Heureuse année 2018
Red
Bridge keepers house in the mist.
A glimpse through the trees
the one and only
Amaryllis
Poplar pillar box
Mark Lane post box
old routemaster in Cannon Street
Contemplating a dragon (Explored)
Duncannon phone boxes
Pachystachys coccinea?
HFF con una rosa di gennaio !!!
Three Bowls
Torch Ginger, Asa Wright, Trinidad
rent ONE
Colour in Winter
DSCF3826
recharge rapide
lonely bench
Via Aluminia
Beach Buns
New Orleans
Will You Be My Socialist Valentine?
Das Rote Kleid
not falling down ... Keith Haring
lekker
Walking The Dog
Supermarket tulips
Bounce & Fly
Succulent
New Year Greeting, 1912
The Unisphere at the New York World's Fair of 1964…
Red barn in winter
momentum
HFF mit Regenwetter
Savoir déléguer / Art of delegating
Hamburg St. Pauli: the day after tomorow?
Barn with the fallen cupola
Happy Christmas Eve!
Jamaica Rum Kugeln
Red wool scarf
Christmas 2017
Why not Christmas in the forest?
Here comes the snow
Merry Christmas to Friends and Foes
A Merry Christmas
May Your Family Fireside Radiate a Happy Christmas
Christmas Greetings and Best Wishes for the New Ye…
A Merry Christmas
Hershey Chocolate Company—Best Wishes for a Merry…
Red bows catch a warm Florida breeze..
novembers rose render2
Sandy Sun
Sandy Sun
Sterne
A Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year to All! 188…
H. Sinnigen, Dealer in Choice Groceries, Brooklyn,…
Holiday Goods, West End Bookstore, York, Pa.
A Happy Christmas?
Snowman Christmas Greetings
Fairbank's Fairy Soap, N. K. Fairbank Company, Ch…
toute petite crèche en verre
See also...
Cochrane Wildlife Reserve Christmas Bird Count, December 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018
Cochrane Wildlife Reserve Christmas Bird Count, December 2005, 2007, 2009, 2011, 2012, 2015, 2016, 2017 and 2018
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On a Christmas Bird Count, -23C
![On a Christmas Bird Count, -23C On a Christmas Bird Count, -23C](https://cdn.ipernity.com/200/14/80/46091480.810b1048.640.jpg?r2)
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This morning, I just had time to edit and post three photos before dashing out to meet friends so that we could cover our area for Fish Creek Provincial Park's New Year's Day Bird Count. A beautiful day with blue sky and sunshine, but, oh, excruciatingly COLD! A nasty kind of cold that gave us cold feet despite wearing winter boots that are supposed to go down to -40C. So cold that our cameras wouldn't work much of the time. The birds had more sense than humans - they mainly stayed hidden. We only saw 7 species of birds in three hours of walking. This extreme cold is just brutal! Three bitterly COLD, day-long, out-of-the-city Christmas Bird Counts have been more than enough and it's a bit of a relief that the Fish Creek Park Count is also now out of the way. What does the weather go and do now? It finally warms up and will be around normal seasonal temperatures for at least the next few days.
A video from the Weather Network website, showing how cold it is in Calgary right now:
www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/videos/gallery/watch-this-ho...
This photo was taken three days ago, on 29 December 2017, when four of us (using just one car) took part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the Cochrane Wildlife Reserve area. I'm not sure why it's called Wildlife Reserve, as it consists of back roads and farms just like on our other Counts. The area we covered (right on the east edge of the count circle) was east of Highway 22/Cowboy Trail.
The first evidence of any wildlife for me, first thing in the morning, was a Jackrabbit that was nibbling on snow-covered plants right outside our leader's house. Of course, at 7:15 in the morning, it was still dark.
One of my favourite things to photograph on this annual Count are the Llamas at one of the farms.. This farmer has several of these large, amusing animals, and they are always one of the highlights of this Count for me. I'm not sure how many Llamas they have - somewhere around 7? Most of these animals were given to them by other farmers who no longer wanted them.
"Llamas appear to have originated from the central plains of North America about 40 million years ago. They migrated to South America and Asia about 3 million years ago. By the end of the last ice age (10,000–12,000 years ago) camelids were extinct in North America. As of 2007, there were over 7 million llamas and alpacas in South America and, due to importation from South America in the late 20th century, there are now over 100,000 llamas and 6,500–7,000 alpacas in the US and Canada." From Wikipedia.
The rural, winter scene in this photo was taken from a large house that we called in at. We had just visited the distant farm with its welcome red barns and sheds. I love seeing the miniature horses there.
Another of my favourite farms to stop at has a beautiful, old dog named Fang, along with beautiful cats, and I always look forward to seeing them each year. This day, though, with a temperature of -23C all day (windchill probably at least -30 to 35C), cats stayed indoors. I caught a brief glimpse of just one cat outside. The neighbouring farm, which is also included in our area, has two beautiful old, red barns and I was longing to see these again. Unfortunately, no one was home, so we couldn't search the farmyard, but I did get the chance to take two rapid shots through the trees of one of the barns, from a side view.
Another farm we stopped at had beautiful Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls coming to a feeder. A joy to see these splashes of colour in a very cold, white, white world.
So, it was a very enjoyable day, though there were not all that many species or individual birds to be seen. Too cold and too much snow to spend much time searching various farmyards, and we had finished the Count by 2:30 pm. I will add a list of the bird species seen, in a comment box below. Many thanks, Dave, for driving us. You did a great job of handling roads that were not in the greatest condition, and it was greatly appreciated. The light was awful all day, and it was so difficult to see where the ditch was and where one road turned off to another. There is no way I would ever try driving on our back roads in such weather! Also, a huge thank-you to the various landowners who were kind enough to allow us to wander round their farmyards. These visits make our day so much more interesting and rewarding!
A video from the Weather Network website, showing how cold it is in Calgary right now:
www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/videos/gallery/watch-this-ho...
This photo was taken three days ago, on 29 December 2017, when four of us (using just one car) took part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the Cochrane Wildlife Reserve area. I'm not sure why it's called Wildlife Reserve, as it consists of back roads and farms just like on our other Counts. The area we covered (right on the east edge of the count circle) was east of Highway 22/Cowboy Trail.
The first evidence of any wildlife for me, first thing in the morning, was a Jackrabbit that was nibbling on snow-covered plants right outside our leader's house. Of course, at 7:15 in the morning, it was still dark.
One of my favourite things to photograph on this annual Count are the Llamas at one of the farms.. This farmer has several of these large, amusing animals, and they are always one of the highlights of this Count for me. I'm not sure how many Llamas they have - somewhere around 7? Most of these animals were given to them by other farmers who no longer wanted them.
"Llamas appear to have originated from the central plains of North America about 40 million years ago. They migrated to South America and Asia about 3 million years ago. By the end of the last ice age (10,000–12,000 years ago) camelids were extinct in North America. As of 2007, there were over 7 million llamas and alpacas in South America and, due to importation from South America in the late 20th century, there are now over 100,000 llamas and 6,500–7,000 alpacas in the US and Canada." From Wikipedia.
The rural, winter scene in this photo was taken from a large house that we called in at. We had just visited the distant farm with its welcome red barns and sheds. I love seeing the miniature horses there.
Another of my favourite farms to stop at has a beautiful, old dog named Fang, along with beautiful cats, and I always look forward to seeing them each year. This day, though, with a temperature of -23C all day (windchill probably at least -30 to 35C), cats stayed indoors. I caught a brief glimpse of just one cat outside. The neighbouring farm, which is also included in our area, has two beautiful old, red barns and I was longing to see these again. Unfortunately, no one was home, so we couldn't search the farmyard, but I did get the chance to take two rapid shots through the trees of one of the barns, from a side view.
Another farm we stopped at had beautiful Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls coming to a feeder. A joy to see these splashes of colour in a very cold, white, white world.
So, it was a very enjoyable day, though there were not all that many species or individual birds to be seen. Too cold and too much snow to spend much time searching various farmyards, and we had finished the Count by 2:30 pm. I will add a list of the bird species seen, in a comment box below. Many thanks, Dave, for driving us. You did a great job of handling roads that were not in the greatest condition, and it was greatly appreciated. The light was awful all day, and it was so difficult to see where the ditch was and where one road turned off to another. There is no way I would ever try driving on our back roads in such weather! Also, a huge thank-you to the various landowners who were kind enough to allow us to wander round their farmyards. These visits make our day so much more interesting and rewarding!
Nouchetdu38 has particularly liked this photo
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