Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: foothill

Quite a change from all my recent 'green' photos taken at Point Pelee, Ontario, back in May! Two days ago, on 18 November 2018, my daughter and I drove west of the city to check out a couple of Christmas Markets. Something I no longer bother to do myself, but it is enjoyable to spend a few hours with my daughter. She had a free day and was hoping we could go west, before coming back to my place and doing a bit more sorting out. I really appreciated her help, sorting and lifting. She suggested we drive a few backroads on the way, and this is one of my favourites in winter, with its gorgeous view - as long as the road is reasonably clear of snow and ice. The sun on the distant, snowy peaks was so beautiful. Along one of the backroads, we had an interesting encounter with a female Moose and her youngster. From a huge distance, we suddenly saw an adult Moose start to cross the road, turning around to look back at the other side. Then we realized that there was a youngster who was unable to either jump over the fence or climb through it because of the wire netting that covered all the gaps. The poor thing kept walking along the fence line looking for a way to reach Mom. Eventually, the owner of the acreage came over and removed part of the fence, but the Moose didn't notice ths. Removal of another piece and - success! Over the lowered fence it jumped and joined its mother. We were so far away, not wanting to risk spooking either animal. Most of my photos were taken through the windshield, so were tinted green and blurry, but a handful were taken with the car door open and turned out OK. An interesting thing to witness and, as usual, all about timing. Right place, right time, and it was so good to see someone helping wildlife.

Just noticed that there is a Deer walking on the hillside, just up and to the right of the cupola on the barn roof. On 24 February 2018, I made the most of a sunny day and went for a 3-hour walk at Griffith Woods with friends. After going for lunch with friend, Darlene, I went for a long drive NW of the city, as I was already half way there. A drive that turned out to be very unrewarding, especially photo-wise. My hope was to maybe find a Short-eared Owl perched on a nice, close fence post : ) Absolutely nothing, not even a distant owl in flight, like friends and I saw the other day. I did see the same huge flock of roughly 5,000 Snow Buntings in the same place. Still didn't manage to get a sharp photo of them, as I was having to shoot through the windshield. By the time I arrived back home, not long before it was dark, I was so tired out. Almost every inch of my poor old body was in pain and I could barely stay awake. However, it was a good feeling to be in such beautiful scenery again. Apart from a few days ago, I hadn't been up in that area for a long time.

Our high temperature today is expected to be PLUS 1C (windchill -8C) with roughly the same for the next four days - and then the snow returns yet again. We have had a few beautifully sunny days and yesterday, 24 February 2018, I made the most of it and went for a 3-hour walk at Griffith Woods with friends. After going for lunch with friend, Darlene, I went for a long drive NW of the city, as I was already half way there. A drive that turned out to be very unrewarding, especially photo-wise. My hope was to maybe find a Short-eared Owl perched on a nice, close fence post : ) Absolutely nothing, not even a distant owl in flight, like friends and I saw the other day. I did see the same huge flock of roughly 5,000 Snow Buntings in the same place. Still didn't manage to get a sharp photo of them, as I was having to shoot through the windshield. By the time I arrived back home, not long before it was dark, I was so tired out. Almost every inch of my poor old body was in pain and I could barely stay awake. However, it was a good feeling to be in such beautiful scenery again. Apart from a few days ago, I hadn't been up in that area for a long time.

On 12 February, I ended up going for a short drive SW of the city, to my 'usual' area, partly just to get a change of scenery. I hadn't driven out of the city since 17 December 2017. Almost no wildlife to be seen, other than a Raven, a Magpie, a Rough-legged Hawk perched at the top of a tall tree, and a couple of small, unidentified birds that flew across the road ahead of me. Still, I did take a handful of winter scenic shots and a couple of barns/sheds. To drown my sorrows over not being able to find any owls of any kind, I decided to call in at a small cafe/restaurant in the area and brought home a bowl of delicious chili with garlic bread. Made an enjoyable ending to my afternoon drive.

What a change in the weather today! Maybe two days ago, we had a windchill of -34C. Today, 13 February 2018, it is windy, overcast, and the temperature is PLUS 7C, with a windchill of 2C. In a way, it feels good to hear the drip-drip-drip of melting snow, but the forecast says we are to get more snow in the next few days. Yesterday afternoon, 12 February, I ended up going for a short drive SW of the city, to my 'usual' area, partly just to get a change of scenery. I hadn't driven out of the city since 17 December 2017. Almost no wildlife to be seen, other than a Raven, a Magpie, a Rough-legged Hawk perched at the top of a tall tree, and a couple of small, unidentified birds that flew across the road ahead of me. Still, I did take a handful of winter scenic shots and a couple of barns/sheds. At first, I didn't realize that one of the dark, horizontal lines through the snow was, in fact, a long line of dark cows, all heading back to feed. To drown my sorrows over not being able to find any owls of any kind, I decided to call in at a small cafe/restaurant in the area and brought home a bowl of delicious chili with garlic bread. Made an enjoyable ending to my afternoon drive. As mentioned yesterday, I had bought a Panasonic FZ1000 over a year ago, so that I would have a back-up camera to my old FZ200, ready for my trip with friends to Trinidad & Tobago in March 2017. I didn't get the chance to try out the FZ1000 for many weeks, as I was so busy preparing for my trip. When I finally did take a few test photos, I discovered that on Playback, the camera would show a photo or two and then jump one. It kept doing this throughout the Playback. All the photos were there when I downloaded them to my computer, but I couldn't see every photo in Playback, unless I changed the direction and tried again, which was a perfect nuisance. As soon as I discovered this fault, I went back to the store and asked what would need to be done. I was told that the camera would have to be sent for repair, but I could not risk not getting the camera back in time for my trip (only the second holiday of any kind, anywhere, in about 35 years!). Anyway, finally in December, I took the camera back for the store to send it off for repair. I found out later that the young guy didn't send a copy of the receipt, etc. with the camera and next thing I know is that I get a phone call saying that the repair estimate was $700+!! What! The camera was still under warranty, but the repair place didn't know this because the receipt wasn't sent. Two or three weeks later, I got a call to say that the camera was ready for pick-up, and I did so a couple of days ago. I was so glad to get it back, but that feeling was very short-lived when I discovered that Playback was still skipping images!! So what happens now? I guess they will want to send it off again, but I don't know what to do. Various friends have the FZ1000 and love it - I really like the colour and image quality, but this whole fault and repair problem is giving me stress that I definitely don't need.

"Thirteen keen birders showed up for the trip this morning (28 January 2017) at 8:00 a.m. The initial meeting place was Fish Creek Glennfield. After car pooling, We planned to meet again at the Truck Stop south of Nanton. From here, we drove West along 533 to our starting point-William's Coulee. Most of the day was spent birding in the Western half of the Nanton Christmas Bird Count circle. Our target for the trip was Golden Eagle, and the birds didn't disappoint. We found six, plus one more bird that we thought may have been a duplicate, so was not counted. We watched a group of four adult Bald Eagles, and thirty Ravens feasting on a carcass. Sharp-tailed grouse numbers came in at 44, but the four groups that we saw only gave us quick glimpses. A late afternoon treat was a Prairie Falcon circling over the parked cars, and giving everyone a great look. A second Prairie Falcon was found in a coulee, several kilometres to the East. Thanks to everyone who came out to enjoy the day, take in the beautiful scenery, and help spot the birds. Golden Eagle 6 Bald Eagle 7 Rough-legged Hawk 1 Prairie Falcon 2 Great Horned Owl 5 Sharp-tailed Grouse 44 Gray Partridge 10 Common Raven 40 Black-billed Magpie 25 European Starling 10 Rock Pigeon 5 Tony Timmons" I absolutely love this whole area, so I couldn't resist going on Tony's day trip. The scenery is spectacular and, even if no birds had been seen, I would still go, just to be driven in this seemingly endless area of foothills, with the Rocky Mountains in the distance. Though this is winter, we were surprised at how little snow was on the ground. I think the temperature got up to about +11C, but the wind was very strong - too strong to be able to hold my camera steady. For me, the highlights of the trip were the scenery and a Spruce tree in which three (though I only saw two) Great Horned Owls were hiding. Also, I loved the sight of a herd of horses who made their way in our direction, against a beautifully wild landscape. How different this whole area would look in the summer time. A most enjoyable day, Tony! Thanks so much for giving up a Saturday for us - much appreciated! Pat, thank you for the ride out there, and Tony for the ride the rest of the day.

"Thirteen keen birders showed up for the trip this morning (28 January 2017) at 8:00 a.m. The initial meeting place was Fish Creek Glennfield. After car pooling, We planned to meet again at the Truck Stop south of Nanton. From here, We drove West along 533 to our starting point-William's Coulee. Most of the day was spent birding in the Western half of the Nanton Christmas Bird Count circle. Our target for the trip was Golden Eagle, and the birds didn't disappoint. We found six, plus one more bird that we thought may have been a duplicate, so was not counted. We watched a group of four adult Bald Eagles, and thirty Ravens feasting on a carcass. Sharp-tailed grouse numbers came in at 44, but the four groups that we saw only gave us quick glimpses. A late afternoon treat was a Prairie Falcon circling over the parked cars, and giving everyone a great look. A second Prairie Falcon was found in a coulee, several kilometres to the East. Thanks to everyone who came out to enjoy the day, take in the beautiful scenery, and help spot the birds. Golden Eagle 6 Bald Eagle 7 Rough-legged Hawk 1 Prairie Falcon 2 Great Horned Owl 5 Sharp-tailed Grouse 44 Gray Partridge 10 Common Raven 40 Black-billed Magpie 25 European Starling 10 Rock Pigeon 5 Tony Timmons" I absolutely love the area that we covered yesterday, and I couldn't resist going on Tony's day trip. The scenery is spectacular and, even if no birds had been seen, I would still go, just to be driven in this seemingly endless area of foothills, with the Rocky Mountains in the distance. Though this is winter, we were surprised at how little snow was on the ground. I think the temperature got up to about +11C, but the wind was very strong - too strong to be able to hold my camera steady. For me, the highlights of the trip were the scenery and a Spruce tree in which three (though I only saw two) Great Horned Owls were hiding. Also, I loved the sight of this herd of horses who made their way in our direction, against a beautifully wild landscape. How different this whole area would look in the summer time. A most enjoyable day, Tony! Thanks so much for giving up a Saturday for us - much appreciated! Pat, thank you for the ride out there, and Tony for the ride the rest of the day.

Two days ago, on 24 July, I went with a couple of friends to Bow Valley Provincial Park to see what birds were to be seen. Only three of us turned up at the meeting place. A fourth person met us out at the park. Fortunately, the other three are very good birders : ) The weather forecast was for a sunny day with a temperature of 28C in the afternoon. We followed the Flowing Waters trail after walking to the trailhead from the Willow Rock Campground. One of the first sightings we had was a juvenile Brown-headed Cowbird being fed its foster parent, a much smaller bird, an American Redstart. Later, on the return walk, we saw another Redstart, a male - way ahead of us along the path in the dark forest. I've been on quite a few city walks where people have spotted a Redstart, but this was the first time I could actually see the bird I don't use binoculars, so I know I miss a lot of sightings! I got one rapid shot, but suspect it will be just too blurry to post. "Brown-headed Cowbird females forgo building nests and instead put all their energy into producing eggs, sometimes more than three dozen a summer. These they lay in the nests of other birds, abandoning their young to foster parents, usually at the expense of at least some of the host’s own chicks." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Brown-headed_Cowbird/id From the Flowing Waters trail, we drove further into the park, to Many Springs trail, where we walked the loop. The wildflowers were not as colourful or abundant as they were on my last visit there. Lunch was eaten at our next stop - a relaxing spot down by the Bow River. Then, we called in at the final location, Middle Lake. It was hot and we had already done a lot of walking, so we just walked down to the edge of the lake. I will add our leader's list of bird species - many thanks for another enjoyable walk at Bow Valley Provincial Park, Andrew! I was happy to see a Northern Waterthrush and to get a tiny glimpse of the American Redstart, both in the forest along the Flowing Waters trail. Got a blurry shot of each bird, that I may still post on Flickr, just for the record. Andrew Hart eBird Checklist Summary for: Jul 24, 2016 Number of Checklists: 3 Number of Taxa: 26 Checklists included in this summary: (1): Bow Valley PP - Flowing Waters Trails Date: Jul 24, 2016, 8:35 AM (2): Bow Valley PP--Many Springs Trail Date: Jul 24, 2016, 11:15 AM (3): Whitefish Date: Jul 24, 2016, 12:45 PM 1 Common Merganser -- (3) 1 Bald Eagle -- (2) 7 Spotted Sandpiper -- (2),(3) 1 Ring-billed Gull -- (3) 106 California Gull -- (2),(3) 2 Willow Flycatcher -- (2) 1 Alder/Willow Flycatcher (Traill's Flycatcher) -- (1) 2 American Crow -- (3) 5 Tree Swallow -- (2),(3) 4 Mountain Chickadee -- (1) 1 Boreal Chickadee -- (1) 4 Red-breasted Nuthatch -- (1) 2 Ruby-crowned Kinglet -- (1),(2) 1 Swainson's Thrush -- (2) 4 American Robin -- (1),(2) 4 Cedar Waxwing -- (1),(2),(3) 2 Northern Waterthrush -- (1) 1 Orange-crowned Warbler -- (1) 1 Common Yellowthroat -- (1) 2 American Redstart -- (1) 1 Yellow Warbler -- (1) 4 Yellow-rumped Warbler -- (1) 2 Dark-eyed Junco -- (2) 1 White-throated Sparrow -- (2) 1 Red-winged Blackbird -- (2) 1 Brown-headed Cowbird -- (1) Plus Mallard, Goldeneye, Buffleheads, Ring-necked Duck.