Alberta Prairie Tour

Alberta Prairie Tour

     The prairie is far from being a flat, empty landscape to be driven across while fast asleep. It is an amazing landscape that is full of life, historic relics, colourful sunrises, and beautiful vistas.
     I just spent a few days babysitting my brother’s home place northeast of Calgary and did a bit of touring while doing so.

Male Great Horned Owl

     I did not have far to go before spotting a pair of Great Horned Owls roosting in his mixed spruce, aspen and willow windbreak. The smaller male seemed to be a bit more nervous than his mate. She followed me and the herd of cats that follow me around, with a swiveling head and huge yellow eyes. It is impossible to sneak up on any owl unless you can be less noticeable than a field mouse hidden under grass and snow. Owls are one of my favourite predators and are a real treat to see and photograph.

Female Great Horned Owl

      I just want to mention that I have just acquired a new camera, finally retiring my Nikon D300s. The new one is an Olympus OM-D E-M1 Mark II. It is a much smaller and lighter system that is much lighter and smaller than the DSLR system. I have much to learn with the new camera system so I’m learning as I go.

     As with any camera system, I am concerned with the quality of the final print. Print quality is the reason I switched to a new camera. The Nikon, now more than 10 years old, did not have the ability to capture fine details of objects unless very well lit. Dim light and shadows were not my friends. When I look at the photos that I made with the Olympus, I very impressed with the detail captured in the feathers and tree trunk, even in this challenging light.

     Shadows, bright early morning sunlight, dark and white feathers all seem to me to be well rendered in this photo. By the way, I chose a Panasonic Lumix 100-300 F4-5.6 lens to partner with the Olympus camera. I thought that the price to power ratio was what I would get the most value for my limited budget.

     With this 4/3rds system, this will give me a 35mm equivalency of up to 600mm. power. If I need more I can still add a teleconverter down the road.

     Prairie landscape is dotted by windbreaks similar to my brother’s. Wherever pioneers settled on this vast land, most planted trees for shelter from relentless west winds that can blow incessantly. It is amazing the difference a shelter of trees make to the liveability of prairie people, livestock and wildlife. If you watch closely you will see twiggy nests that provide homes for owls, crows, magpies, and hawks. Smaller grassy nests abound in willow and caragana hedges built by numerous songbird species as well. In winter time songbirds are flitting, twittering and gleaning in the tops of the spruce trees.

     One of the days was very foggy and a brisk breeze blew in from the southeast. Dense fog coated everything with a thick layer of “rime ice” on the southeastern facing side of trees and fences. Rime ice is formed during heavy fog and is often very spikey in shape. More commonly found in our area is hoar frost which will completely coat the whole tree. Hoar frost is formed by very humid air contacting cold objects. For a photographer looking for interesting subjects, these days are not for hiding indoors. Weather days are a great time to go for a drive hoping to find how the land and its wild critters are making out.

     The first place I searched was the shelterbelt in hopes of finding the owls nestled in the white frost branches but they were not there today. With luck, I might find a snowy owl somewhere but that did not happen either. Instead, I found a few herds of mule deer. I enjoy them too.

 

Foggy Farmscape

     I love the look of this prairie farm scene. The crop got harvested, the straw is baled up, the barn partially hidden behind the mixed wood shelterbelt and the curious but cautious mule deer does all work together to show off a typical rolling farmscape.

     A few miles further I came across this herd of mule deer.

Mule Deer Herd

      Mule deer bucks and does were all gathered together behind this natural prairie shelterbelt nestled on top of a coulee. It is a perfect place for the deer to rest and chew their cud while watching for predators or nuisance photographers. Now that rutting season is over all members of this herd can relax together without the stresses and battles of mating rituals. Soon the bucks will lose their antlers and in May the does will give birth to spotted fawns.

     In the photo below, I really like the purity of the foggy scene. All aspects of the land are hidden in the white veil except for the herd of deer and the hint of a stubble field.

Foggy Mule Deer

     Another scene I like is how cattle are managed during winter.

Here, cattle are grazing on a crop that was swathed but never harvested. Rich grain is fed along with straw that aids in the rumination of the feed while the cows chew their cud.

Swath Feeding Cattle

     To add variety and interest to prairie landscape I often look for abandoned machinery of farmyards. Below is a threshing machine that was parked beside a small wetland slough. The threshing machine still provides a roosting area for the watchful ravens and in spring there will be a robin nesting on a hidden conveyor out of sight or access for predatory birds or weasels. Beside the thresher is a binder, now little more than a reminder to the valuable role it played in getting the crop ready for the thresher. Up front, it looks like a plow is parked. It was instrumental equipment in its day used to turn over the sod changing prairie land to agricultural land.

Threshing Crew

     On another day of touring, I came across this machinery. I call the photo: “Succession”. The combine reduced the manpower required to harvest grain crops and allowed individual farmers to harvest their grain when it was ready, not when the community-owned threshing machine made its way to your own farm. I think it also started the downfall of the “family farm” as it used to be.  Cooperative manpower had to be used while threshing but with the combine, we could harvest our crops without neighbours help.

Succession

     Finally, I wonder at the history and stories that could be told by the walls of abandoned buildings. This massive barn was once someone’s pride and joy. It sheltered cattle, horses and sometimes even threshing crews. Remember the rich smells and peaceful crunching of chewing hay or the rhythmic, tinny sounds of milk hitting the bottom of a tin pail. I can hear a cat meowing for a squirt of fresh, warm milk. I love mares-tail clouds skittering across wind-blown skies as if the ghostly horses just escaped the barn.

Ghostly Barn

     For landscape photos, I chose the Olympus M. Zuiko 12-40 F-2.8 lens and sometimes experiment with a polarizing filter. In this case, it works decently.

     If you get the chance someday, take the backroads that criss-cross the prairie landscape. It is impossible to get lost as all the roads are in a rectangular grid pattern. The worst that can happen is you may get a bit of mud or dust splashed onto shiny paint. The best things happen when you spot a herd of deer or spectacular scenery. You may also wonder at the lives of the men, women, and kids that made this often unforgiving land, home.