Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: very high up

This was one of the little celebrities at the Ellis Bird Farm when we visited on 4 June 2016. The resident pair of Great Horned Owls, named Ellie and Albert, had three owlets this spring. All three are out of the nest, but this was the only owlet that was seen on our visit. Not sure if this is Gus, the youngest one - if so, there was no sign of his older sisters, Hailey and April. They are practically impossible to find now, with all the leaves on the trees. Just managed to find one small gap though which I could see this cute owlet. At the time I took this photo, this litte guy was curious about a couple of people who were trying to take photos from a different spot. Great Horned Owls have nested on the Ellis farm for many years. On this day, I had the chance to visit somewhere that I had longed to go to for years - the Ellis Bird Farm. This was thanks to the annual Nature Calgary Bus Trip, which goes to a different location each year. When I read where this year's outing was going to be, I was so excited and registered immediately and, apparently, was the first person on the list : ) I believe there were 66 people on the trip, enjoying a great day. The sun was shining and the temperature got up to around 25C - too warm for me and for many others, especially when the whole day is spent outdoors. It was a very early start, with my alarm clocks set for 4:30 am. Unfortunately, they had also been set for 4:30 am the previous day, when I went on a Bio-blitz to the Square Butte Ranch. Being a dreadful 'night owl', this meant that I ended up doing these two trips on about 5 hours sleep total over the two nights. Not good! It is such a treat to go somewhere by bus - everyone can relax and chat. Some of the $50 charge per person went towards a donation to the Ellis Bird Farm (and to the JJ Collett natural area), which was good to know. The drive from Calgary to the Ellis Bird Farm takes about an hour and a half. When we arrived, we were greeted by a long line of bird nest boxes along the fence line. Within the farm area, there were even more nest boxes - everywhere! People donate and send them from all over the province. I believe the Farm has the largest collection of outdoor boxes in the world - 300+! One of the highlights was seeing the Purple Martins and their condominium-style nest boxes. These birds are very social birds, who apparently like people too, and nest in condominium-style nest boxes. They spend "most of the year in the Amazon rainforest in Brazil and come up to Alberta just long enough to raise a family." I think I have only ever seen Purple Martins once before, a few years ago. We started off by watching a very touching old video about Charlie Ellis - what a delightful, very shy, modest man he was. ""Ellis Bird Farm is both a non-profit company and a working farm. It was established in 1982 to carry on the legacy of Lacombe-area conservationists, Charlie and Winnie Ellis, when their farm was purchased by Union Carbide Canada Ltd. At the time, Charlie and Winnie operated one of the largest bluebird trails in Canada and had established their farmstead as a haven for wildlife. The Ellis family of Parkenham, Ontario, came west in 1886 to settle on a ranch near Calgary. Their son John, then a teenager, was married in 1894 to Agnes Clark who had come west from Ontario in 1888 to teach school. They lived near Calgary until 1906 when they moved with their family of four children to a quarter section homestead in the Joffre district. In 1907 they built a two-storey frame house and subsequently enlarged the farm by the purchase of an additional five quarters. After John and Agnes passed away in the early 1950s, two of their children, Charlie and Winnie, took over the farm operations. And about this same time, Charlie began a project that was to dominate the rest of his life; he set out his first nesting box for the Mountain Bluebirds." From Ellis Bird Farm website. www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/ After the video, we were divided into two large groups and then further divided again. Not easy to organize such a large number of people and it was rather confusing, Have to admit that I ended up, like varous friends, wandering around, taking photos. I always prefer to be free to do this, as there is a lot of information on the Internet, which can be read before and after such a visit. "​Ellis Bird Farm made science history on Tuesday May 31 when University of Manitoba Grad Student, Alisha Ritchie, and her EBF team (Cheyenne Knight, Claudia Lipski and Myrna Pearman) retrapped a very special yearling Purple Martin. This bird had been retrofitted with a light level geolocator last season, as a nestling, and is the first songbird EVER(!) to be tracked on its first migration. The bird had evaded several attempts to trap it, so it has been named Houdini." Information about their Purple Martin Geolocator Program: www.ellisbirdfarm.ca/purple-martin-geolocators.html Following our visit to the Farm, we boarded the two buses and were driven about half an hour's drive away, to the JJ Collett natural area, where the amazing Dr. Charles (Charlie) Bird took us on a walk (longer and faster paced than we were expecting, ha) along one of the trails. This is an interesting place to visit - will have to add information about it when I eventually post an image or two taken there. www.jjcollett.com/ Not sure what time we got back to the meeting place in Calgary - around 5:15 pm? I sat in my car and gulped down a mug of black coffee before driving for maybe 45 minutes to the far side of the city. My vehicle had been sitting in the sun all day and my coffee was as hot as if freshly made! Thank you, Nature Calgary and Leslie, for organizing this special day trip for us! Very successful and greatly enjoyed! Kate, thank you for your company on the drive there and back - made the time go faster and was so enjoyable.

It never fails to amaze me how a camera (especially a point-and-shoot) can photograph something like an owl that is perched on a very high branch of a tall tree, and yet make the bird look as if it was sitting more or less at eye level and close. Clever! According to the EXIF data, this was taken at Focal Length (35mm format) - 1200 mm (48x zoom). On 4 May 2016, I had a volunteer shift and then thought I might call in at the Reader Rock Garden. Changed my mind when I discovered that new road construction was taking place at the very first corner I was going to take, so I couldn't turn right. Instead, I called in at Fish Creek Park to check on the family of Great Horned Owls. Both young ones were still in the nest tree, but I could only see one of the owlets properly and there was no activity at all while I was there - a friend did see both after I left. Isn't that always the way, lol? When I called in at the park two days later, I discovered that both owlets had fledged and one was on the ground. I wasn't expecting that to happen so quickly, so I never did get a chance to see or photograph both owlets in the nest cavity or balancing on the rim of the tree trunk. I didn't post a photo of the owlet on top of a fallen log, as I was waiting to hear from someone that it had successfully climbed high up into a tree. There were enough people around it when it was on the ground when I was there - I didn't want to encourage a whole pile of others coming down to the park in case the owlet was on the ground for days, like happened a few years ago at a different location in the park. Apparently, it climbed the tree quite quickly, so wasn't on the ground for long, thank goodness. Now I will feel comfortable posting a photo of the little owl standing on the log, so will do so in the next few days. I think the adult in this photo was Mom. She was sitting upright for a while and then shifted position slightly, so I did manage to get a few slightly different shots of her. After the owls, I walked over to a creek where I was lucky enough to see a beautiful pair of Wood Ducks and a pair of American Wigeon. A treat to see them closer than I usually see them. Haven't seen them there since, so I was lucky that day. "With its long, earlike tufts, intimidating yellow-eyed stare, and deep hooting voice, the Great Horned Owl is the quintessential owl of storybooks. This powerful predator can take down birds and mammals even larger than itself, but it also dines on daintier fare such as tiny scorpions, mice, and frogs. It’s one of the most common owls in North America, equally at home in deserts, wetlands, forests, grasslands, backyards, cities, and almost any other semi-open habitat between the Arctic and the tropics. Great Horned Owls are nocturnal. You may see them at dusk sitting on fence posts or tree limbs at the edges of open areas, or flying across roads or fields with stiff, deep beats of their rounded wings. Their call is a deep, stuttering series of four to five hoots." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Horned_Owl/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_horned_owl

Updated (on 11 May 2016) news on the massive Fort McMurray area wildfire. www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/weather-factoring... ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- I am amazed that this photo came out like it did, as this female Great Horned Owl and one of her two fledglings were so high up in a tree and the evening light was fading. The original photo was very dark, but some brightening revealed this view of Mom feeding her hungry young one. Things seem to have happened so fast this spring and I missed seeing the two owlets balancing on the rim of the nesting tree. Also, I have been so busy that I think I've only been over to see the youngsters on three separate occasions. Looking on the more important side, this has meant one less person intruding on their area, of course. "With its long, earlike tufts, intimidating yellow-eyed stare, and deep hooting voice, the Great Horned Owl is the quintessential owl of storybooks. This powerful predator can take down birds and mammals even larger than itself, but it also dines on daintier fare such as tiny scorpions, mice, and frogs. It’s one of the most common owls in North America, equally at home in deserts, wetlands, forests, grasslands, backyards, cities, and almost any other semi-open habitat between the Arctic and the tropics. Great Horned Owls are nocturnal. You may see them at dusk sitting on fence posts or tree limbs at the edges of open areas, or flying across roads or fields with stiff, deep beats of their rounded wings. Their call is a deep, stuttering series of four to five hoots." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Great_Horned_Owl/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_horned_owl