Birds of Alberta 8

I seem to have been really lucky with Mountain Bluebirds the last couple of weeks, though the lighting hasn't always been the best. I never get tired of seeing these gorgeous blue birds. The male is spectacular, but the female with her more grey colouring, has her own beauty, too. Taken on 14 May 2013, along a backroad SW of Calgary. In Bluebirds, the blue colour is produced by the structure of the feather - there is no blue pigment. "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. Examples include the blue feathers of Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Blue Jay's and Steller's Jays." www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Bluebird/id www.jstor.org/discover/pgs/index?id=10.2307/4077277&i...

This Great Horned Owlet was not one of the "usual" ones, but one of three found at a different park in the city. They may have all fledged by now, as this photo was taken on 15 May 2013, and at least two of the owlets had "branched" - only maybe a foot along one of the branches close to the nest. I think that is Mom you can partly see in the background. This was the first time I had seen any of these owlets.

Two or three dozen of these beautifully iridescent Tree Swallows were flying overhead when I drove SW of the city on 14 May. There were two nesting boxes maybe 30' apart - a pair of Mountain Bluebirds was protecting one box and the swarm of Tree Swallows kept flying down to the barbed-wire at the second box. I was surprised to see so many of them! Too early for any new young ones, so would they be a mix of female and male adults plus last year's young? It never occurred to me that last year's youngsters would still be around with their parents.

This little Red-breasted Nuthatch took me by surprise when it flew really close when I was trying to focus on a more distant shot. I automatically clicked and it pretty much worked. Taken at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary on 16 April 2013,

Usually, when I see Black Terns, they are flying fast overhead, so it was good to see this one in amongst the Cattails yesterday, 25 May 2013, in SW Calgary. I cropped it too close, as you can tell, lol! -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

On Saturday morning, 25 May 2013, my youngest daughter and I drove some of the backroads SW of Calgary. Rachel had asked if I wanted to go along the backroads for my birthday - and what more enjoyable way to spend the day!!! Despite not being able to find a Great Gray Owl for her to see, certain other birds were right where I'd hope they would be - such as Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Wilson's Snipe, Mountain Bluebirds, Ruddy Ducks, Black Terns, etc., etc.. At one tiny slough, there were maybe just four or so birds on the water, and I suddenly realized that one pair was not "just" a pair of Common Goldeneye, but a pair of the far less common Barrow's Goldeneye, which Rachel had never seen. Usually, when I do see a Barrow's Goldeneye, it's swimming the far side of the river, so it was nice to see one closer. The yellow in the reflection is from a sprinkling of Dandelions growing along the bank. By the end of this great day, I think Rachel had an even better understanding of why I love spending a day (any day!) in this way : ) The weather was good, other than a few raindrops, so we were lucky. Thanks so much, Rachel, for spending the day with me! Hope your photos came out better than mine did - got more blurry photos than I'd have liked, but that's usually the case, anyway, lol. Can't wait to see some of yours when you get time to post to your Flickr photostream. By the way, if it's any comfort (and I'm sure it's not, lol!), we couldn't find any Great Gray Owls yesterday, on the annual May Species Count that covers some of the area you and I went to, plus other roads. Thanks for a super day! Anyone else is finding Flickr to be frustraingly slow? Or is that a silly question, ha? It takes forever to download a page of photos and scroll down. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This female Common Merganser was preening on a log at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary when my youngest daughter and I visited on 25 May 2013. This was our last stop on this very enjoyable day. Rachel had asked me if I wanted to go driving the backroads for my birthday (what better gift than that!). Most of the day was spent exploring backroads SW of Calgary, then we called in at one of the city parks to see the family of Great Horned Owls (three owlets), and then we finally ended up at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary (highlight was when Rachel spotted a Porcupine way up in a tree!). The owls were the first owls Rachel had ever seen, so that was pretty exciting. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Well, what can I say? Those of you who know me, know I love Owls : ) This was the second time I had been to see this beautiful owl family, that has three youngsters, but this time, my youngest daughter came with me : ) It was the first owl she had ever seen, so it was an exciting and amusing thing to see, including a bit of head-bobbing. It never fails to amaze me, year after year, how quickly owlets grow. These ones are now large, but still covered in those fluffy, downy feathers that make them look so cute. -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Three of us arrived at the Upper Plateau of Edworthy Park yesterday afternoon in very heavy rain. The sky was black as could be and I know that I, for one, was wondering why on earth I had driven across the city when the weather was like this. It had only just started to rain a little when I left home, but before long, the heavens opened, though I thought the sky looked a bit brighter towards the NW. After waiting abut 15 minutes, we noticed a few patches of blue sky and decided we would risk it after all. This little Clay-coloured Sparrow was there to greet us at the start of our botany walk, shaking off the raindrops from its feathers. We were so lucky that the rain stayed away for our two-hour walk! Rain is in the forecast for the next few days, unfortunately, as I have three major, long day trips out of the city, two of them with a lot of hiking/walking.