Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Flickr Explore

Lol, this is certainly a different perch from the more usual power pole! Not sure if it's better, or not, but it definitely makes a change : ) Had a great day yesterday with friends Cathy and Terry, driving the backroads SE of the city, hoping to see an owl or two. My title for this photo came from Terry's description of the day we had - it started off with a Long-eared Owl and ended with a Short-eared Owl! In total, we saw 5 Snowy Owls including this handsome male, 4 Great Horned Owls, 1 Long-eared Owl and 1 Short-eared Owl. Plus a few other species, including a Northern Shrike, many Grey Partridges (all of which flew before we could take photos, other than a couple of very distant ones), Horned Larks, Ravens/Crows, owls in barn windows, a beautiful Gyrfalcon and a colourful sunrise. Not a bad day, I think you'll agree : ) The only thing we didn't see, except briefly, was the sun, so we had low light all day, unfortunately! It was so unbearably cold all day, windchill temperature was -30C. A few seconds out of the car and fingers were so painful. despite wearing gloves. Difficult to hold the camera steady when one is shivering, ha. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snowy_Owl www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/snowy_owl/id

Another last-minute invitation - how lucky I am - so I will be out for the whole day today. My alarms were set for just after 5:00 a.m. and I overslept till 6:00 a.m., after finally getting to bed around 2:30 a.m.! Shouldn't even be on my computer! Anyway, will have to add descriptions when I get back home. Will just add that this is a grainy image - poor light for my point-and-shoot, and taken from a car window. Better than nothing, though : ) Quite often, when I take photos from inside the car, my photos just don't come out how they should and I'm never quite sure exactly why. The car was turned off, but maybe there was still some heat rising from it. Thanks so much for the invite and for spotting this Short-eared Owl, Phil! Photo taken in the Frank Lake area, S of Calgary, on 20 December 2013.