Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: captured

This weekend is Canada's 150th birthday! Canada Day is tomorrow, 1 July 2017. Happy Birthday, Canada!!! Such a great country to live in and I am so thankful to be here and to have spent the last 39 years in Alberta. There will be celebrations all over the place and lots of people on the roads. Please drive carefully, everyone! Yesterday evening, 29 June 2017, a rather large group of us met at 6:30 pm and went SW of the city with Don Stiles, who has been a dedicated Mountain Bluebird Monitor for something like 38 years! It was around 10:00 pm when I finally arrived home. I'm adding a link to a CTV News article from 12 August 2015, about Don and his son, Andrew. Also a link to Andrew's birdhouse-building blog. Two great guys : ) calgary.ctvnews.ca/calgary-birdman-proves-conservation-is... calgarybirdman.blogspot.ca/ andychurch.org/bird-men-stiles-helping-save-mountain-blue... andrewstilescalgary.blogspot.ca/ This drive is an annual trip along Don’s Bluebird Route. We get the chance to see Mountain Bluebirds, Tree Swallows and Wrens nesting in various wooden nesting boxes along the country roads. Some boxes have eggs in the nest, others have tiny babies all packed tightly together. I managed to get a photo of a Bluebird nest with eggs in it, but, with so many people, it wasn't easy to see the various other boxes and get photos. I have seen them before on several other trips and have photos in my Mountain Bluebird album. This photo shows Don holding a Tree Swallow that he had banded. Along the route, we saw a few other bird species, including beautiful American Goldfinches - one pair was hanging out on a fence down the road with a family of Bluebirds. I don't often see baby Bluebirds, so it was fun to see several in this family. The bright yellow of the male Goldfinch was so pretty with the spectacular blue of the male Bluebird. We also saw a Wilson's Snipe perched on a tall crag, a very distant Baltimore Oriole, Cedar Waxwings, to name just a few. Many thanks, as always, Don, for letting us come along with you. It is an evening I look forward to every year, and I could tell how much everyone enjoyed themselves.

One very quick shot of this Long-tailed Weasel was all that I managed to get yesterday, when I went over to Fish Creek Park. My intention had been to get over to the park a few hours earlier, but that didn't happen. As it turned out, I couldn't have chosen a better time to arrive, even if I had planned it. I started walking along a narrow path and, out of the corner of my eye, I saw fast movement - it was this little Weasel running through the snow, with just part of its body seen. When I got closer, I lost sight of it for a few moments, and then suddenly it reappeared, running back in my direction. It disappeared for a second or two and then came back into sight up on this log, with a Meadow Vole in its mouth. Dodging the trees that were closest to me, I was just in time to click the shutter, not even sure if I had captured any of this amazing sight. I quickly took another shot in the same direction, but the Weasel had vanished and I didn't see where it went. The posted photo could have been a bit better composed and I wish the quality was better, but I'm still amazed that I got anything! I waited around for a while, but maybe the Weasel felt like a nap after eating its catch. Such a treat to see this animal, wearing its white, winter coat. I have seen just a handful of them before and its always a challenge to get any photos. Can't believe how lucky I was, including the fact that I didn't have far to walk - always much appreciated, with my back being so painful and usually stopping me from going for walks. My apologies to anyone who may have been down to that area time after time, hoping to see the animal, but always in vain : ) Most of us know what that is like, lol. "Counting its tail, a large Long-tailed Weasel male, the largest of the three species in Canada, stretches nearly half a metre (20 in) in length, yet can slip into a hole just 3 cm (1.25 in) across. This enables it to enter small rodent tunnels used by mice and voles. In summer, it enters ground squirrels burrows in search of its favourite food. Average males measure 406 mm (16 in), their tail is 135 mm (5.25) long and they weigh 225 g (12.6 oz). Males are approximately 25 per cent larger than females, which on average weigh only 102 g (5.7 oz). When winter approaches, within 30 days it grows a coat of white, giving it perfect camouflage against the snow -- all except for the tip of its tail, which stays black. A hungry predator, such as a hawk or owl, aims for that black tip, enabling the weasel to escape. Towards spring, between late February and April, in only 25 days, it reverses the process, acquiring the cinnamon-brown topcoat it will use all summer. This includes brown feet, unlike the other two species which retain white feet. The underside is usually buff-coloured." (Taken from the old weaselhead.org website).