Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Sowthistle

All three photos posted this morning, were taken yesterday, 25 September 2016. It was a day of birding east and south-east of the city, with a group of birding friends. We set out at 8:00 am and our main stopping places were Weed Lake, Marsland Basin and Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park. I will add our leader's (Howard Heffler) list of species below. Pretty much the usual sightings - lots of ducks, a number of Hawks including the juvenile Red-tailed Hawk seen in the next photo and the juvenile White-throated Sparrow which was seen while walking around in Lynn and Sue's acreage at Marsland Basin. Also, a Merlin that was perched high up on a power pole. The water level at the wetland at Marsland Basin was very high, so there was no sign of the mudflats there. We did have three small flocks of Greater White-fronted Geese fly high overhead while we were looking out over the water, which was great. As usual, most birds we saw were much too far away for photos. As usually happens, when birds are too far away for me to see, my camera lens turns to a few other subjects, including the Sowthistle flower in this photo, which had three different insects on it. I think the one on the far right is a Hoverfly, but I''m not sure about the other two. Many thanks for leading this trip, Howard, and thanks, too, to Jim for driving half of us. I always appreciate a trip like this, with people who are all expert birdspotters - and then there's me, lol! "Eight participants met at Carburn Park at 8:00 AM and spent a beautiful fall day birding three locations east of Calgary. We first stopped at the south end of Weed Lake. Water levels were high so there was almost no shorebird habitat. A highlight was the large numbers of American Pipits. Marsland Basin, thanks to Lynn and Sue, is a wonderful spot for both the wetland and the treed areas. Next we went Wyndham-Carseland Provincial Park. We were not able to pick out a Mew Gull that had been recently reported there among the 100’s of Ring-billed Gulls. Thanks to Nimali Seneviratne for keeping track of species and doing the eBird postings. The combined list for the day was: Greater White-fronted Goose 108 Canada Goose 36 Gadwall 45 American Wigeon 22 Mallard 325 Northern Shoveler 400 Northern Pintail 80 Green-winged Teal 278 Bufflehead 18 Common Merganser 3 Ruddy Duck 5 Gray Partridge 20 Pied-billed Grebe 1 Eared Grebe 1 Double-crested Cormorant 3 American White Pelican 12 Great Blue Heron 4 White-faced Ibis 1 Bald Eagle 1 Northern Harrier 3 Sharp-shinned Hawk 2 Swainson's Hawk 1 Red-tailed Hawk 6 American Coot 51 Killdeer 4 Long-billed Dowitcher 9 Wilson's Snipe 2 Greater Yellowlegs 4 Franklin's Gull 3 Ring-billed Gull 1,000 Rock Pigeon 2 Eurasian Collared-Dove 1 Belted Kingfisher 2 Northern Flicker 1 Merlin 1 Blue Jay 2 Black-billed Magpie 6 Red-breasted Nuthatch 2 Marsh Wren 1 Ruby-crowned Kinglet 4 Swainson's Thrush 2 European Starling 34 American Pipit 95 Ovenbird 1 Orange-crowned Warbler 4 Yellow-rumped Warbler 5 Dark-eyed Junco 5 White-throated Sparrow 6 Western Meadowlark 5 Common Grackle 2 House Sparrow 12 Will have to finish off my other descriptions and tags later, as I am running late this morning and have a birding walk to get to. Later: I ended up not going on my birding walk this morning. By the time I got up early and had breakfast, I was feeling somewhat queasy and thought I had better not go on the walk. Felt a bit better later in the morning and decided to go to the Park after all (Bebo Grove, Fish Creek Park), getting there about noon. Met a delightful young guy standing on the bridge over the creek and pointing out to me a perched bird of prey. It took a little while to decide just what it was - helped by excellent birder, Nimali, who happened to come along the path. We decided it was a Cooper's Hawk ('C' for curved edge of tail tip and 'C' for Cooper's). Looking at my photos this evening, I'm still not 100% sure if it was a Cooper's or a Sharp-shinned. In a few of the photos, the tail tip edge looked more straight than curved. This hawk stayed around for ages and gave some nice opportunities for photos, including of it 'mantling' (spreading out its wings to form a cloak) when it captured a large dragonfly and returned to the same branch. When two of us were first standing on the bridge, this hawk flew down right over our heads two or three times - maybe because we were attracting insects around us? We noticed a second similar hawk, too, and we wondered if they were maybe juveniles, especially as the main one was very comfortable with us standing nearby. Made my day : ) I even spotted several mushrooms earlier in my walk, which was a surprise. Can't believe I was out in the park for about five hours! A very enjoyable walk - glad to have your company, Nimali, and that of the very knowledgeable young man we had just met.

This photo was taken yesterday, 8 September 2016, when our birding walk was at the east end of Fish Creek Park, in the Sikome area and also a little way along the river, south of Highway 22X. My main reason for going was that I was really hoping either to see one of the Black-crowned Night-herons that have been seen on several days, or that at least I could find out exactly where they had been seen. We saw three of them, all juveniles, but they were in the trees and extremely difficult to see and photograph. My next photo is being posted just for the record.

Photographed on a walk at Clearwater Park, along Highway 8, on September 4th. Not sure if these are the buds of Perennial Sowthistle (Sonchus arvensis) or Annual Sowthistle (Sonchus asper). Both are introduced, invasive plants. I always enjoy seeing the buds that are shaped like the middle one in my photo.

I didn't notice the second insect until I had the image on my computer : ). Sowthistles seem to be everywhere, adding lots of colour. However, they are an introduced species from Eurasia.

Sowthistles are everywhere, but I think they are are bright and cheery and sometimes can't resist taking yet another photo. One of these days, I might even remember how to tell the different kinds of Sowthistle from each other. Doug, can you tell which one this is - hmmm.....without the leaves, as usual : )?

A similar photo to one I posted recently, with the additon of these tiny "sparkles" from the sun shining on the pond water.

If I remember correctly, this is the seedhead of a Sowthistle, seen at Pearce Estate, near the edge of one of the ponds.