Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: pylons

This photo was taken yesterday, 17 April 2015, when I went with friend Shirley to Frank Lake. We spent the morning driving round part of the lake and a short while at the bird blind (hide). Bumped into our friend Dave near the blind and he joined us for the rest of the morning. Nice to have your company, Dave! And an extra pair of eyes is always welcomed. We had heard that the White-faced Ibis had arrived, but we were out of luck yesterday. We did, however, stop briefly to see the Great Horned Owl nest that has three owlets in it. Stopped just long enough to get a couple of photos and then continued on our drive. It was extremely windy yesterday, which may have affected the various birds. Too bad they don't have wind turbines in this area, as it seems to be windy most times I go to Frank Lake! We didn't see all that many, mainly a few birds such as "American Avocets", "Black-necked Stilts" Coots, Canada Geese, and so on. A pity you can't see and feel the wind in my photo, but you can see what a beautiful, sunny day it was. Many thanks for the invite to join you and for driving me, Shirley! We had a fun time, including all of us going to Tim Horton's for lunch before heading home. I was certainly ready for that hot Chili and coffee!

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!

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.