Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: April

On 20 April 2015, I got up early to go on a birding walk with friends. I checked the weather forecast for this week and when I saw that rain was expected for four days in a row, starting the next day, I changed my mind and went for a long drive NW and SW of the city for the day instead. Left home around 8:45 am and got back about 6:45, driving about 330 km. The day before, I had been out on a day trip to Pine Coulee Reservoir with birding friends, but only got half a dozen very distant, blurry shots of birds. I just couldn't wait any longer to go and see if I could find one of the Great Gray Owls that a few people had been seeing recently, NW of the city. No luck at all, though I did see a Moose and a pair of Bluebirds, all of which helped lessen the disappointment of not finding an owl. The Moose had been feeding near the edge of the road when I spotted it. A minute or two later, it crossed the road and began feeding there. Suddenly, it took off across that road, leaping over a barbed-wire fence to the safety of the forest. Took me by surprise until I noticed a couple of cows (bulls) that had walked up behind the Moose and spooked it! I almost watched disaster, as the Moose got its leg briefly tangled in the barbed-wire as it leapt and almost stumbled. The only other thing that I found to photograph were cows, so on my way home, I took the long way and came back via backroads SW of the city. Drove a couple of roads that were new to me and was glad to find a wooden structure that I had seen on someone's Facebook page. He had very kindly told me where to look, though I wasn't quite sure which road it was on until I was there. I also called in briefly at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, hoping that I might just be lucky enough to see one particular bird species (a Varied Thrush that a couple of people had seen near the parking lot recently), that I hadn't seen before - out of luck, again.

When I called in at the Reader Rock Garden on 29 April 2015, there were only a few flowers that were in bloom. These included a few Tulips, a few Hepatica that were already not in the best condition, and several other species, including this small, white flower. Not completely sure, but I think it is white Chionodoxa forbesii. "Chionodoxa is distinguished from the closely related genus Scilla by two features: the tepals are joined at their bases to form a tube rather than being free; and the stamens have flattened stalks (filaments), which look almost like a cup in the centre of the flower. These differences are not considered by some botanists as sufficient to create a separate genus, and Chionodoxa species are often included in Scilla." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chionodoxa

When I called in at the Reader Rock Garden on 29 April 2015, there were only a few flowers that were in bloom. These included a few Tulips, a few Hepatica that were already not in the best condition, and several other species. It felt so good to finally see flowers and colour, even though our 2014/2015 winter weather had been amazingly mild. I've only just noticed the off-white, star / snowflake pattern on the unopened buds. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muscari

Cornell Lab of Ornithology has released a new Bird Photo ID program, called Merlin Bird Photo ID. I tried it with a photo of a Mountain Bluebird and a female Red-winged Blackbird and was impressed that it identified both birds accurately. So far, it works for 400 North American birds. Apparently, it does not work on tablets or mobile devices at this time. For best results, use a computer with a recent version of Chrome or Safari. Give it a try! merlin.allaboutbirds.org/photo-id/?utm_source=Cornell+Lab... On 26 April 2015, I spent the day with a fair-sized group of friends, at Frank Lake. The weather was beautiful and, for once, not windy. Frank Lake and the surrounding area is one of my favourite places to spend a day or half a day. On a trip like this one, there are a lot of the birds that I don't see, as I don't use binoculars. Also, my interest is not to see as many species as possible, but to hopefully come across a few birds close enough to photograph. Fortunately, at the bird blind/hide, a pair of Eared Grebes was within camera range. Every once in a while, they stayed still for a few seconds before continuing their constant swimming and diving. The light was such that, much of the time, you couldn't tell that they had red eyes - and really it's the eyes (and the golden "ear" feathers) that add so much beauty to these birds. The eyes always make me think of red buttons : ) This Grebe is the most abundant Grebe in the world, and it occurs on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eared_Grebe/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-necked_grebe I will add the final list of the 51 species seen, complied by our Leader, Tony Timmons. Probably not of much interest to most people, but it does help my memory. Many thanks, as always, Tony, for a very successful and most enjoyable day! Really appreciate your giving up a precious weekend day to take us out there. "The birds put on a spectacular show for the 19 participants on the Frank Lake trip today. We tallied 51 species. (Anne's note: on this trip one year ago, we found 53 species.) Expected species were present in pretty good numbers; most noteworthy being American Avocet (200+) and White-faced Ibis (120). Thousands of ducks were on the Lake. Thanks to Dan Parliament and Al Borgardt for scoping birds and sharing sightings with the group. Before the start of the trip, Rose Painter spotted two Long-billed Curlew near Blackie. Later in the day, we searched for the birds without success. Eared Grebe 250 Western Grebe 20 Double-crested Cormorant 25 Black-crowned Night Heron 1 White-faced Ibis 120 Canada Goose Swan sp. 12 Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Blue-winged Teal Cinnamon Teal Green-winged Teal Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Canvasback Redhead Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Hooded Merganser 2 f. Ruddy Duck Northern Harrier 3 Swainson's Hawk 3 Gray Partridge 4 American Coot Killdeer 5 Black-necked Stilt 10 American Avocet 200+ Greater Yellowlegs 5 Lesser Yellowlegs 17 Franklin's Gull 1000 Bonaparte's Gull 10 Ring-billed Gull 5 California Gull 20 Rock Pigeon Great Horned Owl ( 3 ad. + 3 owlets ) Black-billed Magpie American Crow Common Raven Tree Swallow 60 Bank Swallow 1 Marsh Wren 4 American Robin European Starling Red-winged Blackbird Western Meadowlark 5 Yellow-headed Blackbird Brewer's Blackbird 1 House Sparrow Tony Timmons"

A view from Wildcat Hills Rd, NW of Calgary, taken on 2 April 2013. I have passed this backroad many times, but had never driven on it so, two days ago, I decided to try it.

In some places, the Great Gray Owl is also known as the Great Gray Ghost. This photo, that I took on April 14th during a heavy snowstorm, always makes me think of that rather creepy name. A pity that the owl was facing in that direction, but I guess it shows you the fine feather detail on the back of the head. Also shows how focused it was on finding a rodent for a snack : ) Not sure if this is the adult Great Gray that I was lucky enough to hold on June 5th, or maybe it was its mate, when one of them was banded by licenced Owl Banders, "The Owl Guys", from near Edmonton.

How different this photo is to one I posted just the other day. I wasn't too thrilled to see that we had more snow today, but was glad it enabled me to get a photo of these Prairie Crocuses in the snow.