Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Merginae

All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, 8 October 2015. Friend Sandy had asked if I wanted to go with her to join friends down at the Irrigation Canal in the city, for a birding walk. This was a long walk - three and a half hours - along both sides of the canal. As you can see in this image, it was a beautiful fall day with enough trees still dressed in gold to give some colourful reflections. The water level was very low, creating just a narrow strip of water with a wide mud bank on either side, that had attracted a number of Greater Yellowlegs and a single American Golden-plover. The latter was a new bird for me and, though I could only get a very distant, poor shot, I've posted it this morning. To me, a juvenile American Golden Plover looks so similar to a juvenile Black-bellied Plover (from photos I've seen), but the ID for the bird we saw was given as American Golden-plover. Much of the time, there were pale, dead grasses in the background and this bird was almost impossible to see. I don't often see Hooded Mergansers and, when I do see one, it's always a long way away. They are quite spectacular ducks, especially the males, who have a crest at the back of their head and can raise this black and white "hood" or lower it (as in this photo). These two guys just did not want to raise their impressive crests. "“Hooded” is something of an understatement for this extravagantly crested little duck. Adult males are a sight to behold, with sharp black-and-white patterns set off by chestnut flanks. Females get their own distinctive elegance from their cinnamon crest. Hooded Mergansers are fairly common on small ponds and rivers, where they dive for fish, crayfish, and other food, seizing it in their thin, serrated bills. They nest in tree cavities; the ducklings depart with a bold leap to the forest floor when only one day old." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Hooded_Merganser/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooded_Merganser The list of the 31 bird species seen (not all by me) from our leaders, Dan and David: 1. Canada Goose - 60+ 2. Mallard - 150+ 3. Northern Shoveler - 1 4. Green-winged Teal - 2 5. Hooded Merganser - 3 males 6. Common Merganser - 20+ 7. Double-crested Cormorant - 4 8. Bald Eagle - 1, immature 9. Red-tailed Hawk - 1 (Harlan’s subspecies) 10. Rough-legged Hawk - 5 (4 dark phase, 1 light phase) 11. AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER 12. Killdeer - 1 13. Greater Yellowlegs - 38+ 14. Long-billed Dowitcher - 11 15. Ring-billed Gull - 400+ 16. Herring Gull - 2 17. Rock Pigeon - 32+ 18. Downy Woodpecker - 1 19. Hairy Woodpecker - 2 20. Northern Flicker - 2 21. Merlin - 2 22. Black-billed Magpie - 15+ 23. American Crow - 6 24. Common Raven - 2 25. Black-capped Chickadee - 7 26. White-breasted Nuthatch - 1 27. American Robin - 8 28. European Starling - 18+ 29. Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2 30. American Tree Sparrow - 1 31. House Finch - 1

Happy SPRING, everyone! I wanted a colourful image to post today, in contrast with my main photo, which shows a winter scene that would more accurately describe today, the first day of spring. Taken at the Calgary Zoo on 9 April 2013, I noticed this male Goldeneye swimming on a small pond there, glowing with spring-time colour created by the reflections from the nearby children's climbing frame : ) Looking out of my window this morning, though, one would never guess that today is the first day of spring. The wind is blowing the heavily falling snow horizontally and I suspect that my planned errands for today might not get done after all. I finally have my new COMPUTER up and running (kind of) after four weeks of total computer stress, complicated by the computer store mess-up, and surgery. Now I am discovering "the good, the bad and the ugly" of Windows 7! Definitely, the"ugly" would apply to the inability to manually rearrange photos in the order you want / need them!!! I am totally amazed and horrified that you can't do this. I searched the Internet and found forums full of endless complaints about this ridiculous issue, many going back to 2010. So, they still haven't changed it, after all this time. I would have thought it would be such a simple thing for Microsoft to change. Every time I want to find a photo, I have to look through many dozens, or more likely many hundreds, of tiny photo icons, trying to find the one photo I need. I would say that being able to arrange photos in the order I (and most photographers, no doubt!) need is one of the most important, necessary functions, so this is not good. If anyone has discovered a way to get round this or has any ideas to make it easier, I would LOVE to hear from you!

When you see a male Common Goldeneye from a distance, it's easy to think it's a black and white bird. In actual fact, the head has beautiful purple iridescence when the sun catches it. Taken at Inglewood Bird Sanctuary on 25 May 2013, when I had a wonderful day out with my youngest daughter. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Goldeneye www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Goldeneye/id ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

This handsome male Common Goldeneye popped up a little closer than I was expecting, after yet another dive : ) Thought it showed the black and white pattern and the circular, white cheek mark quite clearly. I was happy that he and his mate visited one of the Zoo ponds when I happened to be there on 9 April 2013. Usually when I see Goldeneyes, they are in the middle of the Bow River, so I can only get distant shots. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Goldeneye www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/common_goldeneye/id

Usually when I see Common Mergansers, they are far, far away, but yesterday I got lucky with this female when she swam past us, with her mate, on the creek in Fish Creek Park. Taken on 28 April 2013, near Hull's Wood. These birds sure can move fast .

A heavily cropped, very grainy image, taken in very poor light, but it was the "best" of all the shots I took. I didn't realize just how poor the light was and I ended up deleting almost all the photos I took. However, I wouldn't have any of these photos if my friends, Dorothy and Stephen, hadn't very kindly invited me to go along with them to the Irrigation Canal in the city. I rarely see Hooded Mergansers and, when I do see one, it's always a long way away. Quite spectacular ducks, especially the males, who have a crest at the back of their head and can raise this black and white "hood" (as in my photo) or lower it. I really liked the water patterns - except for the awful graininess, ha. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hooded_Merganser

We were lucky enough to see this pair of beautiful Common Mergansers swimming in liquid silver in the creek at Griffith Woods yesterday morning. Not sure why their eyes came out like this - looks almost as if I used flash - but these ducks were way in the distance. Fully zoomed and heavily cropped : ) Though the morning started off overcast, the sun eventually came out and it was just beautiful out. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Common_Merganser/id/ac en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Merganser