One of four Moose seen yesterday

I was out on another day trip yesterday, 26 October 2016, and just ran out of time this morning to add two of my descriptions. Usually, I don't have three long day outings within five days, except during the Christmas Bird Counts, and it really tired me out, and I'm still dragging my heels late this evening, even more so as I was out on a birding walk along the Bow River south of Lafarge area with friends this morning.

Yesterday was a great day, most enjoyable, spent with friends, Shirley and Anne. We had a very early start, 7:00 am, and drove west of the city to start with, driving to the far end of Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66). While at Elbow Falls, we saw a pair of American Dippers flying from rock to rock. They were vocalizing, too, which I had never heard before.

Though there seemed to be very few birds to be seen all day, we were so lucky to see a total of four Moose - two at each of two different locations SW of the city. This photo shows one of the two that we saw first. They were moving in and out of all the bushes, but I was able to get a shot or two when they were out in the open. It is always nice to see a Moose, and to see four in one day was a real treat. The second two were fairly young ones.

From Elbow Falls Trail, we drove down through the Millarville area and finally ended up east of High River. We found one of the Great Horned Owls that everyone had been following earlier in the year, along with a nearby little American Tree Sparrow. We did see a few Hawks, including a Rough-legged Hawk on a hay bale and very dark morph Hawk later in the day.

A great day, ladies - thank you so much for inviting me along and thanks so much, Shirley, for driving! Greatly appreciated.