Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Thrush family

HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY, everyone! Posting this for the record, not for photographic merit : ) On 19th August 2015, a group of friends and I saw this unusually pale American Robin at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. It was a very slow day for birds and I only took a handful of photos of anything during our three-hour walk.

On 23 July 2015, five of us spent the day botanizing the land belonging to Darryl Teskey, SW of Calgary and W of Millarville (maybe a 40-minute drive from Calgary). This was the first time I had been there and I'm so glad I was invited to go - I would have missed all sorts of things, including a family of Ruffed Grouse and several fungi. These Grouse were the rare rufous-morph, and we startled them when we were walking through the forest in their direction. Usually, you don't see Grouse because they are so well-hidden. When you get fairly close (sometimes very close) to them, they suddenly "explode" from the tangle of shrubs and plants of the forest floor, making ones heart beat fast! We were taken by surprise when we came across a nearby statue of Saint Francis of Assisi, who is known as the patron saint of animals and the environment. A nice idea, I thought. Our walk took us over grassland and through forest, many places treacherous with so many fallen logs which were often barely visible. I have never, ever seen so many tiny Skipper butterflies - there must have been hundreds or even thousands of these bright orange beauties that were flying or perched on flowers of every colour. Fortunately, the rain stayed away until we started driving back to Calgary. Quite a lot of black clouds, reminding me of the tornado that passed through Calgary just the day before (22 July 2015). Our purpose, as always, was to find and list everything that we saw - wildflowers, trees, grasses, birds, insects, fungi, etc.. Our leader then compiles an extensive list of our finds and this is later sent to the landowner, along with any photos that we might take. Always a win/win situation, as the landowner then has a much better idea of just what is on his property, and we have a most enjoyable day. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_robin

There is no denying that the American Robin is one beautiful bird, especially when you take a closer look. A group of friends and I stood and admired this handsome male yesterday, 18 March 2013, on a walk from Stanley Park to Erlton St. and back. I would imagine that this might have been one of the handful that overwintered in Calgary? I almost gave up on going yesterday, as all my car doors froze shut overnight. Took 30-40 minutes for the bottle of squirty lock de-icer to finally work, so I was very late getting to the park and finding my friends. Two male and one female Wood Ducks were a treat to see, too. We also saw two wild European Rabbits in someone's backyard. I think that is the second place I've seen them in the city, the other area being near St. Mary's Cemetery. "The American Robin or North American Robin (Turdus migratorius) is a migratory songbird of the thrush family. It is named after the European Robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closely related, with the European robin belonging to the flycatcher family. The American Robin is widely distributed throughout North America, wintering south of Canada from Florida to central Mexico and along the Pacific Coast. It is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin. According to some sources, the American Robin ranks behind only the Red-winged Blackbird (and just ahead of the introduced European Starling) as the most abundant, extant land bird in North America." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Robin Only 13 photos from my Flickr Contacts have appeared on my Home Page since late last night. Hoping that it's just a case of everyone being busy and not the Flickr issue that was supposedly "fixed" recently.

There is no denying that the American Robin is one beautiful bird, especially when you take a closer look. A group of friends and I stood and admired this handsome male yesterday, 18 March 2013, on a walk from Stanley Park to Erlton St. and back. I would imagine that this might have been one of the handful that overwintered in Calgary? I almost gave up on going yesterday, as all my car doors froze shut overnight. Took 30-40 minutes for the bottle of squirty lock de-icer to finally work, so I was very late getting to the park and finding my friends. Two male and one female Wood Ducks were a treat to see, too. We also saw two wild European Rabbits in someone's backyard. I think that is the second place I've seen them in the city, the other area being near St. Mary's Cemetery. "The American Robin or North American Robin (Turdus migratorius) is a migratory songbird of the thrush family. It is named after the European Robin because of its reddish-orange breast, though the two species are not closely related, with the European robin belonging to the flycatcher family. The American Robin is widely distributed throughout North America, wintering south of Canada from Florida to central Mexico and along the Pacific Coast. It is the state bird of Connecticut, Michigan, and Wisconsin. According to some sources, the American Robin ranks behind only the Red-winged Blackbird (and just ahead of the introduced European Starling) as the most abundant, extant land bird in North America." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Robin