Nature Watch March 2017

We're playing post catch-up at Draper's Acres with some photos we took in March of this year. I'll start off with this photo of a Sharp-Tailed Grouse taken by Nelson while out-and-about on March 5.

Sharp-tailed Grouse, Southeastern Saskatchewan, March 5, 2017

On March 8th, Nelson was greeted by a special sunrise called a sun dog, a rarity this year. It was also a milder winter and although we received a good amount of snow, it wasn't all at once. With the mild weather, what snow did fall melted and blew away so there wasn't a huge buildup like other years.

Sun Dog, Southeastern Saskatchewan, March 8, 2017 at 7:37 am

A week later, Nelson saw a herd of White-tailed deer trotting across the prairie, but it was this shot of three of them with the breath-taking sunrise in the background that caught my eye.

White-tailed Deer, Southeastern Saskatchewan, March 15, 2017 at 7:04 am

Meanwhile, back at Draper's Acres, I took dozens of shots of this Black-capped Chickadee this winter but he moved so fast while searching for food among the evergreens that I only managed a couple decent photographs. With that speed, I figure he deserves his chance to shine on our blog.

Black-Capped Chickadee, Mar 19, 2017, Montmartre, SK

On March 24th I saw a coyote running across the southern part of the field where it rises out of our small valley. The light was horrid at noon on that dreary day, but here's what I saw . . . from our living room, looking through the longest zoom on my P520 Nikon, the coyote had an ethereal quality as it crossed the stubble near the top of the rise with nothing but sky behind it.

Coyote, March 24, 2017, Montmartre, SK

The wind was playing havoc with the air currents between the coyote and the trees on the southwest corner of our land when the coyote crossed that portion. By that time I was standing on my porch and it stopped to get a look at me before continuing his trot to points west.

Coyote, March 24, 2017, Montmartre, SK

While washing dishes the next day, I looked out the window and saw a mouse darting out of a snow tunnel near the feeder stand. He latched onto a food particle, spent a couple minutes devouring it, then darted back into the tunnel. A small flock of migrating juncos landed and then hopped about feeding on dropped seeds. During one of the rodent's forays, I snapped this shot to use as a size comparison between the two amicable species.

Dark-eyed Junco and Mouse, March 25, 2017, Montmartre, SK

March 26 was a Sunday which gave us the chance to check out migrating waterfowl in the sloughs along the way. We saw Canada Geese and Mallards, and a special treat in the form of a regal pair of Northern Pintails.

Canada Goose and Northern Pintails, March 26, 2017, Mutrie, SK

A few hours later, I saw a Downy Woodpecker on the power pole beside this feeder full of Niger seeds. She spent some time on the side of the pole, and up near the top, and then finally flew down and latched onto the feeder. She hung there and ate for a long time while the feeder swung in the wind like a pendulum.

Downy Woodpecker, March 26, 2017, Montmartre, SK

After supper of the same Sunday, we saw the first American Robin of the season. I played with the settings to mute the branches in the photograph so that the robin as well as the caption were more visible, and then I explained how I did it on my photo blog.

American Robin, March 26, 2017, Montmartre, SK

European starlings usually come through this time of year in a mixed flock with Robins, Red-wing Blackbirds, and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, but this year a small flock of about half a dozen starlings were by themselves. They came on the worst weather days and so I didn't get a photo of them, but because they are so unusual, I'm providing a photo I took of one two years ago:

European Starling, April 2, 2015, Montmartre, SK

Flocks of snow geese also came through, flying high above our heads, including this fabulous formation taken by Nelson.

Snow Geese, Southeastern Saskatchewan, March 29, 2017

During March we also saw:

• A Hawk in a blizzard on Mar 3
• Another Coyote on Mar 20
• Tree Sparrow on Mar 26 
• Mallards on Mar 26
• Moose on Mar 28
• Horned Lark on Mar 29
• Red-winged Blackbirds on Mar 30
• *Black-billed Magpies
• *House Sparrows

* Year-round residents at Draper's Acres


From our photo files, it appears that the migrating birds arrived one week earlier than last year, but it was a weird month as you'll see when the next Nature Watch post goes up here at Draper's Acres. We hope you'll check it out.

Sundogs are Back

Last year I posted many shots of morning and early afternoon sundogs. If you want to see them, click on
'Sun dogs' under the Labels in the right columns. I'm using a new camera this year and it seems to leave dots of light on my photos - other than the actual sundog effect - so please ignore those.

Those brilliant sundogs are back. I saw my first one of this season last week and tweeted about it. This was the photo included with that tweet:

Sundog south of Montmartre, SK. Nov 18, 2011 3:45 pm

The strange part about that sundog was that it appeared in the late afternoon, 2 hrs before sunset. Usually I'll see them between dawn and 2 pm. But it depends on the ice crystals in the air and at the time the above photo was taken, the distant trees were shimmery.

Then on Sunday, Nov 20th, we'd just left the house for church and I saw what I've come to call the 'Bethlehem Star' effect. I have no idea what the scientific or common name for this is, but I think the Bethlehem Star effect is self-explanatory. Look for yourself...

South of Montmartre, SK on Francis grid, Nov 20, 2011 9:38 am

I've posted photos previously that show a magnificent white light below the sun, but this is the first time I've seen such a concentration beam straight down. What confused me was the lack of the sundog effect at this time. No mini rainbows or mini suns or either side of the actual sun itself - just this Bethlehem Star effect.

Then ten minutes later, Nelson said, "There's your sundog." Sure enough, this is what i saw...

South of Montmartre, SK on Francis grid, Nov 20, 2011 9:38 am

The curved lights on either side of the photo is the actual sundog, however please ignore all the other spots on the photos. I have a new camera and it doesn't cover the lens when it's shut off. It's a Nikon CoolPix P500 and I'm supposed to keep the lens cap on but I'm so used to putting it on and shooting, that uncapping it slows me down. Which means I've gotten into the bad habit of leaving it off. So yes, the inner dots are probably dust on the lens.
So, does anyone know the actual name for what I call the Bethlehem Star effect?

And in case you're interested, I'm blogging about 19th century children's sleighs at Inkwell Inspirations today.

What is a sundog, you ask?

I received a comment from Josi yesterday on my Bunkering Down post. Josi wanted to know what a sundog was so here's my answer:

Sundogs (also called mock suns) are a phenomena we see several times a winter. They are caused by light refracting through ice crystals and are usually in very cold weather, or in not-so cold weather but where there's lots of ice crystals in the air - you know, the kind that turn the trees white. Although the twin mock suns on either side are the actual sundogs, the whole thing is commonly called a sundog in these parts much like a ring around the moon is called a moondog.

Usually a sundog is close to the horizon, like in the photo I showed yesterday or in some of my previous sunrise pics. However last year, I took several photos of one at noon on our way back from church. I wouldn't even have noticed it except for the bright light at ground level which peaked my curiosity so I followed it upwards.



Taken Feb 7, 2010

What made this sundog special was that it had twin sundogs on each side. In other words, it had a double ring around it. So in my posts, I've referred to it as a double sundog:

Double ring Sundog Feb 7, 2010

For more of my sundog photos, check the LABELS on the right side of this blog.

I've even turned some of my sundog photos into  jigsaw puzzles.

Next time it's a cold morning, see if you can see a sundog.

Thanks for asking, Josi. :)

Sweet Sundog Sunrise

I was getting ready to head outside this morning and taking my time because the boys said it was cold out there. Well, they left for school an hour ago and it's still cold. At the moment, we're down to -23C/-9F but the windchill makes it feel like -34C/-30F. Yes, that's right -30F! And it's only November. Ugh.

As I was getting ready however, I happened to look outside and saw this from my window:

Well, forget the cold - I needed a photo of that sundog! With a minimal amount of outerwear on, I dashed down the tracks left by the school bus to the edge of the shelterbelt and took this shot:

And then, just to show you what else I woke up to this bright morning, I took this:

The snow isn't the soft, fluffy kind, but the crusty stuff that crunches under your feet as you walk. It's cold and hard and hurts when you fall face-first into it. I know. I speak from experience.

This is my first sundog sighting this winter. I'm sure they'll be many more if last year is anything to go by.

Actually, last year I turned 3 of my sundog pics into on-line jigsaw puzzles.  If you want to just see all my sundog and puzzle posts, look for them under the LABELS in the right sidebar of this blog.

Has winter started early where you live?

Puzzle Fun for You

I saw my first ever double ringed Sun Dog yesterday on the way back from church.

I don't know what it is with Sun Dogs this year, but we saw another awesome display yesterday on the way to church and then more spectacular on the way back after. I'll show you the photos here but I'm also trying something new.

I've turned these 3 photos into jigsaw puzzles compliments of http://www.jigzone.com/ so if you want to relax for a few minutes, vist my Sun Dogs Jigsaw Puzzle Gallery - JigZone.com

I took the first one around
9 am yesterday. The temp was only
-15 but the wind chill was ridiculous. I stepped out of the car to snap this photo and my hands were chaffed and stinging by the time I got back into the van. And I was only outside the vehicle 20 seconds tops.

We go to church in Glenavon, SK and they have one of the few remaining grain elevators still in operation. It was about 9:30 am at this time.

We left church at 12 noon and headed west on Hwy 48 toward Montmartre. I didn't realize anything spectacular was going on until I looked out my window and saw this bright light on the southern horizon. Say what? Then I realized it was the bottom of a Sun Dog. It took me a few more miles to realize it was a double ringed Sun Dog - my first ever. (This photo is not a puzzle.)

Actually, this next photo is too washed out to see the glory it showed live but die-hard puzzle fans might like the challenge.

It's the best photo of the double ringed Sun Dogs  because it was so big and wouldn't all fit on my little camera screen at the same time. The right rings were rainbow colored but in the photo, the bright sun has washed it all out.

So, did you go over and make a puzzle?

And no, I'm not wasting my time making puzzles instead of writing... our church has over a dozen beautiful 4-8 foot fabric banners and I'm turning them into puzzles for the church website. This is just my testing ground.

Sun Dog Book Winner

Well, that was a fun contest! I ended up with 28 entries. Some people only entered once, others had several entries as they made the rounds of my blog posts. I assigned each entry a number. And then I gave the numbers to the Random Number Generator.

And the winning number belongs to...

DebH

Yay!

Thank you to everyone who entered the contest. I had so much fun I'm going to hold another one soon. Hubby just pulled a new book out of my latest eHarlequin shipment and said, "I read this one!" OOps. So it looks like the next prize is a spankin' brand new Love Inspired Suspense book. I just have to think up a contest now....

Meanwhile you're probably tired of looking at these, but I wanted to get the photos you liked best all together
for an encore.

This first photo was from the first blog (not on eHarl) and had 7 votes.

This is #6 from my 2nd blog. It garnered 6 votes.

Here's # 5 from by second blog. It came in with 5 votes.

Thanks again.

Sunrise Sun Dog Pics

A few days ago I posted some photos of a Sun Dog and asked you to pick which one you liked best. It's the post below this one or you can go here.

Yesterday morning I looked out my kitchen window and a glorious sunrise Sun Dog awaited me. Still in my striped fleece pajamas, I slipped into a hooded sweater, coat, boots, hat and gloves and went out to see what the new day would bring.

I almost reached our farm sign when I stopped to take this photo.

The wind razed my cheeks once I passed the shelterbelt but this glorious scene awaited me. Good morning!

Just a couple hours later, I looked out my front door and the Sun Dog was still there although more to the south, now.

Again, I dressed in outwear and took that long walk down past the shelterbelt. I wanted to show a photo that would simulate the Arctic.

At the end of our driveway is this small grouping of trees. You can see them smaller on the left of the second photo above.

Have you entered my contest yet?  You can enter by leaving a comment on my first sun dog post or you can leave one here. And if you leave a comment on both posts, you get your name entered twice.

You have until Jan 31st to enter for a chance to win a copy of Midnight Marriage by Victoria Bylin. It's a Harlequin Historical so it's not an inspirational book although Vicky is writing for Steeple Hill's Love Inspired Historical line now. Vicky is one of my favourite authors and I've ended up with 2 of these books. Both have been read but this is the better copy in very good condition.

And if I don't know you, please leave your email address with (at) and [dot] so the net spammers can't find it.

For those of you seeing this on my Facebook page, if you want to enter there, rattle my chain somehow because I keep forgetting about it and I wouldn't want to miss your entry.

Because it seems so many people haven't seen a Sun Dog, I'm going to cross-post this on my eHarl blog as well. That means they'll be entering for the draw - but it also means if any of you are eHarl members, you can go over there to get another entry.

So, are you tired of looking at Sun Dogs, yet? Got a favourite?