Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Tabby

With a lot of snow forecast for 8 of the following 10 days, I feel very lucky that my daughter and I had such a beautiful day on 17 December 2017, for our Christmas get-together. It was such weird weather, as the colour of the sunrise sky lasted all day, till we left just before sunset. A gorgeous Chinook Arch crossed the sky, staying the whole day. Some of the fields were bare, and others had a light dusting of snow on them. The day started with breakfast at the Saskatoon Farm - always enjoyable. They do close from the end of the day on 23 December and open again in the morning of 17 January. A well-earned break for everyone who works there. As always, we walked around the grounds to look for things to photograph and, as usual, we were in luck - dead Sunflowers, cats, dogs, even a little House Sparrow that was inside one of the greenhouses. From there, we continued south to the area east of High River and drove some of the usual back roads; ones that I had driven just four days earlier. Of course, we were hoping that we might find a Snowy Owl, though I knew not to get our hopes up. Before too long, my daughter spotted our first Snowy Owl of the season - the tiniest speck of white that I could barely see with the naked eye, but it was a Snowy and that was all that mattered. Later in the day, she somehow spotted a second one; again, the tiniest speck perched on a very distant fence post. A few minutes before this second sighting, my daughter spotted two handsome Mule Deer bucks - looked like father and son - lying down next to a metal grain silo, near the edge of the road. They stayed there for a while, which was surprising, as males tend to be far more skittish. Eventually, they stood up and walked off into the field. Of course, we couldn't resist taking shots of any old barns, sheds and houses that we came across. Altogether, a great day that was much enjoyed. Thank you so much, Rachel, for spending the day with me, and doing something that we both love! These are my absolute favourite days in the year.

With a lot of snow forecast for 8 of the following 10 days, I feel very lucky that my daughter and I had such a beautiful day on 17 December 2017, for our Christmas get-together. Along with the snow will come much colder temperatures, too, unfortunately. It was such weird weather, as the colour of the sunrise sky lasted all day, till we left just before sunset. A gorgeous Chinook Arch crossed the sky, staying the whole day. Some of the fields were bare, and others had a light dusting of snow on them. The day started with breakfast at the Saskatoon Farm - always enjoyable. They do close from the end of the day on 23 December and open again in the morning of 17 January. A well-earned break for everyone who works there. As always, we walked around the grounds to look for things to photograph and, as usual, we were in luck - dead Sunflowers, cats, dogs, even a little House Sparrow that was inside one of the greenhouses. From there, we continued south to the area east of High River and drove some of the usual back roads; ones that I had driven just four days earlier. Of course, we were hoping that we might find a Snowy Owl, though I knew not to get our hopes up. Before too long, my daughter spotted our first Snowy Owl of the season - the tiniest speck of white that I could barely see with the naked eye, but it was a Snowy and that was all that mattered. Later in the day, she somehow spotted a second one; again, the tiniest speck perched on a very distant fence post. A few minutes before this second sighting, my daughter spotted two handsome Mule Deer bucks - looked like father and son - lying down next to a metal grain silo, near the edge of the road. They stayed there for a while, which was surprising, as males tend to be far more skittish. Eventually, they stood up and walked off into the field. Of course, we couldn't resist taking shots of any old barns, sheds and houses that we came across. Altogether, a great day that was much enjoyed. Thank you so much, Rachel, for spending the day with me, and doing something that we both love! These are my absolute favourite days in the year.

On 17 December 2011, I was on the Banff/Canmore Christmas Bird Count (in the Rocky Mountains). This was the 37th consecutive year for this event. My small group covered the Harvey Heights area. The meeting place for the various groups was at the home of Colleen Campbell, who so generously opens up her home to us each year, including giving us a lovely warm place to go back to, to eat our lunches and to finalize the lists of birds seen by the end of the day. Colleen is a long-time Wildlife Researcher, who focused exclusively on grizzly bears from 1993 until 2006. She is also known for her incredibly beautiful artwork - photography is another of her keen interests. She had just taken in two adorable little rescue kittens - they were so soft and gentle! There was room in my backback to have put both kittens in to take home with me - but I thought Colleen might notice that they were missing : ) Colleen, thank you so much from us all, for your generosity and welcome - and that includes the welcome that Jesse always gives everyone. What a sweet, intelligent dog she is!

After our three-hour walk at Beaverdam Flats yesterday morning, we drove a few streets away to hopefully see a Mourning Dove in a certain birder's garden. We did find one of them in a Spruce tree on the opposite side of the road, hidden deep within the darkness of the branches. While we were standing watching for birds, this cat strolled across the road to join us. Pat, I'm not sure if this was your cat? Thanks for letting us visit yet again : ) Always a treat each year to see the Doves that love your garden.

Another photo of one of the rescue kittens that were adopted by Colleen in Canmore (near Banff). I got the chance to photograph both of them when we met at Colleen's house for the Banff/Canmore Christmas Bird Count on 17th December 2011.

Just one of the very cute farm cats that we came across when four of us were driving the backroads for the Nanton Christmas Bird Count on January 2nd. We were given the south west quadrant of the Count circle around Nanton (south of Calgary) - such a beautiful area of rolling hills and distant mountain peaks.

Though this beautiful Tabby looks like it was resting peacefully, in fact it was no such thing. It was a hyper little cat, constantly on the move and almost all my photos are ready to be deleted, LOL! Seen at one of the farms on our Bird Count yesterday in the Cochrane Wildlife Preserve and Water Valley area. Such a friendly kitty and simply beautiful. Out of the whole, long day, I saw one bird to photograph - a Pine Grosbeak - and even that one was right at the top of a very tall Spruce tree, LOL!

I just liked the contrast of the blue sky reflected in the vehicle with the lovely orange cat. This was such an active cat the whole time we were watching it - only a couple of my shots came out sharp enough. Taken on 29th December, when a handful of us were doing the Christmas Bird Count in the Cochrane Wildlife Preserve/Water Valley area. I always enjoy seeing the dogs and cats that come out to greet us when we call in at various homesteads/ranches : ) I rarely manage to get bird photos on these Counts, but scenery, pets, Llamas and so on make up for it (for me).

Yesterday, a group of us went south of Calgary to near Nanton, to visit the old homestead belonging to Jim Coutts. He is trying to convert his land back to its original, natural grassland, almost literally one little grass "plug" at a time. He has the most amazing garden, including brilliantly coloured flowersbeds and an area that grows a lot of different native grasses. This is Jim's cat, who came over to check us out and that's my reflection in his/her eyes : ). I didn't notice the brown, wiggly line pattern around the eyes until I downloaded my photos to my computer. I wonder if lots of cats have this pattern or maybe just this individual.