I couldn't resist looking for a bit of sympathy. The portrait is an iphone 7 selfie taken yesterday after doing a bit of snow sweeping. It was -32C at the time. This morning I believe we have reached our low point of this cold spell, shown here at -42C (-43.6F) with a slight wind making it feel like -50C (-58F).

I will certainly be stepping out the back door for a moment or two for some fresh air, but it won't be for very long.

I timed the cycle on my furnace and it was on for 12 minutes and off for only 8 minutes before coming on again. Not looking forward to my Natural Gas bill.

To all of my local Flickr friends or anyone else effected by the polar vortex, STAY WARM!

EDIT: just wanted to add that the few birds I am now seeing out my window are tending to look like my parka, with their warm breath hitting their cold feathering. condensing and freezing. I do feel so bad for them.

Tags:   Copyright Bernard Boutin Very cold frosty selfie

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Three days left in 2023 and three shots left in my year in review.

Our last trip of the year was an October visit to Badlands National Park...our third in '23.

There are over 1,000 bison in BNP mostly hanging out on the largest undisturbed mixed grass prairie in the United States. Once in a while a few bulls wander into the eroded buttes and pinnacles offering a different setting for photo ops, like this.

Tags:   bison bison bison bison two bison bulls badlands national park badlands bison badlands wildlife blue sky nature conservation protect the environment protect public lands protect wildlife

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Wolf YNP

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Continuing my walk down 2023 memory lane with this American Pika photo taken during our trip to Rocky Mountain National Park for the elk rut.

Attending the elk rut has become an annual tradition of our travels. By mid-day, especially on warmer days, the rut activity subsides, and we head to higher elevations (10,000 feet plus) to look for pikas, marmots and other high-altitude denizens.

Tags:   American Pika lagamorph Ochotona princeps high elevation resident rocky mountain national park nature conservation protect the environment protect public lands protect wildlife

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The last day of 2023 brings the last shot in my year in review series.

One of my main photo accomplishments this year was to figure out how to increase my success rate for photographing the Black-tailed Prairie Dog behavior called the jump yip.

The jump yip consists of a prairie dog suddenly lurching upward to a stance on its hind legs and vocalizing with a high pitched "yip" before dropping back to a four-legged position.

The whole thing lasts just a second or two and it's a challenge to predict. So photographing it ain't easy. This year, after many hours of observation I figured out a method that improved my success rate. Pretty gratifying.

Tags:   black-tailed prairie dog Cynomys ludovicianus rodent jump yip nature conservation badlands national park badlands wildlife prairie wildlife protect the environment protect public lands protect wildlife

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