Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Priddis Valley Road

A common bird, but it posed nicely for me, so I decided to post the photo, LOL.

This time, it was a green caterpillar that was going to make a tasty snack for the babies of this family : ) Seeing a brilliant blue Mountain Bluebird lifts the spirits wonderfully! What you don't see is me, sitting down in the ditch, hoping that no traffic would come along that gravel road - but of course it did!

Finally got out this afternoon, hoping to find and photograph a Mountain Bluebird. Thanks, Phil, for your suggestions - they worked, though of course I would still have loved to get a closer shot, LOL. I kind of liked the background colours, and of course the brilliant blue of the bird is stunning.

Ok, I know this is so laughable, but it was SO cold and SO windy yesterday when I finally found a pair of these gorgeous Mountain Bluebirds, that I had to just give up on hoping to get any closer photos. This will, however, give those of you who never see Bluebirds a slight idea of how amazing it is to see a sudden flash of brilliant blue. This little guy just kept flying from tree to tree, down to the ground and back to the next tree, and so it went on ; ) As soon as I'm ready, I am driving west of the city just a short way to see if I have any better luck this afternoon. I'm beginning to think I was pretty lucky with the photos I got of them last summer, ha.

I'm usually home in the evenings, but a few days ago, I stayed out longer than usual. I bumped into Flickr friend, Ron, just as I was on my way home after driving some of the side roads south of the city. I followed him back to an area where we had both seen a Great Gray Owl recently and, to our delight, we got the chance to see and photograph him/her again. When I was on my way headed home a second time, I passed two of these beautiful Wilson's Snipes, posing perfectly on fence posts : ) I saw how amazing the evening light can be - this photo is much nicer than any of my previous Snipe photos, taken in ordinary daylight. Taken from my car window : )

Saw this youngster along one of the backroads just south west of the city, on 27th July. I don't know enough (though I should by now, ha!) to tell if this is a male or female juvenile, but I just like the patterns of their feathers. Each year, I slow right down with bird photos during the summer and my focus is more on botany - partly because I rarely seem to see any birds close enough to get a shot. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-winged_Blackbird

Although I have far better images of American Kestrels, they were taken at the Coaldale Bird of Prey Centre, near Lethbridge, southern Alberta. I believe the photo above is the first photo I have taken of a Kestrel in the wild that is close enough to be recognizable. It has been cropped to death, so very bad quality, but, hey, it's an American Kestrel (female) at last! Saw it perched way up on a wire when I drove up and down a few gravel side roads, just south west of the city two days ago.

This image is so heavily cropped, LOL, but I so rarely manage to photograph a Starling, so wanted to add this one to my Birds of Alberta Set. Though not popular birds, they have spectacular feather patterns and irridescence. Caught this one sitting on a very high wire just south west of the city a few days ago. European Starlings first appeared in Alberta in 1934 and have been regular visitors ever since. A good thing about this photo is that it reminds me what BLUE sky looks like, LOL! The last few days have been so cold and grey, sometimes with a little snow, and the forecast for the next few days points to more of the same.

A Wilson's Snipe who posed very cooperatively for me along the Priddis Valley Road, south west of the city. Their camouflage is amazing when they are standing amongst the dried grass and reeds at the edge of a pond or slough.

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.