Cowboy mural, Blackie, Alberta

Yesterday, 14 March 2015, I photographed this square mural in Blackie, Alberta, during a bird trip to the Frank Lake area. Blackie is a hamlet approximately 70 km SE of Calgary. I looked on Google, but was unable to find any details about this cowboy mural. On the far left edge of the photo, you can see part of the large grain terminal in Blackie.

I went on a most enjoyable birding outing SE of the city, with a group of friends. Frank Lake, one of my favourite places, was our main destination. During the winter months, the gate is closed, so one has to walk in. We walked almost as far as the blind and then back to the cars. On this return walk, a patch of large, white, spotted feathers was found. A friend held this one up against her dark jeans so that I could get a photo (see next photo posted today). When I saw it, I had a bad feeling that this large feather belonged to a beautiful Snowy Owl. After searching on Google, I think that might be the closest answer, which would be really sad. Would really appreciate it if someone is able to correct or confirm - thanks!

From Frank Lake, we called in at the huge community centre in High River, thinking we could eat our lunch there. It was so absolutely packed, we ended up eating outside by the cars. After more driving around the lake, we came back to Calgary via 306 Ave, E (alternative road numbers are 552/272) and 220 (Dunbow Rd). I think I have those road numbers correct.

For most of the day, the wind was dreadful, making walking very difficult and extremely unpleasant! When I got home and checked yesterday's forecast for High River on the Weather Network, the temperature got up to around 15C and there was a Wind Warning in effect. A Wind Warning is issued when wind speeds are expected to or currently blowing steadily at 60 to 65 km/h (37 to 40 mph) or more, or winds gusting to 90 km/h (56 mph) or more.

I will add the report from our leader, Andrew Hart, with permission, below. As usual, I did not see some of the birds listed, as I don't have binoculars.

"We had 16 participants on this trip on a day when it was warm (generally 12-15 deg c) but, after about 10:30 am, extremely windy.

We went straight to the outfall area near the blind. As we walked down to the edge of the water the wind seemed to pick up.

We saw about 100 each of Redheads and Canvasback as well as Tundra Swans (many of which were flying over). Not that many Pintails, maybe 20+, much less than other recent observers have reported. The increasingly strong winds made observations tricky. We did not see the Eurasian Wigeon that others have reported, including today's report by Mike Sven, even though we were down by the effluent area where he saw them. Possibly the increasingly high winds made them seek shelter elsewhere. Some of the group saw a Cackling Goose identified by Tony Timmons, but it flew off before we could get everyone on it. Some of the birds we saw flying valiantly against the wind barely made any progress.

We went to the High River recreation centre for lunch, discovering when we arrived that a number of community events were taking place and parking had overflowed to a nearby field. We did see one Eurasian Collared Dove in a nearby tree. The parking field had a few really muddy spots, so somehow in the confusion of leaving our group got split up. Most of us went on a clockwise circuit of the Frank Lake area. We stopped in at Basin 2 on the East side, but again the wind made observation difficult, although Howard Heffler did manage to pick out three Gadwall in a small slough. On our drive around we saw a few Horned Larks, but never more than small numbers at the same time, and sometimes just one or two. We met our lost fellow birders from the rec center car park in the Basin 3 car park, from which we could see 50 or so Pintails.

We carried on to the shelterbelts just west of Frank Lake and picked up a Great Horned Owl and a Flicker.

Leaving the Frank Lake area a few of us went on to Blackie. The winds were still roaring but we managed to find about 16 Eurasian Collared Doves, which were blowing around like chaff.

The more detailed EBird summary is:

Checklists included in this summary:
(1): Frank Lake--NW lookout/blind
Date: Mar 14, 2015, 9:50 AM
(2): Frank Lake--Basin 4
Date: Mar 14, 2015, 1:15 PM
(3): Frank Lake--Basin 3
Date: Mar 14, 2015, 1:25 PM
(4): Blackie
Date: Mar 14, 2015, 2:30 PM

1 Cackling Goose -- (1)
480 Canada Goose -- (1),(2),(3)
70 Tundra Swan -- (1),(3)
3 Gadwall -- (2)
26 American Wigeon -- (1),(2)
354 Mallard -- (1),(2),(3)
12 Northern Shoveler -- (1)
70 Northern Pintail -- (1),(3)
2 Green-winged Teal -- (1)
100 Canvasback -- (1)
100 Redhead -- (1)
10 Ring-necked Duck -- (1)
30 Lesser Scaup -- (1)
4 Bufflehead -- (1)
150 Common Goldeneye -- (1)
6 Common Merganser -- (1)
1 Bald Eagle -- (1)
42 California Gull -- (1),(3)
6 Rock Pigeon (Feral Pigeon) -- (2),(4)
16 Eurasian Collared-Dove -- (4)
4 Black-billed Magpie -- (4)
25 Common Raven -- (2),(3)
4 Horned Lark -- (3)
100 European Starling -- (3),(4)
1 House Finch -- (4)
100 House Sparrow -- (4)

Andrew Hart"