Still standing
Wilson's Snipe, seen from afar
Dandelions - of course : )
McDougall Memorial United Church
01 Spic and span
The old barn at the Ellis Bird Farm
Entrance to the Ellis Bird Farm
Female Mountain Bluebird / Sialia currucoides
Along a country back road
I think he caught a beautiful Tiger Moth : )
Such good parents
Female Bobolink / Dolichonyx oryzivorus
Beautiful wings of a female Mountain Bluebird
My first Bald Eagle on a fence post
This old house
Bright and cheery in its old age
Collecting food for her babies
A well-decorated fence
Eastern Kingbird
Nest-building Dad
Mt Lorette Ponds, Kananaskis
Swainson's Hawk on an early morning hunt
A bright splash of blue in August
McDougall Memorial United Church
The beauty of fall
02 Two young Moose
01 Red-winged Blackbird - female or juvenile
Clematis after the rain
One spectacular fall day
Old barn at the Ellis Bird Farm
Following the fenceline
Christmas star
Sunrise colour over the mountain peaks
A well looked after barn
Nanton Christmas Bird Count
Winter walking
Snow turns something ordinary into beautiful
Our beautiful Alberta
A touch of blue
Barn with a mural
Afternoon light on the foothills
Northern Shrike / Lanius excubitor
Better than nothing - this is NOT my main photo!
The peace of a prairie farm - my main photo today
Red-winged Blackbird female or juvenile
Snowy Owl along the fenceline
Winter textures
Dreaming of spring
A mix of textures
Skull on a fence post
Greenish sky beneath a Chinook Arch
One of my favourite views
Well-protected
A distant shot from my archives
Rough-legged Hawk / Buteo lagopus
Mallard female
Mountain Bluebird male
A house to match
Ride him, Cowboy!
Beyond the fence
Brown-headed Cowbird male
Mountain Bluebird with food for her babies
Brewer's Blackbird male
Mountain Bluebird
A white barn from yesterday
Mountain Bluebirds have no blue pigment
A sky filled with clouds
Just a splash of colour
03 Short-eared Owl / Asio flammeus
Natural beauty
A snack for his babies
And they call this winter (in Alberta)?
A cluster of red barns
Little church in the valley
A view through the bushes
Narrow strip of light
Four more months to wait
Old barn with a different style
A friendly greeting
'Superman, where are you now?'
Time for an old barn again
Taking the quieter road
Short-eared Owl
A fence without an owl
The best colour to see in winter
Home of the Snowshoe Hare
A winter day in southern Alberta
Fenced in
Christmas remnants
The donkeys with reflector eyes
Outlined in frost
In the bleak midwinter
Golden Eagle along the fenceline
A road less travelled
A touch of frost
A frosty view from Frank Lake blind
So far away, but better than nothing
Pine Grosbeak male / Pinicola enucleator
Fence line in the fall
CL Ranches, Alberta
Dark-eyed Junco / Junco hyemalis
All decked out
Petunias
Bluebird of happiness
Mountain Bluebird female
A snack that is sure to tickle
American Goldfinch female with Sunflower seed
A lovely splash of colour
Eastern Kingbird
One of three
Changes by new owners in "The Famous Five" field
Little red barn on Mother's Day
Vibrant colour of spring
Simple but bright
Strong winds on the prairies
Red barn in a field of gold
A favourite tree
Off limits
Delicate damselfly
Wrinkled sky
Gently falling snow
Red barn on a sunny day
Horse on the prairie
The wonder of hoar frost
A prairie view
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165 visits
Yellow-headed Blackbirds in every direction
My thoughts continue to be with all the people of Fort McMurray, Alberta, who are being devastated by a massive wildfire at the moment. All 88,000 people were forced to flee the city, many leaving everything behind and many will be returning to nothing. Now, much-needed rain and cooler temperatures are helping.
"Monday, May 9, 2016, 7:28 AM - After a week of fighting a devastating wildfire that sent thousands of Fort McMurray residents fleeing, it seems firefighters have been holding the line -- and the weather has actually been cooperative." From The Weather Network.
www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/weather-factoring...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My plan yesterday, 8 May 2016, was to join friends for an afternoon walk at Carburn Park. Closer to the time, I knew I was going to be late and decided at the last minute that I would instead go for a short drive SE of the city. I knew that I was far more likely to see a few closer birds and get some photo opportunities if I went SE.
I stayed around Frank Lake for most of the time. When I checked the weather forecast before I left, I knew that there was a possibity of rain later on. I totally forgot to check how windy it was going to be, and ended up barely being able to hold my camera steady enough to try and get a few shots. The strong wind was causing mini waves both on the lake itself and also on the very small slough I stopped at, creating a few neat water patterns.
Shorebirds included the always beautiful American Avocet and Black-necked Stilts and a couple of different birds including the one in this photo. I don't see shorebirds very often and I am not good at IDs for them. I'm hoping someone might just see this shot and be able to let me know what species it is. A pair of Killdeer were making a lot of noise, as usual. Saw several kinds of ducks, but they were too far to get any photos worth keeping. I was happy to see a pair of Canvasbacks.
After Frank Lake, I called in at a slough that used to be so good for shorebirds, only to find that there was not a drop of water left. The whole area was white ground (salt?). So disappointing, as last year I had White-faced Ibis walking just 8 or 10 feet from my car, and I had been longing to go back again this spring! Yesterday, I didn't see any Ibis at all, but someone I was talking to had seen some earlier.
There were so many Yellow-headed Blackbirds - everywhere! They were in quite large groups, flying from fields over the road ahead of me, in fields amongst the stubble, and at one location they were feeding on the ground at the feet of cows.
ust as I was leaving the area to start my drive home, the rain arrived. Greatly needed, though we need a whole lot of precipitation to do any good. Alberta is a tinder box, ready to go up in smoke. In fact, yesterday, I saw on the News that there was a small wildfire in Edmonton.
"The breeding habitat of the Yellow-headed Blackbird is cattail (Typha spp.) marshes in North America, mainly west of the Great Lakes. The nest is built with and attached to marsh vegetation. They nest in colonies, often sharing their habitat closely with the Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). During the breeding and nesting season the males are very territorial and spend much of their time perched on reed stalks and displaying or chasing off intruders." From Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-headed_blackbird
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/yellow-headed_blackbird/id
For the sound:
youtu.be/6-Pk-VMtZM0
"Monday, May 9, 2016, 7:28 AM - After a week of fighting a devastating wildfire that sent thousands of Fort McMurray residents fleeing, it seems firefighters have been holding the line -- and the weather has actually been cooperative." From The Weather Network.
www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/weather-factoring...
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
My plan yesterday, 8 May 2016, was to join friends for an afternoon walk at Carburn Park. Closer to the time, I knew I was going to be late and decided at the last minute that I would instead go for a short drive SE of the city. I knew that I was far more likely to see a few closer birds and get some photo opportunities if I went SE.
I stayed around Frank Lake for most of the time. When I checked the weather forecast before I left, I knew that there was a possibity of rain later on. I totally forgot to check how windy it was going to be, and ended up barely being able to hold my camera steady enough to try and get a few shots. The strong wind was causing mini waves both on the lake itself and also on the very small slough I stopped at, creating a few neat water patterns.
Shorebirds included the always beautiful American Avocet and Black-necked Stilts and a couple of different birds including the one in this photo. I don't see shorebirds very often and I am not good at IDs for them. I'm hoping someone might just see this shot and be able to let me know what species it is. A pair of Killdeer were making a lot of noise, as usual. Saw several kinds of ducks, but they were too far to get any photos worth keeping. I was happy to see a pair of Canvasbacks.
After Frank Lake, I called in at a slough that used to be so good for shorebirds, only to find that there was not a drop of water left. The whole area was white ground (salt?). So disappointing, as last year I had White-faced Ibis walking just 8 or 10 feet from my car, and I had been longing to go back again this spring! Yesterday, I didn't see any Ibis at all, but someone I was talking to had seen some earlier.
There were so many Yellow-headed Blackbirds - everywhere! They were in quite large groups, flying from fields over the road ahead of me, in fields amongst the stubble, and at one location they were feeding on the ground at the feet of cows.
ust as I was leaving the area to start my drive home, the rain arrived. Greatly needed, though we need a whole lot of precipitation to do any good. Alberta is a tinder box, ready to go up in smoke. In fact, yesterday, I saw on the News that there was a small wildfire in Edmonton.
"The breeding habitat of the Yellow-headed Blackbird is cattail (Typha spp.) marshes in North America, mainly west of the Great Lakes. The nest is built with and attached to marsh vegetation. They nest in colonies, often sharing their habitat closely with the Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). During the breeding and nesting season the males are very territorial and spend much of their time perched on reed stalks and displaying or chasing off intruders." From Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-headed_blackbird
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/yellow-headed_blackbird/id
For the sound:
youtu.be/6-Pk-VMtZM0
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