Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: rainy day

What a miserable, rainy day it was yesterday, 14 August 2015. I went with five friends on a drive east of the city to see what birds we could find. At the meeting place, we weren't sure whether to go or not, but in the end decided that we would. I tried taking a few photos, but I think this is the only one even remotely fit to post - and I'm only posting it to remind myself of this outing. I will add our leader, Andrew Hart's. account of the day along with his list of what birds were seen (most not by me, as I stayed in the car while the others stood outside with binoculars and scope, getting drenched). Thanks so much for the three hours out, Andrew! "Six of us met at Carburn Park this morning during what turned out to be a brief enough interlude in the rain to persuade us to actually set out on this trip. Our first stop was at the Langdon Corner Slough. Water level there is fairly low with some large expanses of shore available for shorebirds. When I scouted this area yesterday, there were not too many birds taking advantage of that, but today there were a few hundred shorebirds hunkered down. While there was not much variety, and it was not too easy to make birds out in the dark and increasingly heavy rain, Tony Timmons did manage to locate a Western Sandpiper. There could easily have been more than one in the various groups of Semi-Palmeated and Baird's Sandpipers, but if so we could not make it out in the gloom. The Dowitchers were starting to transition out of breeding plumage. As far as we could tell they were all Long Billed. Our complete(ish) list for that stop was: Mallard 500 Northern Shoveler 100 Black-necked Stilt 1 American Avocet 6 Killdeer 1 Spotted Sandpiper 1 Lesser Yellowlegs 10 Baird's Sandpiper 30 Semipalmated Sandpiper 35 Western Sandpiper 1 Long-billed Dowitcher 220 Bonaparte's Gull 1 Franklin's Gull 10 Tree Swallow 4 Savannah Sparrow 1 View this checklist online athttp://ebird.org/ebird/view/checklist?subID=S24625117 There were likely some other duck species, but they were further off in the rain and we could not ID any others. After that we went around to the Weed Lake south access. By now the rain was even heavier and we had seen lightning and heard thunder. So we retreated to the new Tim Horton's in Langdon before calling it a day."

Taken on 16 June 2014, on a dull, rainy afternoon. I had a late afternoon physiotherapy session (shoulder and back), and had already decided that I would go for a short drive SW of the city straight afterwards, no matter what the weather. Well, dark clouds filled the sky and part way there, the rain started. This beautiful Swainson's Hawk was sitting on a high fence that ran along an embankment on that side of the road. On a sunny day, it would have been perfect conditions, but, grainy photos are better than nothing, especially as this bird of prey was all that I saw to photograph during the whole drive. The bird was little more than a dark silhouette, so needed a lot of brightening.

Taken late yesterday afternoon, in the rain. I had a late afternoon physiotherapy session (shoulder and back), and had already decided that I would go for a short drive SW of the city straight afterwards, no matter what the weather. Well, dark clouds filled the sky and part way there, the rain started. This beautiful Swainson's Hawk was sitting on a high fence that ran along the top of an embankment on the side of the road. On a sunny day, it would have been perfect, but, grainy photos are better than nothing, especially as this bird of prey was all that I saw to photograph during the whole drive. The bird was little more than a dark silhouette, so needed brightening. At just after 7:00 a.m. this morning, it's still raining. I got up early, hoping to meet up with friends for one last bird walk, but I just don't feel like getting soaked. I would only be able to manage a very short distance, anyway, thanks to an extremely painful back, so I might just climb back into bed instead .... sigh. Almost one year ago to the day of southern Alberta's devastating Flood of the Century in June 2013, people are getting anxious about the amount of rain that has been falling and continues to fall. Most of the flooding concerns seem to be from just south of Calgary, especially in places like Pincher Creek. I guess we will all be finding out in the next while.

We happened to arrive at Lake Louise just before it decided to rain, on 29 August 2013. Can't complain, though, as the weather was so enjoyable for a good part of the day. Driving west from Calgary, we soon saw that the mountains (eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains) were looking rather hazy. Before too long, we found ourselves driving through very low, thick cloud and the mountains, there one moment, had partly disappeared the next. This went on for a long time and I began to wonder if we would even be able to see the beautiful mountains the further west we went. Eventually, the clouds lifted and the sun shone. Later in the day, the grey clouds started drifting in and we did get some rain, but we had already seen the "best" things. We were able to go inside the Chateau Lake Louise and wander around while the worst of the rain fell. It did clear, giving me a chance to take photos looking out over Lake Louise. Our furthest destination was Peyto Lake (and just a little further). It had been about 32 years since I had been to Peyto Lake, so, needless to say, I was just thrilled to bits to get a chance to go there, thanks to good friend, Sandy! No rain today, 1 March 2014, but the temperature is -26C (windchill -37C), tonight will be -32C (windchill -42C) and tomorrow morning will be -29C (windchill -38C). Am I going out this weekend? NO! We are under a Wind Chill Warning for the whole weekend, as a very cold Arctic air mass and moderate winds are giving extreme wind chill values. These -40C wind chills are being experienced by much of Alberta this weekend. At these extreme wind chill values, frostbite on exposed skin may occur in less than 10 minutes. Taken from information on the Weather Network website.