OUTING - Ellis Bird Farm
July 22, 2015
The fourth club outing of the summer took place on July 22 at the Ellis Bird Farm to the east of Lacombe, organized by Kathy Swanson to great success with 24 members attending, which was an excellent attendance given that these members braved a forecast of potentially heavy thunderstorms that evening. However we were instead treated to superbly soft “golden” sunlight that whole evening, thanks to Myrna Pearman from Ellis having very kindly offered to hold the outing at 7:00 p.m., well after the regular closing time at 5:00 p.m. so that we could have exclusive access to the site. This also meant we did not have any other patrons on the facility who might have wandered into our images.
The evening started off with a special treat in the form of beaver action. The beavers had recently built a higher dam on the lower pond which unfortunately had raised the water level so much that it threatened surrounding trees. Staff member Ron had come that afternoon to take out that dam with his tractor. As a result, when our members arrived we were able to photograph the beavers in the act of trying to rebuild this dam which was made easy by them being so accustomed to the proximity of humans. Ron came back for our outing and provided many details of the behaviour of these interesting animals.
Further photography favourites that night were the many purple martins who were still feeding their young in their apartments throughout our visit, the goat kids and sheep and bantam chickens, and the wonderful flower beds which provided more grist for the mills of our macro aficionados. Earlier in the afternoon some of the great horned owlets who had been fledged that spring were to be seen in nearby bushes, but they had departed by the time out outing started. These owls nest earlier each year at the Farm and can be photographed then.
On the whole, it was a stimulating location and evening for photography and one we may well ask to have repeated next year. Thanks once again go to Myrna and to Ron for making this enjoyable evening possible!
Leo
The evening started off with a special treat in the form of beaver action. The beavers had recently built a higher dam on the lower pond which unfortunately had raised the water level so much that it threatened surrounding trees. Staff member Ron had come that afternoon to take out that dam with his tractor. As a result, when our members arrived we were able to photograph the beavers in the act of trying to rebuild this dam which was made easy by them being so accustomed to the proximity of humans. Ron came back for our outing and provided many details of the behaviour of these interesting animals.
Further photography favourites that night were the many purple martins who were still feeding their young in their apartments throughout our visit, the goat kids and sheep and bantam chickens, and the wonderful flower beds which provided more grist for the mills of our macro aficionados. Earlier in the afternoon some of the great horned owlets who had been fledged that spring were to be seen in nearby bushes, but they had departed by the time out outing started. These owls nest earlier each year at the Farm and can be photographed then.
On the whole, it was a stimulating location and evening for photography and one we may well ask to have repeated next year. Thanks once again go to Myrna and to Ron for making this enjoyable evening possible!
Leo
Some photos of the participants and some photos from the participants.
