Fighting over a Bone

A couple of ravens were fighting over a bone and entertained us for several minutes.  The photo is poor quality because I was taking the shot through a window and a piece of Plexiglas.

Park Bird

What kind of bird are they?

Thanks to my knowledgeable readers they are Purple Sandpipers - Caldris maritima.

There is two of them in this photo.

This was the first bird at the park I almost stepped on.

Battle of the Ravens

A lucky shot of a couple of ravens battling over a tender morsel of food. These birds have to be the hardest ones to photograph in the north. The contrast between the absolute black of the ravens and the absolute white of the snow makes it almost impossible. This was the only half decent photo from a grouping of 50 and it still needed extensive Photoshop work. Still I like the action in the photo.

Dump Run

I do have some very nice photos of Venus and the Moon but I only photographed them in RAW format and can't get them converted into a file format that Blogger likes. Any help and I will post some photos.

Michele and I went on a dump run because we still don't have a garbage bin and it has to get there somehow. The crows were out in full force. Given the amount of unburned garbage and dog carcasses the eating looks good for them. Photo below only shows a small portion of the flock.

Once again we have an ice fog floating around town and with the sun still low in the sky it makes for some great atmospheric effects. Below is a photo of a sun pillar and an upper tangent arc. There were also some great sundogs but I was to busy being a tourist and forgot to run back into the house to get the camera before they were gone. Neither were accompanied by a 22deg halo.

I will be on duty travel this week so I probably won't get a chance to post until next weekend. I will see if I can get some nice photos from Pond Inlet. Hope the sun is up high enough.

Cape Dorset Photo 1

-UPDATE-
Thanks to Kiggavik (we miss your blogging) and Mongoose for identifing the bird in the photo as a sandpiper. Kiggavik specifically named it as a purple sandpiper caldris maritima. One of the great things about blogging is there is always someone watching that knows what they are talking about. Thank you very much.

I am away until this Friday so I have scheduled a post of Cape Dorset each day this week. I will try to post during my week of travel but I doubt I will have the opportunity. You will just have to wait until this weekend. Until then enjoy the daily photo.

I surprised this bird so bad that it froze in place giving me some time to get a nice photo. I believe it is a female snow bunting. Correct me if I'm wrong. I was only two meters away from her when I came around the corner.