A couple from my recent trip to Manitoba:

Northern Hawk Owl
To get a clear angle I had to stomp about 50 metres through waist-high snow, with my camera and tripod over my shoulder. Fortunately these owls rarely fly away.




Sharp-Tailed Grouse (male)
In the spring, these birds gather in open areas and vie for top mating status with their agressive dance moves. Very cool to watch!



It was freakishly cold this particular morning, which made things extra fun. We had to sit in the car to avoid spooking the birds away, so to prevent heat shimmering we of course shut off the car and opened all the windows. I also removed the lens hood, because I heard that you can get distortion from the heat coming off the lens when you have a hood on. Anyhow based on the results it worked quite well, so I guess it was worth a bit of suffering!