2408_1261 Beavers' Day Off - a photo on Flickriver

2408_1261 Beavers' Day Off

            The beavers must have taken a day off, because the Frenchman River has broken through their dam. Nevertheless, it remained sturdy enough for a Great Blue Heron to use it as a fishing platform.

Unfortunately the heron didn't stick around. This species is uncommonly skittish here on the grasslands, and it's usually impossible to get within a hundred metres of one. Very different from other locations. On the BC coast they are a dime a dozen. I remember counting 28 herons one day in a lagoon near Victoria. That doesn't happen on the prairie.

On this day I saw the heron wheeling in the sky, dropping down to disappear behind the sunken banks of the river. Consequently I was ready a minute later when I drove onto the little bridge - and even so, I barely had time to raise my camera, focus, and get a single shot before it launched and flapped away to safety.

Well, every place has its gifts and its challenges. Here, I am able to have close encounters with coyotes and badgers (yes, that was a hint about some future posts)... so I don't mind that herons are relatively rare. Oh, and that dam has since been repaired and now spans the entire width of the Frenchman. As everyone knows, beavers are hard working critters. 

Photographed in Grasslands National Park, Saskatchewan (Canada). Don't use this image on websites, blogs, or other media without explicit permission ©2024 James R. Page - all rights reserved.

Taken in: Canada / Saskatchewan / Gergovia (show map)

Taken on: August 20, 2024

Tags:

Great Blue Heron

Ardea herodias

bird

wader

long-legged

river

beaver dam

water

flow

flowing

shallow

summer

wild

prairie

Grasslands National Park

Saskatchewan

Canada

copyrighted

James R. Page

2024 « less

Sets appears in: • Best 2024 • Long-legged Wading Birds

Camera: Nikon D850, f/8.0, 1/2500 sec, 700mm, ISO 640 (more info) (hide info)

Camera:	Nikon D850
Lens:	500.0 mm f/5.6
Aperture:	f/8.0
Exposure Time:	1/2500 sec
Focal Length:	700mm
ISO:	640
Exposure Bias:	-1/3 EV
Flash:	No Flash
Exposure Program:	Manual
Exposure Mode:	Manual
Metering Mode:	Multi-segment
White Balance:	Auto
Saturation:	High
Color Space:	sRGB
Software:	Adobe Photoshop 22.5 (Macintosh)
Show full info

Stats: 1,043 views / 17 comments

close tools panel

Badge creator

Use Flickriver Badge Creator to create a badge linking to your photos, your group or any other Flickriver view.

You can place your badge on your Flickr profile, Blog or Website.

Add to your iGoogle or Netvibes page

Flickriver widget for iGoogle or Netvibes can display almost any Flickriver view - most interesting today, by user, by group, by tag etc. Once added to your personalized homepage, just edit widget settings to select your desired view.

Clickr on one of the buttons below to install:

Embed on your Web site

To embed this view, Copy and Paste the following HTML code:

Black background (preview):

White background (preview):

Firefox and Chrome addons

Adds a 'Flickriver' button to your browser. While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on this button to open the same view on Flickriver.

Install in Firefox
Install in Chrome

Search plugin

Add 'Search on Flickriver' to your browser's search box. Works with Firefox and Internet Explorer. Install search plugin

"View on Flickriver" Greasemonkey script

A Greasemonkey script that adds Flickriver links to various Flickr photo pages - user photos, favorites, pools etc, allowing to quickly open the corresponding Flickriver view.

Also, allows quickly viewing any Flickr photo on black background in large size.

Install "View on Flickriver" script

Bookmarklet

While viewing any Flickr photos page, click on the bookmarklet to open the same view on Flickriver.

To install: drag and drop the following link to your Bookmarks toolbar.
IE users - add the link to your Favorites under the Links folder