Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Falconiformes

Cropped a bit too heavily, but I wanted to get rid of an ugly metal pole to the right. Should have tried a better crop, but I ran out of time and energy late last night, ha. I was happy to see this beautiful Merlin female (I think). perched along a gravel road, when I went for a short drive SW of the city on 14 May 2013. I came across a few nice species, including this Merlin, three Phalarope, Northern Shovellers, a pair of Cinnamon Teal, a pair of Canvasbacks, Mountain Bluebirds, Tree Swallows, Blue-winged Teal, Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Scaup, Red-necked Grebes, two WIlson's Snipes, a Sora, and a few Ring-necked Ducks. Even my first sighting this spring of a pair of Canada Geese with four or five goslings, though unfortunately they were right out in the middle of a huge pond. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Merlin_ (bird) www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Merlin/id Evening: so THAT'S what rain looks like, lol!! Yep, it's raining this evening - other than a few sprinkles, I don't think we've had rain since before winter began, around last October. Needless to say, I washed my car this afternoon, which usually guarantees rain. Thought I'd better wash off all the dried-on mud from driving muddy backroads, before it rained and washed all the mud down on to my parking spot : ) I was so lucky that my auto place was willing to replace my two car headlights late this afternoon. Looked like I was going to have to wait till 23rd May, so I'm really relieved. Botanizing begins tomorrow, so there will be so many long, long days ahead, of walking/hiking and recording plants (and any other things we see, including insects, birds, mushrooms, wild animals, etc.). I always find this coming half of the year totally exhausting and chaotic, but very interesting, of course.

Two days ago, on a last-minute decision to drive NW of Calgary, I was so lucky to come across this beautiful Gyrfalcon. I didn't notice it in time to stop closer, so I ended up taking some fully zoomed (later, heavily cropped) shots of it way down the road. I wasn't sure what it was until I got home to my bird book and Google, but then reckoned it could be a Gyrfalcon. Thanks to friend, Tony, a superb birder who puts up with my occasional bird ID questions, I now know that it is, indeed, a Gyrfalcon. A handful of times over the last few years, I have been out with various friends and someone will call out "Gyrfalcon" and I see a fast-flying "shape" flying high in the sky, but this is the first time I've really "seen" one. About 45 minutes later, I was staring into the eyes of a beautiful Great Gray Owl : ) All this, plus sunshine - made a great afternoon on 22 March 2013. "The largest falcon in the world, the Gyrfalcon breeds in arctic and subarctic regions of the northern hemisphere. It preys mostly on large birds, pursuing them in breathtakingly fast and powerful flight .... May range from nearly pure white to dark gray to black, with variable barring and streaking; most are gray." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/gyrfalcon/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gyrfalcon

You'd laugh if you knew just how far away this hawk really was! I so rarely even bother to try and get birds in flight, but I think this image is just about fit to add to my Birds of Alberta set : ) Taken on 23 September 2012, when I was still within city limits on the south west edge of the city. I was trying to get a few shots of combine harvesters (or similar) and there must have been about a dozen of these hawks circling way, way overhead. I got in and out of my pulled-over car endless times - somehow, every time I got out, the Hawks would fly even further away. By the time I had got myself settled back in my vehicle, I'd glance upwards and find that the raptors were now that much closer, ha.

I don't "do" in-flight shots, except on the very rare occasion : ) This Hawk was so far away, and I was curious as to what kind it was, so took a couple of quick shots for ID. Full zoom and very heavy cropping showed me that this was a Red-tailed Hawk. I'm really weak on Hawk ID, so my purpose for posting this shot is that maybe, just maybe, I will eventually remember the underwing markings of this species. It hasn't worked yet, but there's always hope, ha. Photographed two days ago along one of the backroads south of Highway 22X. "Because they are so common and easily trained as capable hunters, the majority of hawks captured for falconry in the United States are Red-tails. Falconers are permitted to take only passage hawks (which have left the nest, are on their own, but are less than a year old) so as to not affect the breeding population. Adults, which may be breeding or rearing chicks, may not be taken for falconry purposes and it is illegal to do so. The feathers and other parts of the Red-tailed Hawk are considered sacred to many American indigenous people and, like the feathers of the Bald Eagle and Golden Eagle, are sometimes used in religious ceremonies and found adorning the regalia of many Native Americans in the United States; these parts, most especially their distinctive tail feathers, are a popular item in the Native American community". From Wikipedia. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Red-tailed_Hawk/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Red-tailed_Hawk