A glimpse through the trees
Pachystachys coccinea?
Torch Ginger, Asa Wright, Trinidad
Red barn in winter
Torch Ginger, deep in the shadows
Watching Scarlet Ibis at Caroni Swamp, Trinidad
Splash of colour
Old barn on drive to Pt Pelee from Toronto, Ontari…
Happy Canada Day
Love an old, red barn
Baneberry, red berries
Mountain Ash berries
Another red barn
Old and weathered
Bringing the straw bales
The Straw Barn
Fall colours
Happy Christmas Day!
Red barn, High River Christmas Bird Count
A favourite old barn
Boldly red
A quick drive-by shot
Red barn through the fog
Old red barn on a foggy day
A 'new' barn
Welcome colour
Farm with sheep and a donkey
Day 6, Northern Cardinal male, southern Texas
Day 5, Vermilion Flycatcher / Pyrocephalus rubinus…
Day 6, Cardinal male, National Butterfly Centre, S…
Day 6, Northern Cardinal male / Cardinalis cardina…
Day 6, Northern Cardinal male
Day 7, Northern Cardinal male
Blossom on red
Old, red barn
Red Baneberry
Weathered window from the smaller red barn
Maltese Cross / Lychnis chalcedonica
Conservatory, Calgary Zoo
Garden flower
Red barn in winter
Barn with the fallen cupola
Happy Christmas Eve!
Here comes the snow
House Sparrow at the Saskatoon Farm
Modern barn
A country scene
New "barn", Granary Road
Down on the farm
The new "Famous Five" at Granary Road
Christmas Market
Weathered wood
Snow-capped berries
Beauty in old age
A fine old barn
Cockshutt tractor, Pioneer Acres
Old red tractor at the Saskatoon Farm
A fine old barn
Grass in bloom
Red Dodge, Pioneer Acres, Alberta
Beauty of an old barn, Alberta
Farm in the foothills
An old red barn
Jackie's Hummingbird
A pot full of colour
Splash of colour
Aphelandra sinclairiana, Asa Wright Nature Centre,…
Torch Ginger, Asa Wright Nature Centre, Trinidad
Powder Puff flower / Calliandra, Trinidad
Splash of colour, Trinidad
They were gone, but now 'they' are back
Hot Lips / Psychotria poeppigiana, Asa Wright Natu…
Torch Ginger / Etlingera elatior, Asa Wright Natur…
Torch Ginger / Etlingera eliator, Trinidad
Splash of colour
Ixora, Blue Waters Inn, Tobago
Bananaquit / Coereba flaveola, Tobago
Strawberries and cream fungus / Hydnellum peckii
The Sickener / Russula emetica?
The old-fashioned way
The peace of a prairie farm - my main photo today
Modern - but I like it
Mailbox or birdhouse?
Snow turns something ordinary into beautiful
A splash of colour on a snowy day
Red's the best in winter
TV's "Heartland" series location
A welcome splash of red
Fall colour
Red beauty on a scree slope
An endless feast for a Ladybug
Ice crystals on a mountain top
Hiding between the rocks
Autumn berries
Strawberries and Cream fungus / Hydnellum peckii
Strawberries and cream fungus / Hydnellum peckii
Little red cabin
Rural decay
Old cabin on Gottlob Schmidt's (Schmitty's) land
Bright and cheery in its old age
And then there were only THREE!
Gaillardia on red
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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On a Christmas Bird Count, -23C
This morning, I just had time to edit and post three photos before dashing out to meet friends so that we could cover our area for Fish Creek Provincial Park's New Year's Day Bird Count. A beautiful day with blue sky and sunshine, but, oh, excruciatingly COLD! A nasty kind of cold that gave us cold feet despite wearing winter boots that are supposed to go down to -40C. So cold that our cameras wouldn't work much of the time. The birds had more sense than humans - they mainly stayed hidden. We only saw 7 species of birds in three hours of walking. This extreme cold is just brutal! Three bitterly COLD, day-long, out-of-the-city Christmas Bird Counts have been more than enough and it's a bit of a relief that the Fish Creek Park Count is also now out of the way. What does the weather go and do now? It finally warms up and will be around normal seasonal temperatures for at least the next few days.
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 three days ago, on 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.
The rural, winter scene in this photo was taken from a large house that we called in at. We had just visited the distant farm with its welcome red barns and sheds. I love seeing the miniature horses there.
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 -30 to 35C), cats stayed 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, so we couldn't search the farmyard, 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 such weather! Also, a huge thank-you to the various landowners who were kind enough to allow us to wander round their farmyards. These visits make our day so much more interesting and rewarding!
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 three days ago, on 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.
The rural, winter scene in this photo was taken from a large house that we called in at. We had just visited the distant farm with its welcome red barns and sheds. I love seeing the miniature horses there.
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 -30 to 35C), cats stayed 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, so we couldn't search the farmyard, 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 such weather! Also, a huge thank-you to the various landowners who were kind enough to allow us to wander round their farmyards. These visits make our day so much more interesting and rewarding!
Nouchetdu38 has particularly liked this photo
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