Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: broken tree trunk

Wow, I have to just add the following late this afternoon, as I am so impressed. Just a few hours ago, I posted a new thread in the Help Forum. I really prefer not to post there, but just had to after I happened to come across a website today that was displaying a lot of my photos for FREE downloading and in all sizes. My images are ALL copyright protected. Apparently, they were ALSO displaying download links for all available display sizes for people's photos that on Flickr are NOT set to be downloadable by visitors. Later today, Flickr staff member bhautik joshi PRO answered, saying: "What they are doing is not even remotely OK. We're looking into it." Almost immediately, all we could see on their website were blank, white pages. Amazingly fast action by a staff member, which is hugely appreciated! www.flickr.com/help/forum/en-us/72157668259472146/ flip.life/search/annkelliott/?p=6 flip.life/photo/15482189596/united-church-dorothy-alberta itunes.apple.com/cn/app/fliplife/id1112300459?mt=8 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Position one of these Great Gray Owls right in front of a tree trunk and you will discover how amazing the camouflage is. On 2 April 2016, I stood so that the owl was framed by these two trees. It was along the edge of the forest, quite a distance away, and out of the sun - the colour of the feathers tends to look different when in the shade (a much darker brown) and of course, I get a rather grainy photo. Roughly a month ago, I posted a photo of a different pose taken in the same few minutes. "Although the Great Gray Owl is the tallest American owl with the largest wingspan, it is just a ball of feathers. It preys on small mammals and has relatively small feet. Both the Great Horned and Snowy Owls weigh half again as much, and have larger feet and talons. The oldest recorded Great Gray Owl was at least 18 years, 9 months old and lived in Alberta." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Gray_Owl/lifehistory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Grey_Owl It had been a week since I had last seen one of these owls, so I decided to drive there on 2 April morning and see if one could be seen. When I arrived, three people had already found one - apparently, it had been sitting on a fence post moments before, but flew off into the far line of trees just as I was slowly arriving. Much as I am delighted to see an owl anywhere, along the edge of the trees is my least favourite place, as the owl is then in the shade. After a while, I decided to drive further along the road to see if there were any other owls to be seen, and when I returned, the handful of people were photographing one sitting on a fence post. I just managed to get three or four rather useless shots before it flew off to the forest.

This is a Great Gray Owl, seen NW of Calgary, way back on 25 May 2012. Made a great sighting on my birthday! Love it when these huge owls land on a variety of perches - some photogenic, others not. This was more or less a black silhouette in my original photo, but some brightening (perhaps not quite enough) brought out - an owl with feathers : ) In the link to Wikipedia below, there is an interesting diagram showing just how much of this bulk is skeleton and how much is thick plumage. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Grey_Owl "Although the Great Gray Owl is the tallest American owl with the largest wingspan, it is just a ball of feathers. It preys on small mammals and has relatively small feet. Both the Great Horned and Snowy owls weigh half again as much, and have larger feet and talons. The oldest recorded Great Gray Owl was at least 18 years, 9 months old and lived in Alberta." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Gray_Owl/lifehistory

Position one of these Great Gray Owls right in front of a tree trunk and you will discover how amazing the camouflage is. Yesterday, I stood so that the owl was nicely framed by these two trees. It was along the edge of the forest, quite a distance away, and out of the sun - the colour of the feathers tends to look different when in the shade (a much darker brown). "Although the Great Gray Owl is the tallest American owl with the largest wingspan, it is just a ball of feathers. It preys on small mammals and has relatively small feet. Both the Great Horned and Snowy owls weigh half again as much, and have larger feet and talons. The oldest recorded Great Gray Owl was at least 18 years, 9 months old and lived in Alberta." From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Gray_Owl/lifehistory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Grey_Owl It had been a week since I had last seen one of these owls, so I decided to drive there yesterday morning and see if one could be seen. When I arrived, three people had already found one - apparently, it had been sitting on a fence post moments before, but flew off into the far line of trees just as I was slowly arriving. Much as I am delighted to see an owl anywhere, along the edge of the trees is my least favourite place, as the owl is then in the shade. After a while, I decided to drive further along the road to see if there were any other owls to be seen, and when I returned, the handful of people were photographing one sitting on a fence post. I just managed to get three or four rather useless shots before it flew off to the forest.

When I got up about an hour ago, the sky was blue and the sun was brightly shining. It seems to have clouded over now, but hopefully the smoky air that we've had the last few days has disappeared. If so, that means that the forecast rain for the northwest United States actually happened, which should help all those brave firefighters in their battle against the widespread flames. This photo is being posted just for the record, to add to one of my albums. It was fully zoomed and cropped and the quality looks even worse than it did late last night : ) This was taken before it flew to a nearby snag. Four days ago, on 25 August, 10 of us arrived at a friend's house, ready to go north of Calgary to near Sundre, for a few hours of botanizing, This was the second visit to Judy Osborne's for a few of us, me included. The previous trip was on 30 June 2015. By now, of course, a lot of the wildflowers are finished, but I found enough other things to photograph, including this distant, beautiful Red-tailed Hawk, a Wood Frog, a Yellowjacket (wasp), and a mushroom or two, plus a few of the flowers in our friends' garden at the beginning and end of the day. Their garden is one beautiful sea of yellow at the moment. No scenery shots during the day, as the visibility was so bad due to the smoke coming from serious, widespread forest fires in the northwest United States. Thanks so much, Judy, for having us out on your beautiful property again. It was a most enjoyable day, despite the dreadful, smoke-filled air. We look forward to being out there again next year! Many thanks, too, to Barry, who drove a few of us out there and back to Calgary. A long, long drive and it was much appreciated!

"In the city of Calgary the air quality health index was off the charts through the overnight hours Tuesday (25 August 2015), peaking at 19 on a scale where 10 is considered "high." The smoke is being blown here from the northwestern United States. It affected the visibility the whole day, so there was no sign of the distant mountains and even the hills and fields closest to us. Most unpleasant, and I don't know how people who live much closer to the wildfires are managing! So many Firefighters bravely battling the flames! Added on 27 August - apparently, a spider had climbed inside the equipment used to track air quality and this had given the inaccurate ratings! Air quality was really bad, though. Yesterday morning, 25 August, 10 of us arrived at a friend's house, ready to go north of Calgary to near Sundre, for a few hours of botanizing, This was the second visit to Judy Osborne's for a few of us, me included. The previous trip was on 30 June 2015. By now, of course, a lot of the wildflowers are finished, but I found enough other things to photograph, including this distant, beautiful Red-tailed Hawk, plus a few of the plants in my friends' garden at the beginning and end of the day. Thanks so much, Judy, for having us out on your beautiful property again. It was a most enjoyable day, despite the dreadful, smoke-filled air. We look forward to being out there again next year! Many thanks, too, to Barry, who drove a few of us out there and back to Calgary. A long, long drive and it was much appreciated! "This is probably the most common hawk in North America. If you’ve got sharp eyes you’ll see several individuals on almost any long car ride, anywhere. Red-tailed Hawks soar above open fields, slowly turning circles on their broad, rounded wings. Other times you’ll see them atop telephone poles, eyes fixed on the ground to catch the movements of a vole or a rabbit, or simply waiting out cold weather before climbing a thermal updraft into the sky." From AllAboutBirds. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-tailed_hawk www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-tailed_hawk/id