Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Asio

This grainy image - poor light and taken from a car window - was not taken yesterday, but on 20 December 2013, in the same area as yesterday. Better than nothing, though : ) Quite often, when I take photos from inside the car, my photos just don't come out how they should and I'm never quite sure exactly why. The car was turned off, but maybe there were still some heat waves rising from it, disturbing the air. Thanks so much for the invite that day and for spotting this Short-eared Owl, Phil! I remember how happy the three of us were to see it. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-eared_Owl www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/short-eared_owl/id

This photo was taken at 8:34 p.m. yesterday, 19 April 2013, just as it was beginning to get dark. Really no use for photos with my point-and-shoot, but I was determined to try now that I had finally found a Short-eared Owl! (One of these days, I really MUST look up how to change the ISO setting on my camera, though Intelligent Automatic did raise the ISO, lol!!). I was also determined to post one of my shots, lol, and this was the only possible one (after being brightened, sharpened and cropped!). I left home early evening and spent something like two and a half hours driving the whole way round Frank Lake - the very first time I had ever driven it. The sun was shining when I left home and by the time I neared my destination, an enormous black cloud hovered right over where I was going. Actually, that, plus the evening sun that was all around, made for some rather nice light, so I was able to shoot scenery - and a Coot! Not sure where all the birds were, though I did see some very distant birds from the blind at the Lake. Several Coots were hanging about near the blind. I also saw several Tundra Swans on a small slough (pond) towards the end of my drive. I made two "mistakes" on my drive, one of which didn't really matter, but the second one made me drive further than I had intended and my big concern was the approaching darkness and being caught on the gravel backroads unable to see where i was going. Decided to check at my starting point one more time before hitting the highway and to my delight, I found a pair of these beautiful owls. Neither one stayed on their fence post, but flew off into the distance, so it was a case of a few quick shots in semi darkness - and being able to "rescue" just one of them. I was totally, totally drained by the time I got home - but very happy : ) The last time I had seen a Short-eared Owl in the wild was just over six years ago, but east of the city, near Langdon, and very, very distant. In Alberta, this owl species is uncommon to common from March to November and occasionally over-winters. I believe the provincial conservation status is "May Be At Risk". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-eared_Owl www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Short-eared_Owl/id