Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: landmark

So many things going wrong on Flickr this morning! Hope the rest of you are not having to put up with this. Today, 30 November 2018, I am starting on photos taken during the week we spent in Quebec, 12-18 May 2018. Some photos were taken in the small, coastal village of Tadoussac itself, others were taken in the wonderful garden of the home in which we stayed all week, and the rest were taken on several drives we made further north along the coast. Before leaving home in Alberta, I had seen many photos online of this huge, bright red building and hoped we would get the chance to see it. The large, red and white hotel, which opened in 1864, is an attraction for many photographers. Likewise with the small, old church in front of it, that is the oldest wooden church in North America.. Link to my album (358 images) about Point Pelee and area, Ontario: www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/albums/72157667191771677 At the end of our 4-day stay at Point Pelee, we had to drive all the way back to Toronto, from where we flew to Quebec City airport. From there, we had a four-hour drive to Tadoussac on the coast of the St. Lawrence Seaway. This is such a delightful, small place and in a beautiful setting. One of our friends, Anne B, and her husband have a summer cabin further along the cliff from the few stores and port. She had invited the four of us to go with her from Pelee to spend a week at her beautiful home. What an absolute treat this was! We were able to meet some of her relatives, too, who also have built cabins out there. We were looked after so well, and we were able to see and photograph all sorts of birds and other things. We made several trips to see different places, including the Cap Tourmente National Wildlife Area, where we were able to see endless thousands of Snow Geese, in flight and also up close. Breathtaking! We also had two boat trips from Tadoussac - one was a whaling trip in a Zodiac, where we saw very, very distant Beluga and Minke Whales. The Belugas looked almost like the white wave crests - but they were Belugas. The other boat trip was to the Brandy Pot Islands, inhabited by thousands of Razorbills and Common Murres, which were new birds for us, and Double-crested Cormorants that were nesting in tree tops. That long boat trip (in a tiny boat named Juno) started off in the rain and dark clouds and it was soooo cold! Thermal underwear, layers of fleece and toque and gloves were needed. This day was arranged through a contact of Anne's and it was so much enjoyed! Of course, we anchored a distance away from the island and sat there and ate our sandwiches and took endless photos - difficult when bobbing up and down on the rough water! It is forbidden to land on the island at nesting time. Anne B, I can't thank you enough for organizing this holiday for us all and for inviting us to spend a week at your cabin. You worked so hard and it was so much appreciated by each and every one of us. Thank you for doing all the many hours of driving, too! Janet and Anne, thank you so much for compiling the lists of birds seen each day at various locations, and posted to ebird. These entries will be a huge help while I try and sort out where we were and when, and what species we saw. Miss your cookies and muffins, Janet, that you kindly made for us in Tadoussac, to go along with the wonderful meals that Anne planned and made for us : )

On 5 July 2016, I finally drove down SE of the city to the Frank Lake area. I have missed almost all the shore birds this year and knew that if I didn't go very soon, they would all have left. As it was, I saw very few birds of any kind. I drove straight to the blind/hide, where everything was quiet, other than a few Coots with their teenage kids, several Ruddy Ducks including a female lying on her nest, a Marsh Wren that I could hear but not see, a couple of Red-winged Blackbirds, maybe three White-faced Ibis flying by, a few Tree Swallows and a rather handsome Barn Swallow. No Soras, no Eared Grebes. As soon as I had left the blind and taken a few steps down the boardwalk, I was totally taken by surprise by a Black-crowned Night Heron that flew overhead, being chased by a small shorebird. The Heron was letting out a very loud 'hoarse scream' that sounded almost human-like. Just managed to get a rapid shot of the Heron before it flew out of camera view, posted yesterday just for my own record. I so rarely see a Night Heron, though I did see and photograph a beautiful juvenile that was hanging out at Lafarge Meadows in Fish Creek Park last year (2015) and a very recent, close adult east of Calgary. From the blind area at Frank Lake, I drove eastwards and eventually came to Mossleigh, where I stopped at the three grain elevators to take photos. Can't remember if I had been there just once or maybe twice before. On the way, I stopped to photograph an old homestead which, until recently, I have usually seen and photographed in winter, not summer. The weather forecast was for a risk of thunderstorms, though fortunately there was just a tiny bit of short-lived rain. The previous week, there had been tornadoes north and south of Calgary, but there was no Tornado Warning in effect on this day. A great kind of sky when a few of the fields were turning bright yellow from the Canola crops. However, a real challenge for my camera, which recently developed another problem - when I am trying to focus on something, it goes in and out of focus rapidly and 'shudders', making it most unpleasant to view as well as making it very difficult to see what I'm taking. This is not the usual difficulty of getting the camera to focus. Then, yesterday, when I very slightly tipped the camera upwards, once I had focused on say a field of Canola, the lower half of the viewfinder suddenly went so dark I couldn't really see anything. Such a pain, especially as I absolutely had to have a working camera for the whole of this weekend (Waterton)! As it is, I always take almost all my photos on the sunset setting, because the regular settings give me totally washed out images that have little detail - just not usable. Amazes me that any of my photos turn out, ha. (Camera since replaced with same model). A few hours later, it was time to return home after several very enjoyable hours out. More of a cloud, scenery and old barn trip than a birding trip, but those of you who know me, know I love photographing all of the above. A very interesting and informative website, with a lot of information about this row of old elevators, is found at the following link. I find myself returning often to Chris and Connie's site to read about other places they have visited. It's well worth a visit to read about their travels. www.bigdoer.com/2360/exploring-history/mossleigh-elevators/ According to the website at the above link: " Update: May 2013. The lineage of the Mossleigh grain elevators has been cleared up. One was built for P&H, one for Pioneer which was later taken over by P&H, and finally one was built for the Searle Grain Company, later UGG and finally P&H. All were built in 1930 but it’s not clear exactly when they changed hands. A forth elevator used to sit here (UGG) but it was destroyed by fire in the 1960s. Update: September 2013. It’s understood that plans are in place to use the track that remains along the subdivision for some sort of tourist train, operating out of the nearby Aspen Crossing campground/garden centre complex. Time will tell if this will come to fruition – Aspen Crossing as it turns out, does have some rail cars sitting on a section of subdivision track just west of Mossleigh."

On 14 April 2014, I spent a wonderful, fun day with my youngest daughter, driving the backroads SE of Calgary. Some of the roads were familiar to me, but others were new territory, which gave us a chance to discover some different abandoned barns and anything else that we thought was interesting and/or beautiful. We knew where our destination was going to be, more or less Mossleigh and Arrowwood, though it was disappointing that the "heat wave" distortion was just too great to get distant, zoomed photos of this row of old grain elevators. It was quite a hazy day, which never helps. Once we got really close, the problem thankfully went away. A very interesting and informative website, with a lot of information about this row of old elevators, is found at the following link. I find myself returning often to Chris and Connie's site to read about other places they have visited. It's well worth a visit to read about their travels. www.bigdoer.com/2360/exploring-history/mossleigh-elevators/ According to the website at the above link: " Update: May 2013. The lineage of the Mossleigh grain elevators has been cleared up. One was built for P&H, one for Pioneer which was later taken over by P&H, and finally one was built for the Searle Grain Company, later UGG and finally P&H. All were built in 1930 but it’s not clear exactly when they changed hands. A forth elevator used to sit here (UGG) but it was destroyed by fire in the 1960s. Update: September 2013. It’s understood that plans are in place to use the track that remains along the subdivision for some sort of tourist train, operating out of the nearby Aspen Crossing campground/garden centre complex. Time will tell if this will come to fruition – Aspen Crossing as it turns out, does have some rail cars sitting on a section of subdivision track just west of Mossleigh." Happy day! I've just found out that if you click on the row of three dots, then RIGHT click on Edit Date, you can open a photo in another tab or window and simply copy all the tags from there. When pasted in the tags of a new photo, they post perfectly. This was one of the things I really did not like about the new Flickr experience, until today, so that's one less thing to dislike.