Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: GlobalBirdTrekkers

We saw this distant feeder at one of the farms we called in at during the annual High River Christmas Bird Count, on 18 December 2012. I always think Common Redpolls must be one of the daintiest little birds, and so pretty.

A quick shot through a tangle of branches of this little Downy Woodpecker male that visited us when we were on a walk in Weaslehead, on 18 February 2013. We were hoping to see a Boreal Chickadee in a place where we'd seen them before, but no luck that morning.

Another photo from my archives, taken SW of Calgary on 10 June 2011. These birds often seem to put on an excellent one-legged balancing act. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson's_Snipe www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Wilsons_Snipe/id

Yesterday afternoon/early evening, I took a drive to look for owls - and came home with photos of a beautiful yellow and black beetle and a nest full of the tiniest black and yellow spiders, and this Swainson's Hawk on my way home. It seemed strangely silent and empty, not seeing a single owl in places I have seen them before. Hoping this was just "one of those days", and not the end of great enjoyment that these amazing birds have given over the last few months.

Was out of the house for about seven hours yesterday, spending most enjoyable time with friends, Ron and Trish and Bonnie, looking for a Great Gray Owl : ) North west of the city, it was snowing quite heavily and the rolling hills and farms almost faded from view during parts of the drive. We also hit some road areas that had several inches of snow on them, which didn't make for the best driving conditions. However, we were so lucky when a Great Gray Owl was spotted way in the distance. An absolute thrill - I have seen them in the wild before, but not for almost three years. Of course, the weather was bad, very low light and a distant bird (this is the closest shot) - but I did manage to get maybe two or three photos that I will post. The snow-covered coniferous trees around the owl were just beautiful - a true winter wonderland. Delightful to drive (easy for me to say, I wasn't the one driving!) through such countryside on a beautiful, snowy day : ) Thanks so much, Ron, for driving us safely, and to you and Trish for inviting me to join you and for finding us a beautiful Great Gray Owl. Bonnie, I thoroughly enjoyed spending lots of time with you yesterday - and to think we even saw a distant Northern Hawk Owl from the road as well. And I loved seeing the same horses I photographed a few days ago looking so much "happier" - especially the grey one, which had looked almost "depressed" the other day. Great to see a Kestrel, a Great Blue Heron (who must have been regretting returning to Calgary already), Trumpeter Swans, various Hawks, etc..

I must be close to running out of photos of this beautiful Northern Hawk Owl : ) This is another photo taken on March 21st, the best day we had for seeing this owl (NW of Cochrane). ""Hunts by day or night. Perches on prominent treetops, detecting prey by sight. Also has keen hearing, and can take prey completely concealed by snow." These owls are described as having little fear of humans, and are quite curious birds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Hawk_Owl/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Hawk-Owl Sorry, everyone, I'm trying to keep off the computer as much as I can at the moment, to give my very painful arms (too much mouse-clicking) a chance to heal/improve. I have been out all day today, after posting my photos really early this morning, and need to try and get off my computer not too late tonight.

This Northern Hawk Owl flew into a Spruce tree, in amongst the branches and not in good light. No nice, clear shots, though I did manage to find a small hole from this angle. At least the setting is different from most of my photos of him recently. Taken NW of Calgary on March 29th. Yesterday (April 2nd) , I had a walk with a few friends in Weaselhead all morning and, as I was already about a third of the way to where this owl is, I decided to do the rest of the long drive. The weather was just beautiful, but the forecast for the rest of this week was less good (unless it has changed by now). Another very, very quiet day with very little activity, all of it taking place near the tops of very tall trees. It has been like this the last maybe 10 days or so, from my own experience and from what anyone else is saying. When I arrived at the location, there was one other car and a couple of people I'd never seen before had just returned to it. Thought I'd walk across the gravel road to check that they had been able to find the owl and to ask them if there had been much activity. However, I guess they weren't very friendly people, totally ignoring me and driving off, ha! Usually, I find people very friendly, so this felt rather weird. Almost decided not to actually go in by myself (ever since hearing about the Cougar tracks and the sound of Wolves!), but made myself do it. Took me ages to find the owl and it was only because it flew and I happened to be facing in the right direction. After maybe an hour and a half, I reckoned it was time to go home. I had just a few more steps to get back to my car, across rather treacherous ground (logs and branches all over, inches of water, some areas of still quite deep snow, when two ladies appeared from the road. We had met ages ago on a botany walk. They asked which direction they should walk in and I asked if they'd like me to show them the area. It was so nice to have company out there! They were thrilled to see their first Northern Hawk Owl, even though all they got were very, very high, distant views of the small owl near the top of a couple of different, extremely tall trees. Actually, this trip for me was more about hoping to find one of the Great Gray Owls that people have been seeing and possibly coming across the Spruce Grouse again. However, I was out of luck with both - again : ) One of these days .... Posting a link a little bit late, when everyone has already stopped by. However, thought some of you might like this short footage of the three Amur Tiger cubs that were born at the Calgary Zoo on 30th March. Apparently, all three cubs are doing well amd Mom is doing all that she should be doing. youtu.be/j9DWlyQtoOQ WINTER STORM WARNING FOR THE CITY OF CALGARY!! Ha, thanks, Bonnie, for letting me know that great news!

Hoping to see even just a glimpse of one of these beautiful Mountain Bluebirds, I decided to go south west of the city yesterday and drive just a few backroads. I believe I saw four pairs, but from a distance. This one male actually flew to a tree near where I was standing, gave a pose to the left and a pose to the right, and off he flew : ) It was rather unusual behaviour, from my experience. He has been banded a few times - some of these small birds are wearing four coloured bands on their tiny, thin legs. At one tiime, Mountain Bluebird numbers were threatened, but this is turning around, thanks to so many people placing woden nesting boxes along fence lines and other locations. There is great competition for these nesting boxes from Tree Swallows especially, also House Sparrows. It feels so good to see blue skies and to be able to feel ones fingers when trying to press the shutter button! No ice and snow to clear off the car - what could be better than that? en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_Bluebird