Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: previously Strix otus

I photographed this beautiful Long-eared Owl at the Coaldale Birds of Prey Centre, near Lethbridge in southern Alberta, on 9 September 2016. Coming across a Long-eared Owl in the wild is a huge thrill, as they are not often seen, but the next best thing is to see one in captivity at one of the wildlife rehabilitation centres. I have been lucky enough to see six or seven of them in the wild. I think the lady said this one was about five months old "Long-eared Owls are lanky owls that often seem to wear a surprised expression thanks to long ear tufts that typically point straight up like exclamation marks. These nocturnal hunters roost in dense foliage, where their camouflage makes them hard to find, and forage over grasslands for small mammals. Long-eared Owls are nimble flyers, with hearing so acute they can snatch prey in complete darkness. In spring and summer, listen for their low, breathy hoots and strange barking calls in the night." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Long-eared_Owl/id This Centre is a wonderful place that rehabilitates and releases (whenever possible) various birds of prey - hawks, owls, Bald Eagles, Turkey Vultures, and Golden Eagles. Some of these birds act as Wildlife Ambassadors, too, educating the public. It had been a few years since my last visit there - I had been maybe three or four times - and I had been longing to go back. Much too far and all new driving territory for me to even think about driving there myself. However, on 9 September 2016, that is exactly what I did. A friend had said she would come along, too, but she emailed me at 1:00 am to say that she assumed the trip had been cancelled, as she hadn't heard back about the time to meet. In fact, I had sent two emails giving the time, so I don't know what happened there. Very unfortunate, as it would have been great to have had company on such a long drive and I know she would have had lots of fun with her camera. I knew it would be a long day and further than I would normally drive - and in a brand new car that I have yet to fully learn to drive! It didn't look or feel quite as new after travelling 481 km! Only got lost twice, one minor and the other major. Must have taken a wrong turn somewhere down south and I ended up in the city of Lethbridge, that I had very carefully planned to avoid. After three and three-quarter hours, I finally arrived at my destination, to my enormous relief. Despite getting there later than I had hoped, I still had more than enough time to wander round the grounds and photograph the various raptors. Some were tethered out in a couple of grassy areas and others were in outdoor cages. Wonderful to get such a close look at the various birds of prey This young owl was perched inside the Centre's gift shop, near the till, hence the rather strange lighting. I took a slightly different way home via #845 (?) making absolutely sure that I didn't accidentally find myself in Lethbridge again and it wasn't too long before I found myself in the area that I had driven a few weeks before, when I went SW of Vulcan to look for Common NIghthawks (without any luck). Just so happy that I finally made myself do this drive. When I had Googled the Centre's website, I discovered that they were closing two days later for the winter. So, it was either a case of going the next day or not at all till next May onward. The very next day, 10 September 2016, I took my daughter on a long drive in Kananaskis. This was yet another place that I had longed to be able to drive for many years - and finally I did it! I had been lots of times with various friends, but this was the very first time I had ever done the drive myself.

Coming across a Long-eared Owl in the wild is a huge thrill, as they are not often seen, but the next best thing is to see one in captivity at one of the wildlife rehabilitation centres. I think I have been lucky enough to see six or seven of them in the wild. This one lives at the Alberta Bird of Prey Centre in Coaldale, southern Alberta, and I think the lady said it was about five months old "Long-eared Owls are lanky owls that often seem to wear a surprised expression thanks to long ear tufts that typically point straight up like exclamation marks. These nocturnal hunters roost in dense foliage, where their camouflage makes them hard to find, and forage over grasslands for small mammals. Long-eared Owls are nimble flyers, with hearing so acute they can snatch prey in complete darkness. In spring and summer, listen for their low, breathy hoots and strange barking calls in the night." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Long-eared_Owl/id It had been a few years since my last visit to the Alberta Bird of Prey Centre - I've only been maybe three or four times - and I had been longing to go back. Much too far and all new driving territory for me to even think about driving there myself. However, six days ago, on 9 September 2016, that is exactly what I did. A friend had said she would come along, too, but she emailed me at 1:00 am that morning to say that she assumed the trip had been cancelled, as she hadn't heard back about the time to meet. In fact, I had sent two emails giving the time, so I don't know what happened there. Very unfortunate, as it would have been great to have had company on such a long drive, and I know she would have had fun with her camera. I knew it would be a long day and further than I would normally drive - and in a brand new car that I have yet to learn to drive! It doesn't look or feel quite as new now, after travelling 481 km! Only got lost twice, one minor and the other major. Must have taken a wrong turn somewhere down south and I ended up in the city of Lethbridge, that I had very carefully planned to avoid. After driving for three and three-quarter hours, I finally arrived, to my huge relief. Despite getting there later than I had hoped, I still had more than enough time to wander round the grounds and photograph the various raptors. Some were tethered out in a grassy area and others were in outdoor cages. Wonderful to get such a close look at the various majestic birds. I took a slightly different way home via #845 (?), making absolutely sure that I didn't accidentally find myself in Lethbridge again and it wasn't too long before I found myself in the area that I had driven a few weeks ago, when I went SW of Vulcan to look for Common Nighthawks (without any luck). Just so happy that I finally made myself do this drive. When I Googled the Centre's website, I had discovered that they were closing two days later for the winter. So, it was either a case of going the next day or not at all till next May onwards. The very next day, 10 September 2016, I took my daughter on a long drive in Kananaskis. This was yet another place that I had longed to be able to drive for many years - and finally I did it! I had been lots of times with various friends, but this was the very first time I had ever driven myself. We had planned to do this a few weeks earlier, but then my car had major repairs that needed to be done. Instead, I knew I just couldn't put any more money into my 17-year-old car, and I ended up replacing it. So glad we went on this particular day, as it snowed the following day.

Sunday, 30 March 2014, and it's snowing - again, with more to come tomorrow. Temperature is -6C, windchill -12C. Only seven new photos from My Flickr Contacts this morning? On 17 December 2013, it was a long day of Christmas Bird Count south of the city. A group of nine of us, travelling in two vehicles, covered part of the huge circle around High River. A few others from Calgary, plus quite a few people from the town, covered the rest. We were so lucky with the weather - the temperature actually got up to 9C! We left Calgary at 7:15 a.m., but by the time we arrived at Frank Lake, our first destination, the sunrise was just beginning. On this count last year, every plant and blade of dry grass was covered in wonderful hoar frost - not so lucky this time. Snow depth was from bare ground to 15 cm, with drifts to 100cm, and there was no open water at the lake. From the report: 6 kms on foot; 75kms by car; 3 hrs on foot, 5 hours by car. The day was spent driving the backroads, and calling in at various homesteads and farms. We had three species of owl, which, as you can imagine, delighted everyone in my group. We had hoped to see a Snowy Owl, but no luck this year. My group had 19 species of bird by the end of the day - we finished driving around 4:00 p.m.. Noticeably lacking were small birds, such as Snow Buntings - so we had to make do with owls, lol! The final list for our group, covering two areas, was: Mallard-12/ 0= 12 Northern Pintail-1 f./ 0= 1 Common Goldeneye-4/0= 4 Gray Partridge-17/30= 47 Ring-necked Pheasant-3/0= 3 Bald Eagle-1ad/1ad= 2 Northern Harrier-1/ 0= 1 Great Horned Owl-4/1= 5 Long-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Short-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Rock Pigeon-47/7= 54 Downy Woodpecker-1/ 0= 1 Northern Flicker-1/0= 1 Black-billed Magpie-7/24= 31 Common Raven-2/1= 3 Horned Lark-2/0= 2 Black-capped Chickadee-0/1= 1 American Tree Sparrow-6/0= 6 House Sparrow-35/140= 175 The absolutely gorgeous, Crow-sized Long-eared Owl, seen in the photo above, was on someone's private land. We were given permission to wander around, searching the trees and open area. A few people had gone ahead of me just a matter of steps, when suddenly, to my amazement and total delight, I noticed this little owl hiding deep within a Spruce tree : ))) Couldn't believe my eyes! I've seen three of these Crow-sized owls before, but each time is as exciting as if it were the very first time. Actually, we had already seen another Long-eared Owl earlier in the day! You won't believe this, but two trees away from this Spruce tree - the trees were all squashed together and looked more like one huge tree - there was a beautiful Great Horned Owl! Of course, we were all hoping that the GHO wouldn't take the smaller owl for its supper! Oh, did I mention that two Short-eared Owls were spotted by someone in the first car, hidden amongst the dead grasses? They were sitting there, facing each other, and I managed to just get a couple of rather poor photos. Another thrill of the day : ) At the end of the day, some of the people involved in this count stayed for a pot-luck supper. Thanks so much to everyone who organized this annual Count and worked so hard with preparing for the meal. We always enjoy this time at the end of a long day, chatting about what we'd all been seeing in the various segments of the huge circle. Special thanks to Greg Wagner, who organized the whole event - well done, as usual, Greg : ) Thanks so much, Lorrie and John, for driving some of us the whole day and for picking me up and bringing me home - really appreciate your coming well out of your way to do this! This photo is in the following SETS: BIRDS OF ALBERTA 8 www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157633662858024/ OWLS 2 www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157625490621680/ LONG-EARED OWL www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157638800222153/ FRANK LAKE & AREA www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157629680856126/ EXPLORE, FLICKR www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157594372373773/

I was deleting a few very old photos recently and came across this one, taken on 13 October 2006. I posted a vertical shot back then, but thought I'd post a view that shows more of the body position. I always say that 13 is my lucky number and that day was Friday 13th! That evening, I decided I would drive over to the east end of Fish Creek Park and see if I could see a familiar pair of Great Horned Owls. I wanted some new owl photos to post here! Instead, I decided I would stop off en route at Burnsmead and take a few pictures of a really beautiful sky. Thought I'd do a short walk while I was there and when I heard rather a lot of noisy Chickadees coming from one particular bush, I stopped to have a look. I found myself staring into the eyes of this rare to uncommon, wonderful little owl!! This photo was taken after it had flown a couple of feet to a different branch in the same bush. It almost reminded me of a cat lying down. Then I accidentally snapped a dead branch that was lying on the ground and the owl flew a few bushes away, where it was immediately surrounded by Magpies that harassed it. This was the first time I had ever seen a Long-eared Owl and I was SO excited! I must admit that I wasn't even sure what kind of owl it was until I got home and checked. Since that day, I've seen another five or six Long-eared Owls, so I have been extremely lucky.

Five days before I saw this Long-eared Owl, its little face covered in ice crystals, I was lucky enough to see two of these owls (see photo in comment box) on a Christmas Bird Count south of the city. The owl in my top photo was down at ground level, hidden in a small cluster of trees, and it looked just like a small, narrow, broken-off tree stump. Friends Cathy and Terry and I would probably never have seen it, but fortunately a car had pulled over and stopped way ahead of us. We slowed right down and stopped some distance behind them, just in case they had found something or were trying to photograph something that might move. It turned out to be this little guy/gal : ) Impossible to get even a half-decent photo, the owl was so well hidden, but we were so thrilled with this sighting, especially my friends, who had never seen a Long-eared Owl before! This was how we started the day. We ended it with seeing a Short-eared Owl. In total, we saw 5 Snowy Owls, 4 Great Horned Owls, 1 Long-eared Owl and 1 Short-eared Owl. Plus a few other species, including a Northern Shrike, many Grey Partridges (all of which flew before we could take photos, other than a couple of very distant ones), Horned Larks, Ravens/Crows, owls in barn windows (always a real treat - see yesterday's photo), a beautiful Gyrfalcon and a colourful sunrise. Not a bad day, I think you'll agree : ) The only thing we didn't see, except briefly, was the sun, so we had low light all day, unfortunately! It was so unbearably cold all day, windchill temperature was -30C. A few seconds out of the car and fingers were so painful, despite wearing gloves. Difficult to hold the camera steady when one is shivering, ha.

On 17 December 2013, it was a long day of Christmas Bird Count south of the city. A group of nine of us, travelling in two vehicles, covered part of the huge circle around High River. A few others from Calgary, plus quite a few people from the town, covered the rest. We were so lucky with the weather - the temperature actually got up to 9C! (Ha, as I'm typing today, 5 January 2014, it's -25C with a windchill of -31C). We left Calgary at 7:15 a.m., but by the time we arrived at Frank Lake, our first destination, the sunrise was just beginning. On this count last year, every plant and blade of dry grass was covered in wonderful hoar frost - not so lucky this time. Snow depth was from bare ground to 15 cm, with drifts to 100cm, and there was no open water at the lake. From the report: 6 kms on foot; 75kms by car; 3 hrs on foot, 5 hours by car. The day was spent driving the backroads, and calling in at various homesteads and farms. We had three species of owl, which, as you can imagine, delighted everyone in my group. We had hoped to see a Snowy Owl, but no luck this year. My group had 19 species of bird by the end of the day - we finished driving around 3:00 p.m..Noticeably lacking were small birds, such as Snow Buntings - so I had to make do with owls, lol! The final list for our group, covering two areas, was: Mallard-12/ 0= 12 Northern Pintail-1 f./ 0= 1 Common Goldeneye-4/0= 4 Gray Partridge-17/30= 47 Ring-necked Pheasant-3/0= 3 Bald Eagle-1ad/1ad= 2 Northern Harrier-1/ 0= 1 Great Horned Owl-4/1= 5 Long-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Short-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Rock Pigeon-47/7= 54 Downy Woodpecker-1/ 0= 1 Northern Flicker-1/0= 1 Black-billed Magpie-7/24= 31 Common Raven-2/1= 3 Horned Lark-2/0= 2 Black-capped Chickadee-0/1= 1 American Tree Sparrow-6/0= 6 House Sparrow-35/140= 175 The absolutely gorgeous, Crow-sized Long-eared Owl, seen in the photo above, was on someone's private land. We were given permission to wander around, searching the trees and open area. A few people had gone ahead of me just a matter of steps, when suddenly, to my amazement and total delight, I noticed this little owl hiding deep within a Spruce tree : ))) Couldn't believe my eyes! I've seen three of these Crow-sized owls before, but each time is as exciting as if it were the very first time. Actually, we had already seen another Long-eared Owl earlier in the day! You won't believe this, but two trees away from this Spruce tree - the trees were all squashed together and looked more like one huge tree - there was a beautiful Great Horned Owl! Of course, we were all hoping that the GHO wouldn't take the smaller owl for its supper! Oh, did I mention that two Short-eared Owls were spotted by someone in the first car, hidden amongst the dead grasses? They were sitting there, facing each other, and I managed to just get a couple of rather poor photos. Another thrill of the day : ) At the end of the day, some of the people involved in this count stayed for a pot-luck supper. Thanks so much to everyone who organized this annual Count and worked so hard with preparing for the meal. We always enjoy this time at the end of a long day, chatting about what we'd all been seeing in the various segments of the huge circle. Special thanks to Greg Wagner, who organized the whole event - well done, as usual, Greg : ) Thanks so much, Lorrie and John, for driving some of us the whole day and for picking me up and bringing me home - really appreciate your coming well out of your way to do this! Today, 5 January 2014, it's going to be a long, brutally cold day of birding on the Nanton annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count, roughly an hour's drive S of Calgary. Had to set my alarm for 4:30 a.m. (after getting to sleep around 2:15 a.m.). Be back later. www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/11773643634

Sorry to keep repeating the same information under various photos taken that day - done mainly for my own use. On 17 December 2013, it was a long day of Christmas Bird Count south of the city. A group of nine of us, travelling in two vehicles, covered part of the huge circle around High River. A few others from Calgary, plus quite a few people from the town, covered the rest. We were so lucky with the weather - the temperature actually got up to 9C! We left Calgary at 7:15 a.m., but by the time we arrived at Frank Lake, our first destination, the sunrise was just beginning. On this count last year, every plant and blade of dry grass was covered in wonderful hoar frost - not so lucky this time. Snow depth was from bare ground to 15 cm, with drifts to 100cm, and there was no/little open water at the lake. From the report: 6 kms on foot; 75kms by car; 3 hrs on foot, 5 hours by car. The day was spent driving the backroads, and calling in at various homesteads and farms. We had three species of owl, which, as you can imagine, delighted everyone in my group. We had hoped to see a Snowy Owl, but no luck this year. My group had 19 species of bird by the end of the day - we finished driving around 4:00 p.m..Noticeably lacking were small birds, such as Snow Buntings - so I had to make do with owls, lol! The final list for our group, covering two areas in our section, was: Mallard-12/ 0= 12 Northern Pintail-1 f./ 0= 1 Common Goldeneye-4/0= 4 Gray Partridge-17/30= 47 Ring-necked Pheasant-3/0= 3 Bald Eagle-1ad/1ad= 2 Northern Harrier-1/ 0= 1 Great Horned Owl-4/1= 5 Long-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Short-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Rock Pigeon-47/7= 54 Downy Woodpecker-1/ 0= 1 Northern Flicker-1/0= 1 Black-billed Magpie-7/24= 31 Common Raven-2/1= 3 Horned Lark-2/0= 2 Black-capped Chickadee-0/1= 1 American Tree Sparrow-6/0= 6 House Sparrow-35/140= 175 The absolutely gorgeous Long-eared Owl, seen in the photo above, was on someone's private land. We were given permission to wander around, searching the trees and open area. A few people had gone ahead of me just a matter of steps, when suddenly, to my amazement and total delight, I noticed this owl hiding deep within a Spruce tree : ))) Couldn't believe my eyes! I've seen three of these Crow-sized owls before, but each time is as exciting as if it were the very first time. The long-eared owl is a very slender, medium-sized bird about 35 centimetres (14 inches) long. Actually, we had already seen another Long-eared Owl earlier in the day! You won't believe this, but two trees away from this Spruce tree - the trees were all squashed together and looked more like one huge tree - there was a beautiful Great Horned Owl! Of course, we were all hoping that the GHO wouldn't take the smaller owl for its supper! Oh, did I mention that two Short-eared Owls were spotted by someone in the first car, hidden amongst the dead grasses? They were sitting there, facing each other, and I managed to just get a couple of rather poor photos. Another thrill of the day : ) At the end of the day, some of the people involved in this count stayed for a pot-luck supper. Thanks so much to everyone who organized this annual Count and worked so hard with preparing for the meal. We always enjoy this time at the end of a long day, chatting about what we'd all been seeing in the various segments of the huge circle. Special thanks to Greg Wagner, who organized the whole event - well done, as usual, Greg : ) Thanks so much, Lorrie and John, for driving some of us the whole day and for picking me up and bringing me home - really appreciate your coming well out of your way to do this! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-eared_Owl

Yesterday, 17 December 2013, it was a long day of Christmas Bird Count south of the city. A group of nine of us, travelling in two vehicles, covered part of the huge circle around High River. A few others from Calgary, plus quite a few people from the town, covered the rest. We were so lucky with the weather - the temperature actually got up to 9C! (Ha, as I'm typing, it's -9C with a windchill of -14C, and the Snowfall Warning that is in effect is proving to be 100% accurate!). We left Calgary at 7:15 a.m. yesterday, but by the time we arrived at Frank Lake, our first destination, the sunrise was just beginning. On this count last year, every plant and blade of dry grass was covered in wonderful hoar frost - not so lucky this time. Snow depth was from bare ground to 15 cm, with drifts to 100cm, and there was no open water at the lake. From the report: 6 kms on foot; 75kms by car; 3 hrs on foot, 5 hours by car. The day was spent driving the backroads, and calling in at various homesteads and farms. We had three species of owl, which, as you can imagine, delighted everyone in my group. We had hoped to see a Snowy Owl, but no luck this year. My group had 19 species of bird by the end of the day - we finished driving around 3:00 p.m..Noticeably lacking were small birds, such as Snow Buntings - so I had to make do with owls, lol! The final list for our group, covering two areas, was: Mallard-12/ 0= 12 Northern Pintail-1 f./ 0= 1 Common Goldeneye-4/0= 4 Gray Partridge-17/30= 47 Ring-necked Pheasant-3/0= 3 Bald Eagle-1ad/1ad= 2 Northern Harrier-1/ 0= 1 Great Horned Owl-4/1= 5 Long-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Short-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Rock Pigeon-47/7= 54 Downy Woodpecker-1/ 0= 1 Northern Flicker-1/0= 1 Black-billed Magpie-7/24= 31 Common Raven-2/1= 3 Horned Lark-2/0= 2 Black-capped Chickadee-0/1= 1 American Tree Sparrow-6/0= 6 House Sparrow-35/140= 175 The absolutely gorgeous Long-eared Owl, seen in the photo above, was on someone's private land. We were given permission to wander around, searching the trees and open area. A few people had gone ahead of me just a matter of steps, when suddenly, to my amazement and total delight, I noticed this little owl hiding deep within a Spruce tree : ))) Couldn't believe my eyes! I've seen three (?) of these Crow-sized owls before, but each time is as exciting as if it were the very first time. Actually, we had already seen another Long-eared Owl earlier in the day! You won't believe this, but two trees away from this Spruce tree - the trees were all squashed together and looked more like one huge tree - there was a beautiful Great Horned Owl! Of course, we were all hoping that the GHO wouldn't take the smaller owl for its supper! Oh, did I mention that two Short-eared Owls were spotted by someone in the first car, hidden amongst the dead grasses? They were sitting there, facing each other, and I managed to just get a couple of rather poor photos. Another thrill of the day : ) At the end of the day, some of the people involved in this count stayed for a pot-luck supper. Thanks so much to everyone who organized this annual Count and worked so hard with preparing for the meal. We always enjoy this time at the end of a long day, chatting about what we'd all been seeing in the various segments of the huge circle. Special thanks to Greg Wagner, who organized the whole event - well done, as usual, Greg : ) Thanks so much, Lorrie and John, for driving some of us the whole day and for picking me up and bringing me home - really appreciate your coming well out of your way to do this!

My little point-and-shoot camera just didn't do well yesterday morning, when we were SO lucky to see a Long-eared Owl in Fish Creek Park. It was high up in a Spruce tree, behind a tangle of branches, low light, camera pointed up towards the sky and too much towards the sun ... sigh. Almost every photo was very blurred - my camera had such a hard time focusing and even when the image looked fine in the view finder, the image still came out a blur. I did use flash on some shots, but I think it made things even worse : ) However, this was definitely a time to be very thankful for ANY photo (only about three) that came out well enough to keep - and post, LOL. This medium-sized species of Owl is rare in Calgary, so this sighting was a real treat! 31–37 cm (12-15 in) in length with an 86–98 cm (34-39 in) wingspan. Thanks so much, Tony! Brilliant spotting, as usual. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-eared_Owl