Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: true Lark

A really blurry shot that isn't very pleasant on the eyes, but I don't see Horned Larks very often and wanted to add this to my albums. On 5 April 2015, I woke up to a winter scene, as it had snowed overnight. I wasn't sure if the drive would be cancelled, but fortunately we went ahead as planned. Only five of us went on this trip to Frank Lake, SE of Calgary. The whole area at and around Frank Lake is one of my favourite places. It was snowing on and off during the day and visibility was not very good. Pretty well all the birds we saw were distant or very distant, as usual when I go on one of these outings. A very enjoyable day as always, though, in an interesting place and with good company. I will add the leader, Tony Timmons' list of our sightings, below, mainly for my own memory. Thanks for the great day, Tony! "Five participants for the Easter Sunday,Nature Calgary Trip to Frank Lake. We found 47 species. Best sighting for the group was an adult Golden Eagle perched on the ground close to the road, (along 184st.E and west of the intersection with 594 Ave.E. on route to Basin3) A Eurasian Wigeon was along the access road to Basin 2,and a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers were spotted in Basin 1. Canada Goose Trumpeter Swan 15 Tundra Swan 2 Eurasian Wigeon 1 American Wigeon Mallard Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Canvasback Redhead Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Barrow's Goldeneye 1m Common Merganser 5 Hooded Merganser 8 Red-breasted Merganser 2 Ruddy Duck 1 Bald Eagle 1 ad. Golden Eagle 1 ad. Northern Harrier 7 Red-tailed Hawk 2 American Kestrel 2 Gray Partridge 8 American Coot Killdeer 2 American Avocet 2 Franklin"s Gull 8 Ring-billed Gull 10 California Gull 100 Rock Pigeon Great Horned Owl 3 ad. Northern Shrike 1 Black-billed Magpie American Crow Common Raven Horned Lark 25 American Robin European Starling Dark-eyed Junco 1 Lapland Longspur (small flock overhead 5-6) Red-winged Blackbird 10 Yellow-headed Blackbird 5 Western Meadowlark 6 House Sparrow Tony Timmons"

Ran out of time and energy late last night to find and edit just two shots for this morning : ) Also, posting really early, as I have a long day ahead of me today (unfortunately, on just one and a half hours of sleep). It's going to be a mainly sunny day with temperature of -2C (windchill -5C) this morning, but it's supposed to soar to a balmy +9C (windchill +7C) this afternoon. From my archives, a distant capture of this beautiful Horned Lark, taken SE of Calgary on 3 February 2013. Friends, Cathy and Terry, and I, had stopped along one of the roads to look at an old homestead and we heard a bird singing so beautifully. I hadn't seen and photographed a Horned Lark for several years, so I was thrilled to see this handsome, horny male perched on a fence post : ) These birds tend to fly dangerously close along the road in front of ones car. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Horned_Lark/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_Lark

A heavily cropped capture of this beautiful Horned Lark, taken SE of Calgary on 3 February 2013. Friends and I had stopped along one of the backroads to look at an old barn and we heard a bird singing so beautifully. I hadn't seen and photographed a Horned Lark for several years, so I was thrilled to see this handsome, horny male perched on a fence post : ) These birds tend to fly dangerously close along the road in front of ones car. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Horned_Lark/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_Lark I wasn't expecting SNOW again this morning, lol! Which of course makes me think immediately of all those people over in the east (Boston, etc.), who are experiencing dreadful conditions with the huge snowstorm that is hitting that whole area. Really, really feel for those who were hit so hard by Hurricane Sandy just a few months ago and still have not recovered from all the damage ,,,. and now this! So many people dealing with so much hardship - my thoughts are with them. Anyone else finding Flickr extremely slow today?

Perhaps you can pretend that this is a painting of these beautiful Horned Larks??? I seem to be posting rather too many photos recently of highly zoomed, highly cropped, grainy photos, lol. There were a number of these beautiful birds down amongst the stubble, feeding - very flighty, but I managed to get a couple of quick shots through the car window. Taken east of Calgary on 24 February 2013, when quite a few of us went on the annual Owl Prowl.