Frank Lake & area

Lol, this is certainly a different perch from the more usual power pole! Not sure if it's better, or not, but it definitely makes a change : ) Had a great day yesterday with friends Cathy and Terry, driving the backroads SE of the city, hoping to see an owl or two. My title for this photo came from Terry's description of the day we had - it started off with a Long-eared Owl and ended with a Short-eared Owl! In total, we saw 5 Snowy Owls including this handsome male, 4 Great Horned Owls, 1 Long-eared Owl and 1 Short-eared Owl. Plus a few other species, including a 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 : ) The only thing we didn't see, except briefly, was the sun, so we had low light all day, unfortunately! It was so unbearably cold all day, windchill temperature was -30C. A few seconds out of the car and fingers were so painful. despite wearing gloves. Difficult to hold the camera steady when one is shivering, ha. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_Owl www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/snowy_owl/id

This Long-eared Owl was the first of two that a group of us saw during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count in the High River area, on 17 December 2013. No idea how the person spotted it as we were driving along the road, it was so well hidden in a tangle of branches.

Gotta dash and get ready to go and meet friends for a day of owling : ) This gorgeous sunrise, taken looking over frozen Frank Lake, started our day of amazing birding two days ago (22 December 2013). Ha, there was a line of four or five close-together wires that ran the whole width of the image, right above the sun - did a quick removal.

Sorry to keep repeating the same information under various photos taken that day - done mainly for my own use. 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! We left Calgary at 7:15 a.m., but by the time we arrived at Frank Lake, our first destination, 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/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 backroads, 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 4:00 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 in our section, 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 photo above, 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 owl hiding deep within a Spruce tree : ))) Couldn't believe my eyes! I've seen three of these Crow-sized owls before, but each time is as exciting as if it were the very first time. The long-eared owl is a very slender, medium-sized bird about 35 centimetres (14 inches) long. 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 wouldn'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 : ) Thanks so much, Lorrie and John, for driving some of us the whole day and for picking me up and bringing me home - really appreciate your coming well out of your way to do this! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-eared_Owl

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! We left Calgary at 7:15 a.m. but by the time we arrived at Frank Lake, our first destination, 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 (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 backroads, 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, too, but no luck this year. My group had 19 species of bird by the end of the day - we finished driving around 4:00 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 of 9, 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 beautiful Great Horned Owl, seen in the photo above, 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 a Crow-sized Long-eared Owl deep within a Spruce tree : ))) Couldn't believe my eyes! I've seen three (?) of these Crow-sized owls in the wild 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! This Great Horned Owl was perched high up just two trees away from the Long-eared Owl - the trees were all squashed together and looked more like one huge tree! Of course, we were all hoping that the GHO wouldn'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 : ) Thanks so much, Lorrie and John, for driving some of us the whole day and for picking me up and bringing me home - really appreciate your coming well out of your way to do this!

Just a bit of fun, taken on 24 December 2013, when friends Cathy and Terry and I drove the backroads around the Frank Lake area. Frank Lake is roughly a 35-minute drive SE of Calgary. Our sightings for that day included 1 very distant Snowy Owl, 4 Great Horned Owls, 2 Bald Eagles and, after quite a long drive to another place, a very, very distant Northern Hawk Owl. No good for photos, but at least we found it : )

I'm not a fan of electricity wires and towers in my photos, but it can be hard to avoid them when you are down in the Frank Lake area. However, I just loved the pinkness of the sunrise over the snow-covered peaks and the colour of the stubble in the fields. A zoomed in photo, so the mountains look closer than they actually were. This was taken on 24 December 2013, when I went with friends, Cathy and Terry, to explore the backroads around Frank Lake. Our sightings for that day included 1 very distant Snowy Owl, 4 Great Horned Owls, 2 Bald Eagles and, after quite a long drive to another place, a very, very distant Northern Hawk Owl. No good for photos, but at least we found it : )

A photo that looked better when I first saw it than it does now that it's posted, ha, and it does look better in thumbnail size. Oh, well, guess I'll leave it where it is. Though of no interest to anyone else, it does remind me of something I saw nearby, when I was out with friends on 24 December 2013.

Just one of the various barns seen SE of Calgary. Though it doesn't have the same character as the old, wooden barns, I still liked the bright red colour in a snowy, rural scene. Seen on 24 December 2013, when out with friends.