Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: open country

A really blurry shot that isn't very pleasant on the eyes, but I don't see Horned Larks very often and wanted to add this to my albums. On 5 April 2015, I woke up to a winter scene, as it had snowed overnight. I wasn't sure if the drive would be cancelled, but fortunately we went ahead as planned. Only five of us went on this trip to Frank Lake, SE of Calgary. The whole area at and around Frank Lake is one of my favourite places. It was snowing on and off during the day and visibility was not very good. Pretty well all the birds we saw were distant or very distant, as usual when I go on one of these outings. A very enjoyable day as always, though, in an interesting place and with good company. I will add the leader, Tony Timmons' list of our sightings, below, mainly for my own memory. Thanks for the great day, Tony! "Five participants for the Easter Sunday,Nature Calgary Trip to Frank Lake. We found 47 species. Best sighting for the group was an adult Golden Eagle perched on the ground close to the road, (along 184st.E and west of the intersection with 594 Ave.E. on route to Basin3) A Eurasian Wigeon was along the access road to Basin 2,and a pair of Red-breasted Mergansers were spotted in Basin 1. Canada Goose Trumpeter Swan 15 Tundra Swan 2 Eurasian Wigeon 1 American Wigeon Mallard Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Green-winged Teal Canvasback Redhead Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Barrow's Goldeneye 1m Common Merganser 5 Hooded Merganser 8 Red-breasted Merganser 2 Ruddy Duck 1 Bald Eagle 1 ad. Golden Eagle 1 ad. Northern Harrier 7 Red-tailed Hawk 2 American Kestrel 2 Gray Partridge 8 American Coot Killdeer 2 American Avocet 2 Franklin"s Gull 8 Ring-billed Gull 10 California Gull 100 Rock Pigeon Great Horned Owl 3 ad. Northern Shrike 1 Black-billed Magpie American Crow Common Raven Horned Lark 25 American Robin European Starling Dark-eyed Junco 1 Lapland Longspur (small flock overhead 5-6) Red-winged Blackbird 10 Yellow-headed Blackbird 5 Western Meadowlark 6 House Sparrow Tony Timmons"

Ran out of time and energy late last night to find and edit just two shots for this morning : ) Also, posting really early, as I have a long day ahead of me today (unfortunately, on just one and a half hours of sleep). It's going to be a mainly sunny day with temperature of -2C (windchill -5C) this morning, but it's supposed to soar to a balmy +9C (windchill +7C) this afternoon. From my archives, a distant capture of this beautiful Horned Lark, taken SE of Calgary on 3 February 2013. Friends, Cathy and Terry, and I, had stopped along one of the roads to look at an old homestead and we heard a bird singing so beautifully. I hadn't seen and photographed a Horned Lark for several years, so I was thrilled to see this handsome, horny male perched on a fence post : ) These birds tend to fly dangerously close along the road in front of ones car. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Horned_Lark/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_Lark

This photo was taken at 8:34 p.m. yesterday, 19 April 2013, just as it was beginning to get dark. Really no use for photos with my point-and-shoot, but I was determined to try now that I had finally found a Short-eared Owl! (One of these days, I really MUST look up how to change the ISO setting on my camera, though Intelligent Automatic did raise the ISO, lol!!). I was also determined to post one of my shots, lol, and this was the only possible one (after being brightened, sharpened and cropped!). I left home early evening and spent something like two and a half hours driving the whole way round Frank Lake - the very first time I had ever driven it. The sun was shining when I left home and by the time I neared my destination, an enormous black cloud hovered right over where I was going. Actually, that, plus the evening sun that was all around, made for some rather nice light, so I was able to shoot scenery - and a Coot! Not sure where all the birds were, though I did see some very distant birds from the blind at the Lake. Several Coots were hanging about near the blind. I also saw several Tundra Swans on a small slough (pond) towards the end of my drive. I made two "mistakes" on my drive, one of which didn't really matter, but the second one made me drive further than I had intended and my big concern was the approaching darkness and being caught on the gravel backroads unable to see where i was going. Decided to check at my starting point one more time before hitting the highway and to my delight, I found a pair of these beautiful owls. Neither one stayed on their fence post, but flew off into the distance, so it was a case of a few quick shots in semi darkness - and being able to "rescue" just one of them. I was totally, totally drained by the time I got home - but very happy : ) The last time I had seen a Short-eared Owl in the wild was just over six years ago, but east of the city, near Langdon, and very, very distant. In Alberta, this owl species is uncommon to common from March to November and occasionally over-winters. I believe the provincial conservation status is "May Be At Risk". en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Short-eared_Owl www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Short-eared_Owl/id

A heavily cropped capture of this beautiful Horned Lark, taken SE of Calgary on 3 February 2013. Friends and I had stopped along one of the backroads to look at an old barn and we heard a bird singing so beautifully. I hadn't seen and photographed a Horned Lark for several years, so I was thrilled to see this handsome, horny male perched on a fence post : ) These birds tend to fly dangerously close along the road in front of ones car. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Horned_Lark/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Horned_Lark I wasn't expecting SNOW again this morning, lol! Which of course makes me think immediately of all those people over in the east (Boston, etc.), who are experiencing dreadful conditions with the huge snowstorm that is hitting that whole area. Really, really feel for those who were hit so hard by Hurricane Sandy just a few months ago and still have not recovered from all the damage ,,,. and now this! So many people dealing with so much hardship - my thoughts are with them. Anyone else finding Flickr extremely slow today?

Perhaps you can pretend that this is a painting of these beautiful Horned Larks??? I seem to be posting rather too many photos recently of highly zoomed, highly cropped, grainy photos, lol. There were a number of these beautiful birds down amongst the stubble, feeding - very flighty, but I managed to get a couple of quick shots through the car window. Taken east of Calgary on 24 February 2013, when quite a few of us went on the annual Owl Prowl.