were taken on the drive up to Steeprock, Manitoba. On the way back we stopped here and there and cut back across a few country roads. It was a lovely autumn day for our jaunt out to the Interlake country. Above: Old wooden doors on a shed flanked by some autumn coloured shrubs. Below: An abandoned farmhouse, a lone bunch of wild asters growing in an open field, two black bullies in a pasture and some horses with braided manes.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

Garter Snakes of Steeprock

Sharon — Tue, 09 Nov 2010 12:00:06 +0000

These colourful red sided garter snakes were everywhere a few weeks ago at Steeprock, Manitoba. They would have been migrating back to their preferred limestone sinkholes where they hibernate for the winter. Other than the Narcisse snake dens, I don’t ever remember seeing that many snakes in one location. You couldn’t take two steps without finding another snake in the grass, or rocks or water. Those who are very afraid of snakes would not have enjoyed walking around Steeprock this day.

Enjoy!

~Sharon

Late Summer at Steeprock Manitoba

Sharon — Thu, 04 Nov 2010 11:00:17 +0000

We took a drive out to Steeprock a few weeks ago just before all the leaves blew off the trees, about a 3 hour drive north of Winnipeg. It was a lovely warm late summer day even on the open shores of Lake Manitoba and all the fall colours were evident. The limestone rock formations here are a very popular spot for photographers. Photos are a little deceiving however, because although these may look like high cliffs (photo above) they are really not that high – just the angle that the photo was taken at. One thing in great abundance that day were garter snakes and I presume they were beginning to migrate back to their limestone sinkholes for the winter at Steeprock the same as they do in the Narcisse area. Snakes were literally everywhere, swimming to shore from somewhere on Lake Manitoba, on the ground, on the smooth pebbled shore and sunning on the little rock ledges on the limestone “cliffs”. If anyone has a great fear of these harmless snakes they would definitely not have enjoyed the day.

Below, some more photos of the rock formations and on the next post in a few days I’ll post the Steeprock garter snakes.

Enjoy!

~Sharon