Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: ornitholgy

Ha, I'm hoping this photo is not showing up as my main photo for this morning. Posting it only as a record of a two and a half hour walk I did yesterday morning, in Fish Creek Park. I rarely get any photos that are worth posting on these walks and this is about the 'best' of the handful I took. I have missed the two previous walks with friends so thought I really must try and get out on this one. We met near the Bow Valley Ranch and, after walking down as far as Annie's cafe to look for any birds that were around, we then headed across the field to the Bow River. We turned around once we reached the first storm-water pond, which is where I took this zoomed in shot of a few of the birds seen there. The forecast at the moment is for mixed precipitation tonight and tomorrow morning and scattered flurries for Friday (22 September). Our temperature shortly before noon today is 7C, but next week is supposed to be back in the mid to high teens, which would be wonderful!.

All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, 28 December, during the annual Audubon Cochrane Wildlife Reserve Christmas Bird Count. The area that my small group of seven people covered was N of Cochrane and E of Highway 22. Though the word 'Reserve' is in the name, this count was like most others, driving all the country backroads and calling in at several farms. The weather was bad, with poor light and gently falling snow pretty well all day long. Thanks so much, Stephen, for driving the four of us safely! This is not a good photo, but I thought I should have one bird photo to represent this Bird Count. Other than four distant photos of a Common Redpoll, which were deleted straight away, this was the ONLY bird photo I managed to take during all the hours we were out, ha! We saw this female when we called in at one of our favourite acreages early in the day, belonging to the Myra family. We saw it at the feeders, using its tail for balance, and also clinging to the stucco on the side of their house. Every single year we visit their place, Audrey has cookies and tea and coffee ready for us to enjoy - so thoughtful! I will add our leader's report for this day's count below. Not a huge number of species, with a Pileated Woodpecker being the highlight plus so many Snow Buntings. "The day was overcast, light snow most of day, calm, -09°C. 20 cm snow on ground. Most streams frozen over. Total Party kms by Car - 84; Total Party kms by foot – 2km. Total Party hours by Car – 3; Total Party hours by foot -2 hrs Total Party hours feeder watching – 1:40 min. Rough-legged Hawk-1 Rock Pigeon-4 Downy Woodpecker-10. Hairy Woodpecker-3 PILEATED WOODPECKER-1 Black-billed Magpie- 19 Common Raven- 18 Black-capped Chickadee- 41 Red-breasted Nuthatch- 3 White-breasted Nuthatch-1 American Tree Sparrow-7 Dark-eyed Junco-1 Snow Bunting-3550 Pine Grosbeak-25 White-winged Crossbill-15 Common Redpoll-1811 House Sparrow-106 Red Squirrel-2"

Yesterday, 3 November 2014, I spent a few hours at the Calgary Zoo with my youngest daughter. Snow is in the forecast again, so we thought we’d better fit in a visit while the sun was shining. I still had to clear the snow off my vehicle before I left home. The snow had been melting and now formed a thick, solid layer that had to be chipped away, banged, pushed, shoved, levered, until it finally broke up into fairly large slabs that simply slid off my car. Oh, the joys of winter. This has irritated the inflammation of the rotator cuffs in both my shoulders yet again, just as I feared it would. This was just a quick shot through the railings, when this beautiful Crane stood still for a moment and looked in my direction. Not the best background, but I found it amusing to see this bird head-on, with its beautiful “halo”. “The Grey Crowned Crane (Balearica regulorum) is a bird in the crane family Gruidae. It occurs in dry savannah in Africa south of the Sahara, although it nests in somewhat wetter habitats. There are two subspecies. The East African B. r. gibbericeps (Crested Crane) occurs from eastern Democratic Republic of the Congo through Uganda, of which it is the national bird, and Kenya to eastern South Africa. It has a larger area of bare red facial skin above the white patch than the smaller Balearica regulorum regulorum (South African Crowned Crane) which breeds from Angola south to South Africa. This species and the closely related Black Crowned Crane are the only cranes that can roost in trees, because of a long hind toe that can grasp branches. The Grey Crowned Crane has a breeding display involving dancing, bowing, and jumping. It has a booming call which involves inflation of the red gular sac. It also makes a honking sound quite different from the trumpeting of other crane species. The head has a crown of stiff golden feathers. The sides of the face are white, and there is a bright red inflatable throat pouch. The bill is relatively short and grey, and the legs are black. The sexes are similar, although males tend to be slightly larger. Although the Grey Crowned Crane remains common over much of its range, it faces threats to its habitat due to drainage, overgrazing, and pesticide pollution." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Grey_crowned_crane

This Spotted Sandpiper was perched on a fence post right next to a small slough/pond, and I had to take my photos looking towards the sun. Seen SW of Calgary on 26 June 2013, when I went for a drive along some of the backroads. Other than a few patches of damaged gravel road, there was no sign of the "Flood of the Century" that has hit Calgary and many places in the province so hard. www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/9156995135/in/photostream

Lol, I got a surprise when I downloaded the few photos that I'd taken at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary on 4 March 2013! Bet there isn't another photo on Flickr quite like mine! Sure, she's "just" an everyday Mallard, but .....

Take a close look at this little Black-capped Chickadee's beak! What do you see? You may need to look in large size : ) Taken on 25 January 2008, at Burnsmead, Fish Creek Park - so, yes, it was winter time : ) This photo was floating around in archiveland for an awful long time.

Little Canada Goose goslings are growing up so fast, but a few of the ones I saw on June 9th were still at the cute stage : ) I love to see them when they are out for a walk with Mom and Dad and then suddenly flop to the ground. Seen at a local wetland in south west Calgary.

A rather blurry image of this little Junco, but I don't have one in my Birds of Alberta Sets. Photographed at Keith Logan's property on June 17th.

On the rare occasion that I see one of these beautiful Cinnamon Teals, they are always far, far away. This one was a little closer, though I still had to use full zoom and heavy cropping. They are such gorgeous ducks, especially when the sun shines on their plumage. Sun??? Where is the sun? Yet another day of heavy, endless rain. When I think of how we all longed for spring to arrive after seven months of severe winter, lol.

These are just three of the 15 Great Horned Owls that are being rehabilitated at the moment at the Mediicine River Wildlife Centre, north west of Calgary, and west of Innisfail. We spent the day there on 4th July, botanizing their forest and meadows, as well as seeing some of the wildlife that had been brought to the Centre because of injury or being orphaned. The 15 owls were in a huge, almost barn-like enclosure (but without solid walls at the sides) outdoors in the forest. Some were at each end of the enclosure while we were inside, and occasionally one would fly to the opposite end. I do hope that every single owl recovers well and will be able to be released. "All birds admitted to MRWC must prove that they are avid flyers before their release into the wild." Taken from the MRWC's calendar.

LOL, a very, very distant, cropped image, but it's not every day that you see a Rough-legged Hawk being harrassed by two Ravens. This behaviour went on for quite a long time - maybe they were "playing"? Seen a couple of weeks ago near the end of a walk at Bebo Grove, Fish Creek Park.

I never tire of seeing and photographing Mallards, both male and female. This female was lying on the snow at the Calgary Zoo.

A crop to show the Peregrine Falcon's talons more closely.

Yesterday, I was out on a full-day bus trip to the Red Deer Wetlands Area, NW of Calgary. I think it was about an hour and a half's drive to get there. This was an annual outing arranged through the nature group that I belong to, and each year is to a different place. The Red Deer Wetlands Area is made up of Slack Slough (our first stop, and where I photographed this little male House Sparrow), the McKenzie Trails area (our second stop) and lastly the Kerry Woods Nature Center and Gaetz Lake Sanctuary, where we spent the last two hours of the day. The latter was such a beautiful area, wonderfully laid out, with several viewing decks around the lake. Some of us chose to walk the whole way round the huge lake (further than I had expected, lol!). A couple of Moose certainly made it more than worth the effort. We were so lucky that the rain stayed away until just the last few minutes of our walk, and then the heavens opened. The forecast had been for thunder showers morning and afternoon, but it just remained overcast till the last moment - hence a lot of photos that came out blurry, ha. A great trip, well-organized - thanks so much for all your hard work, Lynne! - and it was so good to see various friends that I hadn't seen for ages, as well as those whom I see often. It's raining here this morning, but I really, really hope that the forecast for tomorrow turns out to be accurate, as three of us are heading north to Edmonton (roughly a three-hour drive) for an exciting day!