Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Ardeidae

On 10 October 2017, I decided to join friends for a three-hour walk - that included a fair bit of standing - at the east end of Fish Creek Provincial Park. I was hoping that there might still be some fall colour to be seen. Strong winds and snow had removed a lot of the leaves from the trees, but there were still enough to give a golden glow to photos. We had a few good sightings, including a Great Blue Heron that seemed to have a problem with swallowing a very tiny fish it had caught. It would catch the fish, and then drop it back in the water, and repeated this several times. I don't think it ever did catch and actually eat it. Another fun thing to see was a male Downy Woodpecker that suddenly flew down to someone's hand. Chickadees and Nuthatches were also very aware that we were standing there. They are so busy searching for and collecting food to store away for the long, harsh winter months. Great Horned Owls nest each year at the east end of the park and have done so for years. I don't know how on earth someone spotted the one we saw on this walk. It was perched far away in a wooded area and was almost impossible to see. If I moved two or three inches to the left or right, the owl was hidden from view. Even though I have seen endless owls over the years, it is always a good feeling to see one again. I guess I missed the owls in this area back in March or April of this year - too busy with preparations for my trip to Trinidad & Tobago, but also, last winter was so brutal.

This beautiful Great Blue Heron was further away than it looks from my photo, but usually I see them flying way overhead or the distant side of a large pond. So, it was great to see one a little bit closer. This bird was seen yesterday, 19 June 2016, at a local pond during an afternoon birding walk - in fact, the very last birding walk of the season until around the end of August. We started our walk at Bankside and ended up at Mallard point four hours later, following the path along the Bow River. Driving the park road to Bankside, we stopped to check out the Burnsmead Ponds, where this beautiful Heron was standing. Another photographer was already there - nice to meet you, Susan, and I enjoyed our little chat. The Sunday afternoon walks are more laid back and tend to be at a more leisurely pace, which suits me much better, so I go when I can. Hard to believe that we ended up seeing 50 bird species! The absolute highlight was when Jeff H. heard, then spotted, a Grasshopper Sparrow. A very clever sighting! I have never seen one and, until recently, had never even heard of such a Sparrow. It couldn't have been much more difficult to see, as it only popped up from the grass and bushes two or three times for a split second, before disappearing again. Eventually, it flew to the plant seen in my next photo, and I was finally able to see it. I think this might just have been the fastest reaction with my camera that has ever happened and somehow the lens luckily focused on the bird rather than just on the leaves in front. Just enough detail to confirm the ID. Thanks so much, Jeff, for finding this great bird for us! Yesterday evening, I got an e-mail from Terry Korolyk, who has spent so many years finding, recording and reporting not only all his own sightings, but those of so many other people. So much work and such valuable data. He wrote the following to me: "You guys got a good one. Haven't seen a Grasshopper Sparrow report around Calgary for quite some time now. We used to occasionally get one reported east of the City. Some places in the south part of the Province used to be good for them with probably the nearest site being north of Taber. Not many reports from down there in recent years, but, I don't think anybody's gone down there looking for them." I did a quick check on ebird last night and found the following most recent sightings from Calgary and surroundings. Of course, there could have been a few unreported sightings in addition to these: 1987 - 1 reported by Nature Calgary at the Irricana Sloughs 1988 - 1 reported by Nature Calgary in Weaselhead 1988 - 6 reported by Nature Calgary at the Irricana Sloughs 1994 - 1 reported by Nature Calgary at Frank Lake FFCPPSoc. Birding Burnsmead Ponds, Bankside to Mallard Point, FCPP, Calgary. 1:15 - 5:15 PM. Sunday, June 19/16. Our Group of Seven enjoyed a sunny, warm (20 to 24C), afternoon with only light westerly winds. 1. Pied-billed Grebe - 1 2. Double-crested Cormorant - 4 3. Great Blue Heron - 2 4. Canada Goose 6 (2 adults,4 goslings) 5. Mallard - 28 6. Gadwall - 5 7. American Wigeon - 7 8. Northern Shoveler - 2 9. Blue-winged Teal - 6 10. Common Goldeneye - 3 11. Common Merganser - 6 12. Cooper's Hawk - 1 13. Red-tailed Hawk - 1 14. Swainson's Hawk - 1 15. Osprey - 1 16. Merlin - 1 17. Ring-necked Pheasant - 3 18. American Coot - 7 (2 adult, 5 young) 19. Spotted Sandpiper - 8 20. Franklin's Gull - 275 21. Ring-billed Gull - 2 22. California Gull - 1 23. Rock (Feral) Pigeon - 3 24. Northern Flicker - 5 25. Downy Woodpecker - 3 26. Western Wood Pewee - 1 heard 27. Least Flycatcher - 2 28. Eastern Kingbird - 2 29. Warbling Vireo - 1 heard 30. Black-billed Magpie - 3 31. American Crow - 4 32. Common Raven - 5 33. Tree Swallow - 30 34. Bank Swallow - 20 35. House Wren - 5 36. American Robin - 32 37. Cedar Waxwing - 6 38. European Starling - 3 39. Yellow Warbler - 6 40. Clay-coloured Sparrow - 5 41. Savannah Sparrow - 48 42. GRASSHOPPER SPARROW - 1 found by Jeff H. Photo'd by Anne E. 43. Song Sparrow - 3 44. Lincoln's Sparrow - 1 45. Baltimore Oriole - 1 46. Red-winged Blackbird - 53 47. Yellow-headed Blackbird - 5 48. Common Grackle - 5 49. Brown-headed Cowbird - 5 50. House Sparrow - 8 Muskrat - 1 White-tailed Deer - 1 Swallowtail Butterfly -1 Leaders: Bernie Diebolt, Janet Gill

When I pulled over at one of the sloughs SW of the city, on 19 July 2013, I noticed something that I'd never seen before at this particular wetland area - a Great Blue Heron. While I was watching, one of the local Red-winged Blackbirds started harassing the Heron, flying down close to its head, making the Heron duck over and over again. Many birders have experienced this themselves. If you accidentally get close to a Red-winged Blackbird's nest, the male doesn't hesitate to buzz you.

I was on a walk with a couple of friends in Fish Creek Park two days ago, 14 October 2012, when we watched this Great Blue Heron that was barely visible through the trees. Managed to find an opening to get this shot. We were surprised that the Heron stayed - normally, they spook very easily. Could this be a juvenile? Very poor light. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blue_Heron

A fully zoomed and heavily cropped capture of this beautiful Great Blue Heron, perched high in a tree at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, on 3 September 2012. A short while earlier, we had noticed a second Heron in flight over the Sanctuary. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blue_Heron

This beautiful Great Blue Heron was further away than it looks from my photo, but usually I see them flying way overhead or the distant side of a large pond. So, it was great to see one a lot closer, perched quite high up in a tree - at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, on September 20th. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Blue_Heron