Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: electricity pylons

I'm sure that most people consider these pylons a real eyesore, but actually I kind of like to see them - even more so when one is lucky enough to notice a Snowy Owl perched on one of the very top points (not this day). I like them at sunset, as seen in this image. The heavy bank of distant cloud hid the mountains completely from us all day long. After nine days at home, giving my stitches from minor surgery a chance to heal, an invitation by friends Cathy and Terry to go birding on 7 March 2014 was welcomed with open arms - as it always is! What a great day we had, searching SE of the city, and finding some really neat birds. Most were impossible to photograph because of distance, but also because we had "heat wave" distortion all day long, making it impossible to get photos that were sharp. It was one of those amazing days, out of the house from 7:15 a.m. till about 8:15 in the evening. By the end of the day, we had seen a total count of 19 owls, from three species - 8 Short-eared Owls, 8 Snowy Owls, 2 Great Horned Owls and one mystery owl. We couldn't decide if the latter was a Snowy Owl or a Short-eared Owl, as it was perched on top of a metal silo, way off in the distance. I sent a very poor photo of it to a very experienced birder friend and he identified it as a Snowy Owl. We missed a good photo opp with one of the Short-eared Owls, when we were pulled over, further down the road than several other photographers. We did see one down on the ground near the edge of the road in a different place, hiding in the dried grasses, but, again, my photo is blurry. Also saw a Prairie Falcon perched on top of a metal silo and lots of Horned Larks - the latter constantly in flight or down on the road ahead of us or near the edge of a field. Thanks so much, Cathy and Terry, for another rewarding day (which had started off rather slowly down in that area). Lots of fun!

I'm not a fan of electricity wires and towers in my photos, but it can be hard to avoid them when you are down in the Frank Lake area. However, I just loved the pinkness of the sunrise over the snow-covered peaks and the colour of the stubble in the fields. A zoomed in photo, so the mountains look closer than they actually were. This was taken on 24 December 2013, when I went with friends, Cathy and Terry, to explore the backroads around Frank Lake. Our sightings for that day included 1 very distant Snowy Owl, 4 Great Horned Owls, 2 Bald Eagles and, after quite a long drive to another place, a very, very distant Northern Hawk Owl. No good for photos, but at least we found it : )

Went with a friend south and east of the city yesterday, to Frank Lake and then east to the Shepard area. The wind was terrible - strong and cold! Not a lot of birds in these locations, both of which are very popular with birders. We saw plenty of open water on the various sloughs/ponds, but a good many of the birds were Northern Shovelers. We saw quite a few Tundra and Trumpeter Swans, which is always a treat. These are Trumpeters in this photo. They are dazzling white when the sun shines on them.