Owls 3

In Canada, this weekend is a long weekend. According to the federal government, May 24 was first declared a holiday by the legislature of the Province of Canada in 1845 to celebrate Queen Victoria's birthday. However, in 1952, Parliament declared that Victoria Day would be celebrated on the Monday before May 24 every year. As a result of this convention, the long weekend sometimes falls well before May 24. This year, for example, May 24 falls on a Sunday, but due to the parliamentary decree, the long weekend will run from May 16 to May 18. The May 24 weekend is thought to be the unofficial start to summer. Many people go away for the long weekend, so the roads will be really packed. After two days of dreary, overcast skies and some rain, and rain forecast for today, it’s too bad the long weekend wasn’t last weekend. Drive carefully if you will be out on the roads! I had planned to go on a half-day birding trip this morning. Woke up at 5:00 am (after an hour and a half's sleep), hoping that maybe the forecast had changed. Instead, it's raining and looks most unpleasant out there. I really don't feel like walking in this, and not be able to take any photos, so decided I would post my "daily three" to Flickr and then go back to bed. Hope I don't miss any really special sightings : ( It's back to the tiny Northern Pygmy-owl today. I had this 'telemacro' photo already edited, so only needed to edit the other two photos late last night. It was taken on 20 February 2015, roughly a week before I saw it (and its mate) for the last time. People who have been seeing it in the months since then must be keeping very quiet about it. No reports, no photos posted anywhere. Gotta love the 48x zoom on my point-and-shoot : ) Focal Length (35mm format) - 1200 mm. In the afternoon of 20 February 2015, there were just a couple of friends down in the park and, happy to say, they had already found this tiny, popcan-sized owl. This was its perch during the time I was there, giving some nice out in the open views, but all very similar. It's such a beautiful owl. This is the female, all puffed up to keep warm on a cold winter's day - the male is smaller, has a more rusty colour especially around the neck, and he has a thicker, white eyebrow line. "Northern Pygmy Owls are 'sit and wait' predators, that hunt mainly by vision, diving down onto prey on the ground and driving the talons into the prey's throat. They will also attack birds in shrubs, crashing into the hapless victims. Most prey is carried off in the feet to feeding sites. Birds are usually plucked before being consumed. They often eat only the brains of birds and the soft abdomen of insects. One of these little owls can carry prey weighing up to 3 times its own weight. The Northern Pygmy Owl feeds on a wide range of small prey including small mammals, birds, and reptiles and amphibians. Voles make up the bulk of their diet, with birds comprising most of the rest (mainly songbirds, but as large as a California Quail). Other small mammals include shrews, mice, chipmunks, bats, moles, young rabbits, and weasels. Insects may be very important when they are most abundant. Other prey taken are toads, frogs and small lizards and snakes. During winter, surplus prey is cached in a cavity, often in large quantities. Summer caches are usually much smaller. Pellets are very small, averaging about 3cm long. They are formed only occasionally as these owls don't consume large amounts of fur, feathers, or bone. The pellets tend to fall apart shortly after ejection." From OwlPages. www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Glaucidium&species=ca... www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Pygmy-Owl/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_pygmy_owl

For CHIARA, an amazing 6-year-old young lady that I was lucky enough to spend time with on Sunday. She loves owls, so yesterday, I went down to Fish Creek Park to see if I could find an owl, big or small, to photograph for her. Saw this beautiful Great Horned Owl. You can see that one eye is just open a tiny bit, to keep an eye on us. Overslept by an hour and a half, so gotta post and run and see if there is any way to find the group of people I'm supposed to meet up with this morning! Later: I had been invited to visit friends on Sunday, east of the city. Spent a few most enjoyable hours, catching up on the last few years. One very cute little three-year old girl was very shy, as she hadn't met me before : ) Hopefully, next time, I will get the chance to get to know her much better. Chiara, three years older, is a grown-up, very smart little girl (just like her Mom!), with an interest in photography. Her camera, much better than mine (lol), is very heavy compared to mine, yet she carries it around with no complaints. She showed me some of her photos, including ones taken when she did a photography course this summer - wow!!! Had to smile when she showed her mother that she had found the Flickr app on her iPad mini and asked if she could download it, as it was free! How different kids are today, but even so, I was taken aback at how grown-up this child is! She likes owls and was wearing a beautiful owl T-shirt. Even the placemats on the kitchen table were covered in owls. I can only imagine the photography skills Chiara will have if she continues to have an interest in taking photos. Such a joy to talk to. Thanks so much, Jenn, for encouraging me to drive out to see you all. That was so kind of you and so very much appreciated! Kevin, it was so good to see you after all this time - we had so much to catch up on. Thank you both for lunch, too - including the banana bread you made specially, Jenn. Thank you both for being so very welcoming! Definitely a day to remember.

This morning, it's SNOWING! And it's settling, unfortunately. We really can't complain, though, as we have just enjoyed a wonderful fall. Yesterday afternoon, 1 November 2015, was mostly cloudy with a short windy and drizzly period. Though the temperature was 8°C, it felt cold and, once again, I wore two fleece jackets, a fleece vest and a light jacket! Bebo Grove is one of the coldest places in the city, so I made sure I was prepared. The morning had been nice and sunny, which is why I decided to meet a few friends for a birding walk. However, the rain started shortly before I was ready to leave home and I was very tempted to change my plans. Glad I didn't, as the rain stopped and I would have missed seeing this Great Horned Owl. Not sure if it's the same one I photographed recently in the same area - I think it could be. It would have been so easy to not see this owl, as it was sleeping on top of a low, broken tree surrounded by a tangle of branches. Not the best photo, but it gives an idea of how easily these owls can hide. Two other friends had just returned to the parking lot after going for a walk and they offered to walk back to show us where they had just seen this owl, so that helped. Thanks, David and Melanie! The other thing I would have missed seeing was a handsome Mule Deer buck and two others, in a grassy area. They were busy feeding on the dead leaves and twigs and eventually decided to lie down and rest for a while. Our walk took us through the area at the bottom of the stairs, then eastwards to bridge 4 and then west from the picnic area. Bird numbers were certainly way down. Adding the list of bird species seen, compiled by our leader, Bernie. Thanks for a very enjoyable walk, Bernie! 1. Coopers' Hawk -1 2. Bald Eagle -2 3. Ring-billed Gull-8 4. Great Horned Owl-1 5. Hairy Woodpecker-3 6. Northern Flicker-1 7. Blue Jay-2 8. Black-billed Magpie-4 9. Common Raven-7 10. Black-capped Chickadee-30 11. Boreal Chickadee-1 12. Red-breasted Nuthatch-4 13. White-breasted Nuthatch-1 14. Bohemian Waxwing-27 15. Pine Grosbeak-8 16. Pine Siskin-12

From my archives! I still have many old photos of Great Gray Owls that have not been posted and, as I'm just not getting the chance to "get out there" to look, thought I'd grab a shot from my archives. This shot was taken on a day that I actually got up and left the house really early - maybe the only day I've ever done that, when going somewhere on my own? Getting up really early is always so hard for me to do. I'm a night owl with atrocious sleep habits, so getting out of bed at 5:00 a.m. (alarm was set for 4:15 a.m., though!) was not my favourite way to start the day on 28 March 2013. Funny, when I have to meet friends for various early-starting trips, I can do it (but don't like it), but when I go off on my own, there is no deadline to meet, and I just never get round to doing it. I headed NW of the city, wanting to see if time of day made any, or much, difference to seeing wildlife. Who really knows? I have seen these beautiful birds of prey at all sorts of times of the day, but of course the light was different. This one must have plunged into the mix of dried grass and snow fairly recently, as it still had that long piece of grass hanging from near its mouth. Wasn't sure whether to remove it or not - it's in quite a few photos - but decided to leave it just as it was. Right decision, lol? I was also lucky enough to see three other Great Gray Owls, my first Mountain Bluebird of the year (always such a wonderful flash of brilliant blue), a Pileated Woodpecker, and an American Robin (always takes me by surprise when I see a Robin out in the middle of nowhere). A beautiful female Ruffed Grouse helped make my day, too. Guess I can say I was definitely rewarded for getting up so early, even though I might have seen all, or most, of these birds later in the day, too. That was a good winter for Great Gray Owls. Since then, very few people seem to have been seeing them, unfortunately. Hope to get out looking soon. I have to check my car today to see if I can open the hood and then get it closed again. This was difficult to do on Saturday, after a woman suddenly cut right across my lane of moving traffic and there was no time for me to stop. When the other driver and I checked the hood of my car, we found that it was very difficult to get it closed again. I'm really hoping I don't have to take my vehicle in for some kind of repair.

Last night, when choosing three photos to post this morning, I happened to come across this old shot from my archives. It was taken at the Calgary Zoo on 2 May 2011, when a pair of Snowy Owls was in a small enclosure near the Tigers. SInce then, the only Snowies at the Zoo are over in the Aviary. It has been too long to remember for sure, but I think this was most likely the female rather than a juvenile bird. With so many people now going outside the city to look for, and photograph, these amazing birds of prey that have moved south in search of food, I thought this photo might be a good reminder of yet another reason to keep ones distance, lol. Those talons mean business! I sometimes think I must be the only person who isn't out to get photos of these owls in flight! Please don't deliberately flush them - they are already tired and stressed enough. Of course, they sometimes fly simply because they want to, in their search for yet another rodent. Actually, I was lucky enough to see two very, very distant Snowy Owls yesterday, when I went with a group of 7 friends to take part in the first annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count of the season. This is one of my favourite counts, mainly because our small group covers one of my favourite areas, SE of the city.

Just noticed that it is snowing again this morning, 18 December 2015. Temperature is -12C (windchill -20C) as I type. A poor quality photo, but I wanted to add it to my bird count album, for a record of this very distant Snowy Owl. A fully 48x zoomed and cropped image. I still haven't been out looking for Snowy Owls myself, but will be going soon, with my daughter. Just like a year ago (2014), on the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for High River, our Count on 15 December 2015 started off while it was still dark, and it was foggy with a most wonderful hoar frost. Not the best conditions for taking photos, though, especially with a point-and-shoot camera. Many of my photos taken very early morning came out far too blurry to keep. Everything was covered in delicate hoar frost. Or is this kind of frost called Rime Ice? There was no snow on the ground, but it was covered in similar crystals, which crunched as we walked on them. cathybell.org/2013/01/02/hoar-frost-and-rime-ice-whats-th... On this day, I went with a group of 7 friends to take part in the first annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count of the season. This is one of my favourite counts, mainly because our small group covers one of my favourite areas, SE of the city. Other birders covered the rest of the large count circle around the town of High River, SE of Calgary, just over half an hour's drive from the southern edge of Calgary. Our group was limited to just two carloads of people. When there is a convoy of vehicles, everything takes much longer, and on an important count day, time is of the essence. We met in the city at 7:15 am and drove southwards into fog - dense fog! This is not what people hope for when out looking for birds, ha. The temperature was around -12C (so I'm guessing the windchill was somewhere around -18C or colder) when we set out, warming to 1C later on. I always hope for a hoar frost for this count. The sun came up when we were standing at the outlet at Frank Lake and for just a few brief seconds, it was reflected in the open water. So beautiful. After our very first stop there, we then drove the various backroads around and near Frank Lake, calling in at several farms to ask permission to look around their farmyards, hoping to find different species to add to our list. I will add our leader's final list below - not a great number of species, but a few nice ones, including two very, very distant Snowy Owls and 8 Great Horned Owls. It was great when those of us riding in the one car, saw our 9th Great Horned Owl along H'way 23, just E of Highway 2, on our way home. "Frank Lake CBC, SE quadrant, S of Hwy 23, E of Hwy 2. 0800-1645, Tue, 15 Dec. 2015. Clear sky, but heavy ground fog obscured viewing of open water at Frank Lake, and coated vegetation with hoarfrost, which lasted most of the day. W. wind, up to 15kph. -12 to 01°C. No snow on ground (just hoarfrost), streams partly open. Km by Car-110:, Km on foot; 3; Time by car – 7 hr; Time on foot -1:45 min. Totals are all in IBA (in bird area), unless specified Off IBA. IBA territory was East of 152 St, S to 594 Av; then E to 168 St, then S to 626 Av. Canada Goose-80 Gadwall-1 m Green-winged Teal-1 f. Lesser Scaup-1 m. Bald Eagle-1 ad, flying S at 1445 over Davey Jones’ place.. Killdeer -3 Rock Pigeon-9 on N. side #23 // 30 on IBA terr. // 3 Off IBA Great Horned Owl-8 (4 in Harley Sutherland’s yard). Snowy Owl-2 Black-billed Magpie-17 // 31 Off IBA. Common Raven-13 // 8 Off IBA Horned Lark?? – 10, seen flying low, by Jim St. L European Starling-1 on N side #23 // 26. American Tree Sparrow- 12 Song Sparrow?? – 1 (seen three times near outfall, but in heavy fog). Common Redpoll- 155 // 87 Off IBA House Sparrow- 128 // 77 Off IBA Reported seen by Mr/Mrs Gordon Fraser, Off IBA, in Little Bow River valley, today: Ring-necked Pheasant-1; Northern Flicker-1. (Also photographed Long-tailed Weasel-1). Coyote- 1 on ice of Frank Lake Deer sp.-3 Mule Deer -7, off S. Side of CBC Terr." Of course, as always happens on any trip, I just had to take photos of anything else that caught my eye, including barns, scenery, and so on. We had finished our count by around 4:45 pm, by which time it was completely dark. Some of us stayed for the delicious pot luck supper, mainly provided by generous birding people who live in or near High River. Thanks to everyone who got this ready for us - delicious and hugely appreciated! A special thanks to Greg Wagner who always organizes this count. He is a truly dedicated birder, who puts in so much time year-round, searching for and recording what birds are being seen in that whole area. Thanks, too, to Lorrie and John who drove two of us for the whole day. Can't thank you enough for making it possible for me to do this count. A lot of driving for you and it was greatly appreciated. I was lucky enough to get my name called in a draw when we were at the Potluck and was given a copy of Myrna Pearman's beautiful new book: "Backyard Bird Feeding: an Alberta Guide". This complete guide to year-round bird feeding in Alberta is beautifully laid out with so many great photos and masses of information. Definitely not just for people who have a garden and bird feeders. A delightful book! Thank you, Russ Amy, for donating this copy specially for the draw! I also bought a copy to give to friends when I next see them. www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/store/p1/BACKYARD_BIRD_FEEDING%3A_An...

We saw 8 Great Horned Owls on the High River Christmas Bird Count four days ago, plus a ninth one seen by the four of us riding in one of the cars at the end of the day. Thanks to 48x zoom, I was able to get photos of some of the owls - not the greatest shots, but nice for the record. This one was perched among the branches covered in hoar frost at one of the farms. Ha, my lens hood also had a slight coating of frost on it! This was the start of a long day of birding, when 8 brave souls faced the elements in order to document the birds and other wildlife east of High River. After less than two hours' sleep (for me) and setting our alarm clocks for some unearthly hour, this owl was just one of our rewards. Just like a year ago (2014), on the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for High River, our Count on 15 December 2015 started off while it was still dark, and it was foggy with a most wonderful hoar frost. Not the best conditions for taking photos, though, especially with a point-and-shoot camera. Many of my photos taken very early morning came out far too blurry to keep. Everything was covered in delicate hoar frost. Not sure if some of the frost is called Rime Ice? There was no snow on the ground, but it was covered in similar crystals, which crunched as we walked on them. On this day, I went with a group of 7 friends to take part in the first annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count of the season. This is one of my favourite counts, mainly because our small group covers one of my favourite areas, SE of the city. Other birders covered the rest of the large, 15-mile diameter count circle around the town of High River, SE of Calgary, just over half an hour's drive from the southern edge of Calgary. Our group was limited to just two carloads of people. When there is a convoy of vehicles, everything takes much longer, and on an important count day, time is of the essence, so a limit was put on the number of participants. We met in the city at 7:15 am and drove southwards into fog - dense fog! This is not what people hope for when out looking for birds, ha. The temperature was around -12C (so I'm guessing the windchill was somewhere around -18C or colder) when we set out, warming to 1C later on. I always hope for a hoar frost for this count. After our very first stop at Frank Lake, we then drove the various backroads around and near the lake, calling in at several farms to ask permission to look around their farmyards, hoping to find different species to add to our list. I will add our leader's final list below - not a great number of species, but a few nice ones, including two very, very distant Snowy Owls and 8 Great Horned Owls. It was great when those of us riding in the one car, saw our 9th Great Horned Owl along H'way 23, just E of Highway 2, on our way to the Potluck supper. "Frank Lake CBC, SE quadrant, S of Hwy 23, E of Hwy 2. 0800-1645, Tue, 15 Dec. 2015. Clear sky, but heavy ground fog obscured viewing of open water at Frank Lake, and coated vegetation with hoarfrost, which lasted most of the day. W. wind, up to 15kph. -12 to 01°C. No snow on ground (just hoarfrost), streams partly open. Km by Car-110:, Km on foot; 3; Time by car – 7 hr; Time on foot -1:45 min. Totals are all in IBA (in bird area), unless specified Off IBA. IBA territory was East of 152 St, S to 594 Av; then E to 168 St, then S to 626 Av. Canada Goose-80 Gadwall-1 m Green-winged Teal-1 f. Lesser Scaup-1 m. Bald Eagle-1 ad, flying S at 1445 over Davey Jones’ place.. Killdeer -3 Rock Pigeon-9 on N. side #23 // 30 on IBA terr. // 3 Off IBA Great Horned Owl-8 (4 in Harley Sutherland’s yard). Snowy Owl-2 Black-billed Magpie-17 // 31 Off IBA. Common Raven-13 // 8 Off IBA Horned Lark?? – 10, seen flying low, by Jim St. L European Starling-1 on N side #23 // 26. American Tree Sparrow- 12 Song Sparrow?? – 1 (seen three times near outfall, but in heavy fog). Common Redpoll- 155 // 87 Off IBA House Sparrow- 128 // 77 Off IBA Reported seen by Mr/Mrs Gordon Fraser, Off IBA, in Little Bow River valley, today: Ring-necked Pheasant-1; Northern Flicker-1. (Also photographed Long-tailed Weasel-1). Coyote- 1 on ice of Frank Lake Deer sp.-3 Mule Deer -7, off S. Side of CBC Terr." Of course, as always happens on any trip, I just had to take photos of anything else that caught my eye, including barns, scenery, and so on. We had finished our count by around 4:45 pm, by which time it was completely dark. Some of us stayed for the delicious potluck supper, mainly provided by generous birding people who live in or near High River. Thanks to everyone who got this ready for us - delicious and hugely appreciated! A special thanks to Greg Wagner who always organizes this count. He is a truly dedicated birder, who puts in so much time year-round, searching for and recording what birds are being seen in that whole area. Thanks, too, to Lorrie and John who drove two of us for the whole day. Can't thank you enough for making it possible for me to do this count. A lot of driving for you and it was greatly appreciated. LINK TO MY HIGH RIVER BIRD COUNT 2014 album, for comparison: www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/albums/72157649826692885 I was lucky enough to get my name called in a draw when we were at the Potluck and was given a copy of Myrna Pearman's beautiful new book: "Backyard Bird Feeding: an Alberta Guide". This complete guide to year-round bird feeding in Alberta is beautifully laid out with so many great photos and masses of information. Definitely not just for people who have a garden and bird feeders. A delightful book! Thank you, Russ Amy, for donating this copy specially for the draw! I also bought a copy to give to friends when I next see them. www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/store/p1/BACKYARD_BIRD_FEEDING%3A_An...

As you might guess, this photo is being posted only for the record, not for its technical merit! Though it might look rather like a large lump of snow or a discarded plastic bag that has blown into the farmer's field, this really was a Snowy Owl, lol. Taken at full zoom (48x) then cropped, I really don't know how my daughter spotted the tiny white speck way off in the distance. We were both so happy to at least see a Snowy Owl yesterday, 21 December 2015, even though we had hoped to find a much closer one. Finding a Snowy was not the only purpose in our minds, though - and thank goodness, last year, my daughter and I did see and photograph beautiful Snowies that were nice and close. Yesterday was our Christmas get-together, and we had a great day, in beautiful sunshine and in one of my favourite areas to explore. We had first planned to go NE of the city, but my daughter, waiting for her surgery on 11 January 2016, didn't feel up to travelling that far. Once she has recovered from her surgery, we can always go NE of the city and try for owls again. So, plans changed and instead, we went to the Saskatoon Farm for breakfast. Afterwards, we then went a bit further, to drive some of the roads east of High River, hoping to possibly find a Snowy Owl. We went as far as Mossleigh, where we stopped to take a few quick photos of the three grain elevators and then found a group of several old barns that I don't remember seeing before. They were off the main road, but fortunately the narrow gravel road had enough snow packed on it that the drive was very smooth. From there, we also stopped at the little wooden church at Dinton, seen in my next photo. Later in the afternoon, we couldn't resist the temptation to call in at Glamorgan Bakery on the way home and buy a few Christmas goodies, followed by a desperately needed food shopping trip. I just hadn't had a chance to go grocery shopping and had run out of even basic things. This was a huge relief, especially as I have a very long day tomorrow, taking part in the Drumheller area Christmas Bird Count. Actually, last year, we saw several Snowy Owls on the long drive to and from the Badlands of Alberta, so maybe I'll be lucky tomorrow. Thanks so much for a great day out, Rachel. The best kind of day, as far as I am concerned : ) Many thanks, too, for the beautiful, very carefully chosen (as always!) Christmas gifts. Love the owl that looks rather like a furry, stuffed children's toy, that is in fact a wonderful heat pad (that you warm in the microwave), full of lavender. Haven't used it yet, but it will feel wonderful on my neck and shoulders that are painful from whiplash, thanks to the woman driver who suddenly came out of a parking lot exit and cut across my lane of moving traffic about three weeks ago! Nothing I could do, as I couldn't stop in time to avoid impact. So, I'm looking forward to having an owl on my shoulder : )

HAPPY NEW YEAR, everyone, near and far! I want to wish my family and each and every one of my "local" friends, my long-time overseas friends, and my Flickr friends a very happy, healthy and safe New Year! It's hard to believe, isn't it, that 15 years have passed since all the fuss about the year 2000? Thank you all for your friendship, encouragement, and sharing your beautiful photos, and for letting me share my photos with you - SO much appreciated! I'm looking forward to another year of seeing where you have been and what beautiful things you have discovered! Late last night, I knew I hadn't taken any photos that were suitable for New Year. Then I had a bright idea - what could be more appropriate than the very first photo in the Nature Calgary 2016 calendar : ) As it happens, I am 'Miss January', lol, with my photo of one of the tiny Northern Pygmy-owls that people were seeing this time last year. A few of you may have seen this calendar, and may even have bought a copy. Actually, this was the very first time that Nature Calgary had ever produced a calendar. The actual photo was taken on 14 January 2015, just 11 days after the death of my older daughter on 3 January, and posted on Flickr on 19 January 2015, the day after the Celebration of Life service for her. This pair of beautiful little owls, the size of a man's fist or a popcan, and seen in one of our local parks, helped me at this very difficult time. Many days, I would push myself out the front door to drive over to the park, just in case one of the owls was seen. Almost always, there were a few, or many, friends to spend time with, which helped me get through each day. I will forever be thankful for, and grateful to, all these kind friends (and others friends near and far!) - and this pair of beautiful owls. "The Northern Pygmy-Owl may be tiny, but it’s a ferocious hunter with a taste for songbirds. These owls are mostly dark brown and white, with long tails, smoothly rounded heads, and piercing yellow eyes. They hunt during the day by sitting quietly and surprising their prey. As a defensive measure, songbirds often gather to mob sitting owls until they fly away. Mobbing songbirds can help you find these unobtrusive owls, as can listening for their call, a high-pitched series of toots." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Pygmy-Owl/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_pygmy_owl