Readers’ wildlife photos

January 19, 2021 • 8:00 am

Please in your photos; I always have a need for more.

Today we have some beautiful landscapes in Manitoba taken by Peter Lindsay. His notes are indented, and click the photos to enlarge them. Peter has a Flickr site that chronicles his exploration of southwestern Manitoba.

Here are some landscape photographs that I have made in the area surrounding my adopted home in south-western Manitoba.

As I spent the earlier part of my life in the larger Canadian cities of Toronto and Montreal, the geography and climate of this region came as quite a shock. The temperature can range from well below -30°C in the the winter to above +30°C during the summer months.

These photographs are all made in the aspen parkland region that runs in a thin band no wider than 500 kilometres through the Canadian Prairie Provinces. I photograph throughout the region and in all the seasons.

Over the past 100 years, most of the region has been extensively altered by large-scale farming. As a result, less than 10% of the original habitat remains.

Glacial erosion has created depressions in which standing water can collect, contributing to the creation of various wetlands. Many of these wet areas are flooded in the spring and dry by fall. Many species of ducks make their summer homes in these waters. Although there are no birds or other wildlife in these photographs, if you look carefully there is evidence of their presence.

Autumn depression pond:

Autumn landscape:

Canola lone tree:

Early summer crop:

Fall woodland:

Harvest flooding:

Overland flooding:

Wetlands:

Windbreak: distant rain:

Winter flatland panorama:

Woodland hoarfrost:

26 thoughts on “Readers’ wildlife photos

    1. I have yet to receive an adequate explanation for these lone trees standing in cultivated fields. The tree in the canola field I have photographed for years and in all seasons, and have named the Manitoba bonsai for its shape, not its size. Someone suggested that they may be distance markers, or perhaps farmers just like they way they look.

  1. The rape/canola fields were very interesting.

    The hoarfrost trees are very beautiful and this picture is stunning. Hoarfrost is another interesting element of our world, in my opinion.

  2. Indeed lovely. Even before the USDA had me listed somewhere as a canola farmer in ND, I particularly liked fields in bloom against a bright blue sky, as often seen in the countryside of Sweden.

    But re. ND, in far northwestern Burke Co just S of Columbus, which probably isn’t all that far from you, there’s a narrow geographical upthrust (I guess you’d say) called the Foothills, where there are some lovely micro-environments that you suddenly encounter out of the vast flatness of wheat/canola/sunflower fields. If you’re ever in that vicinity it’s worth seeking out.

    1. Would that me the area named Turtle Mountain, or Mountains? It borders North Dakota and Manitoba, and I have been there.

  3. These are breathtakingly beautiful, Peter. I’d never have guessed these were taken in Manitoba! I swear there are faeries in the Fall Woodland scene, and that Hoarfrost Woodland is exquisite!

    1. In most cases no tweaking is required. I photograph very early in the morning or late in the afternoon when the colours are more intense.

  4. Terrific pictures – whoever selects MS Themes needs to contact you.

    As someone who lives on a mostly hilly island whose forests and pastures are mostly green, I’m fascinated by the variety in your flat rural landscapes and had to laugh at the notion of an up to 500 km wide band being described as ‘narrow’.

    1. That was my concern when I accepted a teaching position and moved here 17 years ago. To my pleasant surprise the topography is quite varied – and unfortunately much colder in the winter than I ever could have imagined.

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