Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: pylon

All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, 20 July 2016, on a day of adventure for me. I drove further than I have ever driven before (way, way SE of the city) - must remember to check my mileage when I next go out in my car, but it must have been somewhere between 400 and 500 km total. No big deal for many of you, but for me (and as someone with a driving phobia), it WAS a big deal : ) Also, I did a day of driving just two days earlier when my daughter and I went NE of the city as far as Drumheller. I am totally exhausted and my poor shoulder rotator cuffs are complaining like crazy. BUT, I had a great time - just a couple of moments of 'panic', when I thought I was lost, and when I noticed that I was seeing different wildflowers and definitely a different landscape. I even photographed two things, seen in my next two photos, for which I would love to have ID confirmation or correction - thanks! The first was photographed in the Frank Lake area, just like this scenic view, but the second was taken way down SE. The above photo is a not-fully zoomed photo, but still shows the mountains much closer than they really are. It will take me forever to type up a description, but first - breakfast (well, brunch!). Later: I eventually left home yesterday at 11:00 am, a good couple of hours later than I had intended. I wasn't sure how long it was going to take me to get to where I wanted to get, so had wanted to allow plenty of hours for this journey. I had been on the road for about three hours by the time I got there, but did stop at various places en route. The first part of my drive was along familiar roads - called in at Frank Lake just to check the gravel road leading to the gate. An Eastern Kingbird was the only species I saw. From there, I kept driving east on h'way 23, stopping briefly to photograph one of my favourite old houses. This highway eventually bends southwards and leads to Vulcan. I had only ever once driven as far as Vulcan, and that was on 30 March 2015. I had to stop again, like last year, and take a few photos of the cluster of old sheds, barn and house, before continuing on my way. From here until I reached my destination, was all new to me. Exciting and anxiety-causing, all at the same time. I drove further east and then turned south and found myself in a different kind of landscape, with a few interesting birds and plants to see and photograph, including a Ferruginous Hawk (three, actually) and wild sunflowers. I was in tall windmill country - which told me how far south I had come. Along one road, I had a Swainson's Hawk who perched nicely on a fence post at first and then circled overhead and followed my vehicle further down the road. Think it may have been a juvenile, screeching for its parents to come and feed it. Also saw a Mourning Dove on a fence post and what I think must be a juvenile Horned Lark. Actually, there were a lot of Horned Larks yesterday. I tend to forget that we can see them in summer time. After travelling westwards and then north and west again, I found myself back at Frank Lake. It was still daylight, so I decided to try one more time along the gravel road leading to the gate. Here, I had another nice sighting - friend, Debbie : ) Good to see you and have a nice, long chat. A great day with an enjoyable ending.

Posting this shot really just for the record and in the hope that someone might just happen to see it and be able to confirm or correct my ID. It was only a small bird of prey, so presumably a Prairie Falcon, not a Gyrfalcon. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/prairie_falcon/id This photo was taken on 12 February 2015, which was spent SE of the city with friends Cathy and Terry. My friends picked me up around 7:00 am and I think I was home somewhere around 7:30 pm, after a great day of searching for owls, barns, and anything else that caught our eye. The weather was beautiful, as you can see in this photo. The temperature reached a brief high of 13C around 1:00 and 2:00 pm, which felt so good, especially for mid-winter. We had to deal with a lot of heat distortion during the day, so some photos are far from sharp. Many of the roads we travelled along were roads that I had driven on myself, some of them a number of times. A few of the roads were new to me, which was a treat, including a "trail" that was so deeply rutted and snow-covered that I'm amazed that we ever got out of there! This track and another backroad that was new to me led to a few old barns that I really appreciated being shown. I think my friends were amused that I fell asleep on this very rough track - after only an hour and a half's sleep the previous night, on top of always being very sleep-deprived, I'm really not surprised. It's strange how some fields in the whole area were more or less bare and yet others had a lot of snow covering the stubble, with piles of snow lining the edges of the road. As far as wildlife was concerned, we saw 11 owls - 8 Snowy Owls and 3 Great Horned Owls. The Snowies, other than the one perched on the "Wrong Way" sign that I posted the other day, were all extremely distant, so my photos are of white specks in a nice setting, ha. If I hadn't been with two people who can spot "everything", I'm sure that I would never have found most of these owls! Other birds included a flock of Snow Buntings, plus two individuals that were perched on a fence - haven't checked yet to see if I have a sharp enough photo. Another bird we saw was this beautiful Falcon perched on an electricity pylon. Also saw a group of Grey Partridge that suddenly flew before we had noticed them. A Red Fox made a very fast appearance as it ran across the road, and we saw a small herd of Mule Deer. Many thanks, as always, Cathy and Terry, for a great day out, including the delicious chili you made and brought along. A fun and rewarding day! Really appreciated being with you, doing what we all enjoy so much. Thanks, too, for patiently giving me time to photograph the various barns we came across!

The day before yesterday (25 January 2014), I spent an amazing day with friends Cathy and Terry, south of Calgary. I had found an e-mail on my computer around 12:45 a.m., just as I was about to turn off my computer for the night. Did I want to go birding tomorrow and, if so, to meet at 8:00 a.m.? A full day of excitement and enjoyment left me tired out, but so happy. I had been missing being out and taking photos, feeling lethargic and extremely tired, so this invite was welcomed with open arms. The crazy weather soared to a balmy 11C, though a lot of the day was colder, with a strong wind! Along one of the roads, we came across this Rough-legged Hawk (?) that was perched on one of the huge power pylons. Can you believe that we saw 17 owls? SEVENTEEN! I didn't photograph quite every single one, but my friends will let me know exactly how many of each owl we found, once they've gone through their photos. It was something like 10 Snowy Owls and 7 Great Horned Owls. The closest Snowy Owl was seen when it was early evening and the light had gone, and my photos are all blurry. The other owls were little more than a tiny speck in the far, far distance, but I still managed to get some kind of shot of some of them, using 48x zoom plus cropping. Perhaps I should add that maybe 16 of the owls that were seen would never have been seen by less experienced birders (and I include myself in that category!). My friends have brilliant eyes when it comes to spotting owls! Just left me shaking my head each time they found one! I'm not too bad at finding owls, but not at that distance!