Fort Rouge photographer captures winter magic
Dennis Swayze’s picture wins Canadian Wildlife Federation photo contest
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This article was published 17/02/2015 (3874 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.
It was a mixture of luck and skill that allowed Dennis Swayze to capture the Canadian Wildlife Federation’s January picture of the month.
Swayze, a retired photography hobbyist from Fort Rouge, photographed a weasel as it dashed across the snow with a vole in its teeth last March.
While in Breezy Point, just north of Selkirk, Man., looking for great grey owls to photograph, Swayze and a colleague took a drive for a change of scenery.
“The fellow I was with all of a sudden stopped his car and he gets out and says ‘Something is chasing something around!’” Swayze, 60, recalled.
That’s when they spotted the weasel just 30 feet in front of their vehicle.
“This weasel was running back and forth from one side to the other, under his car, into the bush, into the dead fall, back and forth and then we see he’s chasing the vole,” Swayze said.
The pair kept an eye on the weasel after it had successfully hunted down its prey and noticed the animal wanted to cross the road where they were standing. Swayze had his finger on the trigger ready to catch the weasel in action once it made its move.
“All of a sudden he just made a bolt for across the road and we were both clicking away and I just happened to get him mid-stream, all four legs, all four feet off the ground with this vole in his mouth,” Swayze said.
“It was pretty cool,” he added. “I don’t think I’ll ever see that again.”
Swayze submitted the photo to the Canadian Wildlife Federation’s monthly photo contest where it was selected by popular vote for the month of January.
“All of a sudden he just made a bolt for across the road and we were both clicking away and I just happened to get him mid-stream, all four legs, all four feet off the ground with this vole in his mouth”
An avid raptor photographer, Swayze spends his time photographing owls, falcons and other wildlife. His work has also appeared on naturemanitoba.ca and in a picture book called Earl the Great Grey Owl by Karen Smith.
To see more of Swayze’s work go to: www.pbase.com/photosbydennis