Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Pigeon

I was SO tired yesteday, 3 May 2016, after staying up the whole night on Sunday, in order to go to a Sharp-tailed Grouse lek (communal dance ground) early on Monday morning. Happened to come across this already post-processed photo, so decided to use it. Looks like this old homestead is home at least to one Pigeon. One advantage of old barns and homesteads being left standing is that they can provide a home or shelter to wildlife, such as Red Foxes, Skunks, and birds, especially Pigeons and Great Horned Owls. This old homestead was seen on 12 February 2015, which was spent SE of the city, with friends Cathy and Terry. They picked me up around 7:00 am and I think I was home somewhere around 7:30 pm, after a great day of searching for owls, barns, and anything else that caught our eye. The weather was beautiful, though cloudy part of the day. The temperature reached a brief high of 13C around 1:00 and 2:00 pm, which felt so good, especially for mid-winter. Many of the roads we travelled along were roads that I had driven on myself, some of them many times. A few of the roads were new to me, which was a treat, including a "trail" that was so deeply rutted and snow-covered that I'm amazed that we ever got out of there! This track and another backroad that was new to me led to a few old barns that I really appreciated being shown. It's strange how some fields in the whole area were more or less bare and yet others had a lot of snow covering the stubble, with piles of snow lining the edges of the road. As far as wildlife was concerned, we saw 11 owls - 8 Snowy Owls and 3 Great Horned Owls. The Snowies, other than one perched on a "Wrong Way" sign, were all extremely distant, so my photos are of white specks in a nice setting, ha. If I hadn't been with two people who can spot "everything", I'm sure that I would never have found most of these owls! Other birds included a flock of Snow Buntings plus two individuals that were actually perched on a fence. Another bird we saw was a beautiful Prairie Falcon perched on an electricity pylon. Also a group of Grey Partridge that suddenly flew before we had noticed them.

A close up view of an old homestead that I posted the other day. Looks like it is home at least to one Pigeon. One advantage of old barns and homesteads being left standing is that they can provide a home or shelter to wildlife, such as Red Foxes, Skunks, and birds, especially Pigeons and Great Horned Owls. This old homestead was seen on 12 February 2015, which was spent SE of the city, with friends Cathy and Terry. They picked me up around 7:00 am and I think I was home somewhere around 7:30 pm, after a great day of searching for owls, barns, and anything else that caught our eye. The weather was beautiful, though cloudy part of the day. The temperature reached a brief high of 13C around 1:00 and 2:00 pm, which felt so good, especially for mid-winter. Many of the roads we travelled along were roads that I had driven on myself, some of them many times. A few of the roads were new to me, which was a treat, including a "trail" that was so deeply rutted and snow-covered that I'm amazed that we ever got out of there! This track and another backroad that was new to me led to a few old barns that I really appreciated being shown. It's strange how some fields in the whole area were more or less bare and yet others had a lot of snow covering the stubble, with piles of snow lining the edges of the road. As far as wildlife was concerned, we saw 11 owls - 8 Snowy Owls and 3 Great Horned Owls. The Snowies, other than one perched on a "Wrong Way" sign, were all extremely distant, so my photos are of white specks in a nice setting, ha. If I hadn't been with two people who can spot "everything", I'm sure that I would never have found most of these owls! Other birds included a flock of Snow Buntings plus two individuals that were actually perched on a fence. Another bird we saw was a beautiful Prairie Falcon perched on an electricity pylon. Also a group of Grey Partridge that suddenly flew before we had noticed them.

This Pigeon looked quite beautiful, sitting with its feathers puffed up, on a large, metal garbage container. Noticed it when I went with friend Sandy to Bow Lake, Banff National Park, on 29 August 2013. Sandy wanted to look for lichens, mosses and liverworts. I find these more and more fascinating, including to photograph, but of course I was so thrilled to get the chance to shoot the spectacular scenery and anything else that was beautiful! I hadn't been to Bow Lake in 30+ years, but had fallen in love with it all those years ago. "A baby pigeon is called a 'squab' or a 'squeaker'. The female is a 'hen' and the male is a 'cock'. A group of pigeons is called a 'kit' or a 'flock'."

This Pigeon looked quite beautiful, sitting with its feathers puffed up, on a large, metal garbage container. Noticed it when I went with a friend to Bow Lake, Banff National Park, on 29 August 2013. "A baby pigeon is called a 'squab' or a 'squeaker'. The female is a 'hen' and the male is a 'cock'. A group of pigeons are called a 'kit' or a 'flock'." It's Good Friday today, the beginning of the Easter weekend. Beautiful, sunny weather would have been nice, especially for working people who get the day off. Instead, it's gloomy and unpleasant, looking like it's going to either rain or snow. Just checked the forecast and it's 1°C (windchill -2°C) this morning, supposedly getting up to 4°C this afternoon, with an 80% chance of rain and snow. Happy Easter weekend to everyone who celebrates! Later: sure enough, it snowed all day today.

One quick shot, taken when I was with friends who were trying to sort out a parking ticket machine at Eau Claire market yesterday afternoon : ) In order to get a ticket for stall number 11, apparently the machine requires you to punch in 111, lol. There are Pigeons all over the place and this one landed briefly on this small pile of snow. I hadn't been downtown for many years and the only reason I was there yesterday was to hopefully find the Great Horned Owl family that people have been seeing. It was a much longer walk than I was expecting, but we were so lucky to find them. As is often the case, Mom (?) and the three owlets were high up in different trees, not posing too well for most of the time, and not in good light. The ice in that area was so treacherous, so I moved as little as possible, and extremely cautiously. A real treat to see this little family, and so early in the year! Mom must have laid the eggs near the beginning of January, as the owlets were huge and either branched or fledged. Most unusual - wonder why this happened.

Can anyone tell me if this is "just" a regular Pigeon or a Carrier or Homing Pigeon? Or maybe you can only tell it's a Carrier Pigeon if you see a metal band on its leg? Whichever it is, it looked quite beautiful, sitting with its feathers puffed up, on a large garbage container. Noticed it when I went with a friend to Bow Lake, Banff National Park, on 29 August 2013.

On 25 January 2014, I spent an amazing day with friends Cathy and Terry, south of Calgary. A full day of excitement and enjoyment that left me tired out, but so happy. I had been missing being out and taking photos and was feeling lethargic and extremely tired, so this invite was welcomed with open arms. The crazy weather soared to a balmy 11C, though a lot of the day was colder, with a strong wind! Along one of the gravel backroads, we came across this old barn and noticed something in the window - a Pigeon, ha. Even though it was not an owl, I thought it still made a nice scene. Can you believe that we saw 17 owls that day? SEVENTEEN! I didn't photograph quite every single one, but my friends will let me know exactly how many of each owl we found, once they've gone through their photos. It was something like 10 Snowy Owls and 7 Great Horned Owls or maybe 11 Snowies and 6 Great Horned Owls. The closest Snowy Owl was seen when it was early evening and the light had gone, and my photos are all blurry. The other owls were little more than a tiny speck in the far, far distance, but I still managed to get some kind of shot of some of them (not fit to post!), using 48x zoom plus cropping. Perhaps I should add that maybe 16 of the owls that were seen would never have been seen by less experienced birders (and I include myself in that category!). My friends have brilliant eyes when it comes to spotting owls! Just left me shaking my head each time they found one! I'm not too bad at finding owls, but not at that distance! 10:00 a.m. this morning and it has just started snowing. Unless it stops very quickly, it will end up covering the ice that is everywhere, making it treacherous, especially for walking.

A long-distance shot and heavily cropped, but it just seemed a bit of a waste to delete such sparkling snow and the touch of pink iridescence in this Rock Dove's feathers. Taken on 4 February 2013, down by the open water of the creek in Fish Creek Park, just west of Macleod Trail S. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rock_Dove

Finally, I got a chance to photograph a couple of Rock Doves when I was on a walk with friends at Carburn Park yesterday. The last few years, I've wanted to get closer, as they are beautiful birds, even if not very popular with many people. So, I was happy that two Pigeons perched on the railing of the bridge over the Bow River and I was able to capture their beauty. Everyone got a note yesterday, informing us that window-replacement is now starting and that we have to move everything away from all the windows within three feet and remove all blinds/curtains. Yeah, right, I don't think I can even reach them in order to be able to remove them. I noticed that already a couple of new windows are lying against the far, opposite building, so I guess I will be getting a phone call soon to set up which 1-2 days I am available. I think it's eight windows plus my sliding patio door. So, my whole place is going to be in utter chaos (on top of the present mess, ha!). I don't know if the present blinds will fit the new windows and it sounds like they won't put them back, or caulk and paint the new surrounds. To say that I'm not looking forward to all this is the understatement of the year, ha!

Finally, I got a chance to photograph a couple of Rock Doves (Pigeons) when I was on a walk with friends at Carburn Park on February 27th. The last few years, I've wanted to get closer, as they are beautiful birds, even if not very popular with many people. So, I was happy that two Pigeons perched on the railing of the bridge over the Bow River and I was able to capture their beauty.

The Nicobar pigeon is one of the most beautiful of the many species of pigeons or doves. The colours of its neck display plumage are quite stunning. Am finding it impossible to get a decent photo through the glass, so this is a very noisy image and it does not do justice to the bird. "The Nicobar Pigeon, Caloenas nicobarica, is a pigeon which is a resident breeding bird on small uninhabited islands in Indonesia and the Nicobar Islands. It is the only living member of the genus Caloenas. This is a large, heavy pigeon at 40cm in length. It is mainly metallic green with green and copper hackles on the neck. The head and upper neck, flight feathers and breast are dark grey. The tail is very short and pure white. There is a black knob on the base of the bill, and the strong legs are dark red. This is not a very vocal species, but possesses a low pitched, repetitive call. Females are slightly smaller than males; they have a smaller bill knob, shorter hackles and browner underparts. Immature birds have a black tail. Its Conservation Status is "Near Threatened"." From Wikipedia.