Some good luck on yesterday's Bird Count

Yesterday was the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count in High River, south of Calgary. A small group of eight of us from Calgary met up with local people from High River to search the area in and around High River. We started our search at around 8:30 a.m. and returned to the meeting place around 5:00 p.m., when we handed in our results and stayed for a delicious potluck supper. Thanks so much to the local birders who organized this most enjoyable ending to a long day!

My small group drove all the backroads in the SE quadrant of the huge circle that surrounds High River, including calling in at several farms to ask if we could check their trees, hedges, etc. for birds. One of the first places we called in at was Frank Lake, a very popular place for birders. We walked along the edge of the inlet, and the view was so beautiful. All the plants and grasses were covered in ice crystals, and vapor was rising from the surface of the water up towards the rising sun. Gave me some nice photo opps : ) In fact, so much so, that I forgot all about looking for birds, lol! We came across a number of dead fish in one spot, which was not a good find. The day was cloudy, becoming clear, calm, -10C to -03C. I have placed this photo on my map, just to show where High River is - not sure where the exact location was, but it was somewhere SE of High River. 103.5 km by car; 3 km by foot; 6.5 hours by car; 2 hours on foot.

We saw two Merlins, this being the closest one for a photo from my side of the car. We pulled up just past this beautiful bird. It stayed on the fence post just long enough for me to try and twist round in my seat, point my camera in its direction and then I clicked with my eyes closed, lol. Amazingly, I got the bird, though I did just miss the tip of its tail! Background is a mix of snow and stubble in the field.

Our group's sightings for the day:

Mallard 9 in am at Frank Lake; 7 seen flying there in late pm.
Common Goldeneye-4
Bald Eagle-4 ad.
Northern Goshawk-2 ad.
Rough-legged Hawk-1
Merlin-2
Gray Partridge-12
Sharp-tailed Grouse-5
Rock Pigeon-26
Great Horned Owl-5
Snowy Owl-1 (seen 3 times).
Downy Woodpecker-1 m.
Black-billed Magpie-34
Common Raven-8
Northern Shrike-1
American Tree Sparrow-3
Snow Bunting-807
Common Redpoll-925
Hoary Redpoll-1
House Sparrow-245

Also saw 2 Coyotes, 26 Mule Deer and 39 White-tailed Deer. I still have to sort out about the Snowy Owl, though, as it looks like two photos I took at different spots show a paler and a darker owl. I also have a lot of photo editing to do of the shots taken on the various Bird Counts so that they can be passed on to a long list of people. Christmas??? Hope I'll be better organized for next year - as I seem to say every year, lol!