Eastern Kingbird

It was the annual May Species Count on the weekend of 28 and 29 May 2016. My group's Saturday Count was down in Fish Creek Provincial Park, Votier's Flats and Shaw's Meadow. On the Sunday, our usual small group (six of us in two cars) covered an area SW of the city - which happens to be one of my favourite and most visited areas.

After the Count on 28 May, I decided to go SW of the city later in the afternoon, just for a quick drive. While I was in the area, I checked for the usual birds - Mountain Bluebirds, Snipe, Red-winged Blackbirds, etc.. I was happy when I saw this Eastern Kingbird perched long enough to grab a couple of quick shots.

"With dark gray upperparts and a neat white tip to the tail, the Eastern Kingbird looks like it’s wearing a business suit. And this big-headed, broad-shouldered bird does mean business—just watch one harassing crows, Red-tailed Hawks, Great Blue Herons, and other birds that pass over its territory. Eastern Kingbirds often perch on wires in open areas and either sally out for flying insects or flutter slowly over the tops of grasses. They spend winters in South American forests, where they eat mainly fruit." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/eastern_kingbird/id

It was a late start to my day this morning. Yesterday, 6 August 2016, was a physically and mentally exhausting day, and I'm still feeling the effects. A great day, too, thanks to friend, Sandy! She very kindly picked me up around 8:15 am and we drove SW of the city and SW of Millarville to Rod Handfield's acreage. For a number of years, this has been one of my favourite places to explore, as his forest tends to be full of all sorts of beautiful finds. One of the two best places that I know for mushrooms, the other being Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. This year has turned out to be great for fungi, thanks to all the endless, torrential rain we have been getting the last few weeks, apart from the scattering of sunny days. This year has so far had such weird weather - a very dry winter, a spring that was as dry and hot as a summer, and now a wet, thundery summer.

We met a group of other interested people, most of whom we didn't know, and we searched the land for fungi. Right at the start, I was telling Sandy that on the last visit there, maybe four years ago, we had seen a beautiful Amanita Muscaria mushroom growing just a few feet from the start of the walk. Sure enough, there were several growing in exactly the same spot, which was so exciting. Later in the walk, we saw two other patches of absolute beauties of this poisonous species. The rain was spitting during our walk, and the forest was so dark, but amazingly, some of my photos came out well enough. Thanks so much, Karel, for organizing and leading this trip and for sharing your knowledge with us!

Sandy and I left the group around lunchtime, to go looking at vehicles at one of the dealerships. In the last year and a half, I have had to put far too much money into repairs for my poor old 17+ year old car and finally, I knew that I had no choice but to replace it. The muffler and a few other things died several days ago and instead of spending a fortune on repair, I decided I would rather put that money towards a new vehicle. I had been thinking about replacing it the last few years, but now, enough is enough! I'm down to deciding between two models and will have to make up my mind today. All being well, within the coming week, I will once again have a set of wheels, which will feel wonderful.

Thanks so much, Sandy, for making it possible for me to go on the great morning at Rod's place and then, for giving up your whole afternoon, helping me look at cars and for also test-driving both. Appreciated beyond words! You are making this whole ordeal of replacing my car so much less traumatizing than it would have otherwise been!!