Horses

We met so many beautiful, friendly, curious horses on our day of the Audubon Christmas Bird Count in the Nanton area on January 2nd. Four of us drove about 200 kms from early morning till early evening, covering the south west quadrant of the Nanton and area count circle. I always love it when we stop at various farms, knowing that there will always be cats, dogs and horses to photograph, even if no birds : ) I think I could be happy, spending my life cruising all the backroads of Alberta, ha. We are still in our deep-freeze and, according to the weather forecast, we have about four more days before temperatures become a bit more bearable. My camera must wonder what's going on and suffering feelings of rejection. I've been just too busy the last two weeks to go out, too sad, and when you see the windchill temperature is -31C (-24F), it just makes you want to stay home in the warmth, anyway. Last night, I finally wrote the words I wish to be read at my Brother's funeral in England - not the easiest thing to do, of course, and this afternoon I have a rare-for-me, splitting headache that burns every time I cough. John's funeral should be sometime in the next ten days or so. Later afternoon: just received an e-mail, saying: "Three WHOOPING CRANES found Dead. Wildlife scientists at the National Fish and Wildlife Forensics Laboratory in Ashland, Oregon, have concluded through preliminary testing the cranes found dead near Albany, Georgia, on Dec. 30, 2010, sustained injuries consistent with gunshot wounds. The cranes were shot sometime before Dec. 30, 2010. They were discovered and reported by hunters. The three cranes, 20-10, 24-10, and 28-10, were part of a group of five 2010 Direct Autumn Release (DAR) cranes. According to Whooping Crane Eastern Partnership trackers, they had last been tracked in Hamilton County, Tennessee, where they roosted on December 10, 2010,with cranes 6-05, 6-09, and 38-09." How could anyone carry out such a despicable act - against any wildlife, but even more so against such a highly threatened species???

During the annual Christmas Bird Counts in the city and in surrounding towns, I tend to not get a chance to photograph any birds, except from a great distance if I'm lucky. So, my camera turns to other things, including cats, dogs and horses. This is one of the beautiful animals at one of the farms we called in at during the Nanton Bird Count, to check for birds. (I have marked a spot on my map that is SW of the town of Nanton. My small group covered the SW quadrant fo the birding circle around Nanton, but I don't know the exact location of this farm.)

A couple of beautiful horses seen at a ranch outside Calgary.

Seen on the Cochrane Wildlife Reserve Christmas Bird Count on 28th December 2011. When the birds seem to have gone into hiding, my camera turns to horses, cats and dogs : ) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fjord_horse

I think I have the correct ID for these horses, which were seen at a farm during the Nanton Christmas Bird Count on January 2nd. Flickr... Hold your Clicks (8:30 p.m.).

This was one of a group of four horses I passed yesterday, when I drove NW of the city in the hopes of finding a Great Gray Owl. For some reason, when I go looking for these Owls, I come home with photos of horses. I suspect that I'm getting out there too late in the day and the owls have tucked themselves in amongst the trees for an afternoon nap. I don't know if these are old horses or not particularly healthy horses, but they just seemed "different". There is a greyish white one that never looks that well whenever I see it - just looks depressed. I know nothing about horses, so maybe these four animals are simply "being horses". I had hoped that some time away from my computer might help my extremely painful arms (from too much mouse-clicking), but I suspect that gripping the steering wheel for about three hours of driving in windy conditions wasn't the best thing. I need to go and look at window blinds as soon as possible. I've no idea how far round my complex the window people have got, but it can't be too much longer before they come to remove all my windows and patio door. To say that I am not looking forward to this being done is to put it mildly : ) I can't reach the blinds to remove them and I certainly can't reinstall them, so will have to buy new ones that can be installed by the store. At the moment, sometimes I can barely lift my little point-and-shoot up to my eyes, so all the moving of furniture, ornaments, wall pictures, etc. in preparation for the window replacement has come at a bad time, ha. Will be SO glad when all this has been done!

This was one of a group of four horses I passed a few days ago, on April 2nd, when I drove NW of the city in the hopes of finding a Great Gray Owl. For some reason, when I go looking for these Owls, I come home with photos of horses. I suspect that I'm getting out there too late in the day and the owls have tucked themselves in amongst the trees for an afternoon nap. Later: lol, little did I know that we would get heavy snow later today, after posting this sunny photo! Looks like it might keep snowing all night.

I photographed this gorgeous horse on 19 December 2009, when a small group of us were in Canmore (near Banff) for their Christmas Bird Count. Such beautiful horses - love the black stripe that goes down the centre of their white mane. A previously posted photo of this horse, that is the icon for my Horses set, is one of my favourite photos.

Hard to believe that this was taken just a few days ago, on April 14th. It really was a perfect winter wonderland - briefly. We passed these beautiful horses on the way to look for a Great Gray Owl, NW of the city.