Frank Lake & area

I love these Eared Grebes, with their bright red eyes that look like red buttons. I spent a while trying to photograph several of them at Frank Lake (SE of Calgary) two days ago, 18 May 2013. I say "trying", as I found them to be fairly fast swimmers, who like to keep changing direction. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eared_Grebe/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-necked_Grebe

No, it's not a Black-crowned Night-heron - but I don't know what it is yet! Unless it's a juvenile? Yes, I think it is. Yes, it is! Posted only because I love the wing feather pattern. I didn't know I'd even caught a bird when I clicked as fast as I could this afternoon. Amazingly, I just got this Black-crowned Night Heron before it flew out of the picture. The weather forecast warned about thunderstorms this afternoon, but, as this seems to occur on an almost daily basis, I decided to risk it and drive south to Frank Lake. Takes about 35 minutes from the southern edge of Calgary to reach this popular location for birders (and for people walking their dog!). It was deserted when I arrived, which always makes me feel a little uncomfortable. I walked along the boardwalk to the blind and about two feet from it, suddenly there was a bit of a commotion overhead and this Black-Crowned Night-heron flew over, followed by several White-faced Ibis. I swung around with my camera, completely forgetting that there is a warning sign about the deep water on either side. It would be so easy to lose ones balance, which I'm usually conscious about. I didn't see the heron again, but I did see six or eight Ibis circling in the distance several times. The water level is high and the Ibis were not to be seen where I've seen them before. Useless for photos, though I might pick out the "best" one to post later.

So much fun to try and photograph these Eared Grebes, who are fast swimmers and who like to change direction all the time : ) Rewarding when you do manage to capture an in-focus shot. Kind of missed its tail, though : ) I love their bright red eyes - to me, they always look like little buttons sewn on. Taken at Frank Lake, SE of Calgary, on 18 May 2013.

Yesterday, 17 December 2013, it was a long day of Christmas Bird Count south of the city. A group of nine of us, travelling in two vehicles, covered part of the huge circle around High River. A few others from Calgary, plus quite a few people from the town, covered the rest. We were so lucky with the weather - the temperature actually got up to 9C! (Ha, as I'm typing, it's -9C with a windchill of -14C, and the Snowfall Warning that is in effect is proving to be 100% accurate!). We left Calgary at 7:15 a.m. yesterday, but by the time we arrived at Frank Lake, our first destination (seen in the photo above), the sunrise was just beginning. On this count last year, every plant and blade of dry grass was covered in wonderful hoar frost - not so lucky this time. Snow depth was from bare ground to 15 cm, with drifts to 100cm, and there was no open water at the lake. From the report: 6 kms on foot; 75kms by car; 3 hrs on foot, 5 hours by car. The day was spent driving the side roads, and calling in at various homesteads and farms. We had three species of owl, which, as you can imagine, delighted everyone in my group. We had hoped to see a Snowy Owl, but no luck this year. My group had 19 species of bird by the end of the day - we finished driving around 3:00 p.m..Noticeably lacking were small birds, such as Snow Buntings - so I had to make do with owls, lol! The final list for our group, covering two areas, was: Mallard-12/ 0= 12 Northern Pintail-1 f./ 0= 1 Common Goldeneye-4/0= 4 Gray Partridge-17/30= 47 Ring-necked Pheasant-3/0= 3 Bald Eagle-1ad/1ad= 2 Northern Harrier-1/ 0= 1 Great Horned Owl-4/1= 5 Long-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Short-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Rock Pigeon-47/7= 54 Downy Woodpecker-1/ 0= 1 Northern Flicker-1/0= 1 Black-billed Magpie-7/24= 31 Common Raven-2/1= 3 Horned Lark-2/0= 2 Black-capped Chickadee-0/1= 1 American Tree Sparrow-6/0= 6 House Sparrow-35/140= 175 The absolutely gorgeous Long-eared Owl, seen in the next photo posted today, was on someone's private land. We were given permission to wander around, searching the trees and open area. A few people had gone ahead of me just a matter of steps, when suddenly, to my amazement and total delight, I noticed this little owl hiding deep within a Spruce tree : ))) Couldn't believe my eyes! I've seen three (?) of these owls before, but each time is as exciting as if it were the very first time. Actually, we had already seen another Long-eared Owl earlier in the day! You won't believe this, but two trees away from this Spruce tree - the trees were all squashed together and looked more like one huge tree - there was a beautiful Great Horned Owl! Of course, we were all hoping that the GHO won't take the smaller owl for its supper! Oh, did I mention that two Short-eared Owls were spotted by someone in the first car, hidden amongst the dead grasses? They were sitting there, facing each other, and I managed to just get a couple of rather poor photos. Another thrill of the day : ) At the end of the day, some of the people involved in this count stayed for a pot-luck supper. Thanks so much to everyone who organized this annual Count and worked so hard with preparing for the meal. We always enjoy this time at the end of a long day, chatting about what we'd all been seeing in the various segments of the huge circle. Special thanks to Greg Wagner, who organized the whole event - well done, as usual, Greg : )

Two days ago, 17 December 2013, it was a long day of Christmas Bird Count south of the city. A group of nine of us, travelling in two vehicles, covered part of the huge circle around High River. A few others from Calgary, plus quite a few people from the town, covered the rest. We were so lucky with the weather - the temperature actually got up to 9C! (Ha, as I'm typing, it's -22C with a windchill of -30C!) We left Calgary at 7:15 a.m., but by the time we arrived at Frank Lake, our first destination (seen in the photo above), the sunrise was just beginning. On this count last year, every plant and blade of dry grass was covered in wonderful hoar frost - not so lucky this time. Snow depth was from bare ground to 15 cm, with drifts to 100cm, and there was no open water at the lake. From the report: 6 kms on foot; 75kms by car; 3 hrs on foot, 5 hours by car. The day was spent driving the side roads, and calling in at various homesteads and farms. We had three species of owl, which, as you can imagine, delighted everyone in my group. We had hoped to see a Snowy Owl, but no luck this year. My group had 19 species of bird by the end of the day - we finished driving around 3:00 p.m..Noticeably lacking were small birds, such as Snow Buntings - so I had to make do with owls, lol! The total species count for the whole of the circle was 40. The final list for our group, covering two areas, was: Mallard-12/ 0= 12 Northern Pintail-1 f./ 0= 1 Common Goldeneye-4/0= 4 Gray Partridge-17/30= 47 Ring-necked Pheasant-3/0= 3 Bald Eagle-1ad/1ad= 2 Northern Harrier-1/ 0= 1 Great Horned Owl-4/1= 5 Long-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Short-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Rock Pigeon-47/7= 54 Downy Woodpecker-1/ 0= 1 Northern Flicker-1/0= 1 Black-billed Magpie-7/24= 31 Common Raven-2/1= 3 Horned Lark-2/0= 2 Black-capped Chickadee-0/1= 1 American Tree Sparrow-6/0= 6 House Sparrow-35/140= 175 At the end of the day, some of the people involved in this count stayed for a pot-luck supper. Thanks so much to everyone who organized this annual Count and worked so hard with preparing for the meal. We always enjoy this time at the end of a long day, chatting about what we'd all been seeing in the various segments of the huge circle. Special thanks to Greg Wagner, who organized the whole event - well done, as usual, Greg : )

A group of nine of us took part in the town of High River's Christmas Bird Count, half an hour's drive south of Calgary, two days ago, 17 December 2013. As far as owls go, we were so lucky to find 5 Great Horned Owls, 2 Long-eared Owls and 2 Short-eared Owls. We had been hoping to find a Snowy Owl, too, like on last year's Count, but we were out of luck this time. The two Short-eared Owls were sitting facing each other in the long, dry grasses not far from the edge of the road. I could just grab a couple of shots of each Owl from my seat in the back of the second car - not good photos, but at least you can get an idea of what we saw. An article that discusses the importance of Bird Preservation: birding.about.com/od/birdconservation/a/importconserve.htm

On 17 December 2013, it was a long day of Christmas Bird Count south of the city. A group of nine of us, travelling in two vehicles, covered part of the huge circle around High River. A few others from Calgary, plus quite a few people from the town, covered the rest. We were so lucky with the weather - the temperature actually got up to 9C! (Ha, as I'm typing, it's -22C with a windchill of -30C!) We left Calgary at 7:15 a.m., but by the time we arrived at Frank Lake, our first destination (seen in the photo above), the sunrise was just beginning. On this count last year, every plant and blade of dry grass was covered in wonderful hoar frost - not so lucky this time. Snow depth was from bare ground to 15 cm, with drifts to 100cm, and there was no or little open water at the lake. From the report: 6 kms on foot; 75kms by car; 3 hrs on foot, 5 hours by car. The day was spent driving the side roads, and calling in at various homesteads and farms. We had three species of owl, which, as you can imagine, delighted everyone in my group. We had hoped to see a Snowy Owl, but no luck this year. My group had 19 species of bird by the end of the day - we finished driving around 3:00 p.m..Noticeably lacking were small birds, such as Snow Buntings - so I had to make do with owls, lol! The total species count for the whole of the circle was 40. The final list for our small group, covering two areas, was: Mallard-12/ 0= 12 Northern Pintail-1 f./ 0= 1 Common Goldeneye-4/0= 4 Gray Partridge-17/30= 47 Ring-necked Pheasant-3/0= 3 Bald Eagle-1ad/1ad= 2 Northern Harrier-1/ 0= 1 Great Horned Owl-4/1= 5 Long-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Short-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Rock Pigeon-47/7= 54 Downy Woodpecker-1/ 0= 1 Northern Flicker-1/0= 1 Black-billed Magpie-7/24= 31 Common Raven-2/1= 3 Horned Lark-2/0= 2 Black-capped Chickadee-0/1= 1 American Tree Sparrow-6/0= 6 House Sparrow-35/140= 175 At the end of the day, some of the people involved in this count stayed for a pot-luck supper. Thanks so much to everyone who organized this annual Count and worked so hard with preparing for the meal. We always enjoy this time at the end of a long day, chatting about what we'd all been seeing in the various segments of the huge circle. Special thanks to Greg Wagner, who organized the whole event - well done, as usual, Greg : )

Another last-minute invitation - how lucky I am - so I will be out for the whole day today. My alarms were set for just after 5:00 a.m. and I overslept till 6:00 a.m., after finally getting to bed around 2:30 a.m.! Shouldn't even be on my computer! Anyway, will have to add descriptions when I get back home. Will just add that this is a grainy image - poor light for my point-and-shoot, and taken from a car window. Better than nothing, though : ) Quite often, when I take photos from inside the car, my photos just don't come out how they should and I'm never quite sure exactly why. The car was turned off, but maybe there was still some heat rising from it. Thanks so much for the invite and for spotting this Short-eared Owl, Phil! Photo taken in the Frank Lake area, S of Calgary, on 20 December 2013.

Had a great day yesterday with friends Cathy and Terry, driving the backroads SE of the city, hoping to see an owl or two. The day started off with a Long-eared Owl and ended with a Short-eared Owl! In total, we saw 5 Snowy Owls, 4 Great Horned Owls, 1 Long-eared Owl and 1 Short-eared Owl. Plus a few other species, including this Northern Shrike, many Grey Partridges (all of which flew before we could take photos, other than a couple of very distant ones), Horned Larks, Ravens/Crows, owls in barn windows, a beautiful Gyrfalcon and a colourful sunrise. Not a bad day, I think you'll agree : ) I rarely get to see a Shrike and though this is a distant, heavily cropped shot, I was happy to have got a record of this sighting. The only thing we didn't see, except briefly, was the forecast sun, so unfortunately it was an overcast day of low light. "A predatory songbird, the Northern Shrike breeds in taiga and tundra and winters in southern Canada and the northern United States. It feeds on small birds, mammals, and insects, sometimes impaling them on spines or barbed wire fences." A common name is "Butcher Bird" for obvious reasons : ) Form AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/northern_shrike/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Grey_Shrike