Barrow's Goldeneye pair

On Saturday morning, 25 May 2013, my youngest daughter and I drove some of the backroads SW of Calgary. Rachel had asked if I wanted to go along the backroads for my birthday - and what more enjoyable way to spend the day!!! Despite not being able to find a Great Gray Owl for her to see, certain other birds were right where I'd hope they would be - such as Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Wilson's Snipe, Mountain Bluebirds, Ruddy Ducks, Black Terns, etc., etc.. At one tiny slough, there were maybe just four or so birds on the water, and I suddenly realized that one pair was not "just" a pair of Common Goldeneye, but a pair of the far less common Barrow's Goldeneye, which Rachel had never seen. Usually, when I do see a Barrow's Goldeneye, it's swimming the far side of the river, so it was nice to see one closer. The yellow in the reflection is from a sprinkling of Dandelions growing along the bank. By the end of this great day, I think Rachel had an even better understanding of why I love spending a day (any day!) in this way : ) The weather was good, other than a few raindrops, so we were lucky. Thanks so much, Rachel, for spending the day with me! Hope your photos came out better than mine did - got more blurry photos than I'd have liked, but that's usually the case, anyway, lol. Can't wait to see some of yours when you get time to post to your Flickr photostream. By the way, if it's any comfort (and I'm sure it's not, lol!), we couldn't find any Great Gray Owls yesterday, on the annual May Species Count that covers some of the area you and I went to, plus other roads. Thanks for a super day!

Anyone else is finding Flickr to be frustraingly slow? Or is that a silly question, ha? It takes forever to download a page of photos and scroll down.

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