Great Horned Owlet

Is anyone else totally fed up of all the porn spam that is going on right now? Endless 'Likes' on hundreds of my photos by 'young girls' - and it won't stop when you go to their Flickr page, click on About and block them. Blocking them does not work! Plenty of Flickr members are posting complaints on the help forum, but, so far, I haven't seen any response from Flickr staff.

Yesterday, I finally swapped one stressor for another - just crazy. I had been told to try out the replacement Nikon B700 while I was on my two-week trip. Part way through the trip, I gave up - so many of my photos were being ruined because of the shift in composition when I pressed the shutter button all the way down. These images jumped upwards, down or to either side, resulting in headless or half birds, etc.. I had taken three cameras with me - my old, trustworthy Panasonic FZ200 (which unfortunately only has 24x optical zoom); my FZ1000 (a brand new replacement that I received just days before I left the city, which, to my horror, I discovered had the same problem as the original - skipping photos while in Playback), and the Nikon B700. Much as I wanted/needed the 60x optical zoom of the B700, it was just not useable. So, yesterday, I returned it to the store and got a refund. Now I am back to using my old Canon SX60, which I was using just occasionally, and had put aside many months ago, as I find the image stabilization becomes so bad when more zoom is used.

The new stressor started yesterday, when I noticed a large brown stain on my dining room ceiling! A while ago, I had had two new toilets installed, and I discovered that the upstairs one has been leaking. I always turn off the water in my place when I go away, thank goodness, but now I will have to call the plumber and get him to come and take a look. My ceiling looks a mess!

The day before yesterday, 3 June 2018, I had hoped to drive out of the city for an annual morning walk followed by a delicious BBQ lunch. Unfortunately, I never heard back from the leader about whether any others would be going from Calgary (though I was going to drive there myself). As it turned out, I had a great afternoon within the city, with an afternoon walk in Weaselhead with friends, during which we found a Rufous and a Calliope Hummingbird. This long walk was followed by coffee and chat at Tim Horton's, which is always much enjoyed. Thanks, as always, Janet and Bernie!

On my drive home early evening, I made a split second decision to keep driving to Fish Creek Park. I had only been down there twice this year and saw the adult male Great Horned Owl. I had heard that the female was on the nest and later, that there was just one owlet. Yesterday was my first visit to try and find this young one, who had only just recently left the nest. Looking on the more important side, this meant one less person intruding on their area, of course, though I have to say that these owls are remarkably tolerant of humans. If a Canada Goose, on the other hand, should get anywhere near the nest or young ones, Mom or Dad flies in for an immediate attack. I think it would have taken me some time to find it, as it was so high up in a tree. Friends had already found it and were kind enough to take me to see it, which was much appreciated. They also showed me a very high Starling nest with three youngsters peering out. A tree cavity was also pointed out to me, with Mother Goose looking rather bored, incubating her eggs.

"With its long, earlike tufts, intimidating yellow-eyed stare, and deep hooting voice, the Great Horned Owl is the quintessential owl of storybooks. This powerful predator can take down birds and mammals even larger than itself, but it also dines on daintier fare such as tiny scorpions, mice, and frogs. It’s one of the most common owls in North America, equally at home in deserts, wetlands, forests, grasslands, backyards, cities, and almost any other semi-open habitat between the Arctic and the tropics.

Great Horned Owls are nocturnal. You may see them at dusk sitting on fence posts or tree limbs at the edges of open areas, or flying across roads or fields with stiff, deep beats of their rounded wings. Their call is a deep, stuttering series of four to five hoots." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Horned_Owl/id

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_horned_owl