Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: looking into the sun

All three photos posted this morning were taken the day before yesterday, on 28 October 2018. A group of 15 of us went S and SE of the city on a birding trip to one of my favourite areas. This included Chain Lakes and Pine Coulee Reservoir. I just love some of the landscape through which we drove - barren, rugged, middle-of-nowhere kind of scenery. It looks so different in each season - I think my favourite time of year is when there is a covering of snow on the empty hills and ice on most of the water. I've still not had the courage to drive in this area myself, as I know that I might never find my way out. As on almost all these day trips out of the city, almost every bird is far, far away, needing at least binoculars and best of all, a scope. Also, as always happens, my camera lens turns to things other than birds. Scenic shots are always taken - after all, I feel that it is important to record the habitat of any birds seen. We saw so many Swans (Tundra and Trumpeter) on various sloughs and in flight. What a sight they were, with the sun shining on their pure white feathers. Love to hear the Trumpeter Swans "trumpeting". A huge thrill was when our leader led us to a small creek where there were four American Diippers, happily bobbing and dipping, and swimming under water. They weren't bothered by our presence at all. Terry, you took us on yet another amazing trip! You even arranged with the weatherman for a beautiful, sunny day, though the morning was very cold and windy. It couldn't have been a better outing - so very enjoyable. Thanks so much, Linda and Robin, for the ride all day - greatly appreciated! I was off my computer all day yesterday, too. My daughter came down for the day, as she had offered to come and help me with sorting through some things and getting rid of all my old electronics at recycle places. It saved me a whole lot of bending (which kills my back) and a lot of lifting. Her help was hugely appreciated! Last night was supposed to be THE night, ha, ha! I was going to set two or three mouse traps (which is how I started out about 6 months ago, but I caught nothing). However, do you think I could set the traps? No, I just could not see how to set them. After talking to a friend on the phone this morning, he helped me and I got the first trap in place. Two minutes later, as I was just going upstairs, I heard a loud snap. Have not had the courage yet to peer round my fridge to see if the trap went off by itself or if there is one dead mouse. If it was successful, which I doubt, friends will come over later today to remove it for me!!

Yesterday, 3 April 2016, I was on a birding day trip with a group of friends, going SE of Calgary, E of High River. The weather was beautifully mild, but a lot of cloud and, as always, it was a most enjoyable day. As always, my camera lens was turned to various other things, too, as usually happens when birds are little more than tiny silhouettes in the far, far distance. As you can see, the lake is ice-free now. I will add the report from our leader, Tony Timmons. With all the birds so far away, it was really difficult, if not impossible, to even begin to count the numbers. Many thanks for a great day, Tony, and thanks so much for the ride! "Twelve people were on the trip Sunday, enjoying warm weather and lots of birds (mostly waterfowl). We birded Frank Lake, Brant Lake, and a brief stop at Third Lake; finding 40 species for the day. Greater White-fronted Goose -10 Brant Lake Snow Goose -7 Frank Lake Canada Goose Trumpeter Swan Tundra Swan Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Northern Shoveler Green-winged Teal Canvasback Redhead Ring-necked Duck Greater Scaup - 3 Brant Lake Lesser Scaup Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Ruddy Duck Northern Harrier -2 Third Lake Gray Partridge Ring-necked Pheasant American Coot - 300 Brant Lake Greater Yellowlegs - 1 Frank Lake Killdeer Ring-billed Gull California Gull Rock Pigeon Great Horned Owl - 2 on nest Northern Shrike -2 One close to Frank Lake gate, one N. of Third Lake Black-billed Magpie American Crow Common Raven American Robin European Starling Red-winged Blackbird -12 males, Frank Lake Area Yellow-headed Blackbird - 2 Frank Lake blind Western Meadowlark House Finch House Sparrow Two Red-tailed Hawks were overhead as We entered the city limits."

Had a great day of birding on 9 November 2013, SW of Calgary, in an area that I don't think I'd ever been to before. (Some of us recently went on another of Terry's trips to this area, on 19 April 2015.) The scene in this image is at Pine Coulee Reservoir. There are several campgrounds along the Reservoir, one of which is Pine Coulee Campground. To give an idea of how far away from Calgary this reservoir is, the Pine Coulee Campground is located 119km southwest of Calgary and 9km west of the town of Stavely. There was a lot of ice on the Reservoir, but there was also plenty of open water, being enjoyed by a lot of water birds, including Canada Geese, Swans and a good variety of ducks, etc.. After stopping at several places along the Reservoir, we continued to Clear Lake, where there were a lot of Snow Geese - this was the first time I'd seen them in great numbers. We also saw two Long-tailed Ducks, and something like 17 or 18 Rough-legged Hawks, plus Red-tailed Hawk, Northern Harriers, Prairie Falcon, etc.. The following report was written by Terry Korolyk, who was our trip leader. Hope he won't mind my using this, as it is so well documented - and accurate : ) Terry has done, and continues to do, phenomenal recording of bird sightings for many years, which has been extremely valuable to endless birders. Thanks so much, Terry, for such a great day! "Fifteen birders and the Trip Leader thoroughly enjoyed a day of birding today (9 November 2013) visiting Pine Coulee Reservoir and Clear Lake in the Stavely area. Highlight was 2 Winter-plumaged female LONG-TAILED DUCKS at Pine Coulee, one off the Dam there; the other seen from the road on the east side of the Reservoir approximately a kilometre south of Township Road 150. Mind-boggling numbers of waterfowl, particularly Mallards, were at the Reservoir, but, also in large numbers were Canada Geese and Hutchinson's subspecies Cackling Geese. Small numbers of Swans, both Trumpeter and Tundra, were in the north end of the Reservoir. Bufflehead and Common Goldeneye were also in good numbers with species there in smaller numbers in the north end being Lesser Scaup, Northern Pintail, and others. A juvenile Greater Scaup or Greater Scaup-Lesser Scaup hybrid was on the north side of the bridge which is part of the highway from Stavely that runs across the Reservoir at roughly its halfway point. North of the Bridge to the Dam was concentrated mainly with dabblers such as American Coot, American Wigeon, and Gadwall. Others here included approximately 40 Eared Grebes. One Killdeer was at the north end; another just north of the Bridge. Raptors were in good numbers and variety at the Reservoir including 2 Golden Eagles; 2 juvenile Bald Eagles; 4 Northern Harriers; a Merlin, and many Rough-legged Hawks. The drive to Clear Lake on Township Road 140 produced another juvenile Bald Eagle; 1 Red-tailed Hawk, and, more Rough-legged Hawks. There was still much open water off the Campground at Clear Lake with Canada Geese, Cackling Geese, and, Mallard there in large numbers, and, a generous sprinkling of all the other Duck species. On the ice edge north of the Campground, probably 2,000+ SNOW and ROSS'S GEESE rested. One blue SNOW GEESE was there and, there was a very generous assortment of ROSS'S GEESE in these birds; probably 200+ at least. The north end of Clear Lake was frozen, so, we headed north to the Twin Valleys Dam Reservoir, and, drove up the east side of it. This produced more Rough-legged Hawks,and, a Prairie Falcon. Some herds of Mule Deer and flocks of Gray Partridge were seen on the trip home via Highways 804, 799, 552, and, Dunbow Road. Total Rough-legged Hawk numbers for the Trip was 17 with one of the parties seeing one while they were travelling to the starting point."

When I happened to notice the crossing of two white vapour trails in the sky over Frank Lake yesterday, 17 April 2015, I lifted my camera to take a quick shot - and this is what I saw through the viewfinder : ) Yesterday morning, I went with friend Shirley to Frank Lake. We spent the morning driving round part of the lake and a short while at the bird blind (hide). Bumped into our friend Dave near the blind and he joined us for the rest of the morning. Nice to have your company, Dave! And an extra pair of eyes is always welcomed. We had heard that the White-faced Ibis had arrived, but we were out of luck yesterday. We did, however, stop briefly to see the Great Horned Owl nest that has three owlets in it. Stopped just long enough to get a couple of photos and then continued on our drive. It was extremely windy yesterday, which may have affected the various birds. Too bad they don't have wind turbines in this area, as it seems to be windy most times I go to Frank Lake! We didn't see all that many, mainly a few birds such as Coots, Canada Geese, and so on. A pity you can't see and feel the wind in my photo, but you can see what a beautiful, sunny day it was. Many thanks for the invite to join you and for driving me, Shirley. We had a fun time, including all of us going to Tim Horton's for lunch before heading home. I was certainly ready for that hot Chili and coffee!

LOL, I wasn't sure whether to post this one or delete it! The last time I went to Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, on 27th September, the mushrooms were extremely few and far between. I pretty much stayed to the trail, where the sun was shining down through the winding gap in the trees - a rare thing this summer, ha. Took this shot right into the sun and - voila, accidental beauty (kind of)! I was so lucky that the odds and ends of fungi happened to be growing along the edges of the rough path, in the sun, which so rarely happens. The few mushrooms I found that day were the last of the season, unfortunately.