Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: 28 March 2013

From my archives! I still have many old photos of Great Gray Owls that have not been posted and, as I'm just not getting the chance to "get out there" to look, thought I'd grab a shot from my archives. This photo was taken on a day that I actually got up and left the house really early - maybe the only day I've ever done that, when going somewhere on my own? It was taken shortly after the sun had risen and when quite a lot of the snow had melted. Getting up really early is always so hard for me to do. I'm a night owl with atrocious sleep habits, so getting out of bed at 5:00 a.m. (alarm was set for 4:15 a.m., though!) was not my favourite way to start the day on 28 March 2013. Funny, when I have to meet friends for various early-starting trips, I can do it (but don't like it), but when I go off on my own, there is no deadline to meet, and I just never get round to doing it. I headed NW of the city, wanting to see if time of day made any, or much, difference to seeing wildlife. Who really knows? I have seen these beautiful birds of prey at all sorts of times of the day, but of course the light was different. This one must have plunged into the mix of dried grass and snow fairly recently, as it still had that long piece of grass hanging from near its mouth. Wasn't sure whether to remove it or not - it's in quite a few photos - but decided to leave it just as it was. Right decision, lol? I was also lucky enough to see three other Great Gray Owls, my first Mountain Bluebird of the year (always such a wonderful flash of brilliant blue), a Pileated Woodpecker, and an American Robin (always takes me by surprise when I see a Robin out in the middle of nowhere). A beautiful female Ruffed Grouse helped make my day, too. Guess I can say I was definitely rewarded for getting up so early, even though I might have seen all, or most, of these birds later in the day, too. That was a good winter for Great Gray Owls. Since then, they didn't seem to be seen for a long time but, more recently, people have been seeing them, fortunately. Hope to eventually get out looking, though I'm not sure when. Depends on winter road conditions and also on when the light-headedness I'm getting (like before Christmas) clears up.

Posting just the one photo today as I got up much too late and have a pile of things that I have to start seeing to. Looks beautiful outside, sunny and plus 7C!! Feels so good to be out of the deep-freeze, when windchills got down to as low as -34C. This is a fully zoomed image, Focal Length (35mm format) - 1200 mm, and cropped very slightly. This is a photo from my archives, taken on 28 March 2013. This Great Gray Owl was the first of four that I was lucky enough to see that morning, two closely and two far more distant. At the moment, I'm feeling a bit 'owl deprived', ha, ha, because I'm having no luck finding a Snowy Owl or a Short-eared Owl, except on the one day when they were so far away, you could barely even see them. So, last night, I took a look at one of my very old owl folders and picked this photo, to remind myself of just how lucky I have often been, when it comes to owls of any kind : ) The year 2013 was a great year for seeing these magnificent birds. Getting up really early is always so hard for me to do. I'm a night owl with atrocious sleep habits, so getting out of bed at 5:00 a.m. (alarm was set for 4:15 a.m., though!) was not my favourite way to start the day on 28 March 2013. Funny, when I have to meet friends for various early-starting trips, I can do it (but don't like it), but when I go off on my own, there is no deadline to meet, and I just never get round to doing it. I headed out of the city, wanting to see if time of day made any, or much, difference to seeing wildlife. Who really knows? I have seen these beautiful birds of prey at all sorts of times of the day, but of course the light is always different each time. I was also lucky enough to see three other Great Gray Owls, my first Mountain Bluebird of the year (always such a wonderful flash of brilliant blue), a Pileated Woodpecker, and an American Robin (always takes me by surprise when I see a Robin out in the middle of nowhere). A beautiful female Ruffed Grouse helped make my day, too. Guess I can say I was definitely rewarded for getting up so early, even though I might have seen all, or most, of these birds later in the day, too : ) All about luck and timing. "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

From my archives! I still have many old photos of Great Gray Owls that have not been posted and, as I'm just not getting the chance to "get out there" to look, thought I'd grab a shot from my archives. This shot was taken on a day that I actually got up and left the house really early - maybe the only day I've ever done that, when going somewhere on my own? Getting up really early is always so hard for me to do. I'm a night owl with atrocious sleep habits, so getting out of bed at 5:00 a.m. (alarm was set for 4:15 a.m., though!) was not my favourite way to start the day on 28 March 2013. Funny, when I have to meet friends for various early-starting trips, I can do it (but don't like it), but when I go off on my own, there is no deadline to meet, and I just never get round to doing it. I headed NW of the city, wanting to see if time of day made any, or much, difference to seeing wildlife. Who really knows? I have seen these beautiful birds of prey at all sorts of times of the day, but of course the light was different. This one must have plunged into the mix of dried grass and snow fairly recently, as it still had that long piece of grass hanging from near its mouth. Wasn't sure whether to remove it or not - it's in quite a few photos - but decided to leave it just as it was. Right decision, lol? I was also lucky enough to see three other Great Gray Owls, my first Mountain Bluebird of the year (always such a wonderful flash of brilliant blue), a Pileated Woodpecker, and an American Robin (always takes me by surprise when I see a Robin out in the middle of nowhere). A beautiful female Ruffed Grouse helped make my day, too. Guess I can say I was definitely rewarded for getting up so early, even though I might have seen all, or most, of these birds later in the day, too. That was a good winter for Great Gray Owls. Since then, very few people seem to have been seeing them, unfortunately. Hope to get out looking soon. I have to check my car today to see if I can open the hood and then get it closed again. This was difficult to do on Saturday, after a woman suddenly cut right across my lane of moving traffic and there was no time for me to stop. When the other driver and I checked the hood of my car, we found that it was very difficult to get it closed again. I'm really hoping I don't have to take my vehicle in for some kind of repair.

Not a very well composed image, but I tried to get the closest possible shot of this bird who was in a hurry : ) I saw this beautiful, female Ruffed Grouse NW of Calgary on 28 March 2013. At least, I'm assuming it is a female, though apparently both genders are similarly marked and sized, making them difficult to tell apart. It was the icing on the cake after seeing four Great Gray Owls, an American Robin, and my first Mountain Bluebird of the year (no photos). As always, it's all about timing - you can drive this road many times and there's no sign of any Grouse. My experience has been that these birds tend to freeze right there in the middle of the road. I got out of my car and slowly walked towards it and stood there, taking a number of shots. Then the bird eventually started hurrying to the other side. Love their feather patterns. "The ruffs are on the sides of the neck in both genders. They also have a crest on top of their head, which sometimes lies flat. Both genders are similarly marked and sized, making them difficult to tell apart, even in hand. The female often has a broken subterminal tail band, while males tend to have unbroken tail bands, though the opposite of either can occur. Females may also do a display similar to the male. Another fairly accurate sign is that rump feathers with a single white dot indicate a female; rump feathers with more than one white dot indicate a male." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ruffed_Grouse "The toes of Ruffed Grouse grow projections off their sides in winter, making them look like combs. The projections are believed to act as snowshoes to help the grouse walk across snow." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/ruffed_grouse/id