Swift Fox Photography from Saskatchewan

When I decided back in the dead of the 2007-08 winter that I wanted to start focusing more on photographing prairie species, little did I suspect that I would develop an addiction for them much like my addiction for bears...and wolves...and moose...and...yeah, you get the picture (poor pun, I know, but it's 2:40 in the afternoon and I should really be napping, not blogging).

By far the biggest itch that has yet to be scratched to its full potential has been swift foxes. I've been enamoured with the little guys for years, yet had not made a concerted effort to try to find them and photograph them until this year.

In March, I spent a few days researching Canadian swift foxes and quickly learned that they are a) extremely scarce and b) extremely scarce. In other words, I figured out that getting good photos was not going to be easy.

Swift fox were actually extirpated from Canada just after the turn of the 20th century. The last museum specimen was killed in 1928 near Govenlock, a tiny frontier town that now consists of a concrete foundation where the schoolhouse was, along with a few remnant timbers and foundations scattered about alongside the gravel highway connecting southern Alberta with southern Saskatchewan.

In 1983, the Canadian Wildlife Service teamed with the Calgary Zoo and several other organizations and began releasing wild foxes from the US along with captive-bred foxes from the Cochrane Ecological Institute. While the program took a long time to be deemed a success, there is now an established population of wild swift foxes in the south-eastern corner of Alberta and the south-western corner of Saskatchewan.

So off to Govenlock I went...dead center between "the south-eastern corner of Alberta and the south-western corner of Saskatchewan," I figured it was a good place to start looking. My very first morning down there in early March 2008, I found fresh swift fox tracks in the new skiff of snow criss-crossing the road just kilometres from the Montana border.

And just like that, I was hooked. I still hadn't even seen a fox yet, but suddenly I was 'obsessed'!

My first week near Govenlock produced minimal results in terms of photography. I found what may have been two dens, saw one swift fox running through the prairie at a distance, and photographed one fox sunning itself near a den.

The first swift fox I ever got to photograph!

After that trip, I began to plan trip after trip after trip to the Govenlock area and beyond, trying to find more swift foxes. I spent a total of three weeks in June and July cruising the remote gravel roads of the southern Canadian Prairies and asking for permission to explore on private lands on foot. I had lots of leads and even more people on the lookout for me, including a good friend in Consul, Saskatchewan that would phone me regularly with updates from his travels about the countryside for work.

But in the end, my swift fox experiences came down to sheer luck. And a bit of blind ignorance, too!

The lucky encounter took place in a remote area of Saskatchewan. I was driving along a narrow dirt road through what looked like prime swift fox country.

This is what prime swift fox country looks like!

I came over a small rise and spotted movement to my left. Ahhh, a red fox den!! I quickly counted one, two, three, four, FIVE foxes!!

"But wait a second," I thought. "Why is there a red fox den in the middle of the open prairie? And why do these foxes look kind of 'different'?"

I couldn't figure it out...I tried approaching the den, but as soon as I did, the foxes all dove into holes and that was that. With no foxes to look at, I decided they HAD to have been red foxes, because they seemed to be much too large to be swift foxes, which are about the size of a housecat.

I got back in my car and drove off, spending most of the rest of the day looking elsewhere for my elusive swift foxes. But something in the back of my head kept niggling away at me...why were those foxes kind of different looking? Were they actually swift foxes?

Truth be told, even though I had gotten photos of the adult fox sunning itself near Govenlock back in March, I had not really had a good look at it because I'd been so focused on getting a photo before it disappeared.

So there I was, in the middle of nowhere Saskatchewan, waging war in my head over whether or not I'd actually stumbled upon a swift fox den unknowingly. So I did what anyone would have done. I went back, set up a blind, then waited patiently to get some shots that evening of my red/swift foxes. I hustled to the nearest town with internet access the next morning, uploaded a few photos and sent an email to a researcher at the Calgary Zoo.

By the time the email reply came back a day later, I was sure I was photographing swift foxes. And indeed, I had been. My "red fox den" was in fact a very advanced swift fox den where the pups were already almost as big as the adults.

For the next few days I spent some time photographing the den, though I never did set up very close to it as I could tell that the adult dog fox was very wary of my blind and was not acting naturally around it.

After three long weeks of searching, I finally had my swift fox photos. In the end, I found two active dens and saw a total of 13 different foxes! Considering that Canada may have as few as 250 of them in the entire population, I considered myself extremely lucky to have found so many.

My "red fox" den...five swift foxes!

Curious pups eye up the photographer's blind

A badger near one of the swift fox dens

More fox pups playing in the tall prairie grasses near their den

Two pups hanging out near the den entrance at sunrise

A pup stands on another pup to get a better view

Three pups at sunset

As I mentioned in my last blog entry about burrowing owls, I'm currently working on an extensive photo project with prairie wildlife. So I'm hoping that next spring and summer I'll have more opportunities to follow up on these foxes and photograph them!

Hope you enjoyed the images!

Cheers,

John

Canadian Prairies Photography - Burrowing Owls from Alberta and Saskatchewan

Ok, so I've been a tad slack in updating my blog of late...two months of extensive spring and summer shooting tends to make guys like me avoid the office like the plague. But I figured it was high time I let everyone know what I've been up to this summer!

I spent a large portion of June and July working with two Canadian endangered species, the burrowing owl and the swift fox. In Canada, there are less than 1000 burrowing owls and fewer than 500 swift foxes across the entire country. Both species are at the extreme northern tip of their North American range in Canada, and both populations are concentrated in the southern portions of Alberta and Saskatchewan.

And while I knew that I could go and easily get good shots of both burrowing owls and swift foxes in the US on the Great Plains, I really wanted to find Canadian animals to photograph, even if it meant spending months out on the prairie in search of these very rare and elusive creatures.

My burrowing owl travels took me from just east of Calgary, Alberta all the way to the Manitoba border, from as far north as Rosetown, Saskatchewan, south to the Montana border. In total over the course of five weeks I found 18 burrowing owl nests and saw more than 30 adult owls and more than 50 owlets!

I have to thank the local Alberta and Saskatchewan ranchers that provided me with access to their lands and gave me sightings updates on a regular basis. And I really wouldn't have had much success at all without the willing support and help of the amazing team of burrowing owl researchers that were doing their extremely important work in the Leader, Saskatchewan area.

As 'roadside' as roadside burrows get. Fortunately, this nest was on a very lightly
used farm road. In the two days I was in this area, I didn't see any vehicles
using this road other than the owl researchers' truck.

My first owl! Ok, not really, but this was by far the closest I had gotten to an owl in over five years of trying!

A researcher fits a tiny gps 'backpack' onto an adult burrowing owl. The hood over the head
of the owl keeps it completely calm while the bird is handled by the researcher.

Burrowing owl populations have been steadily declining on the Canadian Prairies for decades now, and as a result, there is extensive research being conducted in several parts of Alberta and Saskatchewan to try to get an accurate population count, to find out the cause of the decline, and to learn more about the owls' behaviour and biology. I was fortunate enough to watch and photograph researchers as they captured owls using a variety of methods, then banded them, measured them and occasionally fitted them with tiny gps 'backpacks' to determine their movements and range while hunting near their nests. Researchers also set up remote cameras inside and outside of nests to watch chick and adult behaviour.

But perhaps the most interesting part of the research was when the researchers 'peeped' the nests...they laid flat on the ground, then inserted a long, rubber hose outfitted with night vision technology into the nest's nooks and crannies and tried to visually determine how many eggs were in the nest, then, later, to see how many young had hatched. One of the most exciting parts was the initial 'nosing' about; one never knew exactly what they'd find when they inserted the hose and started poking around (one researcher screamed when her hose ran 'head on' into a large snake!)!

Cute and adorable. And terribly curious about the big glass eyeball making all the noise!

Beautiful evening light washes over an adult owl on a fencepost.

One of the nests that I set up a morning blind at. The owls weren't dumb, they definitely
knew something was up, but for the life of them they couldn't figure out what I was.

Seven owlets, the most I saw at any one nest! One of the ranchers I became friends
with told me of one summer a few years back where he had
11 nests on his property and each nest averaged 10 young!!

The burrowing owl trips were a resounding success. I plan to go back again next spring/summer, as I'm currently working on a special project related to the owls and the ongoing research on them.

Stay tuned in the next few days for a post about my swift fox encounters on the prairie. As hard as burrowing owls were to find, swift fox were even tougher!

Cheers,

John

EXPLORE magazine cover for June 2008

Well, it's official, I nabbed the cover for explore magazine for this month, my first national magazine cover in almost a year!

The Ramparts reflected in Amethyst Lake in the Tonquin Valley, Jasper National Park

Selling images to magazines is not an easy way to make a living and because of that I rarely pursue magazine sales directly; however, I've been lucky enough in recent years to have quite a few magazines contact me and request specific wildlife or nature photographs. You can see four more images of mine in the June issue of explore, as well as a double page spread in AMA's June Westworld Alberta magazine.

The Province of British Columbia also recently released a beautiful full-colour book British Columbia: Spirit of the People to celebrate their 150th anniversary. I've got three double page photography spreads in it, along with four other images from various parts of BC.

And finally, my new book arrives on Friday, so watch for details on it coming soon!

Cheers,

John

2008 Grizzly Bear Pictures ... Finally!!

It was a long and winding road...and road...and road - far too many kilometres to admit to - but I finally got my bear! My first grizzly of 2008 is actually an old friend, a bear that I photographed five times last year, including once while he feasted on grass in the warden's front lawn at Saskatchewan Crossing in Banff National Park.

My first encounter with him this year was at the end of another almost fruitless search along the Icefields Parkway, my 12th sojourn up the road at dawn or dusk in the month of May looking for new grizzly bear pictures. Some years I don't have any luck and go 'grizzly-less' until I leave the Rockies and go elsewhere, but last Thursday (May 29th) I drove back across Bow Summit along the Icefields Parkway just an hour before dusk and there he was, plunging through the last remnants of snow in the pass towards his regular spring feeding grounds.

Marching along at a quick clip across the snow at Bow Summit in Banff National Park

Still marching

And marching...through the deeper snow in the crest of the pass

Hitting solid ground

Grizzly bear portrait in late evening warm light

Another grizzly portrait, crossed legs and all!

Stay tuned for more grizzly bear photographs of this beautiful male from last Friday (the next day). And if you're interested in seeing more grizzly bear photography, please check out my grizzly bear image gallery in my stock picture library.

I'm currently in Altona, Manitoba proofing my new book, so watch for some prairie critter pics in the coming days from my travels across the grasslands of southern Alberta and Saskatchewan, as well as info on the new hardcover coffee table book due out June 15th!

Cheers!

John

First Black Bear Images of 2008

The itch started about a month ago. There was no burning sensation, no redness, no painful inflammation. Nope, the 'bear' itch is no normal itch. It begins in early April, when the first reports of bears being sighted around the mountain parks begin to filter in. It starts innocently enough, with a soulful restlessness building deep within. My concentration levels at the computer begin to wane. I stare out the window incessantly, wondering, thinking, hoping: should I go yet? Should I start looking for bears?

I know it's too early...there's still snow everywhere, there's no greenery on the roadsides. But, like a kid staring at his Christmas stocking the day before and going to look inside 'just in case', I decide that I better go on a trip and check things out. Cause, y'know, there could be bears....

So I load up the car and embark on a multi-province trip that takes me deep into British Columbia, then north in Alberta, then back south again to my home in Canmore. I see exactly zero bears, but chalk the trip up as a success because I hear about other people seeing bears.

Finally, in early May, I can't handle it anymore and I go on another trip, this one a short day sojourn along the Icefields Parkway to look for sign. Are there any tracks anywhere? Any grizzly bear digs? Any black bear scat? Yes, yes and yes. But still no actual live, in-the-flesh bears.

So I load up the car again and embark on the exact same multi-province trip, except backwards, going north in Alberta first, THEN deep into British Columbia. And it's there, on day three, finally, that I find bears.

A yearling cinnamon-coloured black bear cub


My first big male black bear picture of 2008


Same big male, with his giant belly hanging down


Big and beautiful black bear


Eyeing the guy with the huge camera


Same big male again


One of my favourite photographs in the series


The last shot of the trip

All told, I saw 7 bears in one glorious evening. I've since added 3 more black bears for a running 2008 total of 10 blacks and 0 griz. But I'm hoping those numbers will change later tonight as I head out up the Icefields Parkway yet again. Wish me luck!

For more black bear photography, please visit the black bear section in my Stock Picture Library.

Cheers, John

Long-eared Owl in Banff

When my alarm went off at 6:30 this morning, I felt like doing pretty much anything but going out and taking pictures. But against my better judgement, I scraped myself out of bed and drove into Banff to cruise the Bow Valley Parkway and see what I could find.

While I didn't see any large mammals, I did have a remarkable, and unique, sighting near the start of the Sawback Burn in amongst the charred tree skeletons. As I was driving along, an odd shape on a snag caught my eye and I looked over to see a small, strange-looking owl peering back at me through the light snow. I did a quick mental checklist of owls I've seen before and none matched the description of the one looking back at me.

I snapped a few quick shots, then moved in a little closer and took this shot of the owl, still unsure of what kind of owl I was photographing.

Long-eared Owl - photograph cropped 50%

As luck would have it, I had forgotten my bird id book at home, so I had to wait a few hours before I could positively identify the orange-faced, miniature, great horned owl lookalike that I had seen. When I got home, I realized that I had spotted and photographed my first ever long-eared owl!

I also managed to get some nice images of varied thrushes that were lining the Bow Valley Parkway feeding on the tiny bit of exposed grass on the edge of the road.

Varied thrush in a spruce tree

Varied thrush hanging out in the snow

Portrait of a thrush

All in all, a successful day. Guess it pays to get up early...sometimes....

Cheers, John
© John E. Marriott Photography

Lynx Photography - The One That Got Away

Wildlife photographers are like fishermen in many respects. A mutual admiration for the great outdoors? Check. A desire to proudly show off the pictures of the day’s great ‘catch’? Check. An ability to spin a tall tale when the ‘big one’ gets away? Check, check, check!

In fact, half of wildlife photographers’ time in the field is spent sharing glorious yarns with fellow wildlife photographers, and anyone else that cares to listen, about the pack of twelve wolverines they saw kill a wild boar on the outskirts of downtown Vancouver just last year. Thing was, of course, it was kinda dark and none of the pictures turned out. So the story has to stand on its own, soon embellished to fifteen wolverines and extra bonus points for a sabre-toothed tiger on the side.

[Note: no, wolverines do not travel in packs, especially packs of twelve or fifteen. No, wild boars do not live on the outskirts of Vancouver. And no, sabre-toothed tigers are not still kicking around somewhere.]

However, occasionally, we do get some photos to back up our stories. And even more rarely, we get photographs to back up our stories of the one that got away. You know, the big fish…or in my case, the big lynx.

Lynx are beautiful wild cats, but they’re shy and elusive, so they’re rarely seen. I’ve only had a handful of sightings of them in the Canadian Rockies, so when I heard from friends in Jasper last week that lynx were being sighted fairly regularly in several areas, I immediately packed the car and drove up.

For three straight days I searched from dawn to dusk, but couldn’t find a thing other than some old tracks. By 9 am on the fourth morning, I was done. No lynx, no luck, so I started heading back to Jasper.

Not five minutes after ‘giving up’, I drove around a corner and was shocked to see a large lynx casually crossing the road right in front of me. A surge of adrenalin instantly snapped me out of my trance and my instincts took over. Grab cautiously! Open lens! Drive up window calmly! Errr, grab lens, open window, drive up calmly and cautiously.

As I pulled up, the lynx stood on a short bank and briefly turned around to look at me, just long enough for me to get my big lens focused and snap this shot – so close that it barely fit into the frame!


Not really sure if I’d gotten a good shot or not, I watched with dismay as the lynx then wandered off into the bush to the left. But I quickly realized there was a good chance the lynx was going to walk through a small clearing a hundred metres up the road, so I whipped the car around and stopped at the clearing.

The little clearing was so close to the road that I flipped on a smaller lens, turned off my engine, and got ready. Sure enough, before I even had time to think, the lynx popped its head out of the trees, strolled out a few feet, then stopped and stared right at me. I aimed, pressed my shutter button down…and…what the #*%@! My autofocus wasn’t on!! In the extra second it took me to flick it on, in THAT extra second, the lynx turned around and walked back into the bush.

“You have GOT to be kidding me!” was the first thought that raced through my mind, followed closely by a few choice expletives. What kind of wildlife photographer doesn’t have his autofocus turned on?? Still stewing and desperately hoping for one more opportunity, I cruised up and down that stretch of road incessantly for the next nine hours until dark, but didn’t see a thing.

So finally, in the waning evening light, I returned to the spot of the ‘tragedy’. Then, as if to torture myself for eternity, I pulled out that same lens, aimed at that same spot, and took this picture:


The one that got away, indeed….