Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Ambassador

Five of us had such a great day on 21 July 2013. It was a bird outing at Bow Valley Provincial Park, west of Calgary, at the foot of the very eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. I knew that I would be looking for wildflowers, insects and so on, as well : ) When we got to the meeting place in the city, the leader pulled out a poster for the Parks Day event that also happened to be going on at the park at the same time. To my absolute delight, it mentioned a Bird of Prey exhibit! After our first walk, which was the Flowing Waters trail, we returned to where everyone had parked and we had an hour in which to wander round the various exhibits. I couldn't believe my eyes when I saw a row of owls of different sizes - a tiny Burrowing Owl, a Short-eared Owl, a Barn Owl (which we don't get in Alberta), a young Great Horned Owl with enormous eyes, a Turkey Vulture and a Golden Eagle (seen in my photo above)! They were tethered along the edge of the trees and needless to say, there were plenty of other people taking photos, but despite the mix of shade and harsh sunlight, I got the chance to click to my heart's content : ) Unfortunately, many of my photos were very disappointing - I think this Eagle photo is probably the "best" of this bird, but I don't like the messy background at all, and it certainly isn't sharp : ) Thanks so much to the people down at the Coaldale Bird of Prey Centre (near Lethbridge, down towards the Canada/US border) for bringing your gorgeous birds of prey for us to see! I have been south to the Centre three times I think, and always long to go back again, but it's not somewhere I can drive to, so this was such a treat! I have seen several Golden Eagles in the wild, but always from a great distance. Seeing these bird Ambassadors gives people such a wonderful chance to really see what they look like. Like most of this spring and summer, it's raining again today. Hard to believe that the State of Emergency has only just been lifted from the town of High River, about a half-hour drive S of Calgary, following Alberta's Flood of the Century around 20 May 2013. Every person in that town had to be evacuated and so many homes have been lost. I'm sure that more rain is the very last thing these poor people. and all the other many thousands who have been affected, need or want!

Isn't this 7-year-old male Barred Owl amazing? Not seen in the wild and not even seen at the Zoo this time. Instead, I got the chance to see and photograph (and stroke, awww) him at a meeting I went to yesterday evening. I've never seen a Barred Owl in the wild, but I do enjoy seeing the two at the Calgary Zoo. My camera can't deal with indoor light and I can't use flash successfully. Managed to rescue a few of the images, though. This owl was injured (damaged eye that he can't see out of), so would not have been able to be released.