Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Rallidae

Our weather forecast for today, 6 July 2019, from the Weather Network: "A multi-day severe storm threat looms for the Prairies. This weekend is ripe with storm risk, with Saturday's thunderstorms set to fire for the afternoon and evening, along with some tornado chance on the table for southern Alberta -- something visitors to the Calgary Stampede should keep an eye on." This morning, 6 July 2019, I am posting 7 more photos taken three days ago, on a drive south to Frank Lake. Yet again, when I checked the weather forecast, it said continuing rain for day after day after day. However, the sun was shining when I decided to drive south. The clouds were sufficiently photogenic for me to change my plans and, instead of calling in at the Saskatoon Farm, I drove straight to the Lake. The previous time I was at Frank Lake, there was one Coot, two Canada Geese, and a Red-winged and a Yellow-headed Blackbird. Two days ago, it was so much better! The Barn Swallows were there, having built their nest a few feet away from their previous nest site. The Eared Grebes had their tiny, adorable babies, sometimes riding on their back, other times swimming separately. Same thing with the Coots - some had very young babies; others had somewhat older youngsters. One Coot adult and baby were walking in thick mud, searching for food. They both looked such a mess, as if they had rolled in the mud. A pair of Western Grebes could be seen far in the distance. The sky began to change - the white clouds were taken over by rather menacing black ones and it became windy and the rain started. I really didn't want to drive back home on the very busy highway in pouring rain, but after waiting and hoping for it to end, I eventually had no choice but to risk it. As it turned out, there was hardly any traffic going north. It has been raining on and off for something like three weeks now, and everyone is tired of the rain. The famous 9-day Calgary Stampede runs from 5-14 July this year and rain during Stampede makes things so unpleasant! Judging by my Stampede photos posted on Flickr, I haven't been since 2013, when I went with my daughter - surely it hasn't been that long? I know I haven't been the last few years, as it was feeling just too much to deal with. Happy to be away from the huge masses of people and the sickening smell of grease, ha, ha! Of course, not going means not getting any mini-donuts, too. Happy Stampeding, everyone! May the sun shine ....

Our weather forecast for today, 6 July 2019, from the Weather Network: "A multi-day severe storm threat looms for the Prairies. This weekend is ripe with storm risk, with Saturday's thunderstorms set to fire for the afternoon and evening, along with some tornado chance on the table for southern Alberta -- something visitors to the Calgary Stampede should keep an eye on." This morning, 6 July 2019, I am posting 7 more photos taken three days ago, on a drive south to Frank Lake. Yet again, when I checked the weather forecast, it said continuing rain for day after day after day. However, the sun was shining when I decided to drive south. The clouds were sufficiently photogenic for me to change my plans and, instead of calling in at the Saskatoon Farm, I drove straight to the Lake. The previous time I was at Frank Lake, there was one Coot, two Canada Geese, and a Red-winged and a Yellow-headed Blackbird. Two days ago, it was so much better! The Barn Swallows were there, having built their nest a few feet away from their previous nest site. The Eared Grebes had their tiny, adorable babies, sometimes riding on their back, other times swimming separately. Same thing with the Coots - some had very young babies; others had somewhat older youngsters. One Coot adult and baby were walking in thick mud, searching for food. They both looked such a mess, as if they had rolled in the mud. A pair of Western Grebes could be seen far in the distance. The sky began to change - the white clouds were taken over by rather menacing black ones and it became windy and the rain started. I really didn't want to drive back home on the very busy highway in pouring rain, but after waiting and hoping for it to end, I eventually had no choice but to risk it. As it turned out, there was hardly any traffic going north. It has been raining on and off for something like three weeks now, and everyone is tired of the rain. The famous 9-day Calgary Stampede runs from 5-14 July this year and rain during Stampede makes things so unpleasant! Judging by my Stampede photos posted on Flickr, I haven't been since 2013, when I went with my daughter - surely it hasn't been that long? I know I haven't been the last few years, as it was feeling just too much to deal with. Happy to be away from the huge masses of people and the sickening smell of grease, ha, ha! Of course, not going means not getting any mini-donuts, too. Happy Stampeding, everyone! May the sun shine ....

This photo was taken on 16 August 2014, SE of Calgary, near Frank Lake. I ended up being out all day, spending three hours in the morning birding with a group of friends at Carburn Park in the city. It's the time of year when the various tiny Warblers are passing through the city again. Then, flickr/birder/photography friend, Pam, asked if I wanted to go SE of the city to the Frank Lake area. We had a fun afternoon, with a few reasonable bird sightings. The clouds were amazing, though somehow I didn't manage to get any good photos of them. Seeing them reflected in the lake was perhaps the best place. There were several Coots and their growing youngsters at the lake - this adult climbed on to these broken Cattail (?) stems, so you can see the size of their huge, lobed feet. Spotted a Mourning Dove along one of the backroads. I don't remember ever seeing a Mourning Dove perched on a fence post before - usually, they are perched on a very high wire when I see them. Thanks, Pam, for suggesting a drive to one of my favourite areas!

Will have to post and more or less run this morning. Last night, I set two alarm clocks (one set very loud), for 5:45 a.m., but I slept right through an hour of very loud music and then woke up nearly five hours later! As a result, I have missed a trip to a great place - one that I don't like going to on my own. Knowing that there will be other people there today, I think I will still go, but not very far into the forest on my own. Hopefully, the others will scare any Bears and Cougars out of the forest and not in my direction! To say that I could kick myself is to put it mildly, ha! I always have to smile when I see a baby Coot, especially when they are younger than this one and still have the few orange feathers around the head. This year, I just never got anywhere where I could see babies reasonably close. When I first spotted this little one, at first I thought I had found a young Sora. After a split second of disappointment, I tried to catch this little Coot out in the open before it disappeared yet again behind green Cattail stalks. Most of my attempts need deleting, but a couple came out OK. I think a young Coot is called a Cootie.

Usually, these Coots just keep swimming, but this one paused just long enough for me to get a reasonably sharp shot. Taken in SW Calgary on 1 May 2014. "Though commonly mistaken to be ducks, American Coots belong to a distinct order. Unlike the webbed feet of ducks, coots have broad, lobed scales on their lower legs and toes that fold back with each step in order to facilitate walking on dry land. Coots live near water, typically inhabiting wetlands and open water bodies in North America. Groups of coots are called covers or rafts. The oldest known coot lived to be 22 years old." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Coot www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_coot/id

Lol, my title is a good example of why they say that English is the hardest language to learn! Not a great photo, but l like that it shows the lobed, not webbed, foot of this water bird (which is not a species of duck!). Taken on 17 May 2013 in SW Calgary. "Though commonly mistaken to be ducks, American Coots belong to a distinct order. Unlike the webbed feet of ducks, coots have broad, lobed scales on their lower legs and toes that fold back with each step in order to facilitate walking on dry land. Coots live near water, typically inhabiting wetlands and open water bodies in North America. Groups of coots are called covers or rafts. The oldest known coot lived to be 22 years old." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Coot allaboutbirds.org/guide/AD_IMAGES/square-warbler.png?foo=... -----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This photo, of a female Coot lying on her nest, was taken in SW Calgary, on my home from taking part in the annual May Species Count on 27 May 2012. My small group covers an area SW of the city. This species is not a duck, but a member of the Rail family. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Coot

Decided I would post my photos late tonight - well, it's 1:00 a.m. - as I will be out at friend Doug's Memorial tomorrow and I know I won't feel like uploading photos afterwards. Took this photo of these adorable baby Coots on 21st June 2011, at a wetland down in the SW of the city.

I thought I would have posted this photo earlier in the summer, but I can't see any sign of it, so thought I'd add it today. I did enjoy watching and trying to photograph the baby Coots in early summer. They are the strangest looking creatures - with their whispy, orange feathers and those dark "eyebrows", lol. They move so fast, too, changing direction constantly!

I have wanted to photograph baby Coots for the last few years and finally got the chance yesterday. They must be one of the funniest and ugliest little birds, so much so that they are adorably CUTE : ) I was watching a different youngster trying to climb over a small branch in the water and it looked almost as if it was doing tthe "log roll" that some humans seem to enjoy. However, once it finally got over the floating branch, that wasn't good enough - it just had to keep going back and forth over it, as if it was having fun, ha. Grrr ... I just accidentally deleted my Fish Creek Park set that contained 1,021 images. I was trying to delete it from one of my Collections, but somehow must have got back into my photostream sets without knowing it. I've tried and tried to create a new set using batch tags, but no luck. Maybe 1,021 images are just too many for it to handle in one go? So, I guess I will have to do what I did originally - add each photo to the new set individually. If anyone has any suggestions or help about adding to a new set as a batch, I would appreciate it greatly - thanks : ) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Coot

Some people think that Coots are ducks, but in fact they belong to the Rail family - they don't have webbed feet. These babies are so "ugly" that they are cute! Don't you agree, lol? Absolutely love their bright orange head feathers : ) They can swim amazingly fast, darting off in every direction, which makes them a little difficult to photograph. Photographed on June 21st at a wetland in south west Calgary. A few days ago, when I was watching the Coots, I noticed an adult grab hold of a baby several times and viciously shake it. I wonder if that particular youngster had mistaken this adult as its own mother or father? Has anyone else witnessed such behaviour? Poor little thing. A friend also had seen this happening on a different day. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Coot www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_coot/id

These tiny baby Coots seem to need feeding constantly, lol. Photographed in SW Calgary on June 21st. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Coot

One of the American Coots I was photographing yesterday afternoon within the city. They are not ducks. "Coots are medium-sized water birds which are members of the rail family Rallidae. They constitute the genus Fulica. Coots have predominantly black plumage, and, unlike many of the rails, they are usually easy to see, often swimming in open water. They are close relatives of the moorhen." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coot