Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Highway 22X

A photo uploaded for fun (again, not for quality!). Couldn't resist posting this female Yellow-headed Blackbird collecting some dried grass for her nest. I love the way she folded the grass like this. Taken at a tiny slough within city limits to the west, just off Highway 22X, on June 15th. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-headed_Blackbird www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-headed_Blackbird/id

This young Horned Grebe was following Mom around a slough off 22X, being fed often. Taken on July 8th. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_Grebe

HAPPY CANADA DAY, everyone! A female Yellow-headed Blackbird busy getting insects to feed to her new family. Photographed at a slough on 22X, SW of the city, on June 10th.

When I drive westwards on Highway 22X and into the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, I usually never stop at Allen Bill Pond. There are often a lot of fishermen there and I'm sure they wouldn't be impressed if I was walking down near the water's edge to take photos, LOL. Today, however, there was only one car, so I decided to walk around the pond. The water was so calm and I shot these reflections before there was any wind at all. Seen against the distant trees and rock face, these skeleton trees almost looked as if they were covered in snow/frost.

I decided to drive westwards from the city towards the mountains this afternoon. Though the day started off rather chilly, I discovered that the temperature was warming up nicely. Hardly a sign of snow on the mountains peaks at this eastern edge of the Rockies and just a handful of tiny patches of snow at my destination. Snow will arrive in the city any time now, so I thought this would probably be my last drive westwards till next year. I like to turn off the main Highway 22X along some of the gravel side roads. Endless formations of Canada Geese were flying in the distance and I thought I'd try a few in-flight shots, which I hardly ever try. However, my thoughts turned to this gorgeous Rough-legged Hawk instead. As soon as I had taken a number of shots and watched it fly from tree to tree and circle the fields, I started walking back to my car. I caught a quick glimpse of what looked like some kind of small raptor, probably a Falcon, dive into the field at my side. That, of course, is when two vehicles came speeding along the rough road, churning up a dust storm. I was really lucky when the bird flew up to an electricity pole and I was able to get two blurry, in-flight ID shots. I'll have to check, but I think it might have been a Prairie Falcon, which would be nice.

Another old barn seen this afternoon just outside the city.

A few hay bales piled up near the side of a little muddy side road off Highway 22X. They were reflected in a pool of water that had collected in the ditch. It was SO good to see bright blue sky!

Saw this row (there were several others in the row) of red, weathered, wooden sheds in a farmers field on Thursday. I was exploring a few side roads off Highway 22X, going west from Calgary towards the mountains.