Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: insulator

Four of these photos were taken on Saturday, 23 February 2019, during the annual Snowy Owl Prowl, east of the city. I was so tempted to cancel when the forecast was for bitterly cold and snowy weather, with a wind that made it feel much colder! Amazingly, the snow stopped just before it was time for me to leave home that morning, but the frigid weather stayed with us all day. We managed to find five Snowy Owls, but this was the only remotely close one that I got a sharp enough photo of. My other photos, taken from inside the car in which I was travelling, from the far side, were totally blurry. This so often happens when I take photos from inside a vehicle. The last owl we saw was actually going to be on my side of the road when we did a U-turn and headed back, which would have been wonderful, but for some reason, we drove straight past, leaving everyone else to photograph it! Of course, it was great to see these owls, but photo-wise, very disappointing. It was definitely a Snow Bunting day, though! An estimated 6,000 of them in total. They are so beautiful when seen in flight. The car in which I was riding was the leading car, and we missed the Horned Larks and Gray Partridge. "21 brave participants ventured out on a very cold and windy day to trek east of Calgary to find Snowy Owls. Even with the bitterly cold conditions, the birds did not disappoint. We found 5 Snowy Owls throughout the day, but the highlight was seeing over 6000 snow buntings amongst 8 different flocks throughout the day. The largest flocks we saw was about 1800 birds, which was a mixed flock with about 200 Horned Larks. The buntings must be migrating north! All and all a great day! Saturday February 23, 2019 10am-4pm -17C, Wind N20-29KM/Hr 21 participants 1075 Canada Geese 12 Gray Partridge 90 Rock Pigeon 1 Great Horned Owl (being chased through trees by Ravens) 5 Snowy Owls - all males, 4 1st year, 1 adult 6 Black-billed Magpie 10 Common Raven 205 Horned Lark - 200 were in a mixed flock with Snow Buntings 40 Common Redpoll 6000 8 different flocks over the day; 1600, 1600, 400, 100, 300, 300, 1000, 1000 Melanie"

On 21 August 2018, it turned out to be such a great day, with some much-appreciated sightings. I must have spent about 8 or 9 hours driving and almost every inch of my body ached like crazy at the end of it. Now, each summer, I try and do two or three longer (for me) drives, making sure I don't lose confidence to get there. Weather-wise, it was around 24C, so not too hot. Yes, it was still smokey from the British Columbia wildfires, making distant hills barely visible and deleting mountains from view, but it didn't have too much effect on closer photography. It was a good day for Hawks, seeing three on the way south and a few on the way home. I almost missed two Swainson's Hawks, as the hay bale they were standing on was way out in a large field. At first, I thought there were three hawks together, but when I stopped to take a few photos, I realized that there were only two - one looked almost like two hawks close together, but then I saw that it had its wings mantled. I guess it wanted to make sure that the second hawk behind it couldn't steal any of the food from it. A lone Common Nighthawk also helped make my day. For several years, I had longed to see one of these unusual birds and, finally last year (2017), I managed to find four of them. That time was almost two months earlier in the year than my recent find, so I wasn't expecting to see any in late August. I would still love to find one lying on a wooden railing rather than a metal railing. Last year, I did get a photo of one on a fence post, but the angle was not the greatest. These birds are 9½ inches from the tip of bill to the tip of tail. "On warm summer evenings, Common Nighthawks roam the skies over treetops, grasslands, and cities. Their sharp, electric peent call is often the first clue they’re overhead. In the dim half-light, these long-winged birds fly in graceful loops, flashing white patches out past the bend of each wing as they chase insects. These fairly common but declining birds make no nest. Their young are so well camouflaged that they’re hard to find, and even the adults seem to vanish as soon as they land." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Nighthawk/id "North America has 13 nighthawk populations. All but one are in decline and the species is considered threatened in Canada and several U.S. states." www.ctvnews.ca/sci-tech/little-backpacks-gps-used-to-trac... A Horned Lark, a Western Meadowlark juvenile, and a Vesper Sparrow gave me the chance for a photo or two, and a lone hawk I spotted way in the distance was a Ferruginous Hawk. A happy sighting, as these hawks are so few and far between.

Towards the end of last year, I had been longing to get out to look for Snowy Owls, especially to the E and NE of the city. I finally got out, after my youngest daughter asked if I wanted to go looking for Snowies on our Christmas get-together on 20 December 2014. She had never seen a Snowy Owl, so I was really, really hoping that we'd find one! As it turned out, we saw 10 definite individuals, plus two others that we weren't quite sure about - one certainly looked like a very distant Snowy and the other was possibly a repeat of an owl we had seen earlier in more or less the same area. Part way through the day, almost as if it were meant to happen, a car came from the opposite direction - it was my friends, Cathy and Terry! For the rest of our trip, we followed behind them, thoroughly enjoying every new find. Late afternoon, we went home different ways and my daughter and I saw our last two owls. My daughter was so thrilled to see all these breathtaking birds - she was quite happy and content after seeing the very first, distant one. Three of the owls gave us close or reasonably close views, the rest were very distant. The owl in this photo is either a female or young one, as it has so much dark streaking. It was the very last owl that we saw that day. After these wonderful sightings, we returned to Calgary and went back to my daughter's place to exchange Christmas gifts. I reckon the Snowy Owls were the "best" gifts she received that day : ) www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/snowy_owl/lifehistory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_owl

Sometimes, you just can't get in the right position to get a photo of a Snowy Owl - this one only glanced in our direction a couple of times, but I thought the sun shining on it made it worth posting. This photo was taken NE of the city, on 20 December 2014. The winter of 2014/2015 has been really good for Snowy Owls, though various people have been reporting that recently, there seem to be far fewer to be seen. Back in December, I had been longing to get out there, especially to the E and NE of the city, to look for these spectacular birds of prey. I finally got out, after my youngest daughter asked if I wanted to go looking for Snowies on our Christmas get-together on 20 December 2014. She had never seen a Snowy Owl, so I was really, really hoping that we'd find one! As it turned out, we saw 10 definite individuals, plus two others that we weren't quite sure about - one certainly looked like a very distant Snowy and the other was possibly a repeat of an owl we had seen earlier in more or less the same area. Part way through the day, almost as if it were meant to happen, a car came from the opposite direction - it was my friends, Cathy and Terry! For the rest of our trip, we followed behind them, thoroughly enjoying every new find. Late afternoon, we went home different ways and my daughter and I saw our last two owls. My daughter was so thrilled to see these breathtaking birds and was already quite happy and content after seeing the very first, distant one. Three of the owls gave us close or reasonably close views, the rest were very distant. The owl in this photo is a male, as it is almost pure white. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/snowy_owl/lifehistory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_owl After these wonderful sightings, we returned to Calgary and went back to my daughter's place to exchange Christmas gifts. I reckon the Snowy Owls were the "best" gifts she received that day : )

So far, the winter of 2014/2015 seems to be really good for Snowy Owls. The last two or three weeks, I had been longing to get out there, especially to the E and NE of the city, to look for these spectacular birds of prey. I finally got out, after my youngest daughter asked if I wanted to go looking for Snowies on our Christmas get-together on 20 December 2014. She had never seen a Snowy Owl, so I was really, really hoping that we'd find one! As it turned out, we saw 10 definite individuals, plus two others that we weren't quite sure about - one certainly looked like a very distant Snowy and the other was possibly a repeat of an owl we had seen earlier in more or less the same area. Part way through the day, almost as if it were meant to happen, a car came from the opposite direction - it was my friends, Cathy and Terry! For the rest of our trip, we followed behind them, thoroughly enjoying every new find. Late afternoon, we went home different ways and my daughter and I saw our last two owls. My daughter was so thrilled to see these breathtaking birds and was quite happy and content after seeing the very first, distant one. Three of the owls gave us close or reasonably close views, the rest were very distant. The owl in this photo is a male, as it is almost pure white. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/snowy_owl/lifehistory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_owl After these wonderful sightings, we returned to Calgary and went back to my daughter's place to exchange Christmas gifts. I reckon the Snowy Owls were the "best" gifts she received that day : ) Yesterday, 20 December 2014, was the 22nd (?) annual Fish Creek Park New Year's Day Bird Count. I ended up with photos of just three birds - a Black-capped Chickadee, a Great Horned Owl and a female Three-toed Woodpecker. Am meeting up with a different group of friends this morning in the same area, and hoping that we might just be lucky enough to find the tiny Northern Pygmy-owl this time. That's the only reason I am up so early this morning!

So far, the winter of 2014/2015 seems to be really good for Snowy Owls. The last two or three weeks, I had been longing to get out there, especially to the E and NE of the city, to look for these spectacular birds of prey. I finally got out, after my youngest daughter asked if I wanted to go looking for Snowies on our Christmas get-together three days ago. She had never seen a Snowy Owl, so I was really, really hoping that we'd find one! As it turned out, we saw 10 definite individuals, plus two others that we weren't quite sure about - one certainly looked like a very distant Snowy and the other was possibly a repeat of an owl we had seen earlier in more or less the same area. Part way through the day, almost as if it were meant to happen, a car came from the opposite direction - it was my friends, Cathy and Terry! For the rest of our trip, we followed behind them, thoroughly enjoying every new find. Late afternoon, we went home different ways and my daughter and I saw our last two owls. My daughter was so thrilled to see these breathtaking birds and was quite happy and content after seeing the very first, distant one. Three of the owls gave us close or reasonably close views, the rest were very distant. The owl in this photo is a male, as it is pure white. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/snowy_owl/lifehistory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_owl After these wonderful sightings, we returned to Calgary and went back to my daughter's place to exchange Christmas gifts. I reckon the Snowy Owls were the "best" gifts she received that day : ) I'm posting very early this morning (4:15 am), as I have to get ready to go on the Drumheller Christmas Bird Count, NE of the city, in the Badlands of Alberta. I almost stayed up all night again, as I wasn't sure I would hear my alarm clocks go off and I really did not want to risk missing this Count. It takes roughly an hour and a half to get out there.

There is a funny story behind this image - but I won't tell you about it ("phew" says Cathy, lol!). From a great distance, this bird of prey still looked huge and appeared to have a white front. My heart skipped a beat at the possibility that this might be a Feruginous Hawk. However, when we got closer, it turned out to be a beautiful Gyrfalcon, perched on an ugly power pole, ha. Spent the whole day SE of the city again on 13 March 2014, with friends Cathy and Terry. What a slow day it was for much of the time. Took us just over 6 hours to find the first Snowy Owl - just the tiniest, distant white speck on the ground, far across a huge field. We were beginning to wonder if maybe all the Snowies had already left to fly north, so we were happy to see this one, and a second one about four hours later, perched on a distant power pole. No photo opportunities for these owls, but it felt to good to know that there were at least these two owls still in the area. We had no luck at all finding a Short-eared Owl - very different from 7th March, when we saw 8 of them, six in flight and two on the ground. In addition to the 2 Snowies, we did see 9 Great Horned Owls, though, some on nests. Weather was beautiful with some interesting clouds for part of the day, clearing much later. We were just in time to see the last of the pink sunrise colour and light on the distant mountains - always so beautiful. Some of the fields looked pretty bare, while others were still covered in snow.

A really awful quality photo, taken at sunset when the light had faded, but I decided I would still post it, just for my records. The sunset colours change the Owl's colouring to a pale pink, as you can see with this handsome, pure white male. A pity the light was too poor, as this owl was in no hurry to move on. It was having a hard time clinging to the insulator, it was so windy. The day before yesterday (25 January 2014), I spent this 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! Can you believe that we saw 17 owls that day? 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 the one in my photo - 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!