White-tailed Deer through the snow
Silky Anteater, Caroni Swamp, Trinidad
Agouti, Asa Wright, Trinidad
Young and innocent
A lucky Moose day
Nibbling on a tasty leaf
Yellow-bellied Marmot
Agouti, Trinidad
Bighorn Sheep mom and youngster
Red Fox (just for the record)
One of two Coyotes
Wild European Rabbit
Jackrabbit
Cinnamon Black Bear, Waterton Lakes National Park,…
The start of a great day
Black Bear seen through the bus window
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel munching on Yellow…
Black Bear seen from the bus
Jackie's squirrel - Red or Eastern Gray?
Columbian Ground Squirrel / Urocitellus columbianu…
Thirsty Bighorn Sheep
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel
American Pika - such a cutie
Day 7, Harbor Seal, Saguenay Fjord, Tadoussac
Yellow-bellied Marmot - from the archives
Jackrabbit in my garden
Pika - tiny fluffball
Terrible photos - but it was a GRIZZLY : )
Bighorn curiosity
Grizzly & one of her two cubs
Bighorn Sheep female
Grizzly female (#152) and cubs
Bighorn Sheep
Bighorn Sheep licking salt off the highway
Grizzly Bear sow - mother of two cubs
Bighorn Sheep female
Hungry Moose
Unexpected, and very welcome, Moose
She can't see me
Licking salt from the road
Sweet White-tailed doe
Learning from Mom
Bighorn Sheep on the slope
A Coyote's last look back
Bighorn Sheep, mom and youngster
Beautiful Mule Deer doe
Disappearing Skunk - just for the record
Freeze!
Pika, on a windy day
On the way down
Remember to stop and smell the .... wildflowers
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel in a Pika's cave
Waiting for the herd to descend
Keeping watch over the herd
Small and fast .... and adorable
Licking salt off the road
Mule Deer doe
Wild European Rabbit
My new neighbour?
Forever cute
White-tailed Deer
White-tailed Deer family
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel
Bighorn Sheep, Waterton Lakes National Park
Beautiful blonde Black Bear
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel
Beautiful Mule Deer family
"They can't see me"
"Alan, Alan, Alan ...Steve, Steve!"
The look that says: "Please feed me"
Agouti, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad
Muskrat, SW Calgary
Agouti, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad
Moose in the mountains
Guardian of the path
Yellow-bellied Marmot
It's Pika time - again
Moose from the archives
A sweet encounter
Pika pose
Two's company
Curious Moose
Bighorn Sheep, number 18
Confused bunny
Love those little Pika feet
Muskrat ripples
Hungry little Chipmunk
A brief close encounter
Eye contact with a very distant Moose
02 Two young Moose
One of four Moose seen yesterday
It's that little guy (gal) again
Coyote on the hunt
Mid-squeak!
Light-coloured Pika
Bighorn Sheep on Plateau Mountain, 2012
Push!
Between a rock and a hard place
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
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Jackrabbit, seen in my car headlights
This morning's temperature is -29C (windchill -40C), with a lovely blue sky and sunshine. I have no intention of going out today, except to clear all the snow off my car ready for tomorrow's New Year's Day Bird Count for Fish Creek Park. This extreme cold is just brutal! Three COLD, day-long, out-of-the-city Christmas Bird Counts have been more than enough.
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 the day before 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.
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.
One of my favourite things to photograph on this annual Count are the Llamas at one of the farms.. 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), cats stayed indoors. I caught a brief glimpse of only 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.
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 so 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 the day before 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.
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.
One of my favourite things to photograph on this annual Count are the Llamas at one of the farms.. 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), cats stayed indoors. I caught a brief glimpse of only 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.
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 so much more interesting!
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