Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: peeling paint

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.

Just like a year ago, on the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for High River, our Count on 15 December 2015 started off while it was still dark, and it was foggy with a most wonderful hoar frost. Not the best conditions for taking photos, though, especially with a point-and-shoot camera. Many of my photos taken very early morning came out far too blurry to keep. There was no snow on the ground, but it was covered in hoar frost crystals, which crunched as we walked on them. On this day, I went with a group of 7 friends to take part in the first annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count of the season. This is one of my favourite counts, mainly because our small group covers one of my favourite areas, SE of the city. Other birders covered the rest of the large count circle around the town of High River, SE of Calgary, roughly half an hour's drive from the southern edge of Calgary. Our small group was limited to just two carloads of people. When there is a convoy of vehicles, everything takes much longer, and on an important count day, time is of the essence. We met in the city at 7:15 am and drove southwards into fog - dense fog! This is not what people hope for when out looking for birds, ha. The temperature was around -12C (so I'm guessing the windchill was somewhere around -18C or colder) when we set out, warming to 1C later on. I always hope for a hoar frost for this count. The sun came up when we were at our first stop and for just a few brief seconds, it was reflected in the open water of the outlet at Frank Lake. So beautiful. After our very first stop there, we then drove the various backroads around and near Frank Lake, calling in at several farms to ask permission to look around their farmyards, hoping to find a different species to add to our list. I will add our leader's final list below - not a great number of species, but a few nice ones, including two very, very distant Snowy Owls and 8 Great Horned Owls. It was great when those of us riding in the one car, saw our 9th Great Horned Owl along H'way 23, just E of Hway 2, on our way home. "Frank Lake CBC, SE quadrant, S of Hwy 23, E of Hwy 2. 0800-1645, Tue, 15 Dec. 2015. Clear sky, but heavy ground fog obscured viewing of open water at Frank Lake, and coated vegetation with hoarfrost, which lasted most of the day. W. wind, up to 15kph. -12 to 01°C. No snow on ground (just hoarfrost), streams partly open. Km by Car-110:, Km on foot; 3; Time by car – 7 hr; Time on foot -1:45 min. Totals are all in IBA (in bird area), unless specified Off IBA. IBA territory was East of 152 St, S to 594 Av; then E to 168 St, then S to 626 Av. Canada Goose-80 Gadwall-1 m Green-winged Teal-1 f. Lesser Scaup-1 m. Bald Eagle-1 ad, flying S at 1445 over Davey Jones’ place.. Killdeer -3 Rock Pigeon-9 on N. side #23 // 30 on IBA terr. // 3 Off IBA Great Horned Owl-8 (4 in Harley Sutherland’s yard). Snowy Owl-2 Black-billed Magpie-17 // 31 Off IBA. Common Raven-13 // 8 Off IBA Horned Lark?? – 10, seen flying low, by Jim St. L European Starling-1 on N side #23 // 26. American Tree Sparrow- 12 Song Sparrow?? – 1 (seen three times near outfall, but in heavy fog). Common Redpoll- 155 // 87 Off IBA House Sparrow- 128 // 77 Off IBA Reported seen by Mr/Mrs Gordon Fraser, Off IBA, in Little Bow River valley, today: Ring-necked Pheasant-1; Northern Flicker-1. (Also photographed Long-tailed Weasel-1). Coyote- 1 on ice of Frank Lake Deer sp.-3 Mule Deer -7, off S. Side of CBC Terr." Of course, as always happens on any trip, I just had to take photos of anything else that caught my eye, including barns, scenery, and so on. These brightly coloured sheds/barns, along with numerous other run-down buildings, were at a location down by a creek. We were surprised to see that a gravel company had started work in this area, sometime during the past year. We had finished our count by around 4:45 pm, by which time it was completely dark. Some of us stayed for the delicious pot luck supper, mainly provided by generous birding people who live in or near High River. Thanks to everyone who got this ready for us - delicious and hugely appreciated! A special thanks to Greg Wagner who always organizes this count. He is a truly dedicated birder, who puts in so much time year-round, searching for and recording what birds are being seen in that whole area. Thanks, too, to Lorrie and John who drove two of us for the whole day. Can't thank you enough for making it possible for me to do this count. A lot of driving for you and it was greatly appreciated. I was lucky enough to get my name called in a draw when we were at the Potluck and was given a copy of Myrna Pearman's beautiful new book: "Backyard Bird Feeding: an Alberta Guide". This complete guide to year-round bird feeding in Alberta is beautifully laid out with so many great photos and masses of information. Definitely not just for people who have a garden and bird feeders. A delightful book! Thank you, Russ Amy, for donating this copy specially for the draw! I also bought a copy to give to friends when I next see them. www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/store/p1/BACKYARD_BIRD_FEEDING%3A_An...

It snowed last night, so I had a few inches of the white stuff to clear off my vehicle today, 16 December 2015, before going to a volunteer shift. If truth were known, I think I would have preferred to grab my camera and go for a walk or a short drive, but that will have to wait till another day : ) Temperature was -6C, windchill -8C, this morning. Yesterday, 15 December 2015, I went with a group of 7 friends to take part in the first annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count of the season. This is one of my favourite counts, mainly because our small group covers one of my favourite areas, SE of the city. Other birders covered the rest of the large count circle around the town of High River, SE of Calgary, roughly half an hour's drive from the southern edge of Calgary. Our group was limited to just two carloads of people. When there is a convoy of vehicles, everything takes much longer, and on an important count day, time is of the essence. We met in the city at 7:15 am and drove southwards into fog - dense fog! This is not what people hope for when out looking for birds, ha. The temperature was around -12C (so I'm guessing the windchill was somewhere around -18C) when we set out, warming to 1C later on. Everywhere was covered in beautiful hoar frost, which lasted a good part of the day. Just the same weather as when we did this count in December 2014. At the outlet at Frank Lake, there was a bit of open water. I always hope for a hoar frost for this count, though because the light was so bad, most of my morning photos are rather grainy (or just too blurred to post). The sun came up when we were standing at the outlet and for just a few brief seconds, it was reflected in the open water. So beautiful. After our very first stop here, we then drove the various backroads around and near Frank Lake, calling in at several farms to ask permission to look around their farmyards, hoping to find a different species to add to our list. I will add our leader's final list below - not a great number of species, but a few nice ones, including two very, very distant Snowy Owls and 8 Great Horned Owls. "Frank Lake CBC, SE quadrant, S of Hwy 23, E of Hwy 2. 0800-1645, Tue, 15 Dec. 2015. Clear sky, but heavy ground fog obscured viewing of open water at Frank Lake, and coated vegetation with hoarfrost, which lasted most of the day. W. wind, up to 15kph. -12 to 01°C. No snow on ground (just hoarfrost), streams partly open. Km by Car-110:, Km on foot; 3; Time by car – 7 hr; Time on foot -1:45 min. Totals are all in IBA (in bird area), unless specified Off IBA. IBA territory was East of 152 St, S to 594 Av; then E to 168 St, then S to 626 Av. Canada Goose-80 Gadwall-1 m Green-winged Teal-1 f. Lesser Scaup-1 m. Bald Eagle-1 ad, flying S at 1445 over Davey Jones’ place.. Killdeer -3 Rock Pigeon-9 on N. side #23 // 30 on IBA terr. // 3 Off IBA Great Horned Owl-8 (4 in Harley Sutherland’s yard). Snowy Owl-2 Black-billed Magpie-17 // 31 Off IBA. Common Raven-13 // 8 Off IBA Horned Lark?? – 10, seen flying low, by Jim St. L European Starling-1 on N side #23 // 26. American Tree Sparrow- 12 Song Sparrow?? – 1 (seen three times near outfall, but in heavy fog). Common Redpoll- 155 // 87 Off IBA House Sparrow- 128 // 77 Off IBA Reported seen by Mr/Mrs Gordon Fraser, Off IBA, in Little Bow River valley, today: Ring-necked Pheasant-1; Northern Flicker-1. (Also photographed Long-tailed Weasel-1). Coyote- 1 on ice of Frank Lake Deer sp.-3 Mule Deer -7, off S. Side of CBC Terr." Of course, as always happens on any trip, I just had to take photos of anything else that caught my eye, including barns, scenery, and so on. We had finished our count by around 4:45 pm, by which time it was completely dark. Some of us stayed for the delicious pot luck supper, mainly provided by the generous birding people down in High River. Thanks to everyone who got this ready for us - delicious and hugely appreciated! A special thanks to Greg Wagner who always organizes this count. He is a truly dedicated birder, who puts in so much time searching for and recording what birds are being seen in that whole area. Thanks, too, to Lorrie and John who drove two of us for the whole day. Can't thank you enough for making it possible for me to do this count. A lot of driving for you and it was greatly appreciated. It was great when we saw our 9th Great Horned Owl along H'way 23, just E of Hway 2, on our way home. I was lucky enough to get my name called in a draw and was given a copy of Myrna Pearman's beautiful new book: "Backyard Bird Feeding: an Alberta Guide". This complete guide to year-round bird feeding in Alberta is beautifully laid out with so many great photos and masses of information. A delightful book! Thank you, Russ Amy, for donating this copy specially for the draw! I also bought a copy to give to friends when I next see them. www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/store/p1/BACKYARD_BIRD_FEEDING%3A_An...

Yesterday, 19 February 2015, my daughter and I went NE of the city again to search for Snowy Owls. Recently, people have not been reporting many of these owls, though I was told that someone saw 18 of them on the one day. We were not so lucky, but my daughter did a great job of spotting two very distant ones - actually, three, if you include this wooden one that is guarding the rather nice old barn and adjacent, smaller one, seen in one of the photos I posted today. She also spotted a Bald Eagle perched at the top of a very distant tree. We always feel very awkward stopping the car and standing in the road, photographing a barn, when there is a house or houses nearby. There was also an old red barn across the road from these, partly hidden by trees, with a house on the property. We knew we wouldn't be able to take photos of that one, but we really liked the one that was in full view. I pulled over and we got out and took a shot or two. We noticed a man down the road, walking towards us, talking on his cell phone. He said that he had seen us and thought he'd come and say "Hi". Said he lived there and that the farm and barn behind us was originally his Grandfather and Father's. He was looking after the house on the property for the owners for a few days, and told us we were welcome to wander round the farmyard and photograph the barn. Needless to say, that is exactly what we did. Greatly appreciated! This window belonged to a small, white, weathered shed in the farmyard. Bird-wise, the day was very slow, but we are always happy to explore and find new barns and anything else that we find interesting and/or beautiful. Most of the sky was one huge mass of rather spectacular clouds that just went on and on forever. Not the best light when it came to photography, but it looked beautiful.

It's a miracle that I'm posting anything today, lol! What a nightmare getting my photos on to my "new" computer. I did eventually find them - I was puzzled by the fact that so much space was taken up on my new computer, yet there was no sign at all of my photos, other than about a dozen that were in My Pictures folder. After hours of trying one thing or another, I eventually discovered everything in a folder that was inside another folder. A "black screen of death" was not what I wanted to see, either, ha! One thing after another decided that it needed to update on this new machine - and I eventually fell into bed, exhausted, just before 4:00 a.m. this morning, lol. The only reason that I am posting my "daily three" is that I had edited them on my old computer the other day. The thing that puzzles me now, is why is my new computer much slower than the old one, despite having tons of memory?? After nine days at home, giving my 16 stitches from minor surgery a chance to start healing properly, 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 difficult to get photos that were sharp. It was one of those days, out of the house from 7:15 a.m. to 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, 9 Snowy Owls, and 2 Great Horned Owls. The beautiful Great Horned Owl, seen in my photo, was the highlight of the day for Cathy and myself! Cathy had spotted it from the road but from the opposite side of the distant barn. All she had seen was a tiny head silhouette with what looked like ear tufts : ) We turned a corner and drove just a little way to see if we could get a better view from the other side. How we longed to be able to get a closer look, but the barn was on someone's private property, of course. While we were there, a truck suddenly appeared around the corner and turned into the driveway of the farm. Needless to say, we (thanks, Terry!) couldn't resist the chance to go and ask the owner about his owl and, wonderfully, he allowed us to walk through his farm yard to get a less distant view. So, Justin, you arrived home "just-in" time for us (Terry's humour)! Thanks so much for happily letting us on to your property. It was so much appreciated. We definitely didn't want to risk disturbing the owl or make it fly - so this is a 48x zoomed image and cropped somewhat. We loved both the owl's pose and the beautiful, red, peeling paint! "Just" a Great Horned Owl, but what a delightful sight! Also saw a Prairie Falcon and lots of Horned Larks - the latter constantly in flight or down on the road ahead of us. The "heat wave" distortion made it impossible to get anything but rather blurry shots of these. www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/13267533345

Apologies to anyone who is kind enough to visit my photostream regularly! You will be so sick and tired of the same or very similar description under so many photos. The main reason I do this is to remind myself of just where I was and when, for each photo. For some weird reason, the words of the old song, "How much is that doggie in the window?", came to my mind late last night when I was getting my "daily three" ready to post this morning. Though the actual shape of the barn (shed?) isn't very photogenic or particularly interesting, we loved the effect of the red, peeling paint and, of course, we LOVED the owl sitting in the window! After nine days at home, giving my 16 stitches from minor surgery a chance to start healing properly, an invitation by friends Cathy and Terry to go birding yesterday 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 difficult to get photos that were sharp. It was one of THOSE days, out of the house from 7:15 a.m. to 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. Later, an excellent birding friend, to whom I sent a photo, 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 (posted right next to this one) is blurry and grainy. However, it does show how well-camouflaged these owls are when down on the ground. The eyes do give it away, but if the head is turned away, it's even harder to spot. We saw this one thanks to Ian, who had noticed it and had pulled over just ahead of us down the road. The beautiful Great Horned Owl, seen in my top photo, was the highlight of the day for Cathy and myself! Cathy had spotted it from the road but from the opposite side of the distant barn. All she had seen was a tiny head silhouette with what looked like ear tufts : ) We turned a corner and drove just a little way to see if we could get a better view from the other side. How we longed to be able to get a closer look, but the barn was on someone's private property, of course. While we were there, a truck suddenly appeared around the corner and turned into the driveway of the farm. Needless to say, we (thanks, Terry!) couldn't resist the chance to go and ask the owner about his owl and, wonderfully, he allowed us to walk through his farm yard to get a less distant view. So, Justin, you arrived home "just-in" time for us (Terry's humour)! Thanks so much for happily letting us on to your property. It was so much appreciated. We definitely didn't want to risk disturbing the owl or make it fly - the closer photo below was taken at 48x zoom and cropped somewhat. "Just" a Great Horned Owl, but what a delightful and much appreciated sight! Also saw a Prairie Falcon and lots of Horned Larks - the latter constantly in flight or down on the road ahead of us. The "heat wave" distortion made it impossible to get anything but rather blurry shots of these, but I did post the "best" one of them yesterday - they are so cute with their tiny "horns".

After nine days at home, making sure my stitches from minor surgery healed properly, an invitation by friends Cathy and Terry to go birding yesterday 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 waves" all day long, making it difficult to get photos that were sharp. It was one of THOSE days, out of the house from 7:15 a.m. to about 8:15 in the evening. By the end of the day, we had seen a total owl count of 19, 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. In fact, this silo can be seen in my next image - the coloured spots from the sunburst leading ones eye to it. 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. The beautiful Great Horned Owl, seen in my photo, was the highlight of the day for Cathy and myself! Cathy had spotted it from the road but from the opposite side of the distant barn. All she had seen was a tiny head silhouette with what looked like ear tufts : ) We turned a corner and drove just a little way to see if we could get a better view from the other side. How we longed to be able to get a closer look, but the barn was on someone's private property, of course. While we were there, a truck suddenly appeared around the corner and turned into the driveway of the farm. Needless to say, we (thanks, Terry!) couldn't resist the chance to go and ask the owner about his owl and, wonderfully, he allowed us to walk through his farm yard to get a less distant view. So, Justin, you arrived home "just-in" time for us! Thanks so much for happily letting us on to your property. It was so much appreciated. We definitely didn't want to risk disturbing the owl or make it fly - so this is a 48x zoomed image and cropped somewhat. We loved both the owl's position and the beautiful, red, peeling paint! "Just" a Great Horned Owl, but what a delightful sight! Also saw a Gyrfalcon and lots of Horned Larks - the latter constantly in flight or down on the road ahead of us. The "heat waves" made it impossible to get anything but rather blurry shots of these, but I might be able to slightly improve one of them enough to post later. As you will no doubt agree, an amazing day! Thanks so much, Cathy and Terry, for another rewarding day (which had started off rather slowly down in that area). Lots of fun!

On 17 December 2013, a group of 9 of us took part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the town of High River, a half hour drive S of Calgary. This involved a day of driving the backroads in our segment of the huge circle to be covered, calling in at some of the farms to ask permission to wander in search of any birds. At one farm, there was this beautiful old barn, being enjoyed by a few House Sparrows. No owls to be seen in barn windows that today.

Just one of the many beautiful Tree Swallows I saw yesterday, south of the city. This one flew to the bright blue nesting box with peeling paint and stayed in that position long enough for me to take several shots. Does anyone know if this is a female?

I spent a couple of hours this morning at the Stampede Grounds with my daughter from Vancouver (flickr, Silver Pomegranate), soaking up the smell of grease and farm animals. Stampede Week is a week of craziness, but you feel you just HAVE to go and experience the atmosphere. As soon as we entered the Stampede Grounds, the first thing we both photographed was this small log cabin with peeling paint. Both of us love taking macros, but this time I thought I would include her in my photo, while she was busy photographing the textures close up.

Took this photo of part of one of the old buildings that are near the Bow Valley Ranch in Fish Creek Park. It is one of the photos I took during the excellent one-day Photography Course that was put on yesterday by the Friends of Fish Creek Provincial Park.

I guess I just have a warped sense of beauty, but I loved this fence with its peeling paint and the red roof of a nearby ranch building adding some contrasting colour! On Saturday, 26th May 2007, I joined a group of Field Naturalists (NOT to be confused with naturists, i.e. nudists!) on a day's bus trip down to the Milk River Ridge area in southern Alberta. About two years ago, a friend had told me about the McIntyre Ranch, and his passion about the Ranch and how it was being run on a "balance of/with nature" method rubbed off on me. A trip was planned a year ago, but torrential rain made it impossible for a large bus to drive on the Ranch land and the trip was cancelled. Now, a year later, I have finally stood on Ranch land, breathed in its fresh air, listened to its silence, admired some of its flora and fauna, met its General Manager (Ralph Thrall 111) and taken some photos that don't do any justice at all to the immense beauty of this special land. For anyone interested in this very precious and protected area, the Ranch has a great website ( www.mcintyreranch.com ). Also, two documentaries have been made. One, by Janet and John Foster, is called "A Passion for Prairie". The other is called "The Gift". Both are superb. "The McIntyre Ranch has changed very little since it was established in 1894. The 'balance of nature' philosophy that guided fifty-three years of McIntyre ownership has continued since Ralph Thrall bought the 87 section property from the McIntyre estate in 1948 (one section equals 640 acres, 1581 hectares or one square mile). Twelve sections that were once farmed have been seeded back to tame grasses for grazing while the other seventy-five sections remain in their native condition. Several factors are considered in order to maintain and enhance the healthy range condition. Appropriate stocking rates (number of cattle) in conjunction with duration and time of year grazing, water requirements, natural shelter, strategic fencing and salt distribution all must be considered for effective balanced grazing. Our goal of achieving excellence with all aspects associated with the McIntyre Ranch will be worked at while functioning in harmony with nature. Sustainable ranching has been and continues to be the main objective of this company. Ralph A. Thrall passed away in 1978. The Ranch is presently owned by Ralph A. Thrall Jr. and managed by Ralph A. Thrall III (General Manager 1990), Duane Spitzer (Controller 1973) and Jamie Christie (Foreman 2001)." From the Ranch website. UPDATED on 30th October 2011, from the Lethbridge Herald Newspaper. I noticed that quite a number of people were looking at my photo via Google yesterday and today. I was greatly saddened when I read the reason. "MR. RALPH AMBROSE THRALL JR. of Lethbridge, beloved husband of Mrs. Catherine C. Thrall, passed away in Calgary on Friday, October 28, 2011 at the age of 78 years." I send my condolences to the family and friends of Ralph Thrall Jr.. A friend and I met this gentleman just the one time, at an exhibition at the Alberta College of Art, about the McIntyre Ranch, but a group of us was privileged to spend a wonderful day on the Ranch back on 26th May 2007. I know that there will be a great number of people offering support to the family at this very difficult time and keeping them in their thoughts and prayers.

The light was rather low and flat on Saturday morning, 25 May 2013, when my youngest daughter and I drove some of the backroads SW of Calgary, including to visit this "famous" row of five red granaries. They seemed less red, somehow - maybe they are just showing their age more, losing that layer of old, red paint. Or maybe it was just the light - they look so different when the sun is shining on them. (Ha, couldn't stand looking at the original post, so I've just replaced it with a very slightly brighter copy). The far side of the sheds, there is a pile of colourful beehives and the bees had found them. Rachel had asked if I wanted to go along the backroads for my birthday - and what more enjoyable way to spend the day!!! Despite not being able to find a Great Gray Owl for her to see, certain other birds were right where I'd hope they would be - such as Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Wilson's Snipe, Mountain Bluebirds, Ruddy Ducks, Black Terns, etc., etc.. At one tiny slough, there were maybe just four or so birds on the water, and I suddenly realized that one pair was not "just" a pair of Common Goldeneye, but a pair of Barrow's Goldeneye (seen in the first photo I posted today), which Rachel had never seen. By the end of this great day, I think she had an even better understanding of why I love spending a day (any day!) in this way : ) The weather was good, other than a few raindrops, so we were lucky. Thanks so much, Rachel, for spending the day with me! Hope your photos came out better than mine did - got more blurry photos than I'd have liked, but that's usually the case, anyway, lol. By the way, if it's any comfort (and I'm sure it's not, lol!), we couldn't find any Great Gray Owls yesterday, on the annual May Species Count that covers some of the area you and I went to, plus other roads. Thanks for a super day!