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
Common Nighthawk
Sheep at the Rusty Bucket Ranch
Mountain Bluebird female
Splash of colour
A road less travelled
An old red barn
Farm in the foothills
The Long house, Pioneer Acres, Alberta, Canada
Disappearing Skunk - just for the record
The charred remains of McDougall Memorial United C…
Great Horned Owl on a fence post
I think he caught a beautiful Tiger Moth : )
Along a country back road
Female Mountain Bluebird / Sialia currucoides
Entrance to the Ellis Bird Farm
The old barn at the Ellis Bird Farm
01 Spic and span
McDougall Memorial United Church
Dandelions - of course : )
Wilson's Snipe, seen from afar
Still standing
Yellow-headed Blackbirds in every direction
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
See also...
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193 visits
Such good parents
HAPPY FATHER'S DAY!
Later: thought I would add a link here, to a video about two local friends (Don and Andrew Stiles, father and son) who have spent many years building bluebird boxes and monitoring Mountain Bluebirds. Inspiring to see the dedication these two men have for the preservation of this beautiful species of bird.
calgary.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=678225&binId=1.120191...
Yesterday evening, 18 June 2016, I went for a short drive SW of the city. I had pulled over on the other side of the road and managed to get just three shots of a beautiful Wilson's Snipe, when a car came along in the opposite direction. The lady slowed down and asked if I was a birdwatcher. She told me that she had just passed an enormous Bald Eagle - bigger than any she had ever seen - perched on a fence post. Well, of course the Snipe flew off and I definitely wasn't expecting a Bald Eagle to still be sitting where it had been seen. I thanked the thoughtful lady and continued my drive, eventually spotting 'something' big in the distance. I couldn't believe it when I saw it was the Eagle. Expecting it to take off as soon as it saw my car, it surprised me by remaining right where it was. Wrong side of the road and with its back to me, I was in awe! Not sure if I've ever seen a Bald Eagle perched on a fence post before or this close (at least when zoomed in).
I was even more grateful to have seen this majestic bird of prey when I went to check on a nearby Mountain Bluebird pair and there was nothing to be seen. I then stopped at a different pair and, though I did see the female high up on the wire, there was no activity at all. When I eventually reached a third box - where I had recently photographed the male with a beautiful moth in its beak - I saw a Tree Swallow's face peeping out of the hole. When I was there two days ago, I just knew that the babies were going to fledge any moment and I was so disappointed that I wasn't able to visit them in the last two days.
After driving further to see if I could see either of the Great Gray Owls or the Bobolinks, I was out of luck with both. This made the Bald Eagle sighting more special than ever! Then, driving down a road that I don't normally drive, I spotted a 'new' pair of Mountain Bluebirds (seen in this photo). Both Mom and Dad were kept so busy, collecting caterpillars and other insects to feed to their babies. These were definitely 'Bluebirds of Happiness' yesterday evening, However, soon, the grey sky and low light finally took a toll on my camera or, should I say, my knowledge of how to use it? It was time to call it quits and head for home.
In Bluebirds, the blue colour is produced by the structure of the feather - there is no blue pigment. "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. Examples include the blue feathers of Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Blue Jay's and Steller's Jays."
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Bluebird/id
www.jstor.org/discover/pgs/index?id=10.2307/4077277&i...
Later: thought I would add a link here, to a video about two local friends (Don and Andrew Stiles, father and son) who have spent many years building bluebird boxes and monitoring Mountain Bluebirds. Inspiring to see the dedication these two men have for the preservation of this beautiful species of bird.
calgary.ctvnews.ca/video?clipId=678225&binId=1.120191...
Yesterday evening, 18 June 2016, I went for a short drive SW of the city. I had pulled over on the other side of the road and managed to get just three shots of a beautiful Wilson's Snipe, when a car came along in the opposite direction. The lady slowed down and asked if I was a birdwatcher. She told me that she had just passed an enormous Bald Eagle - bigger than any she had ever seen - perched on a fence post. Well, of course the Snipe flew off and I definitely wasn't expecting a Bald Eagle to still be sitting where it had been seen. I thanked the thoughtful lady and continued my drive, eventually spotting 'something' big in the distance. I couldn't believe it when I saw it was the Eagle. Expecting it to take off as soon as it saw my car, it surprised me by remaining right where it was. Wrong side of the road and with its back to me, I was in awe! Not sure if I've ever seen a Bald Eagle perched on a fence post before or this close (at least when zoomed in).
I was even more grateful to have seen this majestic bird of prey when I went to check on a nearby Mountain Bluebird pair and there was nothing to be seen. I then stopped at a different pair and, though I did see the female high up on the wire, there was no activity at all. When I eventually reached a third box - where I had recently photographed the male with a beautiful moth in its beak - I saw a Tree Swallow's face peeping out of the hole. When I was there two days ago, I just knew that the babies were going to fledge any moment and I was so disappointed that I wasn't able to visit them in the last two days.
After driving further to see if I could see either of the Great Gray Owls or the Bobolinks, I was out of luck with both. This made the Bald Eagle sighting more special than ever! Then, driving down a road that I don't normally drive, I spotted a 'new' pair of Mountain Bluebirds (seen in this photo). Both Mom and Dad were kept so busy, collecting caterpillars and other insects to feed to their babies. These were definitely 'Bluebirds of Happiness' yesterday evening, However, soon, the grey sky and low light finally took a toll on my camera or, should I say, my knowledge of how to use it? It was time to call it quits and head for home.
In Bluebirds, the blue colour is produced by the structure of the feather - there is no blue pigment. "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. Examples include the blue feathers of Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Blue Jay's and Steller's Jays."
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Bluebird/id
www.jstor.org/discover/pgs/index?id=10.2307/4077277&i...
Malik Raoulda, have particularly liked this photo
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