Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Birder's World Magazine

When I left home shortly after 9:00 a.m. this morning, it was raining and snowing, turning to just snow for the rest of the morning. A few friends and I went looking for mosses and lichens in Fish Creek Park, not expecting that the weather would be like this, LOL. I drove straight over to the far eastern end of the park (Sikome) after our morning of trudging through the woods in snow, mud and even a few inches of water in one or two places!!! Happily, I saw this Downy Woodpecker and I also discovered that my cheap, new winter boots are waterproof, even if they are pretty useless as far as any grip goes (advertized as having great winter grip - yeah, right!). Finally arrived home with soaking wet jeans, gloves and winter jacket, but not before calling in at the Tim Horton's drive-through on the way home : )

As you can tell by the lush green surroundings, this is not a new photo, but one that I took back in June : ) I tend to post closer shots than this, but I thought it was kind of nice to see a bit of the area which this Great Gray Owl called/calls "home". This fence and post were right by the road : ) The only thing of interest for this Owl was watching intensely for "food" - not a bit concerned that I was there.

Another shot of the male Mountain Bluebird that I watched take turns with his mate at collecting food. Their young ones were safely tucked into a nest in their nesting box along one of our gravel roads south of the city, and south of Priddis. These birds are uncommon to common in Alberta from mid-March-mid-September.

Though House Sparrows tend not to be popular little birds, you have to admit that they are quite attractive. I love these little birds, with their beautifully patterned feathers. This male was actually down at the Calgary Zoo yesterday (flying freely, of course!) and I was quite pleased with this backlit (?) shot. "House Sparrows are not closely related to the other North American sparrows: they belong to the family of Old World sparrows (Passeridae)." From Birds of Alberta by Chris Fisher and John Acorn.