Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Gull

Happy Valentine's Day, everyone! An unpleasant, windy, overcast day here today, 14 February 2018. It snowed hard for about 10 minutes, but has turned to light snow at the moment. Shortly before noon, the temperature is -7C (windchill -18C). On 20 April 2017, I had to move my vehicle for the whole day so that the City could clean the whole area. I don't have an up-to-date street parking pass, which meant that I needed to find something to fill my day - instead of being at home, working on my Taxes! A morning walk at Carburn Park took care of around three hours - the only birds close enough for photos were an American Robin, two Franklin's Gulls, and a Canada Goose : ) Afterwards, I called in at a local wetland and photographed a Mallard, a busy Muskrat - and a Canada Goose, lol. Not a very friendly Goose, either, though he must have had a nest somewhere in the area. Hissed at me and followed me part way down the path. I had to go back along the same path to get to my car, and waited till the Goose was as far away as possible before I hurried back. There was also a Ring-billed Gull that was standing on the bridge railing, letting me take a few photos. "Familiar acrobats of the air, Ring-billed Gulls nimbly pluck tossed tidbits from on high. Comfortable around humans, they frequent parking lots, garbage dumps, beaches, and fields, sometimes by the hundreds. These are the gulls you're most likely to see far away from coastal areas—in fact, most Ring-billed Gulls nest in the interior of the continent, near freshwater. A black band encircling the yellow bill helps distinguish adults from other gulls—but look closely, as some other species have black or red spots on the bill." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Ring-billed_Gull/overview

This common Ring-billed Gull was perhaps the 'highlight' from a day trip yesterday : ) Several birding friends and I went east of the city and, though a fair number of species were spotted, they were all extremely distant, except for Gulls at Chestermere Lake. Despite the complete lack of closer birds, it was a lovely day out, with sunny weather. COLD for the morning and slightly warmer in the afternoon, and windy. Clothing I wore - long johns, touque, two pairs of gloves and fleece jacket plus winter jacket! I will add Andrew Hart's eBird listing for this trip in a comment box below, as a record of where we went and of what almost everyone else saw : ) Thanks so much for the detailed list, Andrew, and thanks as always for taking a group of us out with you, Terry!

This photo and the next one were taken yesterday, 22 October 2016, when I went on a birding day trip with a group of friends, east of Calgary. I will add our leader's eBird list of species seen, as soon as I have it. We had beautiful weather for these few hours and we saw plenty of birds. Unfortunately, all the birds were extremely far away, as usual, so all I got were very distant shots of a mass of birds, plus photos of this Ring-billed Gull and the much smaller Bonaparte's Gull. In the breeding season, the Bonaparte's Gull has a black head, but in winter, it is white with a black dot on each cheek. There were quite a few Geese of different species - Canada Geese, Snow Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese. All the usual ducks were to be seen at the various sloughs. Chestermere Lake was one of our stops, and also Wyndham/Carseland Reservoir where I took this photo. This morning, I was up at an unearthly hour again, as I have a trip with various friends, this time going west of the city.

I couldn't resist stopping to take a few photos of this busy farmer ploughing (?) his huge, hillside field yesterday, 1 June 2015. There were dozens or hundreds of these Franklin's Gulls swarming around the moving machinery in a huge, noisy cloud. The sun was shining yesterday afternoon, so I decided to take a short drive SW of the city and see if I could find Mountain Bluebirds and Wilson's Snipe. These are two of my favourite birds to photograph and I was lucky with both. Didn't see much else, other than Blue-winged Teal, a Clay-coloured Sparrow, Red-winged Backbirds, Tree Swallows and an Eastern Kingbird. "A small, black-headed gull of the prairies, the Franklin's Gull is a common sight in the interior of North America, following plows to eat exposed worms, insects, and mice." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Franklins_Gull/id

I'm really bad at Gull identification, but I think this might be a juvenile Herring Gull. Somehow, I just can't get "into" Gulls, though the young ones really can be quite attractive with all their brown markings. Taken at Pearce Estate on 27 August 2013. No, I think I was wrong, and that this is in fact a juvenile Ring-billed Gull.

I don't know much about Gulls, though I should know by now! I think this is a young Ring-billed Gull, but one that is almost an adult? If anyone can correct me, I'd really appreciate it. Two or three of them seem to hang out on the grass along the edge of the lagoon at Bowness Park, hoping for food, I suspect.

I have to admit that I find it hard to "get into" Gulls - that is, until I get to see one reasonably close and see that they really are quite beautiful birds.

I know this is "just" a Gull, but I kind of liked the diagonal pose and the way the tail (or are they the wing?) feathers are crossed. The colour of the water along the edge of the lagoon in Bowness Park was also different from what I would normally see, and I thought it went well with the colouring of the bird. As I type, Calgary is under a Wind Warning, and we are going through a real wind storm, with rain just starting, too. Have visions of my roof being lifted off, I'm in such an exposed place. Spent this morning walking in South Glenmore Park, by the Glenmore Reservoir, wearing a fleece jacket and my thick winter jacket ... brrr! Temperatures will be around 2C or 4C for the next few days. Nothing to photograph this morning, so I decided to go over to the Zoo for the afternoon, where I attempted to take photos even though it was far too windy for much success. Was hoping to get a few last photos before our weather turns for the worst. Winter is definitely on its way - possibly a bit of snow again overnight.

This is the first Franklin's Gull image that I've got on Flickr - must admit that when it comes to Gulls, I can never remember which kind is which, though the Franklin's is easy to recognize. Taken on 4 May 2013, when I was out for the day with a group of friends, looking for birds east of the city. One of our stops was at Chestermere Lake, and a couple of these Franklins were along the edge of the shore, along with a Killdeer and several Semi-palmated Sandpipers - boy, can the latter run fast!

Taken at the Irrigation Canal in Calgary, when friends Dorothy and Stephen invited me to go with them, on 15 October 2012. Unfortunately, the light was worse than I had realized and I had to delete most of my photos from that outing. These are very common Gulls, but I so rarely get to places where I can see one on the ground.

Taken at the Irrigation Canal in Calgary, when friends Dorothy and Stephen invited me to go with them, on 15 October 2012. Unfortunately, the light was worse than I had realized and I had to delete most of my photos from that outing. For some reason, this one came out OK. These are very common Gulls, but I so rarely get to places where I can see one on the ground, within reasonable camera reach. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ring-billed_Gull

How anyone can notice one gull that is a different species from the rest when there are endless gulls in a group always amazes me, LOL! Just a view taken along the Bow River on a sunny October 17th. We walked all morning, along the east side of the river from Burnsmead to Highway 22X and back.

I have taken pretty well no bird photos for months, so just had to photograph this Gull, which is presumably a Ring-billed Gull! It was with others along the edge of the lagoon at Bowness Park the other day.

I will be so happy when I get to see more birds now that winter is almost here. To keep me going, I photographed a few Ring-billed Gulls recently at Bowness Park.

I was really disappointed with the photos I took of immature Gulls along the Bow River the other week. This one looks as if I found a back to front bird, as well as being rather blurry!

I'm always hesitant to put an ID to any Gull photo, so I will say only that this could possibly be a Ring-billed Gull.

There were quite a few Gulls around the Bow River at Pearce Estate this morning. I don't know much about Gulls, so won't even attempt to identify these juveniles. I think they are quite attractive with their brown mottling. Hey, Nancy - hope you got some good photos! Mine were a bit disappointing, apart from maybe three or four of the 29 pictures I took (no, Doug, it wasn't 100!). Maybe immature California Gulls?? Or Ring-billed?