Fog and a touch of hoarfrost

Last Sunday (27 April 2014), I went with a group of friends to Frank Lake for the day. It started off extremely foggy with a touch of hoarfrost. Perhaps not the ideal weather for seeing birds, but the fog did eventually clear and the sun came out. It turned out to be a beautiful day and most enjoyable.

We saw 53 bird species - all, except for two owl nests, were extremely distant, so any photos I took are so far away. Have to admit that I was fascinated by the hoar frost and (melting) ice crystals, so I spent some time taking photos these while my friends checked out the lake for distant sightings of birds. Before long, every ice crystal had melted and our winter wonderland vanished. Caught a distant glimpse of two White-faced Ibis, and several Snow Geese flew over, and our attention was drawn to a Clarke's Grebe, which was a great sighting. Greg Wagner from High River came to check out the lake while we were there - he is always full of information, too, so we were lucky. Thanks, Greg! Three of the owl nests had young ones that could be seen, but through a tangle of branches, so no good for photos. The one nest had a very young owlet, still with white feathers. Since then, we have learned that some photographer pulled over close to the nest in his (?) truck, climbed into the back to get a better look into the nest, which made the female owl leave the nest. Apparently, a Gyrfalcon flew in and took the owlet! A thoughtless photographer like this (and there are more than a few around, unfortunately) obviously has no respect for wildlife and will do anything to get "the shot". Hope he feels ashamed - but probably not! Thanks, Tony, for leading this trip to one of my very favourite areas! Your trips are always very successful and so enjoyable.

For my own record and just in case anyone else should happen to be interested, I will add Tony's list of all species seen that day.

Common Loon 1
Pied-billed Grebe 1 Heard (I.D. Eric Tull)
Red-necked Grebe 2
Eared Grebe 25+
Western Grebe 6
Clark’s Grebe 1
D.C. Cormorant 1
Great Blue Heron 3
Black-crowned Night Heron 5
White-faced Ibis 10
Snow Geese 15
Ross’s Geese 3
Canada Goose
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Green-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Canvasback
Redhead
Lesser Scaup
Ring-necked Duck
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Common Merganser 12
Ruddy Duck
Northern Harrier 5
Swainson’s Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Ring-necked Pheasant 2
Killdeer
American Coot
Black-necked Stilt 10
American Avocet 80
Lesser Yellowlegs 8
Franklin’s Gull
Bonaparte’s Gull 20
California Gull
Mourning Dove 1
Great Horned Owl( 4 Nests)
Tree Swallow
Yellow-rumped Warbler 2
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Robin,Starling,Pigeon,Magpie,Crow,Raven

Tony Timmons