Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: distant view

This photo was taken on 29 December 2016, when three of us took part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the Cochrane Wildlife Reserve area. I'm not sure why it's called a Wildlife Reserve, as it consists of backroads and farms just like on our other Counts. Only three of us went, travelling in just one car, and the section of the Count circle that we covered was east of Highway 22/Cowboy Trail (across from the Water Valley area). This is one of the Llamas seen at one of the farms we called in at during our coverage. This farmer has several of these large, amusing animals, and they are always one of the highlights of this Count for me. Unfortunately, it was very overcast when we were there, so this was taken in poor light. There was so much snow on the long driveway that led to the house, that we were unable to drive up, so we decided to walk. Actually, several of the backroads were in bad condition and I was expecting us to get stuck, which fortunately didn't happen. A huge bag of gravel and a snow shovel were in the back of the vehicle, just in case. "Llamas appear to have originated from the central plains of North America about 40 million years ago. They migrated to South America and Asia about 3 million years ago. By the end of the last ice age (10,000–12,000 years ago) camelids were extinct in North America. As of 2007, there were over 7 million llamas and alpacas in South America and, due to importation from South America in the late 20th century, there are now over 100,000 llamas and 6,500–7,000 alpacas in the US and Canada." From Wikipedia. Another of my favourite farms to stop at has a beautiful, old dog named Fang, along with beautiful cats, and I always look forward to seeing them each year. The neighbouring farm, which is also included in our area, has two fine old, red barns and I was longing to see these again. Unfortunately, we drove in past them, but didn't stop. A bit further in, we did get out of the car while our leader tried to find someone to ask permission for us to get out and look for birds. No one could be found, but it gave me the chance to take two rapid shots through the trees of the second barn, from a side view, which I had never seen before. So, it was a very enjoyable day, though there were not all that many species or individual birds to be seen. Many thanks, Andrew, for driving our leader and myself. You did a great job of handling the roads that had not been cleared of snow. I will add a list of the bird species seen, in a comment box below.

Yesterday, I finally got out on a three-hour birding walk from Shannon Terrace to just before Bebo Grove, in Fish Creek Park. It was a cold morning and we only managed to see nine species of bird. After the walk, four of us went for lunch at Tim Horton's before braving the cold once again at the area where the tiny, popcan-sized Northern Pygmy-owl has been seen on some days during the last few weeks. Friends Cathy and Terry happened to be down in the park and they had already found the owl, which always helps. We got the chance to see it up close when it flew down into some bushes, but the rest of the time it was either high or very high up in one or two different trees. Though I love close shots, I thought this distant one might give an idea of how small this owl is. "The Northern Pygmy-Owl may be tiny, but it’s a ferocious hunter with a taste for songbirds. These owls are mostly dark brown and white, with long tails, smoothly rounded heads, and piercing yellow eyes. They hunt during the day by sitting quietly and surprising their prey. As a defensive measure, songbirds often gather to mob sitting owls until they fly away. Mobbing songbirds can help you find these unobtrusive owls, as can listening for their call, a high-pitched series of toots." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Northern_Pygmy-Owl/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_pygmy_owl