Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: ploughed

On 13 December 2017, I was out on the road by 9:20 am, which is a miracle in itself. I find it almost impossible to get out early when I am going for a drive by myself. I didn't have any photos edited ready to post that morning, which helped. Seeing snowflake icons in the forecast for too many of the days that coming week, I thought I had better take a drive SE of the city while the roads were clear. I was lucky with the clouds in the morning, but it did cloud over in the afternoon. My hope was to maybe find a Snowy Owl in this whole area, like I had done in previous years. I knew I would probably have more luck if I drove the back roads NE of the city, but I didn't feel like driving that far. No luck finding a Snowy Owl and, in fact, there were barely any birds of any kind to be seen - just a small flock of Common Redpolls and two or three Magpies. At least I knew that I would pass several old barns that I have photographed on previous occasions. It just felt good to be in such scenery on a beautiful, sunny day. That is, until I somehow got lost on the way back home. I think I know where I may have gone wrong. Seeing a huge road sign that said North Calgary, I wasn't sure if I would end up on the dreaded Deerfoot Trail, like happened last time I was out in that area. So, I kept driving straight and found myself in a fairly built-up area that I had never been in before. Ended up driving back the way I had come until I was on familiar ground. A long way and a lot of wasted time! Total round trip was 333 km.

25 October 2017: yet another wildfire burning to the south of us. I had been thinking of going for a drive this week down in that area, but obviously won't do so now. This summer and fall have been horrendous for wildfires, north, south, east and west of us. The strong winds continue, which is the absolute worst when it comes to wildfires spreading. When will this ever end??? "Grass fire prompts evacuation alert near Alberta's Chain Lakes Provincial Park. Another wildfire fanned by high winds has broken out in southern Alberta, prompting an evacuation alert and the closure of a 70-kilometre stretch of Highway 22. There is a serious fire which is affecting the Chimney Rock Road area of the MD of Ranchland," reads a warning issued Wednesday by the Alberta Emergency Alert system. "Prepare for possible evacuation. Take all necessary precautions. Avoid the area if possible." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ On numerous occasions, I had caught a glimpse through the trees of this bit of rural decay. Now, major road construction is going on, with the building of the western portion of the major ring road around the city of Calgary. This helped me get a better view of this old barn and homestead. Though it was a distant view, I rather liked the swirling curves of the ploughed lines in the field. Taken after a long day in the mountains, in dreadful weather, on 17 October 2017. Friend Gayle had asked if I would like to go out for the day and we ended up driving through the Springbank area and then on to Canmore. I had checked the weather forecast and, I have to admit that if I was planning to go out of the city on my own, I would have changed my mind and stayed home instead. However, we decided to at least get out for a while and see how far we would go. As it turned out, we got to Canmore in the mountains, where we had lunch - Lasagne for me : ) Feeling re-energized, we decided to start driving up the mountainous road that leads from Canmore to the Spray Lakes area. Though I have been on this road at various times, I have never driven it myself. If I want to get to the Spray Lakes area, I go from the south and all the way along Highway 40. The rough, narrow road leading from Canmore is quite an adventure at any time. It gives a wonderful view looking down over the whole of Canmore and the river. It is also a popular road for Mountain Sheep, and we were lucky to see four of them in a little group, licking the salt from the bottom of the cliff rock face. It is incredible how these wild animals can climb the steep, rocky surface - done very cautiously. This is their road and if they want to stand in the middle of it, then that is what they do. "One of the most important features of the bighorn sheep is the unique structure of its hooves. Rather than being hard like those of a horse or cow, the sheep have rubber-like hooves that allow excellent mobility on steep rock faces." www.conservenature.org/learn_about_wildlife/rocky_mountai... Part way up the mountain, we took the turn-off to Quarry Lake, a place I had heard of and seen photos of, but had never been there myself. We parked and decided to walk round the lake, which turned out to be very unpleasant, with strong winds picking up grit and leaves and whipping our faces. For the first time ever, I saw a tree come crashing down at the edge of the forest. Once safely back to the car, we thought we would drive a little further and see what conditions were like. Rain and very strong winds continued and once we reached the north end of Spray Lakes Reservoir, we made the decision to turn around and head back down. The mountains were disappearing from sight, so there wasn't much point in continuing, anyway. Gayle had hoped to go on as far as Banff, but there was no sense in doing so in such dreadful weather. As often happens, the weather seemed to brighten somewhat once we were out of the mountains. It felt so good to actually see some blue sky. Getting closer to Calgary, the car radio was announcing which city roads were blocked by a fallen tree or downed powerlines. I was not far from home, shortly before sunset, when I noticed some impressive clouds and, on the spur of the moment, drove along one of the gravel back roads just within the edge of the city. It was worth it, though I was quite relieved when I finally reached home. Many thanks, Gayle, for a great day out, braving the weather! We had fun and it certainly was an interesting experience. I really appreciated the chance to use my camera once more, before the next snowfall arrives and stays on the ground for the next few months.

All three photos posted today were taken the day before yesterday, 15 March 2016. I drove NW of Calgary again, hoping that maybe one of the Great Gray Owls might just be seen. When I arrived, a car was pulled over at the side of the road and the occupants were photographing an owl. It was hidden from my view by a group of bushes and I only saw it when it flew over to the distant trees. This particular photo was taken during my drive there, to give an idea of the kind of countryside I go through to reach my destination. The drive is along a huge valley, past farms and fields and the very occasional wildlife, such as these Mule Deer. Love the colouring of the fields at the moment, though they may now be at least partly covered in the snow that fell last night, at least here in Calgary. I hadn't been sure whether to do such a long drive that day (roughly 250 km round trip) as the weather forecast wasn't exactly the best. Just after I left home, a few snowflakes fell for maybe five minutes, but not enough to settle. When I got closer to my destination, the gravel roads were snow-covered and not very pleasant to drive on. However, I'm glad I did decide to go, as I did get to see an owl on several different trees while it hunted. Eventually, it flew off into the forest and didn't return. "Although the Great Gray Owl is the tallest American owl with the largest wingspan, it is just a ball of feathers. It preys on small mammals and has relatively small feet. Both the Great Horned and Snowy owls weigh half again as much, and have larger feet and talons. The oldest recorded Great Gray Owl was at least 18 years, 9 months old and lived in Alberta." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Gray_Owl/lifehistory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_grey_owl Last night, we had some proper snow - March does tend to be the snowiest month here. The temperature is -1C early this afternoon and the sun is trying to burst through the overcast sky.

This photo was taken a couple of days ago, 6 April 2014, when I went with a group of 10 friends to Frank Lake for several hours. This was a "by car" day with barely any walking. Sometimes when we pull over and get out, I can be found looking in the opposite direction to everyone else, taking a photograph of something totally unrelated to birds, lol. You need binoculars or a scope to see most of the birds we come across, which I don't have, but I can never resist the scenery. Many of the fields are clear of snow now. It's +12C as I type and it's supposed to get up to +20C this afternoon! Will add Tony Timmons' report for the day - thanks, Tony, both for writing up the list and for taking us down to one of my favourite areas outside the city: "Eleven people were on the trip today, birding Frank Lake and area. We tallied 35 species. Most of the lake is still covered in ice. As many as 10,000 Northern Pintails were seen in the fields,sloughs and flying overhead. Two hundred swans were feeding in the fields. Of note were two Eurasian Wigeons spotted in the shallow sloughs. Canada Goose Tundra Swan Trumpeter Swan Gadwall American Wigeon Eurasian Wigeon Mallard Cinnamon Teal Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Canvasback Redhead Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Common Merganser Ruddy Duck Bald Eagle Northern Harrier Rough-legged Hawk Coot Killdeer Ring-billed Gull California Gull Great Horned Owl Horned Lark Robin Rock Pigeon,Magpie,Crow,Raven,Starling,House Sparrow" As you can see from the list, birds are returning after being elsewhere all winter. Only very distant views of them all, except for one Great Horned Owl on her nest - impossible to get a proper shot because she is hidden by a tangle of branches.