Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Falco

Cropped a bit too heavily, but I wanted to get rid of an ugly metal pole to the right. Should have tried a better crop, but I ran out of time and energy late last night, ha. I was happy to see this beautiful Merlin female (I think). perched along a gravel road, when I went for a short drive SW of the city on 14 May 2013. I came across a few nice species, including this Merlin, three Phalarope, Northern Shovellers, a pair of Cinnamon Teal, a pair of Canvasbacks, Mountain Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Blue-winged Teal, Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Scaup, Red-necked Grebes, two WIlson's Snipes, a Sora, and a few Ring-necked Ducks. Even my first sighting this spring of a pair of Canada Geese with four or five goslings, though unfortunately they were right out in the middle of a huge pond. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_ (bird) www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Merlin/id Evening: so THAT'S what rain looks like, lol!! Yep, it's raining this evening - other than a few sprinkles, I don't think we've had rain since before winter began, around last October. Needless to say, I washed my car this afternoon, which usually guarantees rain. Thought I'd better wash off all the dried-on mud from driving muddy backroads, before it rained and washed all the mud down on to my parking spot : ) I was so lucky that my auto place was willing to replace my two car headlights late this afternoon. Looked like I was going to have to wait till 23rd May, so I'm really relieved. Botanizing begins tomorrow, so there will be so many long, long days ahead, of walking/hiking and recording plants (and any other things we see, including insects, birds, mushrooms, wild animals, etc.). I always find this coming half of the year totally exhausting and chaotic, but very interesting, of course.

Two days ago, on a last-minute decision to drive NW of Calgary, I was so lucky to come across this beautiful Gyrfalcon. I didn't notice it in time to stop closer, so I ended up taking some fully zoomed (later, heavily cropped) shots of it way down the road. I wasn't sure what it was until I got home to my bird book and Google, but then reckoned it could be a Gyrfalcon. Thanks to friend, Tony, a superb birder who puts up with my occasional bird ID questions, I now know that it is, indeed, a Gyrfalcon. A handful of times over the last few years, I have been out with various friends and someone will call out "Gyrfalcon" and I see a fast-flying "shape" flying high in the sky, but this is the first time I've really "seen" one. About 45 minutes later, I was staring into the eyes of a beautiful Great Gray Owl : ) All this, plus sunshine - made a great afternoon on 22 March 2013. "The largest falcon in the world, the Gyrfalcon breeds in arctic and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere. It preys mostly on large birds, pursuing them in breathtakingly fast and powerful flight .... May range from nearly pure white to dark gray to black, with variable barring and streaking; most are gray." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/gyrfalcon/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrfalcon

If you knew just how far away this bird was, lol! Not much more than a large speck in a distant tree, to the naked eye. So heavily cropped and a miracle it's just OK to post for ID purposes. The white line above the eye is clearly visible. Too bad that the falling snow makes it look like it has a few spotted feathers : ) I rarely see a Prairie Falcon, so this was a treat. Does anyone know if this a juvenile? Taken on 29 November 2012 at Hull's Wood, Fish Creek Park. A grey day today with freezing fog, with all the trees covered in whte snow/frost. Beautiful to see, but wish the sun would come out. It's -11C (12F) with windchill of -18C (0F). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prairie_Falcon