It's all about the eyes

On 17 December 2013, it was a long day of Christmas Bird Count south of the city. A group of nine of us, travelling in two vehicles, covered part of the huge circle around High River. A few others from Calgary, plus quite a few people from the town, covered the rest. We were so lucky with the weather - the temperature actually got up to 9C! (Ha, as I'm typing today, 5 January 2014, it's -25C with a windchill of -31C). We left Calgary at 7:15 a.m., but by the time we arrived at Frank Lake, our first destination, the sunrise was just beginning. On this count last year, every plant and blade of dry grass was covered in wonderful hoar frost - not so lucky this time. Snow depth was from bare ground to 15 cm, with drifts to 100cm, and there was no open water at the lake. From the report: 6 kms on foot; 75kms by car; 3 hrs on foot, 5 hours by car.

The day was spent driving the backroads, and calling in at various homesteads and farms. We had three species of owl, which, as you can imagine, delighted everyone in my group. We had hoped to see a Snowy Owl, but no luck this year. My group had 19 species of bird by the end of the day - we finished driving around 3:00 p.m..Noticeably lacking were small birds, such as Snow Buntings - so I had to make do with owls, lol!

The final list for our group, covering two areas, was:

Mallard-12/ 0= 12
Northern Pintail-1 f./ 0= 1
Common Goldeneye-4/0= 4
Gray Partridge-17/30= 47
Ring-necked Pheasant-3/0= 3
Bald Eagle-1ad/1ad= 2
Northern Harrier-1/ 0= 1
Great Horned Owl-4/1= 5
Long-eared Owl-2/0= 2
Short-eared Owl-2/0= 2
Rock Pigeon-47/7= 54
Downy Woodpecker-1/ 0= 1
Northern Flicker-1/0= 1
Black-billed Magpie-7/24= 31
Common Raven-2/1= 3
Horned Lark-2/0= 2
Black-capped Chickadee-0/1= 1
American Tree Sparrow-6/0= 6
House Sparrow-35/140= 175

The absolutely gorgeous, Crow-sized Long-eared Owl, seen in the photo above, was on someone's private land. We were given permission to wander around, searching the trees and open area. A few people had gone ahead of me just a matter of steps, when suddenly, to my amazement and total delight, I noticed this little owl hiding deep within a Spruce tree : ))) Couldn't believe my eyes! I've seen three of these Crow-sized owls before, but each time is as exciting as if it were the very first time. Actually, we had already seen another Long-eared Owl earlier in the day! You won't believe this, but two trees away from this Spruce tree - the trees were all squashed together and looked more like one huge tree - there was a beautiful Great Horned Owl! Of course, we were all hoping that the GHO wouldn't take the smaller owl for its supper! Oh, did I mention that two Short-eared Owls were spotted by someone in the first car, hidden amongst the dead grasses? They were sitting there, facing each other, and I managed to just get a couple of rather poor photos. Another thrill of the day : )

At the end of the day, some of the people involved in this count stayed for a pot-luck supper. Thanks so much to everyone who organized this annual Count and worked so hard with preparing for the meal. We always enjoy this time at the end of a long day, chatting about what we'd all been seeing in the various segments of the huge circle. Special thanks to Greg Wagner, who organized the whole event - well done, as usual, Greg : ) Thanks so much, Lorrie and John, for driving some of us the whole day and for picking me up and bringing me home - really appreciate your coming well out of your way to do this!

Today, 5 January 2014, it's going to be a long, brutally cold day of birding on the Nanton annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count, roughly an hour's drive S of Calgary. Had to set my alarm for 4:30 a.m. (after getting to sleep around 2:15 a.m.). Be back later.

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