The new and the old

These are the only four photos that were worth saving from today's drive east of the city. I was beginning to wonder if I might end up going home with an empty memory card. I was totally out of luck with getting photos of the birds I had hoped to see close, but instead only saw from a great distance. For the last few years, I have longed to see and photograph a Short-eared Owl perched on a close fence post. It appears that "everyone" has been successful in doing this.

This is my least favourite direction to drive out of the city. On the return drive, there are so many huge road signs and a few days ago, for the third time, I ended up taking a wrong turn and ended up heading way south of the city on the major highway, Deerfoot Trail. The afternoon sun is absolutely glaring and then, later afternoon, the light starts fading and I have to be really careful about getting back before it gets dark, thanks to lousy nght vision. I also don't like feeling I should go east again, just in the hope of seeing owls. There have only been a few people in the area when I have been out there.

Quite a lot of my time was spent driving some of the back roads and I was happy to come across the horses and old barns/sheds in these four images. My photos were not as sharp as I would have liked, so I have added a touch of filter in post-processing to a couple of them.

The weather was again absolutey gorgeous - what a wonderful contrast to last winter! Also very different from yesterday (Sunday, 27 January 2019), when we had very strong winds and blowing snow. A birding walk I had planned on going on yesterday morning suddenly lost its appeal, and, after my alarm clocks woke me up early, I decided I would climb back into bed instead.