Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: side/back view

In Bluebirds, the blue colour is produced by the structure of the feather - there is no blue pigment. "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. Examples include the blue feathers of Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Blue Jay's and Steller's Jays." www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Bluebird/id www.jstor.org/discover/pgs/index?id=10.2307/4077277&i... This was a Mountain Bluebird female seen where I often take photos of Mountain Bluebirds, SW of Calgary. Taken on a cold, rainy day, on 21 May 2016, after I had spent the morning with a group of friends at Barb Castell's acreage. It had been arranged for us to visit to see birds such as Evening Grosbeaks, Rose-breasted Grosbeaks, Baltimore Orioles, and three species of Hummingbird. However, I guess they just didn't like the weather any more than we did and were keeping hidden and sheltered somewhere. We did still see a Tree Swallow, Mountain Bluebird, Sapsucker, etc., but not the less commonly seen birds. It was an early start to the day, too, as I had to leave the house at 7:00 am. After spending time at Barb's place, we stopped at several sloughs to check on birds, and then we went our various ways. There were a few places I wanted to check out, plus a brief stop at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park (the best place because it has an outhouse!). When I was there, I thought I might as well at least take a few steps down the rough path, where I was happy to find a group of tiny mushrooms. Also bumped into a fellow birder, who spotted a Cape May Warbler on top of the tallest coniferous tree. I had never seen one before and must remember to see if I can brighten the very distant, black silhouette in a photo I took. From Brown-Lowery, I called in again at a favourite slough to look for the Wilson's Snipes that I love to photograph and found a couple of them. Also found a pair of Mountain Bluebirds that were so cooperative. The female in this photo and her mate were busy collecting strands of dried grasses to line their nesting box. Quite amusing to watch the male try to handle one piece that was too long. Normally, when the weather is very overcast and raining, I stay home : ) I was amazed that some of my photos came out reasonably well, at least when seen at this size, despite the low light. The day after this, on 22 May 2016, it was the same kind of weather. The day was spent with my daughter (as an early birthday for me), but we were mainly in the car and not outside in the rain. Some photos came out OK and others were blurry - just thankful for the ones that came out well enough. We had a lovely day together, starting with a late breakfast at the Saskatoon Farm and then driving some of the back roads SW of Calgary. Thanks so much, Rachel!

An update on my daughter who was in the hospital for a few days. She was allowed to go home three evenings ago, though the medical staff still aren't completely sure of the cause of the problem. She has a follow-up appointment in September, so hopefully she and we will know more at that time. Meanwhile, I feel totally drained, ha! A couple of days ago, on 25 August, 10 of us arrived at a friend's house, ready to go north of Calgary to near Sundre, for a few hours of botanizing, This was the second visit to Judy Osborne's for a few of us, me included. The previous trip was on 30 June 2015. By now, of course, a lot of the wildflowers are finished, but I found enough other things to photograph, including a distant, beautiful Red-tailed Hawk, a Wood Frog and a Yellowjacket (wasp), plus a few of the plants in my friends' garden at the beginning and end of the day. No scenery shots, as the visibility was so bad due to the smoke. There was nothing I could do about the single blade of grass that goes right across the Wood Frog's face. If I had tried to move it with my hiking pole, you know what the frog would have done : ) "Similar to other northern frogs that enter dormancy close to the surface in soil and/or leaf litter, wood frogs can tolerate the freezing of their blood and other tissues. Urea is accumulated in tissues in preparation for overwintering, and liver glycogen is converted in large quantities to glucose in response to internal ice formation. Both urea and glucose act as cryoprotectants to limit the amount of ice that forms and to reduce osmotic shrinkage of cells. Frogs can survive many freeze/thaw events during winter if no more than about 65% of the total body water freezes." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wood_frog Thanks so much, Judy, for having us out on your beautiful property again. It was a most enjoyable day, despite the dreadful, smoke-filled air (from forest fires burning in Washington State, northwest US). We look forward to being out there again next year! Many thanks, too, to Barry, who drove a few of us out there and back to Calgary. A long, long drive and it was much appreciated!

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all Mothers and Mother figures (including Grandmother, Step-Mother, Mothers-in-law, Guardians). In Canada, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May each year. Of course, each and every day should be Mother's Day : ) Hope everyone is enjoying the new Flickr layout, lol! What a mess! Hope they get this all sorted out - and quickly. WHY PHOTOGRAPHERS GET SUCH A BAD NAME! Shown on The Weather Network. www.theweathernetwork.com/videos/Gallery/all/video_galler... Three days ago, on 7 May 2015, I joined friends to go on a birding walk at the south end LaFarge Meadows, accessed off 194th Ave. The weather was beautiful, though the temperature was only 7C-11C, and the birds were so far away : ) I did manage to get a distant shot of two of the three Trumpeter Swans (both juveniles) that were near the river. A Bald Eagle flew overhead and a Great Blue Heron flew in the far distance. A little Savannah Sparrow posed in a small tree for us and a Muskrat was seen in the large pond by the river. The reported list is as follows, though I didn't see many of these birds myself: 1. Canada Goose-15 + two families with young 2. Trumpeter Swan-3 juv. 3. Gadwall-4 4. American Wigeon-40 5. Mallard-30 6. Blue-winged Teal-42 7. Cinnamon Teal-3 8. Northern Shoveler-6 9. Canvasback-6 10. Redhead-1 m 11. Ring-necked Duck-6 12. Common Goldeneye-3 13. Common Merganser-5+ 14. Red necked Grebe-3 15. Great Blue Heron-2 16. Osprey-2+ 17. Bald Eagle-2ad. (adult on nest feeding young) 18. Sharp-shinned Hawk-2 (1 m/1 f.) 19. Swainson’s Hawk-3+ (includes one dark morph) 20. American Coot-100 21. Killdeer-4 22. GREATER YELLOWLEGS-1 23. SOLITARY SANDPIPER-2 24. SPOTTED SANDPIPER-5 25. Franklin’s Gull-380 26. white-headed gull sp.-1 heard 27. Black-billed Magpie-3 28. American Crow-2 29. Common Raven-3 30. Tree Swallow-20 31. Northern Rough-winged Swallow-1 32. Bank Swallow-1 33. American Robin-2 34. European Starling-1 35. CLAY-COLORED SPARROW-1 heard 36. Savannah Sparrow-15 37. Song Sparrow-3 38. Red-winged Blackbird-6 (5 m/1 f) After the walk, I decided to call in at a wetland in SW Calgary, hoping that at least a few of the birds would be close enough for photos. I met a delightful, enthusiastic and knowledgeable photographer/birder while I was there, and she showed me the area accessed from a point that I had never tried before. A handful of duck species could be seen, including this handsome male Lesser Scaup. Just love his black and white, patterned feathers. "Two scaup species live in North America: the Greater Scaup prefers salt water and is found in America and Eurasia, while the Lesser Scaup prefers freshwater and is found only in North America. The Lesser Scaup is one of the most abundant and widespread of the diving ducks in North America." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Lesser_Scaup/id

HAPPY SPRING, everyone! Here, today is heavily overcast and the forecast is for showers this afternoon and tomorrow, and a few snow flurries for Sunday. The temperature is 0C (windchill -3C). Ha, almost noon, and I've just noticed that it's snowing. Good, it looks as if Flickr may be working OK this morning. All day yesterday, my photos were obviously not showing up on most people's Contacts' Photos page. I know some people were having the same problem. I'm digging into my archives for all three of my photos today. I haven't been getting out much with my camera, and on the days I have been out, there hasn't been much to photograph. Hopefully, that will change soon. It is so rare that I get a cold, but I know I have been run down the last while, and I came out in a cold a couple of days ago. This photo was taken SW of Calgary on 12 June 2014. That day, I was so happy when I came across a couple of Black Terns perched on fence posts. Usually, they are flying at top speed in every direction possible, including dive-bombing! I was sitting in the "safety" of my car : ) The Black Tern is a small, dark, graceful Tern, found in freshwater marshes. It eats insects as well as fish. In breeding plumage it has a dark head and chest and gray wings. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Tern www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Black_Tern/id

Love seeing and photographing Wilson Snipes, especially when they are perched on a fence post rather than on the ground. This Snipe was not one of my usual ones, which made a nice change. It was seen yesterday, 16 July 2014, when I took a drive along some of the backroads SW of the city. Temperatures got up to around 32C or 33C yesterday afternoon. 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 have a lot of time, and I can usually find something of interest to photograph. This gorgeous Snipe was sitting on a fence post along one of the backroads, right before I was about to turn on to Highway 22X. They are fairly small birds and I only noticed it at the last minute. Fortunately, there were no other cars behind me, so I was able to reverse till the Snipe was level with my car. I had to shoot from the driver's side - could have got an even closer shot if I had been sitting on the passenger seat : ) "These plump, long-billed birds are among the most widespread shorebirds in North America. They can be tough to see thanks to their cryptic brown and buff coloration and secretive nature. But in summer they often stand on fence posts or take to the sky with a fast, zigzagging flight and an unusual “winnowing” sound made with the tail." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/wilsons_snipe/id "Wilson's Snipe (Gallinago delicata) is a small, stocky shorebird. This species was considered to be a subspecies of the Common Snipe (G. gallinago) until 2003 when it was given its own species status. Wilson's Snipe differs from the latter species in having a narrower white trailing edge to the wings, and eight pairs of tail feathers instead of the typical seven of the Common Snipe. Its common name commemorates the American ornithologist Alexander Wilson." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wilson's_snipe According to Fisher and Acorn's book, "Birds of Alberta", "the common Snipe is both secretive and well camouflaged, so few people notice it until it flushes suddenly from a nearby grassy tussock. As soon as the Snipe takes to the air, it performs a series of quick zigzags - an evasive maneuver designed to confuse predators. Because of this habit, Snipes were among the most difficult birds to shoot (in the days when shorebirds were hunted for sport), and skilled sportsmen were known as "snipers" - a term later adopted by the military." youtu.be/Z16CUdX2g5Q SEVERE THUNDERSTORM WATCH from Weather Network, for afternoon of 17 July 2014: "Severe thunderstorm conditions possible - afternoon to evening. Conditions are favourable for the development of dangerous thunderstorms that may be capable of producing damaging wind gusts, damaging hail and heavy rain. There is also a risk of a tornado. A warm and humid airmass in Southern and east-central Alberta has the potential to produce severe thunderstorms this afternoon and evening. Severe thunderstorms are expected to develop early this afternoon in the Red Deer, Airdrie, and Drumheller regions and then spread eastward into the Hanna, Brooks and Medicine Hat regions. As the severe thunderstorms develop, there is an increased risk for tornadoes to develop in the Drumheller and Hanna regions this afternoon."

On 18 May 2013, I had so much fun trying to photograph three or four of these gorgeous Eared Grebes at Frank Lake, SE of Calgary. They were moving fast, changing direction, and diving suddenly. Took me a while, but I got some photos that I was happy with - and a lot that I still need to delete, ha. They really are beautiful birds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eared_Grebe/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-necked_Grebe ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Grabbed this one from my archives, from July 21st - I don't seem to be getting enough time to look through my photos at the moment, so I'm not necessarily too happy with some that I post. This one just felt summery, which is needed today. Photographed this Eastern Kingbird just south of Highway 22X, along 85th St. loop. It's -3C (windchill -9C) this morning. I thought I heard on my radio alarm that there was a 60% chance of snow today, but it doesn't mention it on the Weather Network. Hoping snow keeps away, as they are supposed to be coming to replace my front door this morning - they came a week ago to explain that there had been a mix-up and they couldn't do the door that day. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eastern_kingbird/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_Kingbird

This was one of several little White-crowned Sparrows that were making themselves heard and seen on Plateau Mountain on July 17th. This one flew to a colourful, dead branch, with the distant blur of a nearby mountain slope in the background. Can't believe I've been fortunate enough to get back to Plateau Mountain twice this summer, thanks to friends! www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/white-crowned_sparrow/id