Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: explore2007July26

I took this photo with my old Olympus C750 UZ (held together with an elastic band, LOL) and I will put a link to my other Bald Eagle close-up below here, taken on my newer Canon S3 IS (which isn't working properly, LOL). I'm not sure which colour is more accurate. I will have to replace my Canon most likely with the recent model, but I'd love to hear what anyone, who has a few moments of time to spare, thinks about the comparison between the two camera photo qualities. I usually reckon that the Canon has nicer colour, but I wish I could remember which is closest to the actual colour of the Bald Eagle's beak. On a Google image search, I found photos displaying both shades of yellow for the beaks, so that didn't help! I think the detail is a little better on the Canon photo below. I spent a wonderful day yesterday with a friend who had asked if I'd like to go to the Coaldale Birds of Prey Centre, near Lethbridge, southern Alberta. It was just over a two-hour drive there and the temperature down south was 37C (roughly 106F)! This Centre is "Canada’s largest birds of prey facility. Situated on a 70-acre wetland area site, the centre is a celebration of nature featuring the hawks, falcons, eagles and owls of Alberta. Throughout the site and along the pathways, a number of birds of prey are sitting on their perches only feet away from visitors. These birds are all in various stages of training and receive lots of exercise in the daily flying programs. At the centre, they have one of North America's largest captive breeding populations for the endangered Burrowing Owl." This beautiful Bald Eagle was quite a few feet away from us, but I zoomed in as much as I could. What majestic birds they are! I had dreamed of being able to take reasonably close photos of one of these birds for a long time and today was THE day! We often see Bald Eagles flying wild in Calgary, but I had never seen one this close before. If you view it in large size, you can see the feather details much better.

I spent about an hour or an hour and a half yesterday just watching this family of Ground Squirrels. There was no sign of my Great Horned Owl family in their grove of trees - more roadworks going on just a few feet away from their trees, which may have had some effect. So, my camera turned to these furry little creatures. This one was in the middle of making its tiny screeching sound and I found its expression rather amusing! Actually, I burst out laughing when I saw the photo on my computer!!!