First of all, I wish you all a Happy New Year! May this year be full of success and full of food! (Now, why do I always have to mention food?!?! I might have to think about that, one day…)
For the hungry animals in Fort Whyte Alive in Winnipeg, that question is much closer to home. In winter, they don’t have so much choice and possibilities to find enough food to fill their stomach. So let’s take a look at how they are doing now…
Fort Whyte Alive is a natural center within the city limits of Winnipeg. It’s a place where many wild animals live and where you will find nearly none, at least on a beautiful Sunday afternoon. Too many people around, making too much noise. Some fellow photographers from our local photo community always come up with lots of pictures of different animals…
I mostly come up empty handed. This time I managed to “catch” a few animals though.
White tailed deer
The white tailed deer, before they spotted me and took off. I guess the people on the other side of the trail had some nice shots of this deer with their cameras. I had the dubitable pleasure of stalking the deer through the woods and startling them.
The Downy woodpecker from the lead picture was more occupied with finding food than with me. A good moment to take some pictures. Of the many pictures I took, only a few were good enough to show here.
Downy woodpecker
I still have a lot to learn for wildlife photography. One of these things, for a beginner like me in the domain, is to hang out near the feeding stations and keep a low profile over there. With some patience and luck the birds will come and feed without taking notice of me.
Signage
If you are wondering how I know the name of this bird, well, Fort Whyte Alive puts up signs like these to educate the children (and me). I guess I’ll come back here when there are less people around…
That was about the extent of my success with the animals.
After that, I reverted to my habit of photographing more docile and easier spottable things.
Burs
These burs had a nice look with the sunshine from one side. Opening up the aperture nicely blurred the background and isolated the subject.
The lake
A little view over the lake, some people already tried out their skiing skills here. The way the ice cracked under my feet made me go back to the dock. I guess skis spread out one’s weight better than shoes.
On the grounds of Fort Whyte Alive there are many activities for kids and adults. Telling stories around a fire is definitely one of them. But what better than hearing these stories in a tipi ?
So I found a tipi and had my wife take some pictures.
The entrance to a magical place
The magic of the inside of the tipi depends on one’s imagination. The inside is simply furnished with bales of hay to sit on and a small stone circle for the fire. Definitely not comfortable enough for me to spend the night, stories or no stories.
The top of the tipi gave a nice image against the blue sky.
Sun bleached wood, canvas and blue sky
The top, isolated from the rest of the tipi looked like a giant coat hanger to me 
.
This was a small Sunday afternoon at Fort Whyte Alive.
Come to think of it, this is the first post on my blog this year. Ok that was easy, but it is also one year that I have been blogging about all kinds of things in my life. What do you, think, reader ?Should I continue?