Surprise Grab, Fly and Eat Visit by Cedar Waxwings

Yesterday, about 3-4 dozen Cedar Waxwing birds paid a surprise visit to the Crab Apple tree in our backyard.  They do this each year, and visit either our Crab Apple tree, &/or our neighbor's Mountain Ash tree.  We never know when or if they will appear, but when they do, what a treat.  They are interesting to watch, and have such beautiful coloring and distinctive markings.

Grabbing a Crab Apple

When they arrive, they come en masse as a flock.  They descend into our tree, grabbing an apple from one branch or another, then quickly disappear into the treetops of nearby Spruce to eat.  A few minutes later, the flock reappears and they repeat their fly-in, grab and fly-off routine that only takes a few seconds.  They do this, perhaps a half dozen times, and then are gone until next year. 

Cedar Waxwings are challenging to photograph.  First, your camera needs to be nearby and ready to go because you don't know when or if they might arrive during mid to late winter, and certainly not the day, or the hour.  Second, you need to use a relatively high ISO and shutter speed because they never seem to sit still.  And third, they stay for such a short time, take what images you can, and enjoy the moment.

Beautiful and distinctive markings of Cedar Waxwing

     Proper Name: Bombycilla cedrorum
     Diet:  specialize in eating fruit, particularly during the summer,
          supplemented with berries from cedar, juniper and other scrub bushes,
          and insects and budworms
     Wing Span: 8.7–11.8 in (22–30 cm)
     Body Size: 5.5–6.7 in (14–17 cm)
     Height:  75 to 100 cm
     Weight:  1.1 oz (32 g)
     Habitat: deciduous, coniferous, and mixed woodlands, particularly areas
          along streams; also find them in old fields, grasslands, sagebrush, and
          even along desert washes
     Range:  southern Canada from coast to coast during the summer (breeding)
          to Central America and northern Southern America during the winter
          (non-breeding)

Grabbing a Crab Apple before heading to nearby Spruce to eat it

Winter Driving Along BC's Stewart-Cassiar Highway, March 2012 - More Winter's Madness?

 

On the way home from the Yukon, we came south from Watson Lake along Hwy 37, instead of returning via the Alaska Highway.  To make our journey more challenging, we did the section between Dease Lake and the Yellowhead Highway 16 three times with the hope of getting some sunshine and interesting light to photograph the spectacular snow-capped mountains.

Location Map: BC's Stewart-Cassiar Highway #37, Watson Lake to the Yellowhead Highway.  Source: http://www.stewartcassiar.com/trip-planning/maps/

Although the snow-covered roads were generally plowed and sanded, both the weather and road conditions made driving a challenge at times.  This part of British Columbia receives about 6 m of snow each winter

Large snowbanks with no shoulders to pull off.

We spent 3 days heading south, back north, and finally south with hopes of getting more than overcast skies and snow squalls.  When the sun finally shone for a new moments here and there, the views are fabulous, but tough to capture because:

     -  Hard to get clear vistas without some kind of foreground, so lots of tree silhouettes

     -  Few places to pull off onto the shoulder of the road during winter with the huge snow banks; some up to 2m in height

     -  Lots of logging and mining truck traffic

     -  Off the road, the snow was really deep!!! I went in to my waist several times when I wasn’t expecting to.

Nevertheless, I'm glad that we persevered.  I could have spent a week cruising back and forth along the road, looking for the perfect shot.  We're looking forward to traveling along this road during late August - early September sometime in the future. 

More Winter Madness - Yukon, March 2012

After enjoying our mid-winter get-away to Yellowknife two years ago, we decided to drive north to the Yukon last March.  To many of our friends and family, this was just more 'winter madness' by the Knight's.  Whatever you think, we had a GREAT trip.  We saw another part of our great country that many never get to see, and during a season when many people head south to warm sunny beaches.  While most people do not like winter or snow, we do.  And, winter travel has some other benefits.  There are few other tourists, no line-ups, and definitely no bugs!

Alpine-glow, St. Elias Mountains, Kluane National Park, YT

We traveled in our 2009 Toyota Tacoma and Four Wheel Camper.  The winter roads were generally well maintained.  If the weather forecast was marginal or poor, we stayed put or didn't venture far.  We over-nighted in motels most of the time because it was difficult to find serviced pull-outs or camping areas with running water and toilets during the winter.  Nevertheless, we did camp out half a dozen times and thoroughly enjoyed it, even with temperatures down to -28'C!!! 

Tacoma & Four Wheel Camper, Kathleen Lake, Kluane National Park, YT

Our favorite campsite was at Kathleen Lake in Kluane National Park where they keep half a dozen campsites plowed during the winter for the occasional stray visitor, like us. We had 10-15 cm fresh snow each night.  We cross-country skied right from our campsite through the woods, down to and along the shoreline of Kathleen Lake.  The picnic shelter at the lake had a large wood-fired stove.  This was a great place to read and cook supper at the end of the day.  We even managed to catch a glimpse of the Aurora Borealis through a brief gap in the clouds at about 0530 one morning, but alas, not long enough to photograph.

Based on the images, I'll let you decide whether or not we were entirely mad to travel north during the winter.  We don't think that we were 'mad', but then assessments by the mad tend to be unreliable.

Sunrise over the St. Elias Mountains, Kluane National Park, YT

Yellowknife In February - A Moment of Winter Madness?

Canadian Shield east of Yellowknife

We could claim that we took a wrong turn, or that we ignorantly followed the directions offered by our GPS.  The truth is that it was mid-February in Calgary, and while most people find themselves thinking about sunny beaches far to the south as an escape from winter, we found ourselves craving for some ‘real’ winter. 

One moment, we were wondering what to do.  The next, we were asking our son about Yellowknife this time of year, and our daughter about the best kind of vehicle for the roads up north.  A week later, we were heading North in our truck.  When our son heard about our decision, his comment was, “That was fast!”

As with any winter driving, we packed for the cold, but still wondered about how cold it might get and about driving conditions.  We also wondered if it might be too cold to overnight in our camper, and whether or not we would see the Northern Lights.

North of Grande Prairie, we drove into dense pockets of ice fog, and passed by hoar frost encrusted trees and fences.  As we crossed into NWT, the roads were partially snow covered, and heavily snow-covered black spruce sentinels lined the highway’s margins.  The winter vistas were beautiful.
 

Farm, northern Alberta

Gray Owl, High Level, AB

Near Fort Providence, we encountered our first ice-bridge across the Mackenzie River.  It was hard to imagine crossing on the river ice with a truck weighing up to the 64,000 kg posted limit.   With our southern ignorance, we drove at the posted speed limit of 25 kph in our little truck with a pop-up camper which weighs less than 3000 kg.  Later, a local told us that it was okay to travel a little faster with a regular vehicle.

Abandoned mine, Yellowknife

Lynx at the edge of Yellowknife

At the Visitor’s Centre in Yellowknife, it was suggested that we try the ice road from Yellowknife to Dettah, a winter-time shortcut across an arm of Great Slave Lake.  With weekend traffic, the ice road felt like an ordinary country road during the winter, except that the road was on ice.
 

Ice-road from Yellowknife to Dettah

We drove to end of the Ingraham Trail, and watched the trucks head onto Tibbitt Lake where the ice road to various diamond and old gold mines further north begins.  It wasn’t until we saw the truck traffic that we appreciated the magnitude and significance of the thousands of truck loads, mostly double tankers, driving up the ice road.

Start of ice-road at the end of the Ingraham Trail

Large truck heading south on ice-road

In town, we learned that we could drive on the ice roads, at our own risk, as long as commercial trucks were given the right of way, and if we carried our own fuel.  We wanted to try the ice road, and hoped that we might see some caribou.  After traveling about 100 kms on the ice road and across nineteen portages, we eventually saw about 40 caribou in the distance at the north end of Gordon Lake.  Then noting the time of day, and our remaining fuel, we decided to turn-around.  On the way back, we saw two smaller groups of caribou, one of which was fairly close to the road.
 

Woodland Caribou

The ice road effectively followed the same route that canoeists would paddle and portage during the summer.  Driving on the ice road was like any snow-covered winter road elsewhere with some exceptions.  One, the road was on lake ice, not ‘terra firma’, leading you to wonder about ice thickness and water depth.  Two, we were sharing the road with big, heavy trucks that were spaced about 500 m apart, traveling at posted speeds that ranged from 15-25 kph depending on ice thickness and size of the lake.  If you were standing on the ice when a truck went by, it was a little unnerving to hear the ice creak and groan, and to feel the ice bend beneath your feet.  It was difficult to imagine being able to stay on the road during white-out conditions.
 

Driving on the ice-road

With warmer than normal winter temperatures, maintenance crews were flooding portions of the ice road to sustain and enhance the ice thickness.  Driving on these freshly flooded ice rinks required finesse particularly on the corners. 

From the looks on the faces of many of the truckers, they seemed amused to see someone like us on the road. 

After returning to Yellowknife, we headed west to Fort Simpson, Fort Liard and back south with fond memories of our mid-winter trip to the North.  We did overnight in our camper, and the Northern Lights were spectacular.  Travelling the ice road with the truckers gave us a better appreciation of their work, and of the importance of this winter lifeline to northern communities and businesses.

When we got home, we felt that we wanted to do the trip again, but that will have to wait for another winter.  And, we hear that there are more ice and winter roads to explore!
 

Aurora Borealis