Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: High River area

This is a poor quality photo, as you can tell, but I did want to post it for the record. It was taken yesterday evening, 12 February 2015, SE of Calgary, at one of the ramps leading from another road, right next to the main, busy highway. The lighting comes from car headlights and street lamps, giving the owl a rather unpleasant colour. We had pulled off the ramp on to one of the small patches where a car is able to stop. We really hoped the owl knew what it was doing and that it would soon leave for the fields. While we were there, it flew alongside the car and pounced on some kind of small rodent (Meadow Vole?) for a snack. Seeing this beautiful Snowy Owl certainly made a great ending to a day of exploration in a mostly familiar place! Yesterday, 12 February 2015, was spent SE of the city, with friends Cathy and Terry. They picked me up around 7:00 am and I think I was home somewhere around 7:30 pm, after a great day of searching for owls, barns, and anything else that caught our eye. The weather was beautiful, despite a cloud layer. The temperature reached a brief high of 13C around 1:00 and 2:00 pm, which felt so good, especially for mid-winter. Many of the roads we travelled along were roads that I had driven on myself, some of them a number of times. A few of the roads were new to me, which was a treat, including a "trail" that was so deeply rutted and snow-covered that I'm amazed that we ever got out of there! This track and another backroad that was new to me led to a few old barns that I really appreciated being shown. I think my friends were amused that I fell asleep on this very rough track - after only an hour and a half's sleep the previous night, on top of always being very sleep-deprived, I'm really not surprised. It's strange how some fields in the whole area were more or less bare and yet others had a lot of snow covering the stubble, with piles of snow lining the edges of the road. As far as wildlife was concerned, we saw 11 owls - 8 Snowy Owls and 3 Great Horned Owls. The Snowies, other than the one in this photo, were all extremely distant, so my photos are of white specks in a nice setting, ha. If I hadn't been with two people who can spot "everything", I'm sure that I would never have found most of these owls! One of the Great Horned Owls gave us a lovely view, although not close, with no branches getting in the way. Loved hearing it calling to its mate, who was presumably tucked into one of the neighbouring trees. Other birds included a flock of Snow Buntings, plus two individuals that were perched on a fence - haven't checked yet to see if I have a sharp enough photo. We had to deal with a lot of heat distortion during the day, so some photos are far from sharp. Another bird we saw was a beautiful Falcon perched on an electricity pylon - not a large bird, so presumably a Prairie Falcon, not a Gyrfalcon. Many thanks, as always, Cathy and Terry, for a great day out, including the delicious chili you made and brought along. Fun and rewarding! Really appreciated being with you, doing what we all enjoy so much. Thanks, too, for giving me time to photograph the various barns we came across!

This is the second morning in the last three days that I've posted my "daily three" very late in the morning. After getting to bed each night around 3:00 a.m.or 3:30 a.m., I overslept till about 11:00 a.m., which messes up my day. The reason for today's lateness is that I spent an amazing day out yesterday with friends Cathy and Terry, south of Calgary, and then got to bed so late after getting things done on my computer. I had found an e-mail on my computer around 12:45 a.m., just as I was about to turn off my computer for the night. Did I want to go birding tomorrow and, if so, to meet at 8:00 a.m.? A full day of excitement and enjoyment left me tired out, but so happy. Can you believe that we saw 17 owls yesterday? SEVENTEEN! I didn't photograph quite every single one, but my friends will let me know exactly how many of each owl we found, once they've gone through their photos. It was something like 10 Snowy Owls and 7 Great Horned Owls. The closest Snowy Owl was seen when it was early evening and the light had gone, and my photos are all blurry. The other owls were little more than a tiny speck in the far, far distance, but I still managed to get some kind of shot of some of them, using 48x zoom plus cropping. The photo above is going to be the best of them, partly because it was seen in such a beautiful setting! To me, the golden stubble looks rather like those outside, front door, sisal mats : ) Perhaps I should add that maybe 16 of the owls that were seen would never have been seen by less experienced birders (and I include myself in that category!). My friends have brilliant eyes when it comes to spotting owls! Just left me shaking my head each time they found one! I'm not too bad at finding owls, but not at that distance! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_Owl

This is the second morning in the last three days that I've posted my "daily three" very late in the morning. After getting to bed each night around 3:00 a.m.or 3:30 a.m., I overslept till about 11:00 a.m. again today, which messes up my day. The reason for today's lateness is that I spent an amazing day out yesterday with friends Cathy and Terry, south of Calgary, and then got to bed so late after getting things done on my computer. I had found an e-mail on my computer around 12:45 a.m.yesterday, just as I was about to turn off my computer for the night. Did I want to go birding tomorrow (i.e. yesterday) and, if so, to meet at 8:00 a.m.. A full day of excitement and enjoyment left me tired out, but so happy. Can you believe that we saw 17 owls yesterday? SEVENTEEN! I didn't photograph quite every single one, but my friends will let me know exactly how many of each owl we found, once they've gone through their photos. It was something like 10 Snowy Owls and 7 Great Horned Owls. The closest Snowy Owl was seen when it was early evening and the light had gone, and my photos are all blurry. The other owls were little more than a tiny speck in the far, far distance, but I still managed to get some kind of shot of some of them, using 48x zoom plus cropping. This sunset photo was taken at 5:18 p.m.. One minute earlier, we had taken photos of a distant Great Horned Owl, sitting on a fence post. Eight minutes later, we were photographing a beautiful male Snowy Owl perched on a power pole - the fading light made even half-decent photos impossible (with my little point-and- shoot, anyway). So much fun just to see, though!!!

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.

I was so happy to notice a row of small, dead Sunflowers at one of the farms a group of us stopped at, when we were taking part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for High River, on 17 December 2013. High River is a small town about half an hour's drive SE of Calgary. Back in June 2013, a good part of the town was submerged during Alberta's Flood of the Century.

This dog and its playmate (a Corgi) came out to greet us when we pulled into one of the farmyards during the annual High River Christmas Bird Count on 17 December 2013.

Gotta dash and get ready to go and meet friends for a day of owling : ) This gorgeous sunrise, taken looking over frozen Frank Lake, started our day of amazing birding two days ago (22 December 2013). Ha, there was a line of four or five close-together wires that ran the whole width of the image, right above the sun - did a quick removal.

This Long-eared Owl was the first of two that a group of us saw during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count in the High River area, on 17 December 2013. No idea how the person spotted it as we were driving along the road, it was so well hidden in a tangle of branches.

Had a great day yesterday with friends Cathy and Terry, driving the backroads SE of the city, hoping to see an owl or two. The day started off with a Long-eared Owl and ended with 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 this 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, a beautiful Gyrfalcon and a colourful sunrise. Not a bad day, I think you'll agree : ) I rarely get to see a Shrike and though this is a distant, heavily cropped shot, I was happy to have got a record of this sighting. The only thing we didn't see, except briefly, was the forecast sun, so unfortunately it was an overcast day of low light. "A predatory songbird, the Northern Shrike breeds in taiga and tundra and winters in southern Canada and the northern United States. It feeds on small birds, mammals, and insects, sometimes impaling them on spines or barbed wire fences." A common name is "Butcher Bird" for obvious reasons : ) Form AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/northern_shrike/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Grey_Shrike

On 17 December 2013, a group of 9 of us took part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the town of High River, a half hour drive S of Calgary. This involved a day of driving the backroads in our segment of the huge circle to be covered, calling in at some of the farms to ask permission to wander in search of any birds. At one farm, there was this beautiful old barn, being enjoyed by a few House Sparrows. No owls to be seen in barn windows that today.

I couldn't resist taking a quick shot when I noticed this line of washing in the yard at one of the farms we called in at, during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count around the town of High River, on 17 December 2013. It's so rare to see washing hanging outside to dry, but it brought back all sorts of old memories. It looked so "Alberta" to me - cowboys, ranches and WINTER.

Caught the last sunlight of the day on this red barn, during the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for High River, a town to the south of Calgary. Taken on 18 December 2012. Another cold day here today, and snowing. Temperature this morning is -22C (-8F), windchill -30C (-22F). Tomorrow is forecast for -27C (-17F), windchill -33C (-27F)! Off to see my youngest daughter later this mornining - she's cooking a turkey lunch for me : ) What an absolute treat! NORAD Santa Cams: "Santa Cams are ultra-cool, high-tech, high-speed digital cameras that NORAD pre-positions at many locations around the world. The cameras capture images and videos of Santa and his reindeer as they make their journey around the world." Apparently, he has already left well over 1,335,200,000 gifts (as of 8:30 a.m. Calgary time). www.noradsanta.org/en/track.html HAPPY CHRISTMAS, everyone, and all the very best in the New Year!!