Beautiful, but blurry

This photo was taken just as the sun was going down, but I thought I would try it anyway. I lightened the very dark image, but it was quite blurry. Better than nothing, though : ) This was the last of the Snowy Owls that we saw on Friday, 4 January 2013, on our way back to Calgary after a long day of searching for birds for the Horseshoe Canyon/Drumheller Christmas Bird Count. This was the last Count I took part in - the very last one was the following day. Our territory (section of the huge circle) for the Horseshoe Canyon/Drumheller Bird Count was on the north side of the Red Deer River, including the Tyrrell Museum area. This is Dinosaur country, the wonderful Badlands of Alberta! We drove some of the residential alleys looking for birds at feeders as well as in trees, and walked along the edge of the river at McMullen Island (it only becomes an island when the river level rises). The Red Deer River was completely frozen; 12 inches of snow cover. The day started off cloudy, clearing to beautiful sunshine, calm and a temperature of -14C soaring to 6C (yes, that's +6C!). Left my house at 5:40 a.m. and got home maybe 7:45 p.m. (?) Total kms-73; Total kms by car-68; Total kms on foot-5. Total hours-7; Total by car-4.5; Total on foot-2hrs; In cafe-0.5 hrs.. Just in case anyone is interested in what species the four of us found, this is the list for the day:

Rock Pigeon-1
Eurasian Collared Dove-24
Great Horned Owl-1
Snowy Owl-1
Downy Woodpecker-5,
Hairy Woodpecker-4
Northern Flicker-4
Pileated Woodpecker-1
Blue Jay-4
Black-billed Magpie-38
Black-capped Chickadee-17
White-breasted Nuthatch 3.
Bohemian Waxwing-96
White-winged Crossbill-2
Common Redpoll-139
House Sparrow-42

We actually saw a total of six Snowy Owls, but only one actually in our Count area. As far as photos for the day are concerned, all I managed bird-wise was a Eurasian Collared Dove, a Red Crossbill and a couple of Snowy Owl photos. However, the scenery covered in snow was beautiful (and, as usual, my photos don't even begin to do it justice).