Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Water Valley

After seeing very light snow for just a matter of minutes at the weekend, I knew that, if I was going to make myself drive north of the city, I had better do it straight away. So, yesterday, 28 October 2014, I plucked up courage and drove "to parts unknown". Actually, part of the drive was along familiar roads and the rest was exploring. I had intended leaving home around 9:00 am, but it ended up being 11:00 am. I had only been driving maybe 40 minutes before I pulled over for the first thing. I couldn't take my eyes off one particular cloud - actually more like a stack of clouds. A car turned off along the gravel road shortly after me, and the young guy with his camera commented about the beautiful lenticular cloud. That is exactly what I had thought it might be, so I was really pleased. We don't get to see them very often. I've posted a photo of it this morning, taken using a special setting on my camera. I found that this setting showed the detail of the cloud better. Continuing my drive north, I managed to get as far as the town of Didsbury before I knew I just had to turn around and head for home, coming back via Water Valley and Grand Valley Rd/Horse Creek Rd. Saw quite a few Magpies, three or four Crows and one Gray Jay, lol. Other than that - oh, and one Hawk perched high up on a power pole along a busy road - I saw no wildlife at all. That was fine, though, as this trip was more about looking for old barns. This photo was a quick shot of the Christ the King Church, which is now a privately owned Events Centre, in Water Valley. “This historic former church is located in the centre of picturesque Water Valley, Alberta. The church has been restored but retains all the character in the original windows and woodwork, choir loft, hardwood floors and glass door knobs. Christ the King Church was built in 1936 and lovingly maintained as a catholic church until 2001. Now this beautiful building has been restored to suit a wide variety of events for not only the community that built it, but for anyone who wants a unique venue to host or celebrate with friends and family. Water Valley Church Events Centre also welcomes birthday, holiday and cocktail parties, family reunions, photo shoots, art exhibits, antique markets and the amazing acoustics make this the perfect place for music of all kinds." During the seven hours that I was out on the road, I did manage to find several barns, too, though not as spectacular as the red one in the photo I posted this morning. Total driving distance for the day was 322 km and this morning, my arms are feeling it! I also overslept by an hour and a half, and I have a volunteer shift to get ready for.

We passed this herd of Mule Deer towards the end of our Christmas Bird Count in the Cochrane Wildlife Preserve/Water Valley area on 29th December. Not sure I included all the deer - a lovely sight as we drove past them.

Though this beautiful Tabby looks like it was resting peacefully, in fact it was no such thing. It was a hyper little cat, constantly on the move and almost all my photos are ready to be deleted, LOL! Seen at one of the farms on our Bird Count yesterday in the Cochrane Wildlife Preserve and Water Valley area. Such a friendly kitty and simply beautiful. Out of the whole, long day, I saw one bird to photograph - a Pine Grosbeak - and even that one was right at the top of a very tall Spruce tree, LOL!

On our Christmas Bird Count in the Cochrane Wildlife Preserve and Water Valley area yesterday, a gentleman told us that he had seen hundreds of Snow Buntings "down by the cows". So, the seven of us set off in our two vehicles. When we reached this snow-covered field, one car decided that the ground was just not a good surface to travel. The owner of the other, smaller car decided that Snow Buntings were worth the risk. After this very bad start, they succeeded in making it into the distance - and, of course, were lucky enough to see the wanted birds, LOL. We also saw Coyote-1, White-tailed Deer-6, Mule Deer-25, Moose-4. Temperature for the day was -15 to -05C, and snow depth was 20cm. Bird species recorded: Rock Pigeon- 21 Downy Woodpecker-5 Hairy Woodpecker-1 Blue Jay-1 Black-billed Magpie-41 Common Raven-26 Black-capped Chickadee-4- Mountain Chickadee-1 Red-breasted Nuthatch-4 White-breasted Nuthatch-1 European Starling-12 Snow Bunting-40 Pine Grosbeak-1 Common Redpoll-22 House Sparrow-225 Total hours afield: 8; Total by car-5.5; Total on foot-1; total feeder watching- 1; Total kms; 100km; Total by car 98km; Total on foot-2km.

I just liked the contrast of the blue sky reflected in the vehicle with the lovely orange cat. This was such an active cat the whole time we were watching it - only a couple of my shots came out sharp enough. Taken on 29th December, when a handful of us were doing the Christmas Bird Count in the Cochrane Wildlife Preserve/Water Valley area. I always enjoy seeing the dogs and cats that come out to greet us when we call in at various homesteads/ranches : ) I rarely manage to get bird photos on these Counts, but scenery, pets, Llamas and so on make up for it (for me).

This was a lovely little red barn on one of the ranches we called in at during the Chirstmas Bird Count in the Cochrane Wildlife Preserve/Water Valley area (north west of the city), on 29th December.

This was the only bird photo I managed to get on our Christmas Bird Count in the Cochrane Wildlife Preserve/Water Valley area on 29th December! The few birds we did see were far away, much too distant to get photos. I don't usually see Pine Grosbeaks, so wanted to add this to my Birds of Alberta Set, even though it's a distant and rather uninspiring capture, LOL.

This is an introduced plant from Europe.