A cute, young face

Police notice for Calgary, afternoon of 3 February 2018:

"ROAD CLOSURE UPDATE: Deerfoot Trail is now closed in both directions from McKnight Boulevard to Anderson Road due to poor driving conditions and multiple collisions.

Please find alternate routes and drive safe!

The weather has created winter driving conditions on all roads throughout the city. Please slow down, leave extra room between vehicles and ensure your lights are on if you are out and about today.

If you do not need to be on the roads today, we are recommending that you not travel."

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Rick Mercer's video "Plus 1 in Canada". I can so relate to this - so funny! And, yes, it's snowing AGAIN today, heavily. Temperature early afternoon is -21C (windchill -31C). Yet another day at home.

youtu.be/wkDvqQKGgDA

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Thought I'd better post three more local photos today, instead of more green rainforest shots, before I lose all my Contacts : ) As far as my Trinidad & Tobago trip is concerned, I have more or less finished with photos of mangrove trees and other greenery, and will be posting a few (distant) bird images.

This young, light-coloured Great Horned Owl was just so perfect and seemed to be a great character. Three adults tethered nearby were also quite pale in colour. I know some people feel that photographing birds that are not out in the wild is cheating. I kind of agree, though I think it's fine as long as someone says where it was taken. I have seen and photographed many wild owls in their natural habitat, but I still love seeing them at the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale, southern Alberta.

Last summer (2017), we had practically no 'normal' summer days. Most were too hot thanks to an almost endless heatwave, and also too smoky thanks to all the wildfires in British Columbia and Alberta. The weather forecast for 3 August 2017 looked good; sunshine all day, with rain forecast on several of the coming days. I decided to finally do a drive all the way down south to near Lethbridge, so that I could again visit the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre in Coaldale. The previous year (2016), I did this drive for the very first time on my own and I wanted to make sure I didn't lose my courage to do it again. During the 511 kms that I drove, I had to ask for help with directions twice - both times in the same small hamlet. It was a hot day, with a temperature of 31C when I was at the Centre.

Though the forecast was for sun all day, there was no mention of the smoke haze that completely blocked out the mountains and pretty much the foothills, too. Very quickly, I was almost tempted to turn around and come home, but I had noticed rain in the forecast for the coming days. I reckoned I would still be able to photograph the fairly close birds at the Centre, which worked out fine.

Amazingly, I managed to make myself get up early that morning, and set off just before 8:30 am. My intention was to drive straight to Coaldale without stopping anywhere en route. Not an easy thing for me to do, as I much prefer driving slowly along the back roads rather than the less interesting highways. However, I knew it would take me a few hours to get there and I wanted to have as much time as possible down there. On the way home, I drove one dusty, gravel road, but saw nothing but a couple of Horned Larks perched on fence posts. A couple of old barns (that I had seen before) and a few scenic shots, were more or less all I took.

I finally arrived home at 8:30 pm, after a 12-hour day, totally tired out, and my car was just about out of gas. So happy to have been down there again, though.