Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: cattails

Crazy, crazy weather! We have only just come out of an awful deep-freeze that lasted for many weeks. "The chance for some 20 degree weather extends across southern Alberta and southwestern Saskatchewan early next week including the city of Calgary, where some daily temperature records are in jeopardy. The record to beat on Monday and Tuesday is 18.3°C and 18.9°C, which were both set on March 18 and 19 back in 1928." From the Weather Network on 16 March 2019. I am going to be taking a break from posting photos on Flickr soon - decided to grab three photos to post this morning after all. Will return when I don't have to keep going into my archives. As I have been doing the last few days, I will add the description that I added under a previously posted photo from the same day. "My actual reason for driving east of the city today, 7 February 2019, was to go and introduce myself to one of the local landowners in that area. About a week ago, her Grandson had been curious about what we were doing, parked along the side of the road. He told me that his Grandmother was really nervous, wondering what we were up to. Understandably so, as there is plenty of crime in rural areas. I had reassured him that anyone in any cars were birders/photographers, interested only in seeing and photographing the special owls that were on their land. He invited me to go in and meet his Grandma, but I had to explain to him that my night vision for driving is bad and that I needed to try and get back to the city before it got dark (ended up driving in the dark!). I told him that I would call in another day and I wanted to make sure that I did this. So, today was the day. Last night, I had printed out a photo I had taken a week ago of one of these Short-eared Owls, perched on a post in their field. Also printed a Snowy Owl and a Great Horned Owl for them, and we had an enjoyable chat about the different kinds of owl. I do hope this lady feels safer now that she knows exactly what we are all doing. It was SO cold out there today, thanks to our ongoing deep freeze. Despite being just a few degrees 'warmer' (i.e. less cold) today, it was bitterly cold. Snow is in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning. Again ..... Had a short search for Snowy Owls, but came up empty-handed. However, I did see a gorgeous Prairie Falcon."

I think the very first Long-eared Owl that I ever saw was seen on 13 October 2006. SInce then, I have been very fortunate to have seen several other individuals (see my Album) - including yesterday. Various people had been posting photos of a Long-eared Owl recently, but I had no idea where they were seeing it. Someone had posted a photo and labelled it "Calgary", so I had thought it must have been seen in one of our local city parks. Yesterday, I decided to go for a short drive and get a bit of sunshine and fresh air. Our deep freeze has lasted for more than four weeks, and I have been home for most of that time. Yesterday was a milder day, so I decided to make the most of it, especially with more snow forecast for tomorrow. Imagine my surprise when a stranger told me just where it was, and my absolute horror when I came upon a huge crowd of photographers with their lenses raised! So how did they all know about this owl?? Apparently, Facebook has such a bad reputation for people trolling everyone's photostream there, finding out locations for all sorts of things (old barns included!). Then, of course, some people phone others, to ask or to tell. Most people were down in the ditch at the fenceline, so no doubt they were able to get stunning close shots, especially those with enormous lenses. My photos were taken from the road, which was twice as far away, with a point-and-shoot. I'm not out to try and get better photos than anyone else : ) As always, there is so much competition among photographers. I was also not out there all day, like various people always are, and often day after day after day. So, after saying those things, perhaps you can imagine how extremely upset I am to have been told yesterday (when I arrived at the owl) by a couple of friends (both of whom are superb photographers) that my photograph had been taken, along with two other people in it, standing at the edge of a road earlier in February. These friends thought it was hilarious and I sure was teased a lot. They both know I have high ethics when it comes to photography. This photo was posted on Facebook on a local birding page, pointing out how dangerous it is for people to stand by the road. This thread turned into a string of comments about people harassing the owls, etc., etc., etc. Actually, the other two people in the photo are both seen taking photos (when I was told they already had taken thousands). There's me, camera not raised, looking disgusted that an owl had been flushed so that they could take flight images. The reason I was out of my vehicle was that these two people were out of theirs and racing down the road at top speed to get yet more shots. When I was sitting in my car, these photographers blocked my view, so out I got and caught up with them. Sorry to rant, but it just upsets me so much that this photo was taken and posted on Facebook. The very last thing I would ever want is to be connected with bad ethics!! Of course, I must be such a bad person to actually stand by the road - ha, you should see all the dozens of people who do exactly the same (without being photgraphed)! Yesterday, I took maybe 30 photos of the Long-eared Owl, and maybe a couple of dozen of a Short-eared Owl, almost every single one of the latter needing to be deleted, because they were all totally blurry, thanks to taking the photos from inside my car. You can be sure that most of the others went home with yet another memory card containing thousands of photos. Sorry for the rant, but I am hoping that now I won't be stressing out over it quite as much, every second of the day! Ain't life fun? To the man who took my photo (as far as I know, I have never met him), how about taking a few photos of the crowds of people, especially those who were as close as they could get to the LEO. Or those who stress out the owls day after day after day, often from morning till evening! You might just get even more likes and comments on photos of those repeat "offenders". How about giving it a try?

My actual reason for driving east of the city today was to go and introduce myself to one of the local landowners in that area. About a week ago, her Grandson had been curious about what we were doing, parked along the side of the road. He told me that his Grandmother was really nervous, wondering what we were up to. Understandably so, as there is plenty of crime in rural areas. I had reassured him that anyone in any cars were birders/photographers, interested only in seeing and photographing the special owls that were on their land. He invited me to go in and meet his Grandma, but I had to explain to him that my night vision for driving is bad and that I needed to try and get back to the city before it got dark (ended up driving in the dark!). I told him that I would call in another day and I wanted to make sure that I did this. So, today was the day. Last night, I had printed out a photo I had taken a week ago of one of these Short-eared Owls, perched on a post in their field. Also printed a Snowy Owl and a Great Horned Owl for them, and we had an enjoyable chat about the different kinds of owl. I do hope this lady feels safer now that she knows exactly what we are all doing. It was SO cold out there today, thanks to our ongoing deep freeze. Despite being just a few degrees 'warmer' (i.e. less cold) today, it was bitterly cold. Snow is in the forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning. Again ..... Had a short search for Snowy Owls, but came up empty-handed. However, I did see a gorgeous Prairie Falcon (ID needs to be confirmed or corrected).

Just adding five extra photos tonight, trying to catch up a little, otherwise I will never get back to the last two days of my Trinidad images. Will post three photos tomorrow morning. This photo was taken in the evening of 27 May 2017, when a group of us (13?) got together at Frank Lake for a celebration of spring. Great company and great picnic food. Even a few birds to photograph, including this male Yellow-headed Blackbird. Sunshine, too, until it was time to go home, when the heavens opened and down came the rain, accompanied by streaks of lightning. Thanks, Brenda, for organizing this event that went so smoothly and was most enjoyable! "With a golden head, a white patch on black wings, and a call that sounds like a rusty farm gate opening, the Yellow-headed Blackbird demands your attention.... Yellow-headed Blackbirds breed and roost in freshwater wetlands with dense, emergent vegetation such as cattails." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-headed_Blackbird/id

All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, 5 July 2016, when I finally drove down SE of the city to the Frank Lake area. I have missed almost all the shore birds this year and knew that if I didn't go very soon, they would all have left. As it was, I saw very few birds of any kind yesterday. I drove straight to the blind/hide, where everything was quiet, other than a few Coots with their teenage kids, several Ruddy Ducks, a Marsh Wren that I could hear but not see, a couple of Red-winged Blackbirds, maybe three White-faced Ibis flying by, and a few Tree Swallows. As soon as I had left the blind and taken a few steps down the boardwalk, I was totally taken by surprise by a Black-crowned Night Heron that flew overhead, being chased by a small shorebird. The Heron was letting out a very loud 'hoarse scream' that sounded almost human-like. Just managed to get a rapid shot of the Heron, posted just for my own record. I so rarely see a Night Heron, though I did see and photograph a beautiful juvenile that was hanging out at Lafarge Meadows in Fish Creek Park last year (2015). From the blind area at Frank Lake, I drove eastwards and eventually came to Mossleigh, where I stopped at the three Grain Elevators to take photos. On the way, I stopped to photograph this old homestead - I have usually seen and photographed it in winter. The chimney that was on the right hand side of the roof had crumbled and fallen since I last saw this house. The light was really bad, with massive storm clouds overhead. The weather forecast was for a risk of thunderstorms, though fortunately there was just a tiny bit of short-lived rain. The past week, there have been tornadoes north and south of us, but there was no Tornado Warning in effect yesterday. A great kind of sky when a few of the fields were turning bright yellow from the Canola crops. However, a real challenge for my camera, which recently developed a problem - when I am trying to focus on something, it goes in and out of focus rapidly and 'shudders', making it most unpleasant to view as well as making it very difficult to see what I'm taking. This is not the usual difficulty of getting the camera to focus. Then, yesterday, when I very slightly tipped the camera upwards, once I had focused on say a field of Canola, the lower half of he viewfinder went so dark I couldn't really see anything. Such a pain, especially as I absolutely have to have a working camera for the whole of this weekend! As it is, I always take almost all my photos on the sunset setting, because the regular settings give me totally washed out images that have little detail - just not usable. Amazes me that any of my photos turn out, ha. A few hours later, it was time to return home after a few very enjoyable hours out. More of a cloud, scenery and old barn trip than a birding trip, but those of you who know me, know I love photographing all of the above.

On 19 March 2016, I was on a birding day trip with a group of friends, going SE of Calgary, E of High River. Though the day started off rather cold, it gradually warmed up and was a beautiful day to be out in nature. On a trip l ike this, birds are almost always way off in the distance, so I get very few photos. Did get this fully 48x zoom shot of a few of the beautiful Swans in the area that day. We saw both Tundra and Trumpeter Swans - I think the ones in this photo are Trumpeters. A lovely sign of spring on the day before the official date of spring's arrival. I will add our leader's report that he sent into eBird, adding that I did not see all of the sightings, as the birds were much too far away. As always, my camera lens was turned to various other things, too. Thanks so much, as always, Andrew, for a most enjoyable day! Thanks, too, Anne, for driving - I really appreciated the ride! "We had 16 participants when we left Calgary on a sunny but frosty morning. We arrived at the main gate around 10:00 am and set off, in a chilly -5 deg C to walk down to the outfall and then around to the blind. The recent cold nights had refrozen some of the lake, but it is still mostly open water. Most obvious were the thousands of Pintails and hundreds of swans (mostly Tundra today). We did see the overwintering (presumably) Song Sparrow near the outfall. About 60-80 California Gulls, no other gulls that we could identify. We left and went to High River for lunch, stopping by the Sutherland Shelterbelt to acknowledge the resident Great Horned Owl. After lunch we circled the lake on the usual roads and ended up at the Basin 2 West Bay. Several more swans and finally, the Eurasian Wigeon, spotted by Tony Timmons. By lunchtime the temperature had reached about 10 deg C and continued to rise reaching ~14 deg C and making a perfect Alberta Spring (almost) afternoon. Leaving Frank Lake we stopped in at Blackie to find mostly Starlings, and a few Eurasian Collared Doves. The list for Frank Lake and Blackie was: Checklists included in this summary: (1): Frank Lake--NW lookout/blind Date: Mar 19, 2016, 9:55 AM (2): Sutherland's Shelterbelt (private property) Date: Mar 19, 2016, 12:30 PM (3): Frank Lake--Basin 2 (Southeast Corner) Date: Mar 19, 2016, 2:15 PM (4): Frank Lake--Basin 2 (West Bay) Date: Mar 19, 2016, 3:05 PM (5): Blackie (hamlet) Date: Mar 19, 2016, 4:10 PM 650 Canada Goose -- (1),(3),(4) 4 Trumpeter Swan -- (1) 225 Tundra Swan -- (1),(4) 3 Gadwall -- (1) 2 Eurasian Wigeon -- (4) 60 American Wigeon -- (1),(4) 160 Mallard -- (1),(3),(4) 2 Northern Shoveler -- (4) 4550 Northern Pintail -- (1),(3),(4) 24 Canvasback -- (1),(4) 76 Redhead -- (1),(4) 5 Lesser Scaup -- (4) 150 Common Goldeneye -- (1),(4) 2 Gray Partridge -- (2) 1 Northern Harrier -- (4) 2 Bald Eagle -- (1),(3) 5 Killdeer -- (1),(2) 80 California Gull -- (1) 6 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) -- (3),(5) 4 Eurasian Collared-Dove -- (5) 2 Great Horned Owl -- (2) 1 Merlin -- (5) 5 Black-billed Magpie -- (1),(2) 1 Common Raven -- (3) 3 Horned Lark -- (1) 51 European Starling -- (2),(5) 2 American Tree Sparrow -- (1) 1 Song Sparrow -- (1) 8 House Finch -- (5) 20 House Sparrow -- (2),(5) From Blackie we stopped by Third Lake on the way back to Calgary. A huge number of birds there, somewhere between 4000 and 8000, generally somewhat distant. Mostly Pintails, but we also saw American Wigeon, Mallard, a few Canada Geese, and California Gulls. Clearly Pintails are on the move right now." Andrew Hart

That is how the sound of a Yellow-headed Blackbird is often described. I know I'll never forget the very first time I saw and heard one of these quite spectacular birds a number of years ago. Photographed this male the day before yesterday (22 May 2014) at a wetland in SW Calgary, where I called in on my way to driving a few of the backroads SW of Calgary. Not the best photo but, at the rate I'm going, it might be one of the only shots I get of this species this spring. I posted a photo of a female Yellow-headed Blackbird in a comment box below. "The breeding habitat of the Yellow-headed Blackbird is cattail (Typha spp.) marshes in North America, mainly west of the Great Lakes. The nest is built with and attached to marsh vegetation. They nest in colonies, often sharing their habitat closely with the Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). During the breeding and nesting season the males are very territorial and spend much of their time perched on reed stalks and displaying or chasing off intruders." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-headed_blackbird www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/yellow-headed_blackbird/id For the sound: youtu.be/6-Pk-VMtZM0

tThe fact that this image came out OK amazed me, as it was taken on a heavily overcast, snowy morning with low visibility (26 April 2014). My camera kept focusing on the snowflakes, but I'm glad that at least one of the photos worked. We certainly had a mix of weather last weekend. On the day this photo was taken, a few of us had gathered to go on a birding drive south of the city, but weren't sure whether to cancel the trip. We drove to the edge of the city to check out a huge pond, but it was decided that the visibility was just not going to be good enough, so the trip was postponed. Two of us did drive some of the backroads just south of the city and the snow did stop for a while, but the light was not good. I really appreciated the drive, though, as we went on a few roads that I don't drive, but now will feel confident to do so. Thanks so much, Terry! We had a few nice sightings, including a Moose, a Snow Goose (possibly a Ross's Goose) that I didn't see, and a distant flock of about 60 Mountain Bluebirds which was a real treat. The Yellow-headed Blackbirds are now back, joining the Red-winged Blackbirds that I believe arrived first. Feels so good to have them back again! www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-winged_blackbird/id?utm_s... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-winged_Blackbird The weather forecast for the next five days is mixed precipitation, light snow or snow-rain showers. Not quite the way one wants to welcome the month of May, but we can't complain. Compared to all those people who are suffering and continue to suffer the loss of loved ones and loss of homes and businesses, thanks to air or sea tragedies and the tremendous nightmare from tornado damage, we here in Alberta are very fortunate. My thoughts go out to all those who are going through such terrible times. If I suddenly disappear off Flickr, it will be because of anti-virus software problems that surfaced this morning. No part of McAfee worked - anything I clicked on did nothing. There was no McAfee to be seen! When I bought my computer, it already had this anti-virus software installed on it. I have to remove it so that I can install Norton (that I've always used before). Just hope I manage to remove all the bits and pieces from the present one, or the new one won't work. Later: dashed out immediately to buy the software I normally use, and thank goodness, it seems to have installed successfully. Relief! Which was short-lived, as I find that now my printer won't work after installing Norton Anti-virus. Aren't computers fun?

A couple of evenings ago, I drove out westwards in the hope of finding a Mountain Bluebird that had been reported within the city limits, but no luck. This particular gravel backroad in my image is actually still within the city boundary. I ended up driving along here and the early evening sun was shining beautifully through these cattails. I always love the incredible views one gets from some of our backroads. Not always the best of road conditions (the muddy ruts can become quite treacherous sometimes), but, hey, you gotta do what you gotta do, LOL.

I remember the very first time I saw one of these females, a number of years ago when I was just getting into birding, and I was so excited because I thought I'd come across a new kind of Sparrow! They really are beautiful birds, despite the lack of spectacular colour seen in the males. Photographed on June 1st at a local pond. Gloomy, rainy and uninviting out there today. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-winged_Blackbird www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-winged_blackbird/id

The appearance of a female Red-winged Blackbird comes as quite a surprise to beginning birders, as the females are so very different from the males. Even though the females lack the beautiful jet black with red patches, they themselves are most attractive birds. This one was seen at the edge of the lagoon at Carburn Park yesterday.

This was such a beautiful sight today, but something that my photo has not done justice to : (. I spent the whole day with friends, east of the city, in the Irricana/Bruce Lake area for a wide variety of wetland and prairie bird species. We were hoping that we might just be lucky enough to spot the Baikal Teal that was found and seen in this area last Thursday & Friday, but has not been seen since. Most likely, it has moved on. This was the first time it had been recorded in Alberta. On this lovely, mostly sunny spring day, with temperatures between 06-16C, we saw 64 species of birds - a GOOD day, with most enjoyable company : ) Almost every bird was far too distant for photos, I should add : )

Not sure if this photo is a bit dark. Now that the sun shines into my computer room in the evening, it's kind of hard to tell what my photos look like. Anyway, this was one of the locations that friends and I briefly stopped at yesterday, when we drove out to the Irricana and Bruce Lake area. I thought the tiny pond, cattails and a red barn made for a pretty picture.

Thought I'd post this image, even though there is no detail at all in the black feathers : ) Still show the gorgeous yellow of this Yellow-headed Blackbird, seen perched on a cattail at a pond at the Coaldale Bird of Prey Centre, near Lethbridge, southern Alberta.

The colours of these trees, bushes and cattails on my walk yesterday morning were so beautiful. The trees are called Crack Willows. It snowed - again!

Have not yet been able to get a close shot of one of these gorgeous Yellow-headed Blackbirds but thought I would still share this heavily cropped and slightly blurry image. You can occasionally spot one of these brightly coloured birds in cattail marshes, along with Red-winged Blackbirds. The sound they make is a "strained, metallic grating" according to Fisher and Acorn's book, "Birds of Alberta"!