Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Land of the Dinosaurs

From 6:00 am till 5:00 pm on 23 December 2014, I was taking part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the Horseshoe Canyon/Drumheller area. The group of friends I was with, travelling in three cars, covered the NE quadrant of the Count circle plus an extra bit of land S of Highway 9. There were 10 of us in total, including 3 people from Drumheller. Part of our area included a walk along the edge of the Red Deer River. I'd forgotten that we would be doing this walk - too far for me, so I had to turn back just before the far end. I had time to walk back slowly and take a few photos, including of the typical Badland layers and erosion of the hills in the area, seen in this photo. As you can see, some parts of the Count had no, or very little, snow. At lunch time, we were all treated to home made hot beef and barley soup and tea/coffee at the home of Jim McCabe, who lives in Drumheller and joined us for the Count, along with the two others. Jim works at the Royal Tyrrell Museum of Palaeontology and is the senior preparation technician and lab supervisor there. "The Royal Tyrrell Museum is a Canadian tourist attraction and a centre of palaeontological research noted for its collection of more than 130,000 fossils." (Wikipedia), Located in the Badlands of Alberta, it is known for it's amazing dinosaur finds. I will add the final report of our group's leader (Gus Yaki) below. As far as Snowy Owls are concerned, the driver of the vehicle in which I spent the whole day (another Anne!) and I saw a total of 8 Snowy Owls, including owls seen on the drive to and from the Count area. That makes 18-20 Snowy Owls that I had been lucky enough to see within 4 days (10-12 of them seen when my daughter and I searched E and NE of Calgary on 20 December)! Thanks so much for picking me up and driving the whole day, Anne! I appreciated it so much! "HORSESHOE Canyon/Drumheller CBC, N side of Red Deer River, 0830-1315; 23Dec2014. Sunny, becoming overcast, calm, -8 to -3 to -10°C. Ring-necked Pheasant-1 m. (at Murrays). Eurasian Collared Dove-2+ Snowy Owl-1 juv. Downy Woodpecker-5 Hairy Woodpecker-2 Northern Flicker-1+ Blue Jay-4 Black-billed Magpie-9 Common Raven-4 Black-capped Chickadee-20 Red-breasted Nuthatch-1 White-breasted Nuthatch-2 House Sparrow-75. Mammals: Coyote-2, Eastern Gray Squirrel-black morph-2 Meadow Vole-1 Snowshoe Hare-1 Mule Deer-1. Feeder Birds at Jim McCabe’s Place, Nacmine, not on our territory. 1315-1400, 23Dec2014. Eurasian Collared-Dove-1 Downy Woodpecker-2 Black-billed Magpie-1 Black-capped Chickadee-5 Red-breasted Nuthatch-1 White-breasted Nuthatch-1 Also noted 9 Mule Deer on the Nacmine slope from our territory on the N. side of the Red Deer River. Birds on East Side of Count Circle, Terr #4. 1400-1530, 23Dec2014. Snowy Owl-1 ad m just N of #9, on RR 20.4, just after Jim McC. left us. May have seen it in the morning as well. Black-billed Magpie-12 Common Raven-8 Unidentified small passerine, possible Horned Lark-1, seen flying away. Mammals: Coyote-4 Two people reported Gray Jay-1. Because this is unlikely in the prairie, they have filed a Rare Bird Documentation Form. Gus Yaki"

As you can see by the colour of the sky, this was not the kind of sky I had hoped for on 29 September 2014. The light really was not good, but I had to take photos anyway. This particular area is the official protected area of hoodoos in the Drumheller area, with steps around the various unique formations. Hoodoos can be seen almost anywhere in the Badlands, but the ones at this location are especially impressive. I posted a photo of a few of the most spectacular ones recently - they are just the other side of the largest hill. That day, I finally drove out to an area that lies NE of Calgary, that I had longed to go to for so many years. It must have been 30+ years ago that I first saw this particular area of the Badlands of Alberta. A few times, I had been fairly close when I went on several botany trips out that way, but when you are carpooling, you can't just go wherever you want. So, my youngest daughter and I decided that we both wanted to make this trip. All summer, we had been waiting for a day on which she didn't have to work and a day where the weather forecast was for no rain on the day or there had been no rain the previous day. The Bentonite Clay in the area becomes treacherously slippery when wet. The forecast for this day was for a mainly sunny day - at last, we were going! This drive was the most driving I had ever done in one day. For anyone who doesn't know me, I have battled a driving phobia for decades, plus I have barely any sense of direction, lol! Thankfully, my daughter has an amazing sense of direction, so I knew we wouldn't be stuck out on the prairies in the middle of nowhere. A typical question at too many intersections went as follows: me - "Do we go left?"; my daughter - "No, we go right", lol! I met my daughter at 8:00 am. and I got home shortly before 9:00 pm. Much of that time was spent driving; the rest was spent wandering round three main areas - The Hoodoo Trail, Dorothy and Rowley, in different directions from Drumheller (which is known for its remarkable dinosaur findings). The forecast was far from accurate on our drive out to the Badlands and I began to wonder if we'd made a mistake on going on this trip yesterday. However, knowing that snow would be returning very soon ("returning" because we had two snowstorms on 9 and 10 September), I was beginning to feel rather desperate and really didn't want to risk not getting out there this year. The afternoon was less cloudy and we did have some sun. "Hoodoos take millions of years to form and stand 5 to 7 metres tall. Each hoodoo is a sandstone pillar resting on a thick base of shale that is capped by a large stone. Hoodoos are very fragile and can erode completely if their capstone is dislodged (in other words, no climbing allowed). This protected Hoodoos site is a guaranteed spot to see Hoodoos but smaller versions of these sandstone giants can be found all over the Badlands. The name "Hoodoo" comes from the word "voodoo" and was given to these geological formations by the Europeans. In the Blackfoot and Cree traditions, however, the Hoodoos are believed to be petrified giants who come alive at night to hurl rocks at intruders." From traveldrumheller.com www.traveldrumheller.com/index.php/directory/7-Drumheller... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hoodoo_ (geology) After exploring the areas SE of Drumheller, including at this site, Dorothy and Wayne, we went to Rowley to see the old grain elevators and to wander round this very small, historical place. There are actually three elevators, with two being right next to each other and the other being a bit further away. Dorothy felt and looked almost deserted, whereas Rowley was beautifully kept. From Rowley, we made our way back across the prairies to Calgary. I had planned on getting back before it got dark as I really don't like night driving and very rarely do it, but we didn't quite make it. On the return drive, the last sighting was a Great Horned Owl that was perched part way up a power pole. Well done, Rachel, spotting this welcome bird! Not easy to see in the dark. By the time I got home, I was so tired and my arms were so painful from driving, but, what a great day we had!!