Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: 28 May 2016

It was the annual May Species Count on the weekend of 28 and 29 May 2016. My group's Saturday Count was down in Fish Creek Provincial Park, Votier's Flats and Shaw's Meadow. On the Sunday, our usual small group (six of us in two cars) covered an area SW of the city - which happens to be one of my favourite and most visited areas. After the Count on 28 May, I decided to go SW of the city later in the afternoon, just for a quick drive. While I was in the area, I checked for the usual birds - Mountain Bluebirds, Snipe, Red-winged Blackbirds, etc.. I was happy when I saw this Eastern Kingbird perched long enough to grab a couple of quick shots. "With dark gray upperparts and a neat white tip to the tail, the Eastern Kingbird looks like it’s wearing a business suit. And this big-headed, broad-shouldered bird does mean business—just watch one harassing crows, Red-tailed Hawks, Great Blue Herons, and other birds that pass over its territory. Eastern Kingbirds often perch on wires in open areas and either sally out for flying insects or flutter slowly over the tops of grasses. They spend winters in South American forests, where they eat mainly fruit." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/eastern_kingbird/id It was a late start to my day this morning. Yesterday, 6 August 2016, was a physically and mentally exhausting day, and I'm still feeling the effects. A great day, too, thanks to friend, Sandy! She very kindly picked me up around 8:15 am and we drove SW of the city and SW of Millarville to Rod Handfield's acreage. For a number of years, this has been one of my favourite places to explore, as his forest tends to be full of all sorts of beautiful finds. One of the two best places that I know for mushrooms, the other being Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. This year has turned out to be great for fungi, thanks to all the endless, torrential rain we have been getting the last few weeks, apart from the scattering of sunny days. This year has so far had such weird weather - a very dry winter, a spring that was as dry and hot as a summer, and now a wet, thundery summer. We met a group of other interested people, most of whom we didn't know, and we searched the land for fungi. Right at the start, I was telling Sandy that on the last visit there, maybe four years ago, we had seen a beautiful Amanita Muscaria mushroom growing just a few feet from the start of the walk. Sure enough, there were several growing in exactly the same spot, which was so exciting. Later in the walk, we saw two other patches of absolute beauties of this poisonous species. The rain was spitting during our walk, and the forest was so dark, but amazingly, some of my photos came out well enough. Thanks so much, Karel, for organizing and leading this trip and for sharing your knowledge with us! Sandy and I left the group around lunchtime, to go looking at vehicles at one of the dealerships. In the last year and a half, I have had to put far too much money into repairs for my poor old 17+ year old car and finally, I knew that I had no choice but to replace it. The muffler and a few other things died several days ago and instead of spending a fortune on repair, I decided I would rather put that money towards a new vehicle. I had been thinking about replacing it the last few years, but now, enough is enough! I'm down to deciding between two models and will have to make up my mind today. All being well, within the coming week, I will once again have a set of wheels, which will feel wonderful. Thanks so much, Sandy, for making it possible for me to go on the great morning at Rod's place and then, for giving up your whole afternoon, helping me look at cars and for also test-driving both. Appreciated beyond words! You are making this whole ordeal of replacing my car so much less traumatizing than it would have otherwise been!!

Needless to say, this is not the kind of photo I like taking, but this is all I could get of this distant little Le Conte's Sparrow. I only have two old photos of a Le Conte’s Sparrow on my photostream, as this is a bird I don’t usually see – and then, on 28 May 2016, during our May Species Count in Fish Creek Park (my group covered the Votier’s Flats and Shaw’s Meadow area), we saw the Sparrow in this photo. A very nice bird to include in our list of species. “A small, orange-faced sparrow of wet grasslands and grassy meadows, the Le Conte's Sparrow is difficult to see because of its secretive nature. On the breeding grounds it usually sings from concealed perches and in the winter it rarely remains in the open for more than a second.” From AllABoutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Le_Contes_Sparrow/id “It is a very secretive bird that prefers to spend most of its time on the ground under the cover of tall grasses. They are typically very difficult to flush, often only flushing at a distance of 1–3 m as they prefer to run across the ground. When they do emerge they rarely fly more than a foot or two above the grass and often descend again within a few meters. Because it is so rarely seen, there are still many gaps in knowledge about the Le Conte’s sparrow. Nests are often very hard to find, and individuals are more often identified by sound than by sight.” From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Le_Conte%27s_sparrow I will add the final list from our Leader, Gus Yaki. Some of the group (myself included) only did the Count in the morning (4 hours of walking) and three people continued in the afternoon. FFCPPSoc. Birding, May species count, Terr. #2, Votier’s Flats, FCPP, from Macleod Tr to Bridge #6, SW Calgary, 0800-1400, Sat. 28May2016. 8 km. Mostly sunny, becoming overcast at noon, light sprinkle, calm, becoming windy from N, 10 kph. 6 to 13°C. 1.Canada Goose-17 2.Gadwall-2 3.American Wigeon-2 4.Mallard-36. 5.Blue-winged Teal-3 6.Redhead-2 7.Bufflehead-1 8.Common Goldeneye-2 9.Common Merganser-1 10.Ring-necked Pheasant-3 11.American White Pelican-27 12.Great Blue Heron-1 (cw) 13.Turkey Vulture-1 (cw) 14.Osprey-2 15.Cooper’s Hawk-1 (cw) 16.Swainson’s Hawk-3 17.Red-tailed Hawk-2 18.Sora-1 19.Killdeer-1 (cw) 20.Spotted Sandpiper-12 21.Franklin’s Gull-78 22.Rock Pigeon-2 23.Northern Saw-whet Owl-1, seen by Jordan Peshev. 24.Belted Kingfisher-2 25.Downy Woodpecker-2 26.Northern Flicker-5. 27.Least Flycatcher-3 28.Red-eyed Vireo-1 29.Black-billed Magpie-4 30.American Crow-4 31.Common Raven-6 32.Tree Swallow-15 33.Northern Rough-winged Swallow-5 34.Bank Swallow-204 35.Black-capped Chickadee-11 36.Red-breasted Nuthatch-4 37.White-breasted Nuthatch-2 38.House Wren-4 39.American Robin-35 40.Gray Catbird-2 41.European Starling-8 42.Tennessee Warbler-2 43.Yellow Warbler-24 44.Chipping Sparrow-4 (cw) 45.Clay-coloured Sparrow-18 46.Savannah Sparrow-3 47.Le Conte’s Sparrow-1 48.Song Sparrow-1 49.Lincoln’s Sparrow-1 (cw) 50.White-throated Sparrow-7 51.Rose-breasted Grosbeak-2 (cw) 52.Red-winged Blackbird-78 53.Yellow-headed Blackbird-2 54.Brown-headed Cowbird-19 55.Baltimore Oriole-2 (cw) 56.House Finch-7 57.Pine Siskin-1 58.American Goldfinch-7 59.House Sparrow-3 Red Squirrel-4 Muskrat-2 Mule Deer-1 Spring Azure butterfly-3 Red-disked Alpine-3

NOTE: 30 May 2016, people can't upload new photos this morning/today either by using the 'new' uploader of the old one. Lots of complaints on the Help Forum, but no word from any staff members yet - a public holiday in the US, unfortunately, though you would think that they would have at least one person available on standby to help. I guess, not Flickr! All three photos posted this morning were taken late afternoon/early evening yesterday, 28 May 2016, along the backroads SW of the city. This Red-winged Blackbird was such a "cooperative" guy for a few brief seconds, which I really appreciated. Usually, I find these Red-winged Blackbirds fly to the next fence post as soon as you pull up slowly beside them, and then do the same if you pull up beside that post. This was just a short drive, as I had been out for four hours in the morning, taking part in the May Species Count. The group I was with covered the Votier's Flats/Shaw Meadows area of Fish Creek Provincial Park. Fortunately, rain stayed away after quite a lot of rain recently. Hopefully, the same happens today, our second day of the count. "One of the most abundant birds across North America, and one of the most boldly colored, the Red-winged Blackbird is a familiar sight atop cattails, along soggy roadsides, and on telephone wires. Glossy-black males have scarlet-and-yellow shoulder patches they can puff up or hide depending on how confident they feel. Females are a subdued, streaky brown, almost like a large, dark sparrow. In the North, their early arrival and tumbling song are happy indications of the return of spring." From Cornell's AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/red-winged_blackbird/id?utm_s... en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-winged_blackbird

All three photos posted this morning were taken late afternoon/early evening yesterday, 28 May 2016, along the backroads SW of the city. This was just a short drive, as I had been out for four hours in the morning, taking part in the annual May Species Count. The group I was with covered the Votier's Flats/Shaw Meadows area of Fish Creek Provincial Park. Fortunately, rain stayed away after quite a lot of rain recently. Hopefully, the same happens today, our second day of the count. "The ring-necked pheasant is a native of Japan and southern China. It was first successfully introduced into southwestern Alberta in 1908. It soon became common throughout central and southeastern Alberta in agricultural areas of the prairie and parkland zones." From Alberta Fish and Wildlife. aep.alberta.ca/fish-wildlife/wild-species/birds/grouse-re...