Red fox in Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan.
2021 was another strange year, with the pandemic continuing to have a big impact on our travels. Consequently, most of our travel and photography this year was fairly close to home. Fortunately, we have a lot of cool critters practically in our backyard so we were fortunate to come away with some interesting shots. Here are 21 of our favourites.
Red fox in Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan. Winter is a great time to photograph foxes. This is when they look their best with lustrous fur coats, plus they stand out from the snowy background.Red fox in Prince Albert National Park, Saskatchewan.Another highlight of our winter trip to Prince Albert National Park was finally getting a photo of a pileated woodpecker – North America’s largest woodpecker. This bird had eluded us, but we found one that not only cooperated but that also had the good manners to pose in nice light.Lunch time. Beaver eating pond vegetation. Thickwood Hills, Saskatchewan.Hoary marmot, Banff National Park, AlbertaGreat blue heron, Big Quill Lake, Saskatchewan. These birds aren’t always easy to photograph in our area, but one magical evening we found several close to the road on Big Quill Lake.Great blue heron, Big Quill Lake, Saskatchewan.Great blue heron, Big Quill Lake, Saskatchewan.Bull elk, Prince Albert National Park. It was mid-summer when much of the wildlife lays low, but all of a sudden this guy shows up.Ring-necked duck, Thickwood Hills, Saskatchewan.Male ruby-throated hummingbird, Thickwood Hills, Saskatchewan. We’re fortunate to have these marvelous birds nesting in our farmyard.Female ruby-throated hummingbird ruffling its feathers. Thickwood Hills, Saskatchewan.Male purple finch, Thickwood Hills, Saskatchewan.Chipping sparrow, Thickwood Hills, Saskatchewan. We have a lot of these sparrows nesting on our yard, but it isn’t always easy to get them posing in nice light.Moose in a harvested canola field near Whitkow, Saskatchewan.Pronghorn near Struan, Saskatchewan, not far from Saskatoon. More at home in the southern grasslands, it is not usual to see pronghorn this far north.Migrating snow geese near Foam Lake, Saskatchewan. This year we wanted to try something different with migrating geese. Instead of stopping the action with a fast shutter speed, for this photo and the next one we opted for a slow shutter speed (1/13 sec.) to try to show some of the movement.Migrating snow geese near Foam Lake, Saskatchewan.This shot wasn’t planned. We were at Foam Lake in the fall to photograph migrating snow geese and sandhill cranes. In the morning we were disappointed to see that smoke from forest fires had drifted in. However, the smoke turned the rising sun an eerie reddish colour and a flock of sandhill cranes flew across the sun just as it emerged from the smoke bank.This is our favourite wildlife shot of the year, even though the bird is extremely small in the frame. We were camped at Tyrrell Lake in northeastern Saskatchewan when thunderstorms moved across the lake. While we were photographing the lightning, a raven flew across the shore of the lake just as a bolt of lightning struck, making it look as if the bird was flying into the storm.
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4 thoughts on “21 Favourite New Wildlife Photos from 2021”
Stunning photos! And local Saskatchewan flora and fauna.
Stunning photos! And local Saskatchewan flora and fauna.
Thanks for your kind comments Cheryl.
Thanks again for the amazing photographs. Really liked them all. but definitely drawn in by the shot of lightning and the sunrise. Jean
Jean – Thanks for letting us know your favourites.