Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: tangled

On 30 October 2017, I spent the day driving mostly roads that I had been along before (a round trip of 230 km). I still found a few roads so confusing! My destination was partly to check on two old, red barns, including the one in this photo. Having been there once before, with my daughter in January 2015, I knew that there were several other old barns and homesteads en route. This day was definitely a barn day, not a bird or wildlife day. The large barn in this photo is one that I had been looking forward to finding and seeing for the first time, which I finally did in January 2015. I would love to have been able to get photos from both sides of it, but it was in a farmer's field that was, of course, private property. There is an old, round, wooden grain bin and a smaller barn/shed just to the right of this photo. The second old barn that I saw in this area is in far worse condition, but I love it. It was funny, because I was standing in the road and had already taken a handful of photos of the crumbling, weathered structure, when I noticed someone walking towards me in the distance. Talk about deja vu! I started walking towards her and it turned out that she lived at the farm just down the road, but had previously lived in the house next to this decaying barn and it was her property. She told me to wander wherever I wished, take as many photos as I wanted. I laughed and said that in January 2015, when my daughter and I had been standing right there in the road, a lady came by on her horse and told us the very same story - it must have been the same person! Felt so good! Another place I stopped at was a farmyard full of old barns, sheds and vehicles. I pulled over and stood by my car to take a quick shot of an old, blue truck from across the road. A person happened to just appear, walking across his farmyard, so I called out to him and we had a delightful chat. I think he was very amused at my passion for old things and told me to walk around and take whatever photos I wanted. Which I did, and I thoroughly enjoyed myself! I told him what an amazing place he had, full of interesting things. I got the impression that he saw things very differently - lots of old things that needed fixing or tidying up : ) On the way home, I called in at the Saskatoon Farm to see if the restaurant was still open, but it had just closed. I realized I had been enjoying myself so much that I had totally forgotten to eat anything all day. Managed to get a much-needed cup of coffee, though, and I did buy a box of frozen, uncooked Saskatoon Berry and White Chocolate scones. I bought some of these last time I was there and they are SO good, piping hot, straight out of the oven.

For maybe a week, I have been having a problem getting my photos to be bright enough. So weird - I never had this happen before. They seem to look OK when I edit them the night before, then, when I post them on Flickr the following morning, they almost always look too dark. Yesterday morning, 9 April 2016, friends Dorothy and Stephen led a group of us on a birding walk at Carburn Park. Most enjoyable, except for the very strong winds! Down by the river, especially, we were almost blown off our feet. Amazing that any bird can deal with that, but we still ended up seeing a good number of species, including a little House Sparrow busy preparing a tree cavity for a nest. The House Sparrow is an introduced species here. Fairly near the start of our walk, past the lagoon, I spotted something orange in the low fork of a tree. My first thought was, ooh, a fungus of some kind. When I started walking towards it, I suddenly thought that maybe it was an Easter egg that had been hidden on a family outing, that hadn't been found. Closer to the tree, I realized it was an orange fishing float, along with this hooked fly, caught in the tree by a length of fishing line. My immediate thought was that this should never have been left in the tree, as a bird or maybe a Squirrel could easily get themselves caught by it. After I removed it, one of the birders said he would take the fly home for his Grandson to use. I always remember seeing a beautiful Northern Flickr a few years ago, hanging upside down high up in a tree. It had a lot of discarded fishing line wrapped around its body. I will add our leaders' final list of species: Birding for Beginners, Saturday 9 April, 2016. Carburn Park. 9:00 a.m.-11:15 a.m. Sunny, N.Wind 49 kph. 7-10 degrees C. 22 participants. 1. Canada Goose – 20 2. Common Goldeneye – 10 3. Mallard – 10 4. Common Merganser – 4 5. Hooded Merganser – 1 6. Ring-billed Gull – 34 7. Franklin Gull – 2 8. Bald Eagle – 1 9. Bohemian Waxwings – 12 10. Black-capped Chickadees – 11 11. American Crow – 6 12. Northern Flicker – 6 12. House Finch – 4 13. Magpie – 6 14. Merlin – 1 15. Red-breasted Nuthatch - 3 16. Raven – 10 17. American Robin – 15 18. Starling – 2 19. House Sparrow – 4 20. Tree Swallow – 9 21. Yellow-rumped Warbler - 1 22. Downy Woodpecker – 5 White-tailed Deer – 6 Black Squirrel – 6 Leaders: Bernie Diebolt, Dorothy & Stephen Spring Many thanks, Dorothy and Stephen, for giving up a Saturday morning for us all. As always, the trip to Tim Hortons for coffee and lunch after the walk was great.

On 19 March 2016, I was on a birding day trip with a group of friends, going SE of Calgary, E of High River. Though the day started off rather cold, it gradually warmed up and was a beautiful day to be out in nature. I will add our leader's report that he sent into eBird, adding that I did not see all of the sightings, as the birds were much too far away. As always, my camera lens was turned to various other things, too. While my birding friends had their binoculars and scope focused on the very distant birds at this location at Frank Lake, my eyes began to wander. Couldn't resist trying to focus on the barbed-wire fence. Thanks so much, as always, Andrew, for a most enjoyable day! Thanks, too, Anne, for driving - I really appreciated the ride! "We had 16 participants when we left Calgary on a sunny but frosty morning. We arrived at the main gate around 10:00 am and set off, in a chilly -5 deg C to walk down to the outfall and then around to the blind. The recent cold nights had refrozen some of the lake, but it is still mostly open water. Most obvious were the thousands of Pintails and hundreds of swans (mostly Tundra today). We did see the overwintering (presumably) Song Sparrow near the outfall. About 60-80 California Gulls, no other gulls that we could identify. We left and went to High River for lunch, stopping by the Sutherland Shelterbelt to acknowledge the resident Great Horned Owl. After lunch we circled the lake on the usual roads and ended up at the Basin 2 West Bay. Several more swans and finally, the Eurasian Wigeon, spotted by Tony Timmons. By lunchtime the temperature had reached about 10 deg C and continued to rise reaching ~14 deg C and making a perfect Alberta Spring (almost) afternoon. Leaving Frank Lake we stopped in at Blackie to find mostly Starlings, and a few Eurasian Collared Doves. The list for Frank Lake and Blackie was: Checklists included in this summary: (1): Frank Lake--NW lookout/blind Date: Mar 19, 2016, 9:55 AM (2): Sutherland's Shelterbelt (private property) Date: Mar 19, 2016, 12:30 PM (3): Frank Lake--Basin 2 (Southeast Corner) Date: Mar 19, 2016, 2:15 PM (4): Frank Lake--Basin 2 (West Bay) Date: Mar 19, 2016, 3:05 PM (5): Blackie (hamlet) Date: Mar 19, 2016, 4:10 PM 650 Canada Goose -- (1),(3),(4) 4 Trumpeter Swan -- (1) 225 Tundra Swan -- (1),(4) 3 Gadwall -- (1) 2 Eurasian Wigeon -- (4) 60 American Wigeon -- (1),(4) 160 Mallard -- (1),(3),(4) 2 Northern Shoveler -- (4) 4550 Northern Pintail -- (1),(3),(4) 24 Canvasback -- (1),(4) 76 Redhead -- (1),(4) 5 Lesser Scaup -- (4) 150 Common Goldeneye -- (1),(4) 2 Gray Partridge -- (2) 1 Northern Harrier -- (4) 2 Bald Eagle -- (1),(3) 5 Killdeer -- (1),(2) 80 California Gull -- (1) 6 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) -- (3),(5) 4 Eurasian Collared-Dove -- (5) 2 Great Horned Owl -- (2) 1 Merlin -- (5) 5 Black-billed Magpie -- (1),(2) 1 Common Raven -- (3) 3 Horned Lark -- (1) 51 European Starling -- (2),(5) 2 American Tree Sparrow -- (1) 1 Song Sparrow -- (1) 8 House Finch -- (5) 20 House Sparrow -- (2),(5) From Blackie we stopped by Third Lake on the way back to Calgary. A huge number of birds there, somewhere between 4000 and 8000, generally somewhat distant. Mostly Pintails, but we also saw American Wigeon, Mallard, a few Canada Geese, and California Gulls. Clearly Pintails are on the move right now." Andrew Hart