Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: canal

This photo and the next one were taken yesterday, 22 October 2016, when I went on a birding day trip with a group of friends, east of Calgary. I will add our leader's eBird list of species seen, as soon as I have it. We had beautiful weather for these few hours and we saw plenty of birds. Unfortunately, all the birds were extremely far away, as usual, so all I got were very distant shots of a mass of birds, plus photos of this Ring-billed Gull and the much smaller Bonaparte's Gull. In the breeding season, the Bonaparte's Gull has a black head, but in winter, it is white with a black dot on each cheek. There were quite a few Geese of different species - Canada Geese, Snow Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese. All the usual ducks were to be seen at the various sloughs. Chestermere Lake was one of our stops, and also Wyndham/Carseland Reservoir where I took this photo. This morning, I was up at an unearthly hour again, as I have a trip with various friends, this time going west of the city.

This photo was taken on 8 October 2015. Friend Sandy had asked if I wanted to go with her to join friends down at the Irrigation Canal in the city, for a birding walk. This was a long walk - three and a half hours - along both sides of the canal. As you can see in this image, it was a beautiful fall day with a lovely blue sky. Also, enough trees were still dressed in gold to give some colourful reflections in parts f the canal. The water level was very low, creating just a narrow strip of water with a wide mud bank on either side, that had attracted a number of Greater Yellowlegs and a single American Golden-plover juvenile. The latter was a new bird for me and, though I could only get a very distant, poor shot, I did post it on Flickr. To me, a juvenile American Golden Plover looks so similar to a juvenile Black-bellied Plover (from photos I've seen), but the ID for the bird we saw was given as American Golden-plover. Much of the time, there were pale, dead grasses in the background and this bird was almost invisible. Great camouflage. We also saw several Hooded Mergansers there. I don't often see Hooded Mergansers and, when I do see one, it's always a long way away. They are quite spectacular ducks, especially the males, who have a crest at the back of their head and can raise this black and white "hood" or lower it. The list of the 31 bird species seen (not all by me) from our leaders, Dan and David: 1. Canada Goose - 60+ 2. Mallard - 150+ 3. Northern Shoveler - 1 4. Green-winged Teal - 2 5. Hooded Merganser - 3 males 6. Common Merganser - 20+ 7. Double-crested Cormorant - 4 8. Bald Eagle - 1, immature 9. Red-tailed Hawk - 1 (Harlan’s subspecies) 10. Rough-legged Hawk - 5 (4 dark phase, 1 light phase) 11. AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER 12. Killdeer - 1 13. Greater Yellowlegs - 38+ 14. Long-billed Dowitcher - 11 15. Ring-billed Gull - 400+ 16. Herring Gull - 2 17. Rock Pigeon - 32+ 18. Downy Woodpecker - 1 19. Hairy Woodpecker - 2 20. Northern Flicker - 2 21. Merlin - 2 22. Black-billed Magpie - 15+ 23. American Crow - 6 24. Common Raven - 2 25. Black-capped Chickadee - 7 26. White-breasted Nuthatch - 1 27. American Robin - 8 28. European Starling - 18+ 29. Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2 30. American Tree Sparrow - 1 31. House Finch - 1

All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, 8 October 2015. Friend Sandy had asked if I wanted to go with her to join friends down at the Irrigation Canal in the city, for a birding walk. This was a long walk - three and a half hours - along both sides of the canal. As you can see in this image, it was a beautiful fall day with enough trees still dressed in gold to give some colourful reflections. The water level was very low, creating just a narrow strip of water with a wide mud bank on either side, that had attracted a number of Greater Yellowlegs and a single American Golden-plover. The latter was a new bird for me and, though I could only get a very distant, poor shot, I've posted it this morning. To me, a juvenile American Golden Plover looks so similar to a juvenile Black-bellied Plover (from photos I've seen), but the ID for the bird we saw was given as American Golden-plover. Much of the time, there were pale, dead grasses in the background and this bird was almost impossible to see. I don't often see Hooded Mergansers and, when I do see one, it's always a long way away. They are quite spectacular ducks, especially the males, who have a crest at the back of their head and can raise this black and white "hood" or lower it (as in this photo). These two guys just did not want to raise their impressive crests. "“Hooded” is something of an understatement for this extravagantly crested little duck. Adult males are a sight to behold, with sharp black-and-white patterns set off by chestnut flanks. Females get their own distinctive elegance from their cinnamon crest. Hooded Mergansers are fairly common on small ponds and rivers, where they dive for fish, crayfish, and other food, seizing it in their thin, serrated bills. They nest in tree cavities; the ducklings depart with a bold leap to the forest floor when only one day old." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hooded_Merganser/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooded_Merganser The list of the 31 bird species seen (not all by me) from our leaders, Dan and David: 1. Canada Goose - 60+ 2. Mallard - 150+ 3. Northern Shoveler - 1 4. Green-winged Teal - 2 5. Hooded Merganser - 3 males 6. Common Merganser - 20+ 7. Double-crested Cormorant - 4 8. Bald Eagle - 1, immature 9. Red-tailed Hawk - 1 (Harlan’s subspecies) 10. Rough-legged Hawk - 5 (4 dark phase, 1 light phase) 11. AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER 12. Killdeer - 1 13. Greater Yellowlegs - 38+ 14. Long-billed Dowitcher - 11 15. Ring-billed Gull - 400+ 16. Herring Gull - 2 17. Rock Pigeon - 32+ 18. Downy Woodpecker - 1 19. Hairy Woodpecker - 2 20. Northern Flicker - 2 21. Merlin - 2 22. Black-billed Magpie - 15+ 23. American Crow - 6 24. Common Raven - 2 25. Black-capped Chickadee - 7 26. White-breasted Nuthatch - 1 27. American Robin - 8 28. European Starling - 18+ 29. Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2 30. American Tree Sparrow - 1 31. House Finch - 1

A heavily cropped, very grainy image, taken in very poor light, but it was the "best" of all the shots I took. I didn't realize just how poor the light was and I ended up deleting almost all the photos I took. However, I wouldn't have any of these photos if my friends, Dorothy and Stephen, hadn't very kindly invited me to go along with them to the Irrigation Canal in the city. I rarely see Hooded Mergansers and, when I do see one, it's always a long way away. Quite spectacular ducks, especially the males, who have a crest at the back of their head and can raise this black and white "hood" (as in my photo) or lower it. I really liked the water patterns - except for the awful graininess, ha. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooded_Merganser

Taken at the Irrigation Canal in Calgary, when friends Dorothy and Stephen invited me to go with them, on 15 October 2012. Unfortunately, the light was worse than I had realized and I had to delete most of my photos from that outing. These are very common Gulls, but I so rarely get to places where I can see one on the ground.

It was such a treat for me to have the chance to see a few shore birds and ducks, and close enough to photograph. Friends Dorothy and Stephen invited me to go with them to the Irrigation Canal in the city on 15 October 2012, where we saw several Greater Yellowlegs and Hooded Mergansers. It was very overcast weather, but I managed to get a handful of photos that were just about OK with a bit of help from post processing : ) www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/greater_yellowlegs/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Greater_Yellowlegs

Taken at the Irrigation Canal in Calgary, when friends Dorothy and Stephen invited me to go with them, on 15 October 2012. Unfortunately, the light was worse than I had realized and I had to delete most of my photos from that outing. For some reason, this one came out OK. These are very common Gulls, but I so rarely get to places where I can see one on the ground, within reasonable camera reach. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring-billed_Gull