Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: irruptive

Posting really late today, around noon, I think. Having missed so much sleep because of the various bird counts (happens every year, lol!), I absolutely had to sleep till I woke this morning, with no alarms set, thank goodness. Tomorrow will be the final Count I'm taking part in, my seventh Count this winter, I believe. Three days ago, on 30 December 2015, 7 of us took part in the annual Audubon Sheep River/Priddis/Turner Valley Christmas Bird Count. I know I also did this Count on 31 December 2007 and 30 December 2008, but I can't remember if those were the only times I had taken part previously. As you can see from this photo, we did see some birds that day, even some that were close enough for photos. This beautiful male Pine Grosbeak was at someone's feeder at one of the acreages that we called in at. In fact, it was a great day : ) Great, but COLD, starting off at -22C warming to a balmy -3C later in the day. "One of the larger members of its family, the Pine Grosbeak is a bird of the boreal forests, found across northern Eurasia and North America, and south into the mountains of western Canada and the United States. A large, unwary finch, it makes periodic winter irruptions into southern Canada and northern United States. It is the largest and rarest of the "winter finches." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pine_Grosbeak/id Our time was spent travelling by car, driving the backroads SW of the city and calling in at several farms. I wasn't sure just where this count would cover. This time, our area was in the centre of the count circle and I'm so glad I decided to go again. I hadn't expected that many of the roads would be familiar to me and a few were new. Our day started and ended with a Moose, which was pretty amazing. Not the greatest views for photographs, but I did manage to get a couple of OK ones. Another find was a group of Wild Turkeys that were at a location where they had been seen before. This time, we drove down the hill to the farm buildings and were able to see these spectacular birds quite well. All were females, but the females are still stunning, with their iridescent plumage. A great stop was at Rod Handfield's place. Some of us used to go there on botany trips and he always had the best mushrooms and other fungi growing in his forest. We hadn't been back there the last two or three years and I really missed our old botany outings. Rod and his wife have such a beautiful cabin there, and he invited us in for coffee and pastries. This was so much appreciated on a day of birding! Rod is always so delightfully hospitable!! Thanks so much, Anne B, for driving two of us - without you, I would not have been able to go! Our time spent in a snow-filled ditch simply added to the adventurous feeling of the day, lol! Just shows how easy it is to get stuck when there is snow on the ground. The road had been snow-ploughed, but the edge looked like it was solid ground, not part of a ditch. Thankfully, a shovel was available and with the help of the rest of the group pushing from the front of the car, we made it back on to firm ground! I will add our leader's final species list for the day: SHEEP RIVER CHRISTMAS BIRD COUNT, 0850-1500, Tue,30Dec2015. Centre of Circle, SW of Millarville,AB. Clear, sunny, calm, -22 to -03°C. 30 cm snow on ground. Most waterbodies frozen over. Total Party kms by Car - 80; Total Party kms by foot – 1km. Total Party hours by Car – 3; Total Party hours by foot -2 hrs Total Party hours feeder watching – 1:10 min. Wild Turkey-9, all f. Downy Woodpecker-6. Hairy Woodpecker-4 Gray Jay-3 Blue Jay-6 Black-billed Magpie-14 Common Raven-33 Black-capped Chickadee- 118 Mountain Chickadee-32 Boreal Chickadee-4 Red-breasted Nuthatch-14 White-breasted Nuthatch-5 Dark-eyed Junco-2 Pine Grosbeak-22 White-winged Crossbill-36 Common Redpoll-14 Pine Siskin-1 RedSquirrel-2 vole sp.-1 Mule Deer-3 White-tailed Deer-7 Deer sp.-2 Moose-2

An overcast, dreary morning here today, 14 December 2015, Temperature is -5C (windchill -11C). There was s slight dusting of snow overnight. And Flickr is being a real pain this morning - too many problems. This photo shows a tree that has had bits of its bark removed, leaving the orange-coloured wood exposed. The Woodpecker wants to get to the larvae that are beneath the bark, once it has been removed. Some trees are almost completely orange, so much bark has been peeled away by a Woodpecker. In winter, when there is snow on the ground, you can see the pieces of bark lying around the base of the tree, on top of the snow, if a Woodpecker has been at work very recently. "The American Three-toed Woodpecker is found in boreal forests and montane coniferous forests across North America. Because of its choice of habitat, it is infrequently seen by most people." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Three-toed_Woodpecke... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_three-toed_woodpecker This bird, uncommon in Alberta, was seen on 28 November 2015, in Fish Creek Park, when I went on a morning walk with friends. We had seen Three-toed Woodpeckers in this particular forested area before, in other years, so we were hoping one might be around. When we stopped to look and listen, I heard a distant tapping and, when we walked in that direction, one of the other birders caught sight of this bird. It was moving through a tangle of branches, up and down the tree trunk. These birds just never keep still, so I had about 50 photos to delete and just a handful to keep.

This photo shows a tree that has had bits of its bark removed, leaving the orange-coloured wood exposed. The Woodpecker wants to get to the larvae that are beneath the bark, once it has been removed. Some trees are almost completely orange, so much bark has been peeled away by a Woodpecker. In winter, when there is snow on the ground, you can see the pieces of bark lying around the base of the tree, on top of the snow, if a Woodpecker has been at work very recently. "The American Three-toed Woodpecker is found in boreal forests and montane coniferous forests across North America. Because of its choice of habitat, it is infrequently seen by most people." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Three-toed_Woodpecke... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_three-toed_woodpecker This bird was seen on 28 November 2015, in Fish Creek Park, when I went on a morning walk with friends. We had seen Three-toed Woodpeckers in this particular forested area before, in other years, so we were hoping one might be around. When we stopped to look and listen, I heard a distant tapping and, when we walked in that direction, one of the other birders caught sight of this bird. It was moving through a tangle of branches, up and down the tree trunk, but I did manage to get a usable shot of the whole bird. Was also able to get several half-decent closer shots, including this one. These birds just never keep still, so I had about 50 photos to delete and just a handful to keep. Janet and Bernie's list of birds seen: 1. Canada Goose - 19 2. Cooper's Hawk - 1 3. Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1 4. Downy Woodpecker - 1 5. THREE-TOED WOODPECKER - 1 6. Black-billed Magpie - 5 7. Common Raven - 5 8. Black-capped Chickadee - 30+ 9. BOREAL CHICKADEE - 3 10. White-breasted Nuthatch - 2 11. Red-breasted Nuthatch - 11 12. BROWN CREEPER - 1 13. TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE - 1 14. Bohemian Waxwing - 28 15. White-winged Crossbill - 23 16. House Finch - 4 17 Pine Grosbeak - 3

This photo shows a tree that has had bits of its bark removed, leaving the orange-coloured wood exposed. The Woodpecker wants to get to the larvae that are beneath the bark, once it has been removed. Some trees are almost completely orange, so much bark has been peeled away by a Woodpecker. In winter, when there is snow on the ground, you can see the pieces of bark lying around the base of the tree, on top of the snow, if a Woodpecker has been at work very recently. "The American Three-toed Woodpecker is found in boreal forests and montane coniferous forests across North America. Because of its choice of habitat, it is infrequently seen by most people." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Three-toed_Woodpecke... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_three-toed_woodpecker This bird was seen yesterday, 28 November 2015, in Fish Creek Park, when I went on a morning walk with friends. We had seen Three-toed Woodpeckers in this particular forested area before, in other years, so we were hoping one might be around. When we stopped to look and listen, I heard a distant tapping and, when we walked in that direction, one of the other birders caught sight of this bird. It was moving through a tangle of branches, up and down the tree trunk, but I did manage to get this shot of the whole bird. Was also able to get several half-decent closer shots that I will post sometime. These birds just never keep still, so I had about 50 photos to delete and just a handful to keep. Janet and Bernie's list of birds seen: 1. Canada Goose - 19 2. Cooper's Hawk - 1 3. Sharp-shinned Hawk - 1 4. Downy Woodpecker - 1 5. THREE-TOED WOODPECKER - 1 6. Black-billed Magpie - 5 7. Common Raven - 5 8. Black-capped Chickadee - 30+ 9. BOREAL CHICKADEE - 3 10. White-breasted Nuthatch - 2 11. Red-breasted Nuthatch - 11 12. BROWN CREEPER - 1 13. TOWNSEND'S SOLITAIRE - 1 14. Bohemian Waxwing - 28 15. White-winged Crossbill - 23 16. House Finch - 4 17 Pine Grosbeak - 3 After our walk, a few of us went for a really enjoyable lunch at a restaurant near the park. After that, I called in to fill up my car with gas and a couple of minutes later, was involved in a car accident - not my fault, thank goodness! The driver of the other vehicle said that the man in the right lane had slowed down and waved her to go in front of him, so that she could cut across both our lanes. Why on earth he would wave her to go, on a busy road of MOVING traffic, I don't know. Or maybe he didn't notice that she wanted to cut ACROSS the lanes of traffic. Too bad that he kept going and disappeared, ha! Also, I don't know why she was trying to cut across traffic when coming out of a minor exit road at such a dangerous spot. She said she didn't usually do that. Also don't know why she trusted another driver's directions in moving traffic. Maybe he just didn't see me coming up alongside him - and his car was blocking the other car from my sight, until she pulled right out in front of me, and my car went into hers. No obvious damage like dents or scratches (thanks to the rubber? bumper on my car), but when the other driver told me to check the hood of my car, we found that it opened up OK but then we had difficulty getting it closed again. Annoyingly, the small lever inside my car for opening the hood snapped off when I pushed it up, so I probably can't open the hood at all now. Needless to say, I'm extremely thankful that things were no worse than they were!

Three days ago, on 16 November 2015, it would have been my older daughter’s birthday. Feeling that I needed to get out for a while, I met up with a group of friends for a three-hour walk in Weaselhead. It had snowed a bit overnight and, though it was mostly sunny, the temperature was around 1°C. This meant winter jacket and winter boots complete with ice-grabbers as the paths were very icy and slippery. 27 species of bird were seen. Only two or three people saw what they reckoned was an owl (Great Horned) in flight from the forest. A Snow-shoe Hare in its white, winter coat was barely visible, hiding in a tangle of bushes. We had quite good views of several White-winged Crossbills. These are such colourful birds - at least the males are. The females are a greenish yellow, but still beautiful. Their bills are crossed, to enable them to get the seeds out of the cones. They tend to land high up in tall trees, so are not easy to photograph. This colourful male Pine Grosbeak was seen on the return walk - wish I could have got a clearer background : ) Such a gorgeous colour. "One of the larger members of its family, the Pine Grosbeak is a bird of the boreal forests, found across northern Eurasia and North America, and south into the mountains of western Canada and the United States. A large, unwary finch, it makes periodic winter irruptions into southern Canada and northern United States. It is the largest and rarest of the "winter finches." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pine_Grosbeak/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pine_grosbeak List of bird species seen: 1.Canada Goose-200+ 2.Swan sp.,-7 3.Mallard-4 4.Common Goldeneye-1 f. 5.Northern Goshawk-1 6.Rough-legged Hawk-1 7.Killdeer-1 8.Ring-billed Gull?-1 9.Great Horned Owl-1 10.Downy Woodpecker-4+ 11.Hairy Woodpecker-1 12.Northern Flicker-2 13.Blue Jay-4+ 14.Black-billed Magpie-20 15.Common Raven-2+ 16.Black-capped Chickadee-50+ 17.Boreal Chickadee-4 18.Red-breasted Chickadee-1 19.White-breasted Nuthatch-1 20.Bohemian Waxwing-100+ 21.Dark-eyed Junco-1+ 22.Pine Grosbeak-10+ 23.House Finch-1 24.Red Crossbill-1 f. 25.White-winged Crossbill-75+ 26.Common Redpoll-30+ 27.House Sparrow-6

These small, attractive birds are amongst my favourites. They are just so dainty and so pretty with the red spot in their forehead (poll). Taken at one of the feeders that are in Weaselhead, on March 24th. I would imagine that they have all left by now, hopefully to return next winter. This seems to have been a good winter for seeing them here, though they are never easy to photograph - I just lucked out with this one and several other shots. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Redpoll/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Redpoll If you are a birder (especially if you have been birding for a while), you might get some laughs from the YouTube video below. I have watched it a few times already and it still makes me laugh - it's just so TRUE! Thanks for the link, Bonnie, and to Randy who sent it to you : ) Sh*t Birders Say youtu.be/NaX7i1Q7-Rw

A couple of friends very kindly invited me to go with them today to see if we could find the Northern Hawk Owls. No sign of any of them. Another friend told us that he had just been talking with the owner of a house that is at that location, and apparently the owls have only been seen maybe twice in the last week. So, we are not sure what is going on. Anyway, I decided to upload this shot taken on 28th February - this little guy/gal was perched on top of this VERY tall pole, so had to crop : ) Kind of looks cute, puffed up against the cold. LOL, my first thought was that s/he looks as if s/he's sitting under one of those old Hair Salon hairdryers - no idea if they still use those things.

A friend very kindly invited me to go looking today for the Northern Hawk Owl, NW of Calgary. I had been lucky enough to see one on 31st January in a different location (but not all that far away from today's location), but my photos were more distant than those taken today. Actually, we saw a second Northern Hawk Owl today, just down the road from the owl in this photo. These owls are rare to uncommon year-round in Alberta, so it was definitely a thrill to see them. Don't you just love those piercing eyes? Actually, this species of owl is quite curious and unfazed by humans. This is one of the most sought-after birds in Alberta, so I feel very privileged. It is an irruptive species - commonly seen in some winters and rarely in others.

I was SO thrilled this morning when I got the chance to see my very first Black-backed Woodpecker during a walk at Griffith Woods! Couldn't get a decent photo, but I was still happy to get this one! This bird is rare to uncommon year round in Alberta, living in coniferous forests. This is a male, as it has a yellow patch on its forehead.