Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: American Tree Sparrow

"Plump and long-tailed, American Tree Sparrows are busy visitors in winter backyards and weedy, snow-covered fields across southern Canada and the northern United States. Hopping up at bent weeds or even beating their wings to dislodge seeds from grass heads, they scratch and peck the ground in small flocks, trading soft, musical twitters. Come snowmelt, these small rusty-capped and smooth-breasted sparrows begin their long migrations to breeding grounds in the tundra of the far North." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Tree_Sparrow/id Two days ago, on 9 November 2017, I joined a group of friends to go on a walk in Fish Creek Park. It was longer than it should have been, due to our destination area being closed with yellow warning tape because there was a Black Bear in the area. Makes me smile, as I know bears can't read and can walk, so who knows what part of the park it was in when we were there. Apparently, the Bear has now been trapped and moved west of the city, to the Bragg Creek area.

A poor quality photo, but I don't get to see and photograph these birds very often. This little individual had the feathers on top of its head raised. Usually, I don't have three long day outings within five days, except during the Christmas Bird Counts, but on 26 October 2016, I was lucky enough to go with friends, Shirley and Anne, for a day's outing SW and SE of the city. We had a very early start, 7:00 am, and drove west of the city to start with, driving to the far end of Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66). While at Elbow Falls, we saw a pair of American Dippers flying from rock to rock. They were vocalizing, too, which I had never heard before. Though there seemed to be very few birds to be seen all day, we were so lucky to see a total of four Moose - two at each of two different locations SW of the city. It is always nice to see a Moose, and to see four in one day was a real treat. From Elbow Falls Trail, we drove down through the Millarville area and finally ended up east of High River. We found one of the Great Horned Owls that everyone had been following earlier in the year, along with this nearby little American Tree Sparrow. We did see a few Hawks, including a Rough-legged Hawk on a hay bale and a very dark morph Hawk later in the day. A great day, ladies - thank you so much for inviting me along and thanks so much, Shirley, for driving! Greatly appreciated.