Common Grackle / Quiscalus quiscula

Flickr did not save a description I had just typed here. Just one of the many problems I - and no doubt, many of you - are experiencing this morning, thanks to all the new changes on Flickr. What a mess they have made of something that worked just fine!! Great difficulty or impossible to add tags. When something has been done to one of the photos, I can't get back to my photostream - have to close Flickr and open in a new tab, etc., etc.. When I open my photostream in a new tab, the most recent changes have not always been saved. And all those extra tags that Flickr has added to each photo! The tags "pet" and "dog" were added to my photo of a wild Moose suffering from a bad case of tick damage, lol! I always tag all my photos carefully and, with almost 11,000 images on my photostream, there is no way I could ever go through every photo deleting Flickr's inappropriate extra tags!

A couple of days ago, on 7 May 2015, I joined friends to go on a birding walk at the south end LaFarge Meadows, accessed off 194th Ave. The weather was beautiful, though the temperature was only 7C-11C, and the birds were so far away : ) I did manage to get a distant shot of two of the three Trumpeter Swans (both juveniles) that were near the river. A Bald Eagle flew overhead and a Great Blue Heron flew in the far distance. A little Savannah Sparrow posed in a small tree for us and a Muskrat was seen in the large pond by the river.

The reported list is as follows, though I didn't see many of these birds myself:

1. Canada Goose-15 + two families with young
2. Trumpeter Swan-3 juv.
3. Gadwall-4
4. American Wigeon-40
5. Mallard-30
6. Blue-winged Teal-42
7. Cinnamon Teal-3
8. Northern Shoveler-6
9. Canvasback-6
10. Redhead-1 m
11. Ring-necked Duck-6
12. Common Goldeneye-3
13. Common Merganser-5+
14. Red necked Grebe-3
15. Great Blue Heron-2
16. Osprey-2+
17. Bald Eagle-2ad. (adult on nest feeding young)
18. Sharp-shinned Hawk-2 (1 m/1 f.)
19. Swainson’s Hawk-3+ (includes one dark morph)
20. American Coot-100
21. Killdeer-4
22. GREATER YELLOWLEGS-1
23. SOLITARY SANDPIPER-2
24. SPOTTED SANDPIPER-5
25. Franklin’s Gull-380
26. white-headed gull sp.-1 heard
27. Black-billed Magpie-3
28. American Crow-2
29. Common Raven-3
30. Tree Swallow-20
31. Northern Rough-winged Swallow-1
32. Bank Swallow-1
33. American Robin-2
34. European Starling-1
35. CLAY-COLORED SPARROW-1 heard
36. Savannah Sparrow-15
37. Song Sparrow-3
38. Red-winged Blackbird-6 (5 m/1 f)

After the walk, I decided to call in at a wetland in SW Calgary, hoping that at least a few of the birds would be close enough for photos. I met a delightful, enthusiastic and knowledgeable photographer/birder while I was there, and she showed me the area accessed from a point that I had never tried before. I had hoped to maybe see a Common Grackle at this wetland and, sure enough, this one was down near the water's edge. Just managed to find a gap in the line of trees and shrubs and got this single, lucky shot before the bird flew off. Many people don't like Grackles, but I see them so rarely and I think they are beautiful birds.

"Common Grackles are blackbirds that look like they've been slightly stretched. They're taller and longer tailed than a typical blackbird, with a longer, more tapered bill and glossy-iridescent bodies. Grackles walk around lawns and fields on their long legs or gather in noisy groups high in trees, typically evergreens. They eat many crops (notably corn) and nearly anything else as well, including garbage. In flight their long tails trail behind them, sometimes folded down the middle into a shallow V shape." From AllABoutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Grackle/id

animals.nationalgeographic.com/animals/birding/common-gra...

WHY PHOTOGRAPHERS GET SUCH A BAD NAME! Shown on The Weather Network.

www.theweathernetwork.com/videos/Gallery/all/video_galler...