Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: painted

On 25 October 2018, I dashed down to a place that I had been curious about for the last few years. Every time I drove the highway, I would pass a sign that said Kayben Farms. My daughter had posted photos from a visit there with friends a while ago and there were a few things that I wanted to see sometime. A spur-of-the-moment visit gave me the chance to do so. Actually, I suspect it may also have been a delaying tactic for all the endless things that I knew I should be seeing to. There were a few sheds/barns scattered around the grounds. Most were a pretty basic, simple shape and not old. However, I loved one little barn and absolutely loved the wonderfully bright and colourful door of two other buildings. The one barn had an assortment of ducks, chickens, pigs - and a rabbit that I only noticed when I was editing the image. There were several different kinds of domestic duck and two in particular caught my eye. A female domestic Turkey had two babies, one black and the other was a tan colour, and what a good mother she was. Wandering near the corn maze - now closed till next year - I came across a dead Sunflower hanging its head. One of my favourite things to photograph, at any stage of their life. As for a corn maze, nothing would make me enter .... nothing, unless the corn plants were no higher than my waist and if I was with someone who has an excellent sense of direction! Various pieces of old farm equipment dotted the area. I always enjoy coming across such things on any of my travels. In a nearby area, there was a variety of farm animals, including a very cute pig that was fast asleep and snoring loudly, and horses, sheep and goats were entertaining. All made for a very pleasant visit, just in time before the farm closed to the public for the winter season.

Yesterday afternoon, 25 October 2018, I dashed down to a place that I had been curious about for the last few years. Every time I drove the highway, I would pass a sign that said Kayben Farms. My daughter had posted photos from a visit there with friends a while ago and there were a few things that I wanted to see sometime. A spur-of-the-moment visit yesterday gave me the chance to do so. Actually, I suspect it may also have been a delaying tactic for all the endless things that I knew I should be seeing to. There were a few sheds/barns scattered around the grounds. Most were a pretty basic, simple shape and not old. However, I absolutely loved the wonderfully bright and colourful door of two of the buildings. Just before I was about to leave the farm, I came across this lonely pumpkin on a bench. I don't know if a group of children had had a recent art session, but I thought it was rather cute - and bright and colourful.

The five photos posted this morning were all taken yesterday, 11 September 2018. Our botany season has come to an end and so our main Naturalist had a group of us visit his amazing garden and a walk to look at wild and garden plants in his neighbourhood. Not the greatest weather, but at least the rain kept away. I think rain is in the forecast for the next week, which is a pity, as the fall leaves will all be on the ground before we know it. Mixed precipitation tonight. This painted cow, now residing in someone's front garden in Calgary, dates back to the year 2000. The story behind this and many other cows is given in the Avenue magazine article below. "If you’ve ever noticed large, strangely decorated cows that seem to dot the city and wondered, “what’s up with that?” wonder no more. The story goes back to the year 2000. A group of charity-minded individuals, led by artist and businesswoman Bonnie Laycock, thought Cowtown was lacking in cows, and so the Udderly Art: Colourful Cows for Calgary project was born. Taking inspiration from similar CowParade projects staged in Chicago and Zurich, the volunteer driven, not-for-profit project began creating large cow statue canvasses to be decorated by local artists and strewn about the city for a six month period, with its stated goals being to: - Generate artistic creativity and showcases for Alberta artists, - Bring smiles and chuckles to the faces of children and adults, Calgarians and visitors alike, and - Raise funds for many charities. The molded fiberglass cows were originally white, clocking in at 54 inches tall from head to hoof; 84 inches long from nose to tail; and weighing 90 pounds. (Though that number shot up to 900 once the concrete bases were added). Individuals and companies who initially purchased the cows for $5,000 each chose which artist would work on their bovines and, starting May 15, 1999 the cows were on display everywhere in the city from the airport to the zoo." www.avenuecalgary.com/City-Life/The-Story-of-Calgarys-Cow...

This photo is mainly just as a record that I actually got out on a birding walk with a group of friends two mornings ago. I thought it was a nice idea that someone had painted this rock and placed it in an old tree stump. One look at the weather forecast for this week and I decided that, if I was going to head over to Carburn Park, I had better do it (two mornings ago). The temperature was a balmy PLUS 1C-3C! Today, 10 January 2018, it is snowing again and the temperature is -22C (windchill -31C). Crazy weather. Just noticed that tomorrow morning is supposed to be -29C (windchill -37C). The light was not good for photos on this walk and most of the birds were very distant, as usual, at this location. Funny how it always works - if one is walking along the edge of the river, the birds are mainly on the far side. We did see 29 bird species, though. Later in the day, a friend very kindly picked me up and we went to the meeting about the recent Christmas Bird Counts. What an enormous amount of detail and facts are collected each year - most impressive and valuable!

I photographed this square mural in Blackie, Alberta, during a recent birding trip to the Frank Lake area, on 19 March 2016. Blackie is a hamlet approximately 70 km SE of Calgary. I looked on Google, but was unable to find any details about this cowboy mural. Just off the left edge of the photo stands the large, metal Cargill grain terminal. Not exactly the most beautiful of structures, but still rather impressive, and definitely not as photogenic as the three old, wooden elevators that apparently used to be along the railway line, just a very short distance away. In 2004, Blackie apparently had 3 elevators, an Ex-Agricore, Pioneer and Agricore United steel elevator. The large, green, wooden elevator was torn down in 2005 and replaced by this huge, modern grain loading terminal. The other wooden elevator, the Pioneer elevator, was torn down in December 2012. It was a fairly modern, seemingly well-kept elevator. Wish I had seen these, but I hadn't plucked up courage to drive SE of Calgary back then. "There were 1,651 elevators in Alberta in 1951, but by 1982 a total of 979 elevators remained. The 1990s spelled the death of the wooden “country” or “primary” elevator. At the end of the 1990s, as the full impact of both of the ending of the Crow Rate in 1995 and further impending rail abandonment was felt, the pace of demolition accelerated at an unprecedented rate. At the end of the 1996-1997 crop year, there were only 327 elevators left. Alberta’s largest cooperative grain companies, the Alberta Wheat Pool (which amalgamated with Manitoba Pool Elevators in 1998 as Agricore) and United Grain Growers, ultimately formed a new corporate entity known as Agricore United in 2001, issuing issued public shares. Demolition of country elevators has continued, and in 2005 there were only 156 wooden elevators of any kind still standing, only a handful of which are used by the grain trade. The Government of Alberta has recognised the significance of the traditional wood grain elevators, and has designated 12 as Provincial Historic Resources. They are located in the following communities: Andrew, Castor, Leduc, Meeting Creek, Paradise Valley, Radway, Rowley (3 elevators), Scandia and St. Albert (2 elevators)." www.grainelevatorsalberta.ca/articles/HRM-history.pdf www.bigdoer.com/2848/exploring-history/grain-elevators-an... I will add our leader's report of the day 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

Wandering around the Gift Shop at the Saskatoon Farm on 25 February 2015, I noticed two of these garden decorations that made me smile. I posted a photo of the other one ages ago. In the morning of that day, six of us were lucky enough to explore a tiny part of the land belonging to Frances and David Dover. For two of us (myself and our leader), this was our second visit - for the rest, it was a first time there. After our visit to the Dover's. I decided that I would drive eastwards along a road that I'd never driven before, until I reached the main road going south. From there, it was a fairly short drive to the Saskatoon Farm. As usual, I wandered round the grounds with my camera and then, when I was ready to leave, I ordered a pizza to take home with me. The inside of the restaurant/gift store building has been changed and one could order home-made pizza. Quite a nice touch, I thought. However, when I visited the Farm recently, I was told that they no longer make pizzas. In a way, I'm not surprised, as the food in the actual restaurant is so good!

All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, 10 October 2015, during a day birding trip east of Calgary. As usually happens when we search sloughs/ponds, the birds were all too far away to take photos of them. Instead of a list of the bird species seen, I will add our leader, Terry Korolyk's, detailed account of where we saw what. Thanks so much for this, Terry, and for taking us on another great day of birding! "A small, but, very experienced troop of 5 birders turned up for today's Field Trip going east of Calgary. The only bird of note at Glenmore Reservoir when we met was a Common Loon. From there, we left eastward stopping firstly by the City of Calgary Landfill. Good numbers of Gulls, but, amongst all the Ring-billed Gulls were only a few California Gulls. There may have been 1 juvenile Herring Gull. From there, we headed eastward ending up at the Walmart Parking Lot at 17 Avenue and Stoney Trail, where there was a flock of possibly a couple of thousand Gulls. We checked them out. All were Ring-billed Gulls except for 2 FRANKLIN'S GULLS. At October 10, it's getting a bit late for this species. It looks like the good weather has had most of them leave already. From there, we moved on to Chestermere Lake. A regular staging area for Common Mergansers in the Fall, probably 350 were in the north end of the Lake. Also of note were about 50 Bonaparte's Gulls There was nothing much off Sunset Park on the east side of the Lake. From the Dam, we found 2 Common Loons on the far west side; these were probably the same birds that were there a week or so ago. Also, there were 2 adult HERRING GULLS. We also heard here one of our only 2 Red-tailed Hawks of the day. Between the north end of Chestermere and Sunset Park, we went over to McElroy Slough on the other side of Highway One. Upon arrival, we were rewarded with a superb view of an adult NORTHERN SHRIKE. Piles of waterfowl on the slough, but the only birds really of note were 5 BARROW'S GOLDENEYE which included 3 adult males. Other than those, there were extremely large numbers of American Wigeons there today. This seems to be a favorite Fall staging area for this species. Ring-necked Ducks also were still in good numbers there; this species has been hanging on there this Fall. A WESTERN MEADOWLARK was also heard there. From the Dam at Chestermere, we headed over to Highway One and 791. Gadwall dominated here with 450 birds. We continued north on Highway 791 turning east on Inverlake Road. Along here, we had the best bird of the day, a PRAIRIE FALCON moving westward--we had great looks at it flying.The slough south of the road at Range Road 275 was so congested with American Coots, we couldn't estimate the numbers. We didn't see much else of note until we were approaching Langdon on Highway 560, when we watched an adult light-phase Eastern Red-tailed Hawk soar over the intersection. Weed Lake had our only shorebirds of the day with 6 tossed about as a number for Greater Yellowlegs; probably 500-600 Dowitchers, and 1 LESSER YELLOWLEGS; October 10 around these parts is getting on for this species. From Weed Lake, we returned to Langdon, driving south, then west on Twp. Rd. 232. A male Ring-necked Pheasant was a surprise find along the road going westward. The large slough east of Shepard didn't hold much, except for possibly 3 BLACKBIRDS, so we moved on to Ralph Klein Park. Large numbers of waterfowl again, almost all resting, particularly Northern Pintail (mind-boggling numbers), and Canada Geese. There were 6 SWANS there today, but because of the distance and wind, we could only identify one of them -- an adult TRUMPETER. At the south end of the Park, a Merlin added to our day's total." By Terry Korolyk.

All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, 25 September 2015. This garden ornament was hanging up for sale on a short length of fence at the Saskatoon Farm, SE of Calgary. In the morning, six of us were lucky enough to explore a tiny part of the land belonging to Frances and David Dover. For two of us (myself and our leader), this was our second visit - for the rest, it was a first time there. After our visit to the Dover's. I decided that I would drive eastwards along a road that I'd never driven before, until I reached the main road going south. From there, it was a fairly short drive to the Saskatoon Farm. As usual, I wandered round the grounds with my camera and then, when I was ready to leave, I ordered a pizza to take home with me. The inside of the restaurant/gift store building has been changed and now one can order home-made pizza. Quite a nice touch, I thought.

Yesterday, 14 March 2015, I photographed this square mural in Blackie, Alberta, during a bird trip to the Frank Lake area. Blackie is a hamlet approximately 70 km SE of Calgary. I looked on Google, but was unable to find any details about this cowboy mural. On the far left edge of the photo, you can see part of the large grain terminal in Blackie. I went on a most enjoyable birding outing SE of the city, with a group of friends. Frank Lake, one of my favourite places, was our main destination. During the winter months, the gate is closed, so one has to walk in. We walked almost as far as the blind and then back to the cars. On this return walk, a patch of large, white, spotted feathers was found. A friend held this one up against her dark jeans so that I could get a photo (see next photo posted today). When I saw it, I had a bad feeling that this large feather belonged to a beautiful Snowy Owl. After searching on Google, I think that might be the closest answer, which would be really sad. Would really appreciate it if someone is able to correct or confirm - thanks! From Frank Lake, we called in at the huge community centre in High River, thinking we could eat our lunch there. It was so absolutely packed, we ended up eating outside by the cars. After more driving around the lake, we came back to Calgary via 306 Ave, E (alternative road numbers are 552/272) and 220 (Dunbow Rd). I think I have those road numbers correct. For most of the day, the wind was dreadful, making walking very difficult and extremely unpleasant! When I got home and checked yesterday's forecast for High River on the Weather Network, the temperature got up to around 15C and there was a Wind Warning in effect. A Wind Warning is issued when wind speeds are expected to or currently blowing steadily at 60 to 65 km/h (37 to 40 mph) or more, or winds gusting to 90 km/h (56 mph) or more. I will add the report from our leader, Andrew Hart, with permission, below. As usual, I did not see some of the birds listed, as I don't have binoculars. "We had 16 participants on this trip on a day when it was warm (generally 12-15 deg c) but, after about 10:30 am, extremely windy. We went straight to the outfall area near the blind. As we walked down to the edge of the water the wind seemed to pick up. We saw about 100 each of Redheads and Canvasback as well as Tundra Swans (many of which were flying over). Not that many Pintails, maybe 20+, much less than other recent observers have reported. The increasingly strong winds made observations tricky. We did not see the Eurasian Wigeon that others have reported, including today's report by Mike Sven, even though we were down by the effluent area where he saw them. Possibly the increasingly high winds made them seek shelter elsewhere. Some of the group saw a Cackling Goose identified by Tony Timmons, but it flew off before we could get everyone on it. Some of the birds we saw flying valiantly against the wind barely made any progress. We went to the High River recreation centre for lunch, discovering when we arrived that a number of community events were taking place and parking had overflowed to a nearby field. We did see one Eurasian Collared Dove in a nearby tree. The parking field had a few really muddy spots, so somehow in the confusion of leaving our group got split up. Most of us went on a clockwise circuit of the Frank Lake area. We stopped in at Basin 2 on the East side, but again the wind made observation difficult, although Howard Heffler did manage to pick out three Gadwall in a small slough. On our drive around we saw a few Horned Larks, but never more than small numbers at the same time, and sometimes just one or two. We met our lost fellow birders from the rec center car park in the Basin 3 car park, from which we could see 50 or so Pintails. We carried on to the shelterbelts just west of Frank Lake and picked up a Great Horned Owl and a Flicker. Leaving the Frank Lake area a few of us went on to Blackie. The winds were still roaring but we managed to find about 16 Eurasian Collared Doves, which were blowing around like chaff. The more detailed EBird summary is: Checklists included in this summary: (1): Frank Lake--NW lookout/blind Date: Mar 14, 2015, 9:50 AM (2): Frank Lake--Basin 4 Date: Mar 14, 2015, 1:15 PM (3): Frank Lake--Basin 3 Date: Mar 14, 2015, 1:25 PM (4): Blackie Date: Mar 14, 2015, 2:30 PM 1 Cackling Goose -- (1) 480 Canada Goose -- (1),(2),(3) 70 Tundra Swan -- (1),(3) 3 Gadwall -- (2) 26 American Wigeon -- (1),(2) 354 Mallard -- (1),(2),(3) 12 Northern Shoveler -- (1) 70 Northern Pintail -- (1),(3) 2 Green-winged Teal -- (1) 100 Canvasback -- (1) 100 Redhead -- (1) 10 Ring-necked Duck -- (1) 30 Lesser Scaup -- (1) 4 Bufflehead -- (1) 150 Common Goldeneye -- (1) 6 Common Merganser -- (1) 1 Bald Eagle -- (1) 42 California Gull -- (1),(3) 6 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) -- (2),(4) 16 Eurasian Collared-Dove -- (4) 4 Black-billed Magpie -- (4) 25 Common Raven -- (2),(3) 4 Horned Lark -- (3) 100 European Starling -- (3),(4) 1 House Finch -- (4) 100 House Sparrow -- (4) Andrew Hart"

On 10 August 2013, I went with friend Sandy to Bow Lake, in Banff National Park. It is located along Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway, said to be the most beautiful, scenic road in the world. When we returned to the parking lot at the end of our hike, we noticed this brightly coloured van. I was taking a shot or two when I heard a voice say "Take your time ..." A couple was just getting back to this vehicle. This campervan company has the wildest designs on their for-rent vehicles - bright and so much fun.