Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus

Flickr's "Big Move" has been made today, 23 May 2019, and now various bits and pieces that need tweaking or fixing can be gradually worked out. Flickr/Smugmug staff must be exhausted! Hard to imagine moving billions of photos and so much data from Yahoo to Amazon. Thank you, everyone involved in working on this over the past year. I was determined to see if Uploader worked tonight. I had to try three or four times to post most of the 12 new photos, but eventually they all appeared. These images were all taken on 19 May 2019, when I spent the day with my daughter, to celebrate Mother's Day and yet another birthday for me. I always look forward to a day like this - my favourite way to spend a day! I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and windy, especially when we went to Frank Lake after spending time at the Saskatoon Farm. We both still managed to get a few photos and, despite the weather. Our day started with a delicious breakfast at the Farm, after which we walked around the grounds. I always enjoy seeing the farm cats and dogs wandering about, inside and outside. Visitors are not allowed to bring dogs, which means that the farm animals can roam in peace. The gardens have not yet been planted with flowers - just as well, as I noticed that there was a risk of frost on two recent nights. There are flowers blooming in the greenhouses, though. Our next destination was Frank Lake, where we hoped to see at least a few birds. It was very quiet, with little to photograph - not the best time of the day. Two Eared Grebes were swimming near the blind, but what a challenge they were! Non stop swimming and constantly changing direction, fast. I think I ended up with a couple of photos that might be sharp enough to post - the rest have been deleted. A Yellow-headed Blackbird, perched on a cattail, was swaying in and out of the viewfinder. It felt really good to get out, as I have been spending so much time going through so many images from my trip to South Texas. It did feel a little strange to be driving, as I have barely been out the last few weeks.

Flickr's "Big Move" has been made today, 23 May 2019, and now various bits and pieces that need tweaking or fixing can be gradually worked out. Flickr/Smugmug staff must be exhausted! Hard to imagine moving billions of photos and so much data from Yahoo to Amazon. Thank you, everyone involved in working on this over the past year. I was determined to see if Uploader worked tonight. I had to try three or four times to post most of the 12 new photos, but eventually they all appeared. These images were all taken on 19 May 2019, when I spent the day with my daughter, to celebrate Mother's Day and yet another birthday for me. I always look forward to a day like this - my favourite way to spend a day! I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did. Unfortunately, the weather was cloudy and windy, especially when we went to Frank Lake after spending time at the Saskatoon Farm. We both still managed to get a few photos and, despite the weather. Our day started with a delicious breakfast at the Farm, after which we walked around the grounds. I always enjoy seeing the farm cats and dogs wandering about, inside and outside. Visitors are not allowed to bring dogs, which means that the farm animals can roam in peace. The gardens have not yet been planted with flowers - just as well, as I noticed that there was a risk of frost on two recent nights. There are flowers blooming in the greenhouses, though. Our next destination was Frank Lake, where we hoped to see at least a few birds. It was very quiet, with little to photograph - not the best time of the day. Two Eared Grebes were swimming near the blind, but what a challenge they were! Non stop swimming and constantly changing direction, fast. I think I ended up with a couple of photos that might be sharp enough to post - the rest have been deleted. A Yellow-headed Blackbird, perched on a cattail, was swaying in and out of the viewfinder. It felt really good to get out, as I have been spending so much time going through so many images from my trip to South Texas. It did feel a little strange to be driving, as I have barely been out the last few weeks.

A couple of days ago, I was so torn as to whether or not to accept an invite from my friend, Pam, to take a drive SE of the city. I really, really wanted to go, even more so as I have barely been out for ages. However, I am running out of time to get certain things done, and also I was concerned that if I slightly moved in a 'wrong' way, my knees would give way or my rotator cuffs and lower back would become even more painful. Not what I need, especially right now. In the end, I decided that, yes, I would go after all, and I am so glad that I came to that decision. We started off at Frank Lake, a place that is very familiar to both of us. We knew that Grebes were being seen and we both hoped they would be there yesterday morning. This pair of Western Grebes were so far away, but the little Nikon B700 zoomed in well, even though the photo is far from sharp and detailed. Much, much closer than with my old, much loved Panasonic FZ200. In fact, I gave up using the FZ200 and just kept my fingers crossed that the new B700 would give me at least a few photos that were good enough to keep. I am still having the problem of image shift on some of the shots - photo jumps upward, downward or to one side, cutting off parts of birds and resulting in ridiculous compositions. At Frank Lake, I could rest both elbows on a very sturdy window ledge, making it impossible for normal, self-created camera shake to happen. Image shift still happened with some of the photos. Anyway, we were very fortunate that this pair of Western Grebes was visible, even if very distant. We watched as they did a bit of their mating dance, including when each bird gathered a beak full of wet, rotting plant material and went face to face in an amorous gesture. These birds also swam off separately, giving us a few chances for further shots. Still at the blind, we were so lucky when a pair of Eared Grebes came close enough to capture a shot or two of their mating dance. Not the best shots at this location, but certainly better than nothing. The Yellow-headed Blackbird in the next photo was also seen at this location. By the way, the blind is surrounded by lake and flood water! Parts of the boardwalk were under 5" or 6" of water, through which we had to wade. Elsewhere in the whole SE area, there was so much water in some of the fields, creating what I suspect will turn out to be only temporary sloughs. A few of the other birds we saw yesterday at various places included a few dozen Swans; plenty of Northern Shovelers; several Western Meadowlarks; a Great Horned Owl and her little white, fuzzy owlet, sitting on a distant nest; and a Ferruginous Hawk female lying down in her nest. Of course, the usual suspects included Canada Geese, Mallards, and so on. When it came time to leave Frank Lake, I had assumed we would then start on the drive back to the city. Instead, Pam surprised me by saying that we would go further south - and further south we definitely went! Made such a great day. Thanks so much, Pam, for this treat - greatly appreciated.

We have an overcast, windy day here today, 22 June 2017. The temperature is only 9C (windchill 5C). Yesterday, I had wondered whether to finally go for a drive and take a few garden flower photos today, but I've changed my mind. Usually, I never go out on local evening bird walks, as I am always too tired to walk for 2 1/2 - 3 hours (with lots of stopping and observing) by that time of the day. However, on 20 June 2017, my place was so uncomfortably hot that I just had to get out for a while. The walk was at Lafarge Meadows in Fish Creek Park. Some good birds were seen, though all of them, except for this male Yellow-headed Blackbird, were far, far away and no good for photos. This bird had what looked like a delicate damselfly in its beak. Just as we arrived back at the parking lot, a storm blew in - really, a dust storm! An interesting experience. So many days recently have been windy, which of course plays havoc with taking photos of birds and plants. I saw last night that a huge amount of damage had been caused north of Calgary by this storm.

Just adding five extra photos tonight, trying to catch up a little, otherwise I will never get back to the last two days of my Trinidad images. Will post three photos tomorrow morning. This photo was taken in the evening of 27 May 2017, when a group of us (13?) got together at Frank Lake for a celebration of spring. Great company and great picnic food. Even a few birds to photograph, including this male Yellow-headed Blackbird. Sunshine, too, until it was time to go home, when the heavens opened and down came the rain, accompanied by streaks of lightning. Thanks, Brenda, for organizing this event that went so smoothly and was most enjoyable! "With a golden head, a white patch on black wings, and a call that sounds like a rusty farm gate opening, the Yellow-headed Blackbird demands your attention.... Yellow-headed Blackbirds breed and roost in freshwater wetlands with dense, emergent vegetation such as cattails." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-headed_Blackbird/id

My thoughts continue to be with all the people of Fort McMurray, Alberta, who are being devastated by a massive wildfire at the moment. All 88,000 people were forced to flee the city, many leaving everything behind and many will be returning to nothing. Now, much-needed rain and cooler temperatures are helping. "Monday, May 9, 2016, 7:28 AM - After a week of fighting a devastating wildfire that sent thousands of Fort McMurray residents fleeing, it seems firefighters have been holding the line -- and the weather has actually been cooperative." From The Weather Network. www.theweathernetwork.com/news/articles/weather-factoring... -------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- My plan yesterday, 8 May 2016, was to join friends for an afternoon walk at Carburn Park. Closer to the time, I knew I was going to be late and decided at the last minute that I would instead go for a short drive SE of the city. I knew that I was far more likely to see a few closer birds and get some photo opportunities if I went SE. I stayed around Frank Lake for most of the time. When I checked the weather forecast before I left, I knew that there was a possibity of rain later on. I totally forgot to check how windy it was going to be, and ended up barely being able to hold my camera steady enough to try and get a few shots. The strong wind was causing mini waves both on the lake itself and also on the very small slough I stopped at, creating a few neat water patterns. Shorebirds included the always beautiful American Avocet and Black-necked Stilts and a couple of different birds including the one in this photo. I don't see shorebirds very often and I am not good at IDs for them. I'm hoping someone might just see this shot and be able to let me know what species it is. A pair of Killdeer were making a lot of noise, as usual. Saw several kinds of ducks, but they were too far to get any photos worth keeping. I was happy to see a pair of Canvasbacks. After Frank Lake, I called in at a slough that used to be so good for shorebirds, only to find that there was not a drop of water left. The whole area was white ground (salt?). So disappointing, as last year I had White-faced Ibis walking just 8 or 10 feet from my car, and I had been longing to go back again this spring! Yesterday, I didn't see any Ibis at all, but someone I was talking to had seen some earlier. There were so many Yellow-headed Blackbirds - everywhere! They were in quite large groups, flying from fields over the road ahead of me, in fields amongst the stubble, and at one location they were feeding on the ground at the feet of cows. ust as I was leaving the area to start my drive home, the rain arrived. Greatly needed, though we need a whole lot of precipitation to do any good. Alberta is a tinder box, ready to go up in smoke. In fact, yesterday, I saw on the News that there was a small wildfire in Edmonton. "The breeding habitat of the Yellow-headed Blackbird is cattail (Typha spp.) marshes in North America, mainly west of the Great Lakes. The nest is built with and attached to marsh vegetation. They nest in colonies, often sharing their habitat closely with the Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). During the breeding and nesting season the males are very territorial and spend much of their time perched on reed stalks and displaying or chasing off intruders." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-headed_blackbird www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/yellow-headed_blackbird/id For the sound: youtu.be/6-Pk-VMtZM0

On 4 May 2015, we finally had a day without strong winds. I decided that it might be a good day to drive SE of the city again to see what I could find. The last few times I had been there, the wind had been so strong, making it almost impossible to take photos. The very first thing I saw when I reached the gravel road off 23 at Frank Lake, was a beautiful Western Meadowlark. I only see one very occasionally, though I did see a second one later in the afternoon. At, or near, the bird blind/hide, there were a few Eared Grebes, Coots, Canada Geese, numerous and noisy Franklin's Gulls, a Ruddy Duck, a few Yellow-headed and Red-winged Blackbirds, several Western Grebes (further away and barely within camera range) and American Avocets. White-faced Ibis were either down on the ground in the distance or flying around, mixed in with the Franklin's Gulls. After visiting the blind, I drove around the lake, seeing the second Meadowlark and, to my delight, a pair of Long-billed Curlews that were extremely well-camouflaged against the stubble and dried grasses in a field. I' think I may have seen one before, probably through someone's scope, but never really "seen" one properly. Managed to get a few shots, though the birds don't show up very clearly. Along one of the roads, friend Greg passed me, going in the same direction. He stopped briefly and said he was on his way to help mutual friend, George. A few hours later, I saw a photo on Facebook of the predicament that George had found himself in. When I say his vehicle was stuck in mud, I really mean STUCK, lol! Not sure how he managed to find such wet, muddy ground, as everywhere else is bone dry. Well done, George! The things we birders/photographers sometimes go through to get photos! After driving all the way round the lake, I decided to drive north of 23, stopping at one of the sloughs there, where I was able to get photos of American Avocets and Black-necked Stilts and this female Yellow-headed Blackbird (grainy image). So, all in all, an enjoyable, quite rewarding afternoon, spent in one of my favourite areas.

This Yellow-headed Blackbird was seen at Frank Lake, when I spent the day (24 May 2014) with my youngest daughter, driving SE of the city, checking a familiar spot or two in the morning. A pair of Great Horned Owlets were where we had hoped they would still be. I had hoped to find a White-faced Ibis to show my daughter – various friends had been seeing and photographing them from fairly close. We bumped into friend, Greg, at the birding blind, and I had just told him that I was hoping to find an Ibis. I had barely got the words out when Greg swung round and pointed way up, saying: “You mean, like that one?” I'm sure I would have missed it. So, at least my daughter saw one, even if just a distant bird. Thanks, Greg! As you can see from my photo, the air was filled with flying insects, and not pleasant to be in. After driving along a few of the backroads, we then went to the Saskatoon Farm for a delicious lunch and to wander round the greenhouses and gift shop. A weekend day is perhaps not the best time to go – or should I say that a weekday would probably be quieter.

That is how the sound of a Yellow-headed Blackbird is often described. I know I'll never forget the very first time I saw and heard one of these quite spectacular birds a number of years ago. Photographed this male the day before yesterday (22 May 2014) at a wetland in SW Calgary, where I called in on my way to driving a few of the backroads SW of Calgary. Not the best photo but, at the rate I'm going, it might be one of the only shots I get of this species this spring. I posted a photo of a female Yellow-headed Blackbird in a comment box below. "The breeding habitat of the Yellow-headed Blackbird is cattail (Typha spp.) marshes in North America, mainly west of the Great Lakes. The nest is built with and attached to marsh vegetation. They nest in colonies, often sharing their habitat closely with the Red-winged Blackbird (Agelaius phoeniceus). During the breeding and nesting season the males are very territorial and spend much of their time perched on reed stalks and displaying or chasing off intruders." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-headed_blackbird www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/yellow-headed_blackbird/id For the sound: youtu.be/6-Pk-VMtZM0

These Yellow-headed Blackbirds (Xanthocephalus xanthocephalus) are such gorgeous birds and I was lucky that this male flew briefly from the Cattails to a sign that was closer to me. Taken on 15 June 2013, along one of the backroads SW of Calgary. YouTube video of a male making his "rusty gate" sound: youtu.be/6-Pk-VMtZM0 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-headed_Blackbird www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-headed_Blackbird/id

Having problems uploading my photos this morning, so now using the old uploader. Tried this one first, on its own and it worked OK. Also still having the same problem as yesterday where the row of thumbnails, seen on the right hand side of any photo page, mine or someone else's, are just empty squares with a tiny green icon inside. Not sure what "farm3" is, but I see some other people are having the same, rather annoying, problem. Saw this beautiful Yellow-headed Blackbird in Bridlewood, SW Calgary, on 21 June 2011. Though the wooden edge of the "dock" might not be the most photogenic setting, he did give me some nice poses : )

I'd taken this photo out of my archives ages ago and kept putting off posting it, as the background is rather a mess. However, it does show those beautiful yellow feathers and it does add a small splash of colour to my photostream. Taken on 13 May 2011 in Bridlewood. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-headed_Blackbird/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-headed_Blackbird

A photo uploaded for fun (again, not for quality!). Couldn't resist posting this female Yellow-headed Blackbird collecting some dried grass for her nest. I love the way she folded the grass like this. Taken at a tiny slough within city limits to the west, just off Highway 22X, on June 15th. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-headed_Blackbird www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-headed_Blackbird/id

A photo from my archives, taken on May 13th, of a male Yellow-headed Blackbird at a pond in south west Calgary. Always a treat when these beautiful birds return from their migration. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yellow-headed_Blackbird www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/yellow-headed_blackbird/id I guess it did snow a tiny bit last night - I did wonder just what was on my car windscreen this morning when I peered through the blinds, but by the time I got up and saw it, it had pretty much melted. I'm hoping the weather stays reasonable, as I found out today that my front door (maybe not the patio door yet?) will be replaced next Monday. A relief to finally have a date, something definite, about something! I'm in limbo as far as everything else is concerned, ha.

HAPPY CANADA DAY, everyone! A female Yellow-headed Blackbird busy getting insects to feed to her new family. Photographed at a slough on 22X, SW of the city, on June 10th.

The light was rather harsh late yesterday afternoon and not in the best direction, but at least I was able to capture some detail in the yellow feathers, if not the black : ) If you are not familiar with these spectacular birds, and have never heard their sound, do take a moment to click on the link below to hear the awful NOISE they make, lol! www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-headed_Blackbird/sounds Jim and Linda - a bird that would interrupt the quiet of your hospital room, for sure! That was wonderful news from Greg today! Keep up that amazing improvement!

Lol, if you are not familiar with these spectacular birds, and have never heard their sound, do take a moment to click on the link below to hear the awful NOISE they make, lol! www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-headed_Blackbird/sounds Of course, a beautiful cattail perch would have been better, but I'll take what I can get, ha!

I always have to smile when I'm looking at a Yellow-headed Blackbird male head-on. They seem to have a rather bad-tempered expression - it must be those eyes, ha. This one was photographed on a local pond within the city on May 13th. I was just so lucky that one day, with several of these birds flying back and forth across the water and then landing on the boardwalk fairly close by. We were so lucky with the weather yesterday, for our long day trip to Rosedale, Alberta (near Drumheller) to botanize a beautiful Nature Conservancy of Canada area. Rosedale is a community in southern Alberta, located on Highway 56, 107 kilometres (66 mi) northeast of Calgary, at the confluence of Rosebud River and Red Deer River. It is 8 km southeast of Drumheller and this whole area is part of the Canadian Badlands - home of the dinosaurs. The owners of a very beautiful home perched at the top of one of the hills generously allowed us to wander the area, recording all species of plants, birds, flowers, insects, etc. that we came across. Part of this family's land is under The Nature Conservancy of Canada. How we appreciate those who do everything they can to help preserve beautiful land, protecting it from development, keeping it safe for all of us and for future generations. Thank you to the Browns for welcoming us and letting us botanize here, and for making coffee for us before we returned to Calgary. It tasted so good, especially after our long day! I've got to go through my photos and get some of them ready to pass on, which will keep me busy. Overnight, it was back to rain and today is just another grey, overcast day. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Yellow-headed_Blackbird/id