Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: northwest of Calgary

A second distant and heavily cropped photo of this rare to uncommon (in Alberta) Northern Hawk Owl. This was the first time I had really seen one and the first chance I'd ever had to photograph one. It was so high up in the tall tree, that I couldn't see which way its head was turned and I ended up with rather too many head-turned sideways shots : ) Seen in the Water Valley area, northwest of the city and of Cochrane. The weather was sunny enough, but the wind was strong and cold.

Have been feeling really unwell the last 7-10 days, so the very last thing I should have done was to drive to a new area by myself on a -20C day, LOL! I've battled a phobia of driving the last 31 years, so plucking up courage to do this drive meant a lot to me. Felt so good to have done it. Wonderfully, I bumped into a couple of friends who were already at the location, so there was someone to chat with while we stood and waited and waited and waited for this gorgeous Northern Hawk Owl to do something, ha, ha! They also very kindly brought back a cup of hot coffee for me when they drove into Cochrane for a quick break. We did see three of these owls along the stretch of road, but they were perched a long way away. Maybe they, too, were feeling the cold. The one above was in fact perched in a row of trees with masses of tangled branches, but I was lucky to just be able to shoot from the road, through a small gap. Greatly cropped, of course : ) Looks like it had had a fairly recent snack, judging by the colour of its beak. Takes about an hour and a quarter to drive here, north of the city. It was unbearably cold and I was still on the verge of shivering eight hours after getting home. As I said, not the wisest outing when sick : ) Can't wait to do it again, though, especially as our weather is supposed to warm up for a few days.