American Robin

This morning, I dragged myself away from my computer and joined a group of friends for a walk at Carburn Park, down by the Bow River. I missed the walks the last two weeks for one reason or another, and it felt good to take a short break from going through my Trinidad & Tobago photos - not to mention posting them! - but I know I must plod on. I only took a handful of photos today, as the birds were so far away. However, I was happy to see an American Robin posing nicely down by the edge of the river. Not far away, we found a Robin's egg lying on the ground. A brilliantly coloured Baltimore Oriole flitted from branch to branch, usually mostly hidden by leaves, but I did manage to get a very distant, cropped shot. A second Oriole was spotted in the same area. Towards the end of our walk, we stood and watched a pair of Canada Geese swimming with a long line of maybe 20 or more goslings, all in a very disciplined line. Apparently, some orphaned goslings had been placed with this pair, for them to adopt. It seemed to be working out just fine. Once they all reached a sandbar, then chaos ruled, with each gosling moving in a different direction. It almost looked like the adults seemed to be a little frazzled. Hopefully, tomorrow I will get some time to start on the photos from Day 7 of our trip to Trinidad & Tobago.

This morning, I dragged myself away from my computer and joined a group of friends for a walk at Carburn Park, down by the Bow River. I missed the walks the last two weeks for one reason or another, and it felt good to take a short break from going through my Trinidad & Tobago photos - not to mention posting them! - but I know I must plod on. I only took a handful of photos today, as the birds were so far away. However, I was happy to see this American Robin posing nicely down by the edge of the river. Not far away, we found a Robin's egg lying on the ground. A brilliantly coloured Baltimore Oriole flitted from branch to branch, usually mostly hidden by leaves, but I did manage to get a very distant, cropped shot. A second Oriole was spotted in the same area. Towards the end of our walk, we stood and watched a pair of Canada Geese swimming with a long line of maybe 20 or more goslings, all in a very disciplined line. Apparently, some orphaned goslings had been placed with this pair, for them to adopt. It seemed to be working out just fine. Once they all reached a sandbar, then chaos ruled, with each gosling moving in a different direction. It almost looked like the adults seemed to be a little frazzled. Hopefully, tomorrow I will get some time to start on the photos from Day 7 of our trip to Trinidad & Tobago.

I guess I haven't posted any photos yet from a morning birding walk at Carburn Park, on 21 May 2017. Last week, I went on two walks at that location, as I had missed walks the previous two weeks. Not a whole lot to photograph, but I was happy to catch an American Robin each time. Such beautiful, but rather overlooked, birds. One of the first things I saw was a Comma butterfly that landed on a tree trunk - love the shape of their wings. Soon after, we came across a family - a very large family! - of Canada Geese. We counted at least 20+ young ones, so this must have been the family with which some abandoned or orphaned goslings had been placed. The youngsters totally ignored us, they were so busy feeding near the edge of the path. A large group of American White Pelicans, standing on a gravel bar in the middle of the Bow River, were a pleasure to see. The Fire Rescue Boat flushed them as it sped down the river. Carburn Park is always a nice place for a walk and a sunny day always helps. The sound of three Baltimore Orioles hiding in the trees was a lovely addition. Glad I actually saw one on my previous walk there.

Late afternoon on 20 July 2017, the smoke haze from the B.C. and Alberta wildfires seemed to have lifted somewhat. So, I took a drive along some of my favourite roads SW of the city, seeing a few of the 'usual' things. These included this handsome American Robin, who was busy collecting small insects for his babies. He flew in just when I was looking for Mountain Bluebirds, landed on a fence post and then off he flew. Such beautiful, but often overlooked, birds. In between photographing Mountain Bluebirds, I drove part way along a road that I had only ever been on once before, and that was quite recently. Usually, I am home earlier than I was on this particular day. This later time meant that I was lucky enough to see two families of deer - White-tailed and Mule Deer. The first was a Mule Deer doe with her fawn standing at the edge of the road. I pulled over way down the road and waited till they had safely crossed. Managed to get a couple of distant shot through the windscreen, with the usual poor quality results. I knew that there would be a barbed-wire fence the far side of the road and I didn't want to spook them and risk them getting tangled in the sharp barbs. Several years ago, I had seen a huge Moose get spooked and then get briefly tangled in barbed wire - it spooked when it suddenly realized that some cows had quietly come up behind it!

Uploading problems again! I just can't get my main photo (American Kestrel) to upload! Tried old and 'new' uploader and drag and drop - nothing works. Now showing. Good luck, SmugMug! You've got your work cut out for you, now that you have taken over the Flickr website, but keeping it as a separate site. Sounds very hopeful, though : ) I have a good many of my photos (same ones as on Flickr) already on the SmugMug site. Adding a link to my main page, in case anyone is not familiar with SmugMug. annkelliott.smugmug.com/ Yesterday afternoon, 20 April 2018, I had no choice but to go out somewhere to test a Nikon Coolpix B700. I had returned the original one to the store as soon as I got a chance to use it, as it had a major problem. When taking maybe half the photos, the camera would give a loud "clunk" that could be heard and felt. Fortunately, I had just come across someone's review online and it mentioned what his camera was doing - when the shutter button was pressed, the image was suddenly shifted upward, downward or to one side. This was exactly what was happening with my camera each time the clunk was heard and felt. As a result I was getting headless birds or birds without the tail or feet (like the Robin in this photo)! So, I took the camera back to the store and was given a replacement to try out. I am finding the same problem with shifting, but there is no "clunk" to be heard or felt. Now I need to try and find out the connection between this image shifting and perhaps Image Stabilization/Vibration Reduction. The extra zoom on this camera, along with it having 60x optical (instead of the 24X optical on my Panasonic FZ200) is what I need. Anyway, I took my usual short drive SW of the city to find some things that I could photograph. Not a whole lot to be found, but a group of three competing American Robins made my first stop. Later, three distant Mountain Bluebirds were in fighting mode and two of them were down on the ground in quite a vicious attack. Too far away for more than snapshots. I also stopped to watch three distant Hawks that were competing. You know what they say : "Two's company, three's a crowd". A very cooperative American Kestrel gave me a good chance to try out the camera at different zoom distances. Cars were a different thing - and I was not on the best road for stopping, so I ended up driving the same stretch of road several times. These birds are so beautiful. I knew that this one caught something to eat, but it was timed just when another car came down the road and I needed to move on. Of course, an old barn is always a bonus. The one I posted today shows how fields are still covered in snow. This should disappear before too long, as we have much warmer temperatures coming up. Unfortunately, after so much snow this winter, there is now flooding in fields and over roads south of us. Before heading out that way, it is a good idea to check which roads are closed. The sun was shining for most of my drive, with cloud moving in towards the time I wanted to leave. A stop to pick up some delicious chili was the final stop of the afternoon.

Back to local birds, but also back to the archives. It was a case of either post no photos this morning or quickly grab three from my archives. Still taking no new photos and still missing all the new bird arrivals back to the city and surroundings, which is so frustrating and disappointing. Soon, that will change, and I will be so thankful. Late afternoon on 20 July 2017, the smoke haze from the B.C. and Alberta wildfires seemed to have lifted somewhat. So, I took a drive along some of my favourite roads SW of the city, seeing a few of the 'usual' things. These included this handsome American Robin, who was busy collecting insects for his babies. He flew in just when I was looking for Mountain Bluebirds, landed on a fence post and then off he flew. Such beautiful, but often overlooked, birds. In between photographing Mountain Bluebirds, I drove part way along a road that I had only ever been on once before, and that was quite recently. Usually, I am home earlier than I was on this particular day. This later time meant that I was lucky enough to see two families of deer - White-tailed and Mule Deer. The first was a Mule Deer doe with her fawn standing at the edge of the road. I pulled over way down the road and waited till they had safely crossed. Managed to get a couple of distant shot through the windscreen, with the usual poor quality results. I knew that there would be a barbed-wire fence the far side of the road and I didn't want to spook them and risk them getting tangled in the sharp barbs. Several years ago, I had seen a huge Moose get spooked and then get briefly tangled in barbed wire - it spooked when it suddenly realized that some farm cows had quietly come up behind it!