Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: edge of field

All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, when I at last did a long-overdue drive east of the city. This is my least favourite direction in which to drive from the city and I have to say it stresses me out so much. Once I reach the back roads, I can relax a little, but I am always worried about getting lost. The best few minutes in the five and a half hours I was out were when I came across a beautiful Swainson's Hawk juvenile (hope I have identified it correctly!), perched on a fence post. Finally, a hawk perched along a back road, where I could stop. Amazingly, not one single vehicle came along while I was there. It felt so good to get a few photos of a hawk in the wild, unlike the ones I photographed recently at the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre. I had really hoped I would see a perched hawk and, in fact, I had seen another one earlier in my drive, though that one was more distant. That's all I needed, to make me feel happy and that the drive was worthwhile. For the first time ever, and after having driven past the location other times, I stopped at Weed Lake (south end). Lots of birds, but most were really too far to photograph. Still, I was happy to see a Killdeer and what I think was a little Semipalmated Plover close enough to get a few shots. One disturbing thing I found on the path was a large dead, white bird with a long neck. There were two cylindrical canisters on top of the rotting body - looks like these were empty fireworks. No idea how long this body had been there, or if anyone else has seen it there. Added later: apparently, this dead Swan has been there since at least April of this year.

Apologies to anyone who is kind enough to visit my photostream regularly! You will be so sick and tired of the same or very similar description under so many photos. The main reason I do this is to remind myself of just where I was and when, for each photo. After nine days at home, giving my 16 stitches from minor surgery a chance to start healing properly (now healed well and taken out), an invitation by friends Cathy and Terry to go birding yesterday was welcomed with open arms - as it always is! What a great day we had, searching SE of the city, and finding some really neat birds. Most were impossible to photograph because of distance, but also because we had "heat wave" distortion all day long, making it difficult to get photos that were sharp. It was one of THOSE days, out of the house from 7:15 a.m. to about 8:15 in the evening. By the end of the day, we had seen a total count of 19 owls, from three species - 8 Short-eared Owls, 8 Snowy Owls, 2 Great Horned Owls and one mystery owl. We couldn't decide if the latter was a Snowy Owl or a Short-eared Owl, as it was perched on top of a metal silo, way off in the distance. Later, an excellent birding friend, to whom I sent a photo, identified it as a Snowy Owl. We missed a good photo opp with one of the Short-eared Owls, when we were pulled over, further down the road than several other photographers. We did see this one down on the ground near the edge of the road in a different place, hiding in the dried grasses, but, again, my photo is blurry and grainy. However, it does show how well-camouflaged these owls are when down on the ground among the dried grasses. The eyes do give it away, but if the head is turned away, it's even harder to spot. We saw this one thanks to Ian, who had noticed it and had pulled over just ahead of us down the road. Also saw a Prairie Falcon and lots of Horned Larks - the latter constantly in flight or down on the road ahead of us. The "heat wave" distortion made it impossible to get anything but rather blurry shots of these, but I did post the "best" one of them yesterday - they are so cute with their tiny "horns".