Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Setophaga petechia

This morning, I decided to edit and post, in one fell swoop, all of the photos that were taken on 25 June 2019, during a walk at Burnsmead, Fish Creek Park. I don't usually do any evening walks, but all our birding walks have come to an end until the next session starts, towards the end of summer. As usual, I have missed most of the walks from the session that has just finished. Burnsmead is quite a good place for birds and I don't have to drive across the city to get there. I do find the walk, for me, is a bit too far, and a few of us chose to leave before the end. We lucked out with the weather, fortunately. Glad we weren't out two evenings later, when we had a huge storm that resulted in a lot of flooding in the city and around Southern Alberta. Some people had a lot of hail, too. One of the highlights for me was seeing an Osprey land on a distant, tall utility pole, with a fish in its talons. We also enjoyed watching a pair of tiny Yellow Warblers collecting delicate insects to feed their babies. These brightly coloured birds are so small and so fast and, needless to say, not easy to photograph! We were surprised to see a Northern Rough-winged Swallow perched on a fence near the path. I've only ever "seen" a handful and always in rapid flight overhead. This one just sat there and gave us the chance to take photos. I don't get out enough to search for wildflowers, so it was also nice to come across a few species in the park. Thanks, Anne B, for organizing and leading the walk. Even more appreciated as there are no more morning walks available for now.

This morning, I decided to edit and post, in one fell swoop, all of the photos that were taken on 25 June 2019, during a walk at Burnsmead, Fish Creek Park. I don't usually do any evening walks, but all our birding walks have come to an end until the next session starts, towards the end of summer. As usual, I have missed most of the walks from the session that has just finished. Burnsmead is quite a good place for birds and I don't have to drive across the city to get there. I do find the walk, for me, is a bit too far, and a few of us chose to leave before the end. We lucked out with the weather, fortunately. Glad we weren't out two evenings later, when we had a huge storm that resulted in a lot of flooding in the city and around Southern Alberta. Some people had a lot of hail, too. One of the highlights for me was seeing an Osprey land on a distant, tall utility pole, with a fish in its talons. We also enjoyed watching a pair of tiny Yellow Warblers collecting delicate insects to feed their babies. These brightly coloured birds are so small and so fast and, needless to say, not easy to photograph! We were surprised to see a Northern Rough-winged Swallow perched on a fence near the path. I've only ever "seen" a handful and always in rapid flight overhead. This one just sat there and gave us the chance to take photos. I don't get out enough to search for wildflowers, so it was also nice to come across a few species in the park. Thanks, Anne B, for organizing and leading the walk. Even more appreciated as there are no more morning walks available for now.

This morning, I decided to edit and post, in one fell swoop, all of the photos that were taken on 25 June 2019, during a walk at Burnsmead, Fish Creek Park. I don't usually do any evening walks, but all our birding walks have come to an end until the next session starts, towards the end of summer. As usual, I have missed most of the walks from the session that has just finished. Burnsmead is quite a good place for birds and I don't have to drive across the city to get there. I do find the walk, for me, is a bit too far, and a few of us chose to leave before the end. We lucked out with the weather, fortunately. Glad we weren't out two evenings later, when we had a huge storm that resulted in a lot of flooding in the city and around Southern Alberta. Some people had a lot of hail, too. One of the highlights for me was seeing an Osprey land on a distant, tall utility pole, with a fish in its talons. We also enjoyed watching a pair of tiny Yellow Warblers collecting delicate insects to feed their babies. These brightly coloured birds are so small and so fast and, needless to say, not easy to photograph! We were surprised to see a Northern Rough-winged Swallow perched on a fence near the path. I've only ever "seen" a handful and always in rapid flight overhead. This one just sat there and gave us the chance to take photos. I don't get out enough to search for wildflowers, so it was also nice to come across a few species in the park. Thanks, Anne B, for organizing and leading the walk. Even more appreciated as there are no more morning walks available for now.

Once again, I am up-to-date with my local photos, after going on a two-hour birding walk in Fish Creek Park yesterday evening, 18 June 2019. Maybe I can make a start on Day 9 of our South Texas birding trip back in March 2019. A total of 36 bird species were seen, though I missed many of these birds. The forecast was for rain, so I wasn't sure if we were going to get caught in a downpour. Instead, we enjoyed sunshine and a pleasant temperature. This morning, 19 June, it is only 10C (windchill 7C) and overcast, with an expected high of 12C. Wish we could send our rain further north, where there are various wildfires burning. As of right now, there are 6 fires out of control, 7 being held, and 9 under control.

Thankfully, the smoke from the wildfires to the north of us has eased up. However, did I really read on the Weather Network that there is a risk of SNOW in a few days' time?!! Actually, having just written that, it reminded me that yesterday, at one point, I looked out of my window and saw what almost looked like a few snowflakes falling. Then it occurred to me that maybe it was ash in the air from the northern wildfires. This afternoon, I added 11 photos taken on 28 May 2019, when I joined a few friends for an evening birding walk at Carburn Park. Usually, I don't go on evening walks, as by that time of day, I feel tired out and prefer to be home on my computer. I never seem to get over to Carburn Park on my own, so I decided this walk would at least get me there. Not a huge amount to see, but we were very happy to see three separate, distant Beavers, and I was happy to see a Yellow Warbler and even get a photo or two of it. The light in the evening was not the best for taking photos. Thanks for giving up one of your evenings for us, Janet! it was enjoyable to catch up with friends, as always.

Tonight, 6 June 2018, I have just added six extra photos from our Pt Pelee trip, to get them into my albums. Five of these photos are from the afternoon of our very first day at Pt Pelee. I am trying to post more or less in the order that the photos were taken, and unfortunately, there are so many odds and ends that I want to keep just for the record. I promise that, later on, I will have photos of some very different things - thank goodness. I did not have much success with seeing and photographing all the tiny, very fast-moving Warblers at Pt Pelee, so I wanted to post the photos that I did get, at night when most people are off Flickr. If anyone does happen to see them, please do let me know if I have given a wrong ID for any bird. Four friends (four of the six friends with whom I went to Trinidad & Tobago in March 2017) and I left Calgary airport on 6 May 2018 and flew to Toronto, Ontario, Canada. There, we rented a van and did the long drive to Point Pelee for four whole days of birding. We stayed at the Best Western Hotel in Leamington, which is close to Point Pelee National Park. It fills up very quickly (with birders) and our rooms were booked months ago. Our four days walking at Point Pelee were interesting and I, for sure, saw various things I had never seen before, including my very first Raccoon : ) Various friends had told me that the Warblers at Pelee were fantastic - so many and numerous species, and so close. Have to disagree with the "closeness" when we were there! I don't have binoculars as cameras are enough for me to carry around, so I know I missed all sorts of birds. Though my Warbler count was lower than my friends' counts, I was happy to at least get a few distant photos of some species. So many of my shots are awful, but I will still post some of them, just for the record of seeing them. Some photos are so bad that I doubt anyone can ID them. We covered several different trails at Pelee, and also drove to a few places somewhat further afield, such as Hillman Marsh. If you are unfamiliar with this Conservation Area, just wait till you see a photo of the old barn that was there. I couldn't believe my eyes! I was in so much pain that I wasn't sure if I would be able to walk across a grassy area to take a few photos. However, it was so unusual and beautiful, that I reckoned I could try and move forward inch by inch - and crawl (ha, ha) if necessary. Another place we enjoyed was Rondeau National Park. One amazing and totally unexpected sighting just outside Pelee was a very distant male Snowy Owl sitting in a fieldl!! We walked every single day that we were at Pelee and the areas mentioned above, seeing not just birds, but a frog/toad, snakes that we suspect were mating, several Painted turtles, a few plants (including both white and red Triliums, that I had never seen growing wild before, and a couple of Jack in the Pulpit plants). The Friends of Point Pelee have food available at lunch time that one can buy. They also have a shuttle bus that one can take from the Visitor Centre all the way to the southern tip of Pelee, which is the most southern part of Canada. They also have birding walks with a guide each day (there is a charge). On 9 May, we spent the morning from 6:00 am to 11:00 am on a birding walk at Pelee with guide, Tom Hince, whom we had contacted while we were still in Calgary. At the end of our stay at Point Pelee, we had to drive all the way back to Toronto, from where we flew to Quebec airport. From there, we had a four-hour drive to Tadoussac on the coast of the St. Lawrence Seaway. This is such a delightful, small place and in a beautiful setting. One of our friends, Anne B, and her husband have a summer cabin further along the cliff from the few stores and port. She had invited the four of us to go with her from Pelee to spend a week at her beautiful home. What an absolute treat this was! We were able to meet some of her relatives, too, who also have built cabins out there. We were looked after so well, and we were able to see and photograph all sorts of birds and other things. We made several trips to see different places, including the Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, where we were able to see endless thousands of Snow Geese. Breathtaking! We also had two boat trips from Tadoussac - one was a whaling trip in a Zodiac, where we saw very, very distant Beluga and Minke Whales. The Belugas looked almost like the white wave crests - but they were Belugas. The other boat trip was to Brandy Pot Island, inhabited by thousands of Razorbills and Common Murres, which were new birds for me, and Double-crested Cormorants that were nesting in tree tops. That long boat trip (in a tiny boat named Juno, piloted by Greg) started off in the rain and dark clouds and it was soooo cold! Thermal underwear, layers of fleece and toque and gloves were needed. This day was arranged through a contact of Anne's and it was so much enjoyed! Of course, we anchored a distance away from the island and sat there and ate our sandwiches and took endless photos. It is forbidden to land on the island at nesting time. Anne B, I can't thank you enough for organizing this holiday for us all and for inviting us to spend a week at your cabin. You worked so hard and it was so much appreciated by each and every one of us. Thank you for doing all the many hours of driving, too! Janet and Anne, thank you so much for compiling the lists of birds seen each day at various locations, and posted to ebird. These entries will be a huge help while I try and sort out where we were and when, and what species we saw. Miss your cookies and muffins, Janet, that you kindly made for us in Tadoussac, to go along with the wonderful meals that Anne planned and made for us : )

All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, 28 June 2016, when I went with friends, Dorothy and Stephen, to Bow Valley Provincial Park They are leading a day trip out there in the near future and wanted to do a dry run and very kindly invited me to go with them. These mountains are the first ones you come to, when you drive westwards on Highway 1A from Calgary. Mt. Yamnuska is a spectacular sight, and very popular with rock-climbers and hikers. I've never hiked up there - and am never likely to : ) The flat area at the foot of these mountains is Bow Valley Provincial Park, very popular with botanists and birders. It is less than an hour's drive west from Calgary. The view from the particular spot seen in my first photo is so beautiful - my favourite view in Bow Valley Provincial Park. We stood for a while and soaked it all in. The Many Springs trail is perhaps the most rewarding in the park. On the way out of the park, we stopped at Middle Lake and walked down the path as far as the lake. We were horrified at how low the water level was - we had seen the same thing at Many Springs, too. We saw a reasonably good variety of wildflowers, including Western Wood Lilies, Yellow Lady's-slippers, Sticky False Asphodel, and lots of Gaillardia. Though the end of June is usually the best time to go for the wildflowrs, you still never know what you will find. We barely had a spring this year, it was so hot and so dry, more like summer. Birds were much harder to find, even though we heard them. There were quite a few small birds flitting about, but our best sightings were of this brightly coloured male Yellow Warbler and some kind of flycatcher near the boardwalk at Many Springs. Both were on the move constantly, catching insects, though I did manage to get a few less-than-good photos. One of my Warbler shots made me smile when I saw it on my computer. The bird was perched, with a beak full of insects, right next to a large spider's web. Kind of robbing ones neighbour. The weather forecast for yesterday mentioned the risk of thunderstorms, but we were so lucky. The sun shone all day and the sky was full of puffy clouds. Once our visit was over and we were ready to drive back to Calgary, a bit of rain did arrive. Thanks so much, Dorothy and Stephen, for such an enjoyable day! It was a real treat to go to the mountains, as I so rarely go. www.albertaparks.ca/bow-valley-pp/ The link below is a map showing the turn off to the park and the layout of the lake areas. The roads at the junction with highway 1A are quite confusing! x-powered.com/camping/maps/BowValleyPP_Map.gif