Black-capped Chickadee

Yesterday evening, 2 April 2018, I was just finishing off backing up exactly one year's worth of my photos and decided to spend a few minutes playing with filters in post-processing. Yes, I know, I should back up my images far more often than that!! My intention had been to see to it during the last few winter months. However, this winter has been one 'bad' thing after another, including someone hacking into my credit card and causing my card to be shut down and taking about five weeks to sort everything out; dealing with the hassle of a camera that is now in for "repair" a second time because it wasn't fixed the first time; worrying about my daughter's upcoming surgery; and going through a frightening cancer scare (which very thankfully turned out to be OK). Blink ... and the winter has almost gone! When I saw the result on this photo of a little Black-capped Chickadee, it almost made me shiver.

This photo was taken two days ago, on 1 April 2018 (Easter Sunday). I decided to join four friends for an afternoon walk in Fish Creek Park, despite the overcast sky, cold temperature and a forecast for yet more snow. We only had a few snowflakes and the following morning, there was just a light dusting over everything. The forecast for this week shows snow on several days.

One of our stops was to see the male Great Horned Owl, perched where he was almost impossible to see, his camouflage was so good. From a distance, I could only shoot through a tangle of branches in front of him. His eyes looked tightly shut and he was no doubt getting some sleep after a busy night of hunting.

We were also lucky to see two Coyotes together, at first way off in the distance and then they came somewhat closer. Beautiful animals, though we were concerned to see them in the area, having been asked by a family if we had seen their puppy that had run off from the parking lot. We kept our eyes open for the two and a half hours that we were walking, but we saw the family still searching. To spot a white dog against all the snow would have been difficult, and it wasn't answering to its name being called. I do hope this had a happy ending!

Migrating birds are beginning to be seen in and around Calgary - but, let's face it, who in their right mind would want to come to a place where spring is still an ongoing time of cold and snow?!

After braving the cold, coffee at Tim Horton's was the perfect ending to our afternoon of birding. On the way there, we stopped to look at a new birding blind that we had heard about. Made from rusty metal with several holes cut out of it, it was certainly a rather unusual sight. Thanks, Bernie and Janet, for leading the walk - always appreciated.