Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: women

Last night, I decided that I would try and start posting the occasional photo taken during a 10-day trip to Trinidad & Tobago with six birding.photographer friends. My scattered photos will at least be together in my three albums from this holiday. I have already posted photos taken on the hike down to the cave. This outing was one of the highlights of the trip to Trinidad.& Tobago in March 2017. One that I wasn't sure I'd be able to manage, after reading endless accounts and descriptions of how difficult the trail was. In the end, I decided I would go, as I was sure we would see things on the way, even if I wasn't able to do the whole hike. As it turned out, the hike could have been a lot more difficult, so I was really glad that I went after all. It was too challenging to get a decent shot of the Oilbirds in their cave. No camera flash is allowed, but the Guide allows two people at a time to join her, and she shines her flashlight very briefly on the birds. I keep forgetting how large these birds are. Link below for a short video (just over 2 minutes) from WildExplorer (Toledo Zoo), taken at the Oilbird's cave. My friends and I did not go into the cave itself: youtu.be/5Lm5YEsUreY "The oilbird (Steatornis caripensis), locally known as the guácharo, is a bird species found in the northern areas of South America including the island of Trinidad. It is the only species in the genus Steatornis and the family Steatornithidae. Nesting in colonies in caves, oilbirds are nocturnal feeders on the fruits of the oil palm and tropical laurels. They are the only nocturnal flying fruit-eating birds in the world (the kakapo is flightless). They forage at night, with specially adapted eyesight. However they navigate by echolocation in the same way as bats, and are one of the few kinds of birds known to do so. They produce a high-pitched clicking sound of around 2 kHz that is audible to humans. This is a large, slim bird at 40–49 cm (16–19 in), with a wing span of 95 cm (37 in). It has a flattened, powerfully hooked, bill surrounded by deep chestnut rictal bristles up to 5 centimetres (2.0 in) long. The adult weighs 350–475 g (12.3–16.8 oz) but the chicks can weigh considerably more, at up to 600 grams (21 oz), when their parents feed them a good deal of fruit before they fly. The feathers of the oilbird are soft like those of many nightbirds, but not as soft as those of owls or nightjars, as they do not need to be silent like predatory species. The oilbird is mainly reddish-brown with white spots on the nape and wings. Lower parts are cinnamon-buff with white diamond-shaped spots edged in black, these spots start small towards the throat and get larger towards the back. The stiff tail feathers are a rich brown spotted with white on either side. The feet are small and almost useless, other than for clinging to vertical surfaces. The long wings have evolved to make it capable of hovering and twisting flight, which enables it to navigate through restricted areas of its caves. For example the wings have deep wingtip slotting, like New World vultures, to reduce the stalling speed, and the wings have a low aspect ratio and low wing-loading, all to make the oilbird capable of flying at low speeds. The eyes of oilbirds are highly adapted to nocturnal foraging. The eyes are small, but the pupils are relatively large, allowing the highest light-gathering capacity of any bird (f-number of 1.07).[8] The retina is dominated by rod cells, 1,000,000 per rods mm2, the highest density of any vertebrate eye, which are organised in layers, an arrangement unique among birds but shared by deep-sea fish. They have low numbers of cone cells, and the whole arrangement would allow them to capture more light in low light conditions but probably have poor vision in daylight. Although they have specially adapted vision to forage by sight, they are among the few birds known to supplement sight by echolocation in sufficiently poor light conditions, using a series of sharp audible clicks for this purpose. The only other birds known to do this are some species of swift." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Oilbird Information about Oilbirds from Asa Wright Nature Centre: asawright.org/about-oilbirds/

Early hours of the morning, on 4 April 2017, and I have just posted a whole pile of photos so that I can put them into my Trinidad & Tobago albums. I think I have pretty well finished Day 2 of our trip, apart from a handful of remaining images. There are several photos that are just about as bad as they could possibly be - posting them just for the record of what birds I saw. Will post two more when I have had some sleep, and they will be my main photos for today. No need to comment on the few dozen shots I've just added. I don't know how other people edit and upload all their holiday photos in such a short time - it's taking me forever : ) And now I must get to bed - it's 2:30 am! On 14 March, our second day on Tobago, we were taken to the Main Ridge Forest Reserve via the Roxborough-Parlatuvier Rd. This is the oldest rainforest reserve in the western hemisphere, set up in 1776 under British rule. There are various trails here, with Gilpin Trace being the best known. It had been arranged that a man would be there with the back of his truck full of rubber boots that we could rent - and how grateful we were that we now had what turned out to be much-needed footwear. He was a real entrepreneur. Our guide was Gladwyn James, whose father, Adolphus James, is a renowned ornithologist on the island. Unfortunately, he is now retired. One of the roads we drove along was named "James Path" in honour of his father - I posted a photo of Gladwyn standing by the road sign. Actually, I sent the photo to our main naturalist here, as he had done a similar outing with Gladwyn's father, back on 2nd March 1978! Bear with me, everyone, as I think I am going to have to post 5 photos (I posted 6 the first two days) from my trip each day, otherwise it will take me many months (years?) to get them on to Flickr. Obviously, no comments expected, unless you happen to notice that I have given the wrong ID for something or maybe if you like one photo in particular. Actually, I am so disappointed with my photos - never have so many (bird) photos come out blurry, many totally blurry and no use at all. I'm not sure why, though the light was often really bad and maybe the humidity had some effect. For some species, I will be posting awful shots, just for the record. I might even post a pile of photos at a time some evenings, when far fewer people are on Flickr, and then post a few better images the following morning. Won't even stop and add descriptions, etc., just so that I can get my photos added to my albums. It will take me forever to do much of a write-up about this trip, but I hope to add an extra bit of information about each photo to the very simple, basic description. Right now, I'm still working out just where I was and when, lol! We arrived back in Calgary in the evening of 21 March 2017, and I have to get myself somewhat organized and should be seeing to all sorts of important things. Instead, of course, I have been stuck in front of my computer all day, each day : ) Totally dead beat after such a busy time away, dealing with extremely early mornings and hot, humid weather. Those of you who know me well, know that I am a dreadful night-owl, so getting up around 5:15 am was an absolute killer. Also, heat and humidity don't agree with my body, so each trip out was quite exhausting - but a thrill, of course! In the morning of 21 March, we had to get up around 2:00 am, as we had such an early flight (5 and a half hours) from Trinidad to Toronto - followed by a four-hour flight back to Calgary. On our very first day, we had three flights in a row, as we flew from Calgary to Toronto, then Toronto to Port of Spain on Trinidad, from where we had a short flight to the island of Tobago. Still can't believe I've actually had this trip! This adventure was only the second holiday (or was it actually my third?) of any kind, anywhere, that I have had in something like 30 or 35 years! The other holiday was a wonderful, one-week holiday with my great friends from England, Linda and Tony, when we went down south to Yellowstone National Park and the Grand Tetons in September 2012. I have had maybe half a dozen weekends away, including to Waterton National Park, which have helped keep me going. Six birding/photographer friends and I decided that we would take this exciting trip together (from 12-21 March 2017), spending the first two or three days on the island of Tobago and then the rest of the time at the Asa Wright Nature Centre on the nearby, much larger island of Trinidad. We decided to take a complete package, so everything was included - flights (we were so very lucky to get Black Friday prices, which were 50% off!), accommodation at both places, all our food, and the various walks and day trips that we could chose from. Two of my friends, Anne B. and Brenda, saw to all the planning of flights and accommodations, which was so very much appreciated by the rest of us. I could never have done all this myself! What a time we had, seeing so many beautiful and interesting things - and, of course, everything was a lifer for me. Some of these friends had visited Costa Rica before, so were familiar with quite a few of the birds. There was a lot more to see on Trinidad, so we were glad that we chose Tobago to visit first and then spend a longer time at Asa Wright. It was wonderful to be right by the sea, though, at the Blue Waters Inn on the island of Tobago. The Asa Wright Nature Centre, on the much larger island of Trinidad, is such an amazing place! We stayed in cabins up or down hill from the main building. Really, one doesn't need to travel away from the Centre for birding, as so many different species visit the Hummingbird feeders that are right by the huge, open veranda, and the trees of the rain forest high up a mountainous road. The drive up and down this narrow, twisting, pot-holed road was an adventure in itself! Never would I ever do this drive myself - we had a guide who drove us everywhere in a van/small bus. I had read many accounts of this road, lol! There was just enough room for two vehicles to squeeze past each other, and the honking of horns was almost continuous - either to warn any vehicle that might be coming fast around the next bend or as a sign that drivers knew each other. The drive along this road took just over an hour each way. I'm already missing the great food that was provided every single day at Asa Wright and the Rum Punch that appeared each evening. I never drink at all, so I wasn't sure if I would even try the Punch - glad I did, though, as it was delicious and refreshing. Breakfast, lunch and dinner were all served buffet-style, with a great variety of dishes from which to choose. To me, pure luxury. So very, very grateful to have been invited to be part of this amazing adventure.

Two days ago, on 26 June 2016, a fair-sized group of people (those in this photo and others who were exploring the hillside) spent the morning walking on the property belonging to Erik Butters, out past Cochrane, NW of Calgary. This photo shows what Erik's land is like - rolling, open hills and areas of woodland, with the Rocky Mountains in the distance. This event was the 8th Annual Flora & Fauna Fundraising for Ghost River Watershed Outing. Fortunately, I knew how to drive to this distant location, so I was able to pick up friend Dorothy and off we went together. We allowed plenty of time to get there, just in case of heavy traffic or else we saw something interesting en route. This meant that there was time for me to stop and take a few photos of a Llama in someone's field, a couple of beautiful Longhorn cattle lying down and a small herd of maybe half a dozen Elk that we saw way off in the distance. I think everyone was more than ready for lunch by the time our hike was over! Going to our destination was all uphill, which I normally avoid at all cost. Coming down used less energy, but painful knees felt every step on the way down : ) Around 1:00 pm, Erik and his partner provided a great BBQ for those of us from Calgary and for the people who had joined us from elsewhere. As always, the food was delicious! Thank you so much, both of you! Amazingly, the sun shone and there was no rain, despite the weather forecast.