Red barn in winter
Handsome Pine Grosbeak male
On a Christmas Bird Count, -23C
An old dog named Fang
Happy New Year, everyone!
A glimpse through the trees
An upside-down kind of life
A rural Christmas
Old barns in winter
Miniature horses in a winter playground
Pine Grosbeak female or juvenile
What is this?
Rusty and abandoned
Who am I?
Plain, but welcome
A view from yesterday
Ghost Reservoir
Remembering winter
Have you ever seen a furry pig?
A favourite old barn
Christmas Llama - oops, Bird! - Count
Llama in winter
Up close with a Llama
Llama
Overload of Llamas : )
The white Llama
Boldly red
Llama beauty
A quick drive-by shot
Northern Hawk Owl juevnile - from the archives
Great Gray Owl - from the archives
Great Gray Owl - from my archives
Upturned Three-flowered Avens / Geum triflorum
Fungi in the Ghost River forest
Treasures of the Ghost River forest - a little bi…
Mountain Death Camas / Zigadenus elegans
Colour in the garden
Edible King Oyster mushrooms, Akesi Farms
Slime mold, Pringle Mt forest walk
Common Redpoll
A peaceful winter scene
Blackened remains of McDougall Memorial United Chu…
The charred remains of McDougall Memorial United C…
Lenticular (?) clouds over the mountains
Common Raven keeping watch
Lovable Llama
Great Gray Owl from 2013
A highlight of a bird count
The joy of winter roads
The old-fashioned way
Goat's-beard with visitor
Northern Hawk Owl from 2016
Mailbox or birdhouse?
Woolly and warm
Don't you spit!
Barn with a mural
I love Llamas
A beautiful start to a day
Winter on the farm
Longhorn cattle
Colour for a snowy day
Goat's-beard
Longhorn
Hike on Erik Butters' beautiful land
False Dandelion / Hypochaeris radicata
Great Gray Owl in late-morning sun
There WAS a fence between us
Spotted Coralroot / Corallorhiza maculata
Meadow Creek area, Benchlands
On the fence
Successful hunting
Watching closely
An over-the-shoulder glance
Great Gray Owl, side profile
Munching on cone seeds
Black and white lichen
Comma butterfly - one of my favourites
Sweet equine faces
Great Gray Owl from 2012
Home tweet home
A quick shot just in time
Another view at William J Bagnall Wildlife Park
A serious pose
A white barn from yesterday
William J. Bagnall Wilderness Park
Northern Hawk Owl
Without its camouflage
Great Gray Owlet from June 2012
Missed opportunity
Great Gray Owl, focused
Great Gray Owl - breathtaking
A close landing
Surveying its territory
Blowing in the wind
Perched on a broken tree trunk
Rolling hills and distant peaks
A sky filled with clouds
Remembering a winter day
Got my eyes on you
One of a pair
Mountain view on an owl-less day
See also...
Cochrane Wildlife Reserve Christmas Bird Count, December 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018
Cochrane Wildlife Reserve Christmas Bird Count, December 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018
Keywords
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Love a Llama
Today's (30 December 2017) weather forecast: "Extreme Cold Warning. A prolonged period of very cold wind chills is expected. Extreme cold conditions are expected to continue through the weekend." Our temperature today is -29°C (windchill -38°C) and light snow is still falling. Will this extreme cold ever end? Having just done three, day-long Counts in such bitterly cold weather, it looks like things should warm up just in time for the Fish Creek Provincial Park's annual New Year's Day Count. We will have an awful lot of snow to trudge through, though.
A video from the Weather Network website, showing how cold it is in Calgary right now:
www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/videos/gallery/watch-this-ho...
This photo was taken yesterday, 29 December 2017, when four of us (using just one car) took part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the Cochrane Wildlife Reserve area. I'm not sure why it's called Wildlife Reserve, as it consists of back roads and farms just like on our other Counts. The area we covered (right on the east edge of the count circle) was east of Highway 22/Cowboy Trail (across from the Water Valley area).
The first evidence of any wildlife for me, first thing in the morning, was a Jackrabbit that was nibbling on snow-covered plants right outside our leader's house. Of course, at 7:15 in the morning, it was still dark.
This is one of the Llamas seen at one of the farms we called in at during our coverage yesterday. This farmer has several of these large, amusing animals, and they are always one of the highlights of this Count for me. I'm not sure how many Llamas they have - somewhere around 7? Most of these animals were given to them by other farmers who no longer wanted them.
"Llamas appear to have originated from the central plains of North America about 40 million years ago. They migrated to South America and Asia about 3 million years ago. By the end of the last ice age (10,000–12,000 years ago) camelids were extinct in North America. As of 2007, there were over 7 million llamas and alpacas in South America and, due to importation from South America in the late 20th century, there are now over 100,000 llamas and 6,500–7,000 alpacas in the US and Canada." From Wikipedia.
Another of my favourite farms to stop at has a beautiful, old dog named Fang, along with beautiful cats, and I always look forward to seeing them each year. This day, though, with a temperature of -23C all day (windchill probably at least -30C), kept cats indoors. I caught a brief glimpse of just one cat outside. The neighbouring farm, which is also included in our area, has two beautiful old, red barns and I was longing to see these again. Unfortunately, no one was home, but I did get the chance to take two rapid shots through the trees of one of the barns, from a side view, which I had only seen for the first time on last year's Count.
Another farm we stopped at had beautiful Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls coming to a feeder. A joy to see these splashes of colour in a very cold, white, white world.
So, it was a very enjoyable day, though there were not all that many species or individual birds to be seen. Too cold and too much snow to spend much time searching various farmyards, and we had finished the Count by 2:30 pm. I will add a list of the bird species seen, in a comment box below. Many thanks, Dave, for driving us. You did a great job of handling roads that were not in the greatest condition, and it was greatly appreciated. The light was awful all day, and it was so difficult to see where the ditch was and where one road turned off to another. There is no way I would ever try driving on our back roads in winter! Also, a huge thank-you to the various landowners who were kind enough to allow us to wander around their farmyards. These visits make our day much more interesting!
A video from the Weather Network website, showing how cold it is in Calgary right now:
www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/videos/gallery/watch-this-ho...
This photo was taken yesterday, 29 December 2017, when four of us (using just one car) took part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the Cochrane Wildlife Reserve area. I'm not sure why it's called Wildlife Reserve, as it consists of back roads and farms just like on our other Counts. The area we covered (right on the east edge of the count circle) was east of Highway 22/Cowboy Trail (across from the Water Valley area).
The first evidence of any wildlife for me, first thing in the morning, was a Jackrabbit that was nibbling on snow-covered plants right outside our leader's house. Of course, at 7:15 in the morning, it was still dark.
This is one of the Llamas seen at one of the farms we called in at during our coverage yesterday. This farmer has several of these large, amusing animals, and they are always one of the highlights of this Count for me. I'm not sure how many Llamas they have - somewhere around 7? Most of these animals were given to them by other farmers who no longer wanted them.
"Llamas appear to have originated from the central plains of North America about 40 million years ago. They migrated to South America and Asia about 3 million years ago. By the end of the last ice age (10,000–12,000 years ago) camelids were extinct in North America. As of 2007, there were over 7 million llamas and alpacas in South America and, due to importation from South America in the late 20th century, there are now over 100,000 llamas and 6,500–7,000 alpacas in the US and Canada." From Wikipedia.
Another of my favourite farms to stop at has a beautiful, old dog named Fang, along with beautiful cats, and I always look forward to seeing them each year. This day, though, with a temperature of -23C all day (windchill probably at least -30C), kept cats indoors. I caught a brief glimpse of just one cat outside. The neighbouring farm, which is also included in our area, has two beautiful old, red barns and I was longing to see these again. Unfortunately, no one was home, but I did get the chance to take two rapid shots through the trees of one of the barns, from a side view, which I had only seen for the first time on last year's Count.
Another farm we stopped at had beautiful Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls coming to a feeder. A joy to see these splashes of colour in a very cold, white, white world.
So, it was a very enjoyable day, though there were not all that many species or individual birds to be seen. Too cold and too much snow to spend much time searching various farmyards, and we had finished the Count by 2:30 pm. I will add a list of the bird species seen, in a comment box below. Many thanks, Dave, for driving us. You did a great job of handling roads that were not in the greatest condition, and it was greatly appreciated. The light was awful all day, and it was so difficult to see where the ditch was and where one road turned off to another. There is no way I would ever try driving on our back roads in winter! Also, a huge thank-you to the various landowners who were kind enough to allow us to wander around their farmyards. These visits make our day much more interesting!
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