Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: within city limits

There was a family of several of these beautiful Mourning Doves the other day, 16 July 2014, along one of the gravel roads just within the SW city limits. I've never yet seen one perched on a fence post, but always way up on a high wire. Not as sharp as I would have liked. "A graceful, slender-tailed, small-headed dove that’s common across the continent. Mourning Doves perch on telephone wires and forage for seeds on the ground; their flight is fast and bullet straight. Their soft, drawn-out calls sound like laments. When taking off, their wings make a sharp whistling or whinnying. Mourning Doves are the most frequently hunted species in North America. The Mourning Dove is the most widespread and abundant game bird in North America. Every year hunters harvest more than 20 million, but the Mourning Dove remains one of our most abundant birds with a U.S. population estimated at 350 million. The oldest known Mourning Dove was 31 years 4 months old." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/mourning_dove/lifehistory Temperatures got up to around 32C or 33C three days ago. My desk thermometer said it was 32C in my computer room, so I knew I just had to get out for a while, to enjoy the air-conditioning in my car. The backroads SW of the city come in handy when I don't want to spend too much time on a drive, and I can usually find something of interest to photograph. Didn't see a whole lot this time, though I did see a Swainson's Hawk perched on a high power pole and the gorgeous Wilson's Snipe that I posted the day before yesterday. Think the Hawk must have been the same one that I have photographed before. It was just so laid back, letting me walk past it along the gravel road, so that I wasn't looking into the sun. Now if only it would perch on a fence post instead : ) Today, the sun is shining, but there are some grey clouds up there. I predict rain - the reason is that yesterday, I washed my car for the first time in several months, and after I've done this, it almost always rains (or snows). My arms and shoulders have been just too painful to do this before, but I managed OK yesterday. I have two long drives coming up in the next little while (both of which I've never done before - yikes!), so I wanted to get rid of the awful build-up of dried mud and gravel dust. Driving the gravel backroads, which I love to do, means that I rarely have a clean car :)

I was out all evening on Monday, 7 July 2014, on Don Stiles' annual Bluebird Route trip. Don has been a Bluebird Monitor for about 30 years, so has great experience with Bluebirds - also with Tree Swallows and an occasional Wren that also use the wooden nest boxes! His route is along some of the backroads SW of the city. This time, we didn't see any baby Bluebirds, as all the young ones had already fledged and none of the pairs had a second clutch. We did see nest boxes with tiny Tree Swallow eggs in the nest, and also several nest boxes that had baby Tree Swallows in, around 12 days old. One box had 12 babies in - obviously belonging to two adult females! Can't imagine how they will all cope inside the box when they get bigger. Nice to see a very distant Baltimore Oriole - my first for this year - and various other birds, too. Near the beginning of the trip, this Swainson's Hawk flew and landed at the top of a tree, way down the road from us, but still within camera reach. Another great evening, Don - thanks so much for taking a few of us out with you! "Swainson’s Hawks soar on narrow wings or perch on fence posts and irrigation spouts. These elegant gray, white, and brown hawks hunt rodents in flight, wings held in a shallow V, or even run after insects on the ground. In fall, they take off for Argentine wintering grounds—one of the longest migrations of any American raptor—forming flocks of hundreds or thousands as they travel." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/swainsons_hawk/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swainson's_hawk According to the weather forecast, it looks like we are in for more very hot weather - love the sunshine, but can't cope with the high temperatures.

Took myself off for a short drive along the backroads SW of the city yesterday afternoon (20 April 2014), partly because the sun was actually shining, but also hoping to give my painful arms and shoulder a bit of a rest. Not sure that it helped, though, as I had to keep starting and turning off the car, which may have been worse, or just as bad as, mouse clicking, ha. One of the times I pulled over was to catch this (unfortunately, "eyeless") Crow, perched along one of the gravel roads within the city limits. I don't usually get chances to photograph these large, black birds., but there were several of them flying low over a field. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_Crow www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/american_crow/id A few minutes ago, I discovered how to open two separate screens in My Pictures, simply by holding down the shift key before clicking on My Pictures. That discovery should save a lot of unnecessary mouse clicking, which is greatly to blame for my excruciating arm and shoulder pain.

I think the Canola fields are just about finished, and I'm so thankful that I got out two or three times to capture the vibrant beauty before the landscape returned to green. This was taken within city limits to the west of the city, along one of the gravel backroads, on 31 July 2013. There are 15,000 Canola producers in Alberta. Canola is one of the healthiest vegetable oils, if not the healthiest. "Canola refers to both an edible oil (also known as Canola oil) produced from the seed of any of several varieties of the rape plant, and to those plants, namely a cultivar of either rapeseed (Brassica napus L.) or field mustard (Brassica campestris L. or Brassica Rapa var.). The oil is suitable for consumption by humans and livestock, and for use as biodiesel." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canola

Yesterday afternoon, I decided to take a short drive SW of the city. The clouds in reality were more spectacular than in my image (taken within city limits) - long stripes of whiteness. I LOVE driving the backroads outside the city, and you never quite know what you might see. As well as the rolling fields, which I find so relaxing, I was lucky enough to see a Wilson's Snipe posing on a fence post and a pair of mating Killdeer, which I've never witnessed before. Also saw several Blue-winged Teal - such beautiful ducks - a couple of Coots and a few Northern Shovellers. On my way home, I decided to call in at Fish Creek Park, and was so glad I did - see the last photo I posted today : )))

Cropped a bit too heavily, but I wanted to get rid of an ugly metal pole to the right. Should have tried a better crop, but I ran out of time and energy late last night, ha. I was happy to see this beautiful Merlin female (I think). perched along a gravel road, when I went for a short drive SW of the city on 14 May 2013. I came across a few nice species, including this Merlin, three Phalarope, Northern Shovellers, a pair of Cinnamon Teal, a pair of Canvasbacks, Mountain Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Blue-winged Teal, Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Scaup, Red-necked Grebes, two WIlson's Snipes, a Sora, and a few Ring-necked Ducks. Even my first sighting this spring of a pair of Canada Geese with four or five goslings, though unfortunately they were right out in the middle of a huge pond. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_ (bird) www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Merlin/id Evening: so THAT'S what rain looks like, lol!! Yep, it's raining this evening - other than a few sprinkles, I don't think we've had rain since before winter began, around last October. Needless to say, I washed my car this afternoon, which usually guarantees rain. Thought I'd better wash off all the dried-on mud from driving muddy backroads, before it rained and washed all the mud down on to my parking spot : ) I was so lucky that my auto place was willing to replace my two car headlights late this afternoon. Looked like I was going to have to wait till 23rd May, so I'm really relieved. Botanizing begins tomorrow, so there will be so many long, long days ahead, of walking/hiking and recording plants (and any other things we see, including insects, birds, mushrooms, wild animals, etc.). I always find this coming half of the year totally exhausting and chaotic, but very interesting, of course.

It had just started snowling lightly when I was out of my car, taking this photo. On some of my photos, you can see the thin white streaks from the falling snow, but they are only very faint. Not sure what the plant is that was growing in a large patch in this field, but it gave such a beautiful colour. Taken on 3 October 2012, within the city limits, just west of the residential areas on the south west edge of the city.

How I love seeing the Canola (Rapeseed) fields at the moment! Two days ago, I drove west of the city for the afternoon, passing this amazing sight along one of the side, gravel roads that is still within city limits. What a beautiful place I live in - and I never forget it : ) By the way, this is a zoomed in photo, so the mountains look much closer than they really are. My heart goes out to the people of Norway, who are going through a great tragedy right now. An horrendous shooting spree!

This young Horned Grebe was following Mom around a slough off 22X, being fed often. Taken on July 8th. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_Grebe