Just for the record
Sharp-tailed Grouse
Yesterday's treat
Sitting so pretty
Memories of last summer
Sora
Almost impossible to find
Tree Swallow
Tiny, bright-eyed Northern Pygmy-owl
Red-winged Blackbird displaying
The Poser - Spotted Sandiper
Love those legs
A different Great Horned Owl
A backwards glance
Safe with Mom
Dad on guard duty
"Two (owlets) out of three ain't bad"
Northern Pygmy-owl from 2011
Spotted Sandpiper with bokeh
Tired out Mom
How sweet is this?
The exotic White-faced Ibis
Time for nest building
A close look at a Coot
Preening her feathers
Deep inside a dark barn
American Coot
The art of building a nest
Button-eyes
Look, Mom, I can fly!
On golden pond
Black-necked Stilt
A good start to yesterday
Red-necked Grebe
Red-necked Grebe pair
Puffed up for warmth
Red-necked Grebe & reflection
Long-billed Curlew / Numenius americanus
The highlight of my day
Redhead beauty
A turn of the head
Tree Swallow on road sign
American Avocet
American Goldfinch
Franklins and the farmer
Eastern Kingbird
Love these little guys
Snack time for baby Coot
Collecting supper for her babies
A lovely splash of colour
American Goldfinch female with Sunflower seed
Eared Grebe / Podiceps nigricollis
Eastern Phoebe / Sayornis phoebe
A snack that is sure to tickle
Eared Grebe
Eastern Kingbird
Blue and banded
Yellow-headed Blackbird female
American Goldfinch
Mountain Bluebird female
Mountain Bluebird male
One of my favourites to photograph
American Goldfinch pair
Through the branches
Tree Swallow in April
Yellow-bellied Marmot
Curious, for a brief second
On golden pond
Listening
Me and my shadow
Quick march
Yesterday's treat
Adult and juvenile Three-toed Woodpeckers
Yellow-bellied Marmot gathering grasses
Time to relax
A touch of iridescence
I see a Sora
Cautious mother of twins
What big feet you have
The twins' Mom
The Wilson's Snipe - such a fine bird
Two of a kind!
Thankfully, not Mosquitoes
Gorgeous iridescent feathers
Mama Ruffed Grouse
Mating Spotted Asparagus Beetles
Some like wood, others like metal
Wilson's Snipe - what a beauty
Eared Grebe with young one
White-faced Ibis - very rare in Alberta
I saw a Sora
Thoughts of anything cold
A Snipe from last year
Throat-tickling supper
Black Tern on fence post
An over the shoulder look
Yes, yes, YES!
One less Grasshopper in the world
Great choice of fence post
Distant Lark Sparrow
A good poser
Blue-green iridescence
Eared Grebe
A two-legged Wilson's Snipe : )
Feeling blue
Sharing her catch
Time to catch supper
Coyote on the prowl
Wilson's Snipe
Eared Grebe
A highlight of our May Species Count
A different kind of perch
Little Bluebird on a snowy day
Dad, awake for a few minutes
Keeping an eye on those pesky Tree Swallows
Wind-ruffled feathers
A different kind of perch
A matching stripe
A cooperative Coot
A welcome sight
An element of trust
Mom at the nest
Building her nest
Beautiful catch
Growing older by the minute
See also...
Keywords
Authorizations, license
-
Visible by: Everyone -
All rights reserved
-
242 visits
Always love an owl
I overslept this morning till 12:15 pm and so am posting my photos really late today!
Three days ago, on 16 December 2014, it was the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the town of High River. This town is SE of Calgary, roughly half an hour's drive from the southern edge of Calgary. My small group travelled in two cars, 8 people in total, and we covered the SE quadrant of the Count circle.
I will add the report compiled by our leader, Gus Yaki. As usual, there were several of these sightings that I, myself, did not see. I ended up with poor photos of most of the things that I did see - the day was absolutely beautiful, but the light was even worse than I had realized. If your computer monitor is smaller than mine, my images might look a little better : ) The amazing hoar frost, that covered everything, surprisingly lasted pretty well the whole day - usually, it lasts only a very short time. So, even though the light wasn't good for photos, the hoar frost beauty stayed with us all day long - breathtaking. For our drive down to High River, we had fog which, in patches, was quite thick. Wondered if we would see anything at all when we reached our area, ha. It was cold and damp, as well as foggy. In addition to that, some of the birds, such as the three Snowy Owls (I only saw two of them) were SO far away, there was no chance for photos except just for the record. Only 35 species were seen in the total for the complete Count circle.
Of course, as always happens, I just had to take photos of anything else that caught my eye, including several barns, cloud formations, farm cats, and so on. This beautiful Great Horned Owl was spotted at one of the farms we called in at. It was a fair distance away and very well camouflaged -spotted by someone with very good birding eyes. When I went to look at the owl again, it had moved to a different tree and a second owl flew in to the first tree. They then took off together across the farmyard and disappeared. Some of the birders also saw a juvenile Great Horned Owl in a different tree.
At another stop, we were looking in the bushes/shrubs at the edge of a different farm, where a Northern Saw-whet Owl had been sighted last Christmas Count. No luck with an owl, but one of the birders spotted a male Merlin very high up on a power pole with a "cover", which made it look as if the bird was sitting under a hair dryer at a hair salon, lol. A short while later, it was spotted just down the road, perched on a fence post. Such a beautiful bird - and such lousy light!
We had finished our count by 5:00 pm, by which time it was, of course, completely dark. A few of us stayed for the delicious pot luck supper, mainly provided by the generous birding people down in High River. Lorrie and John gave a slide show of their recent trip to Africa. So many great shots of beautiful bird species that I have never seen. Thanks, Lorrie and John, for spending time going through all your slides at home and choosing a lovely selection for us. Many thanks, too, for driving Shirley and myself all day long!
"HIGH RIVER CBC, SE quadrant, Frank Lk; E of #2, S of #23. 0830-1700, 16Dec2014. Overcast, heavy fog, created great hoarfrost on everything. Winds, variable direction, 10-15kph. -7°C. Ground mostly bare of snow; Little Bow River 95% frozen.
1. Mallard-1 f.
2. Scaup sp.- juv or f, likely Lesser-1
3. Gray Partridge-7
4. Ring-necked Pheasant-2
5. Bald Eagle-3 ( 2 ad/ 1 juv.)
6. Merlin-1 m.
7. Rock Pigeon-8
8. Great Horned Owl- 5 [an additional one seen N of Hwy 23, just W of Frank Lk exit at 16:56 pm.]
9. Snowy Owl-3
10. Downy Woodpecker-2
11. Northern Flicker-2
12. Black-billed Magpie-83
13. Common Raven-15
14. Horned Lark-20
15. Black-capped Chickadee-7
16. Common Redpoll-155
17. House Sparrow-669
18. 17 species of birds
MAMMALS:
Deer Mouse-1, deceased.
White-tailed Jackrabbit-1
Mule Deer-25
White-tailed Deer-44
Total Km by car-111; by foot- 3.
Total hours by car – 6; on foot-2.5
Gus Yaki"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I now have to work through all the photos I took yesterday on the Christmas Bird Count, get some of them edited and then sent in. Tomorrow, I will be spending the day outside the city with my youngest daughter for our Christmas get-together. She suggested that we spend the day driving some of the backroads : ) She is really, really hoping that we will be able to find a Snowy Owl, as she has never seen one. The weather forecast changed overnight and now mentions a few snow flurries for tomorrow, at least for Calgary. The next day, I go on a Bird Count for the town of Nanton, south of Calgary, and will then have to go through all those photos and edit some to send. Two days later, I have yet another bird count, NE of the city, in the Badlands of Alberta. You would think that by now, after taking part in so many Christmas Bird Counts the last few years, I would have learned how to be organized enough to get all my dozens of overseas Christmas letters and cards finished and mailed before the very first Count. That just never seems to happen, somehow .... sigh.
Three days ago, on 16 December 2014, it was the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the town of High River. This town is SE of Calgary, roughly half an hour's drive from the southern edge of Calgary. My small group travelled in two cars, 8 people in total, and we covered the SE quadrant of the Count circle.
I will add the report compiled by our leader, Gus Yaki. As usual, there were several of these sightings that I, myself, did not see. I ended up with poor photos of most of the things that I did see - the day was absolutely beautiful, but the light was even worse than I had realized. If your computer monitor is smaller than mine, my images might look a little better : ) The amazing hoar frost, that covered everything, surprisingly lasted pretty well the whole day - usually, it lasts only a very short time. So, even though the light wasn't good for photos, the hoar frost beauty stayed with us all day long - breathtaking. For our drive down to High River, we had fog which, in patches, was quite thick. Wondered if we would see anything at all when we reached our area, ha. It was cold and damp, as well as foggy. In addition to that, some of the birds, such as the three Snowy Owls (I only saw two of them) were SO far away, there was no chance for photos except just for the record. Only 35 species were seen in the total for the complete Count circle.
Of course, as always happens, I just had to take photos of anything else that caught my eye, including several barns, cloud formations, farm cats, and so on. This beautiful Great Horned Owl was spotted at one of the farms we called in at. It was a fair distance away and very well camouflaged -spotted by someone with very good birding eyes. When I went to look at the owl again, it had moved to a different tree and a second owl flew in to the first tree. They then took off together across the farmyard and disappeared. Some of the birders also saw a juvenile Great Horned Owl in a different tree.
At another stop, we were looking in the bushes/shrubs at the edge of a different farm, where a Northern Saw-whet Owl had been sighted last Christmas Count. No luck with an owl, but one of the birders spotted a male Merlin very high up on a power pole with a "cover", which made it look as if the bird was sitting under a hair dryer at a hair salon, lol. A short while later, it was spotted just down the road, perched on a fence post. Such a beautiful bird - and such lousy light!
We had finished our count by 5:00 pm, by which time it was, of course, completely dark. A few of us stayed for the delicious pot luck supper, mainly provided by the generous birding people down in High River. Lorrie and John gave a slide show of their recent trip to Africa. So many great shots of beautiful bird species that I have never seen. Thanks, Lorrie and John, for spending time going through all your slides at home and choosing a lovely selection for us. Many thanks, too, for driving Shirley and myself all day long!
"HIGH RIVER CBC, SE quadrant, Frank Lk; E of #2, S of #23. 0830-1700, 16Dec2014. Overcast, heavy fog, created great hoarfrost on everything. Winds, variable direction, 10-15kph. -7°C. Ground mostly bare of snow; Little Bow River 95% frozen.
1. Mallard-1 f.
2. Scaup sp.- juv or f, likely Lesser-1
3. Gray Partridge-7
4. Ring-necked Pheasant-2
5. Bald Eagle-3 ( 2 ad/ 1 juv.)
6. Merlin-1 m.
7. Rock Pigeon-8
8. Great Horned Owl- 5 [an additional one seen N of Hwy 23, just W of Frank Lk exit at 16:56 pm.]
9. Snowy Owl-3
10. Downy Woodpecker-2
11. Northern Flicker-2
12. Black-billed Magpie-83
13. Common Raven-15
14. Horned Lark-20
15. Black-capped Chickadee-7
16. Common Redpoll-155
17. House Sparrow-669
18. 17 species of birds
MAMMALS:
Deer Mouse-1, deceased.
White-tailed Jackrabbit-1
Mule Deer-25
White-tailed Deer-44
Total Km by car-111; by foot- 3.
Total hours by car – 6; on foot-2.5
Gus Yaki"
-----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
I now have to work through all the photos I took yesterday on the Christmas Bird Count, get some of them edited and then sent in. Tomorrow, I will be spending the day outside the city with my youngest daughter for our Christmas get-together. She suggested that we spend the day driving some of the backroads : ) She is really, really hoping that we will be able to find a Snowy Owl, as she has never seen one. The weather forecast changed overnight and now mentions a few snow flurries for tomorrow, at least for Calgary. The next day, I go on a Bird Count for the town of Nanton, south of Calgary, and will then have to go through all those photos and edit some to send. Two days later, I have yet another bird count, NE of the city, in the Badlands of Alberta. You would think that by now, after taking part in so many Christmas Bird Counts the last few years, I would have learned how to be organized enough to get all my dozens of overseas Christmas letters and cards finished and mailed before the very first Count. That just never seems to happen, somehow .... sigh.
(deleted account) has particularly liked this photo
- Keyboard shortcuts:
Jump to top
RSS feed- Latest comments - Subscribe to the comment feeds of this photo
- ipernity © 2007-2024
- Help & Contact
|
Club news
|
About ipernity
|
History |
ipernity Club & Prices |
Guide of good conduct
Donate | Group guidelines | Privacy policy | Terms of use | Statutes | In memoria -
Facebook
Twitter
Sign-in to write a comment.