Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Grosbeak

Interesting information on bird species numbers, as given by our main Naturalist, Gus Yaki: --Within Fish Creek Provincial Park there have been just over 200 species recorded ... 207 is the latest count. --Within the Calgary city limits, in the year 2000, 257 species were recorded. --Within the Calgary city limits, in the year 2010, after increasing land area by 20 %, 262 species were recorded. --Within a 50-mile (80 km) radius of the Louise or 10th St Bridge over the Bow River, in the immediate Calgary area, there are just over 300 species. In a friendly competition completed in 2005, 295 species were seen. --In Alberta, just over 400 species have been seen. --In Canada, about 550 species have been noted. --In North America, i.e., USA & Canada north of the USA-Mexico border, there have been about 950 species observed. --On this tiny blue speck in the Universe called planet Earth, there currently are about 10,000 species of birds. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On 20 May 2017, part of the morning was spent at our friend, Barb's, acreage, SW of Calgary, enjoying the variety of birds that visit her property. Thanks so much, Barb, as always, for letting us visit you. Such a joy to see birds like the handsome male Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the Evening Grosbeaks. We then drove the various roads SW of the city, as far south as Turner Valley, hoping to see a few birds. Beautiful scenery in the whole area. In Turner Valley, we called in to see another mutual friend and watch the birds that visited her tiny, but beautifully and thoughtfully designed, back deck. Thanks so much for having us, Jackie - and for the most welcome coffee! - especially at such very short notice! On my way home from this enjoyable day out, I drove a few back roads, looking for any Mountain Bluebirds. Not much luck, though I did see one pair close to their nest box.

Interesting information on bird species numbers, as given by our main Naturalist, Gus Yaki: --Within Fish Creek Provincial Park there have been just over 200 species recorded ... 207 is the latest count. --Within the Calgary city limits, in the year 2000, 257 species were recorded. --Within the Calgary city limits, in the year 2010, after increasing land area by 20 %, 262 species were recorded. --Within a 50-mile (80 km) radius of the Louise or 10th St Bridge over the Bow River, in the immediate Calgary area, there are just over 300 species. In a friendly competition completed in 2005, 295 species were seen --In Alberta, just over 400 species have been seen. --In Canada, about 550 species have been noted. --In North America, i.e., USA & Canada north of the USA-Mexico border, there have been about 950 species observed. --On this tiny blue speck in the Universe called planet Earth, there currently are about 10,000 species of birds. ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On 20 May 2017, part of the morning was spent at our friend, Barb's, acreage, SW of Calgary, enjoying the variety of birds that visit her property. Thanks so much, Barb, as always, for letting us visit you. Such a joy to see birds like the handsome male Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the Evening Grosbeaks. We then drove the various roads SW of the city, as far south as Turner Valley, hoping to see a few birds. Beautiful scenery in the whole area. In Turner Valley, we called in to see another mutual friend and watch the birds that visited her tiny, but beautifully and thoughtfully designed, back deck. Thanks so much for having us, Jackie - and for the most welcome coffee! - especially at such very short notice! On my way home from this enjoyable day out, I drove a few backroads, looking for any Mountain Bluebirds. Not much luck, though I did see one pair close to their nest box.

I am absolutely dragging my feet at the moment - far too hot and tired to make the effort to do anything. Hence, my late posting today and still, a few hours later, trying to get descriptions, etc. added. Though today's temperature is a few degrees cooler, the inside of my place isn't cooling down yet. The whole summer has been so hot, apart from the odd day, and everywhere is bone dry. Friends went to Kananaskis the other day, returning to two locations where we found so many beautiful mushroom last summer, and they were unable to find any at all. This year is not going to be a good year for them, unfortunately. On 20 May 2017, part of the morning was spent at our friend, Barb's, acreage, SW of Calgary, enjoying the variety of birds that visit her property. Thanks so much, Barb, as always, for letting us visit you. Such a joy to see birds like the handsome male Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the Evening Grosbeaks. We then drove the various roads SW of the city, as far south as Turner Valley, hoping to see a few birds. Beautiful scenery in the whole area. In Turner Valley, we called in to see another mutual friend and watch the birds that visited her tiny, but beautifully and thoughtfully designed, back deck. Thanks so much for having us, Jackie - and for the most welcome coffee! - especially at such very short notice! On my way home from this enjoyable day out, I drove a few backroads, looking for any Mountain Bluebirds. Not much luck, though I did see one pair close to their nest box.

I would imagine every Flickr member received this email yesterday: "If you haven’t heard, Yahoo plans to sell its operating business, including Flickr, to Verizon Communications Inc. We anticipate the completion of the transaction to occur in June 2017. Upon the completion of this proposed transaction, Yahoo products and services, including Flickr, will be provided by a new Verizon-owned company called Yahoo Holdings, Inc. In connection with this proposed transaction, Yahoo is updating its Terms of Service. You can review the changes by visiting our Terms of Service These updated terms will automatically be effective on June 8, 2017, unless you cancel your Yahoo account before then. That’s it! We look forward to continuing to deliver your favorite products and services." ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ Well, I'm certainly not getting on very well with my Trinidad photos at the moment : ) Other things keep popping up and they have offered, or will be offering, photo opportunities, too. This morning, I posted four more shots from my day out with four friends, driving the area SW of Calgary, on 20 May 2017. Normally, I wouldn't be posting so many bird photos all close together. However, I so rarely see Rose-breasted Grosbeaks and Evening Grosbeaks, so wanted to make sure I didn't forget to post the somewhat better shots I took. I'm not a fan of taking feeder shots, but sometimes you take what you can get. This male Rose-breasted Grosbeak was happily cracking open a black sunflower seed - no problem for it with that chunky, solid beak! Part of that morning was spent at our friend, Barb's, acreage, SW of Calgary, enjoying the variety of birds that visit her property. Thanks so much, Barb, as always, for letting us visit you. Such a joy to see birds like the handsome male Rose-breasted Grosbeak and the Evening Grosbeaks. We then drove the various roads SW of the city, as far south as Turner Valley, hoping to see a few birds. Beautiful scenery in the whole area. In Turner Valley, we called in to see another mutual friend and watch the birds that visited her tiny, but beautifully and thoughtfully designed, back deck. Thanks so much for having us, Jackie - and for the most welcome coffee! - especially at such very short notice! On my way home from this enjoyable day out, I drove a few backroads, looking for any Mountain Bluebirds. Not much luck, though I did see one pair close to their nest box. This coming weekend, it is the annual May Species Count. This year (2017), I am only going to be doing the Sunday Count - no walking : ) "The count goes May 27-28: Calgary birders have been out in force every May since 1979, contributing to a broad census of the constantly changing patterns of bird distributions in North America. The count circle is the same as previous years, extending from Olds to Nanton, and from Exshaw to Standard, and includes a variety of environments." From NatureCalgary.

Note: this photo is NOT my "main" (i.e. very last to be uploaded) photo out of the three I've posted this morning. I uploaded this and the next shot first and then uploaded the main image (Globe Thistle flower) separately, to see if that makes any difference. I did try doing it a couple of times this way weeks ago and seem to remember that there was something I didn't like with the result, but can't for the life of me remember what it was, ha. Hopefully, Flickr (or something else) won't change the order of the way you see my photos displayed! I did it this way yesterday, and it did work OK for a friend. Two days ago, on 31 July 2015, I was out all day, having a great day with friend, Darlene, going west of the city. We first called in at someone's private property to see if there was any sign of the Red-bellied Woodpecker that had been reported. No luck, but we did see many beautiful Evening Grosbeaks and even more Pine Siskins, plus a Hairy Woodpecker and several other birds. Also, we saw a different kind of Grosbeak, the larger bird seen at the top of this photo - possibly either a female or a juvenile Rose-breasted Grosbeak, or female or juvenile Black-headed Grosbeak? This bird only flew to the feeder maybe 5 or so times, unlike all the Evening Grosbeaks and much smaller Pine Siskins that were feeding constantly. When it flew, we saw a flash of red under the wings. If anyone can help with the ID, it would be much appreciated by quite a lot of people here - thanks! Later: thanks to Engilis Photos (Curator, U.C. Davis Museum of Wildlife and Fish Biology, California) for the ID - Black-headed Grosbeak. After this visit, we drove to an area where I had been told that a Great Gray can be seen sometimes (no luck), and then along Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66) as far as Maclean Pond, just in time to see an Osprey flying overhead with a large fish in its talons. So few birds to be seen or heard - maybe it was just too hot for them, and by then it was the afternoon, which tends not to be the best time to see birds. We got separated for quite a long time, through miscommunication, probably because when I yelled through the forest "Are you still coming?", it had sounded to Darlene like "I'm coming"! So, she waited for me to reach her and I had assumed that she was following behind me, some distance back. Apparently, both of us called a number of times after that, but we were out of hearing distance. Not a good feeling, each of us concerned about the well-being of the other and each wondering if we were going to have to call in a search party. At 31C, it was feeling mighty hot the whole time, too! When we finally found each other, we knew what we needed after our "ordeal" - an ice-cream, back in Bragg Creek, lol! A great day, Darlene - thanks so much for driving and for all the fun : )

A handsome male Pine Grosbeak, seen in someone's garden at Harvie Heights, near Canmore, Kananaskis. A small group of us spent the day in the Sibbald, Harvie Heights and Exshaw areas in Kananaskis, mostly driving, but with the occasional short walk. While we were walking along a few roads in the wooded residential area of Harvie Heights, checking feeders for any birds, we came across several of these Grosbeaks. Taken on 20 January 2013.

We were lucky to see this female Pine Grosbeak just close enough for a quick photo on December 6th, during our three-hour walk in Weaselhead. Fortunately, it turned its head to the side. I love to see them from the back, though, showing off those beautiful colours and feathers. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Pine_Grosbeak/id

I actually put this heavily cropped, noisy photo through Neat Image last night and I must say it did take away some of the noise. I don't like the way it reduces a photo to just a very small file size, though - of course, I could be doing something wrong, lol! We repeated the walk we did in South Glenmore Park on Tuesday morning, this morning, but so few bird species were seen compared to the other day. I'm so glad I got to see this handsome Rose-breasted Grosbeak on Tuesday, even though my photos were somewhat disappointing. Aren't they beautiful birds? After this morning's walk, I drove west of the city, calling in at a couple of places for waterfowl and then did my usual short Mountain Bluebird drive - no chances to get any decent photos of the Bluebirds, just two or three very distant ones. The sun shone ALL day today, amazing : )

A different shot of this pretty female Evening Grosbeak, seen at the Handfield's wonderful acreage, south west of Calgary, west of Millarville on 16th May. The other posted image was of this bird at a feeder, and showed more of the wing pattern. That's a pretty powerful beak, LOL! "The Evening Grosbeak is a year-round Alberta resident, usually in the northern half of the Province, but may be found in the southern mountains and the Cypress Hills as well. This big-beaked bird is a common winter visitor to central and southern Alberta towns and cities. When not stuffing themselves at winter feeders, grosbeaks use their specialized beaks to crack the winged seeds of Manitoba maple (boxelder) and green ash trees. In spring, swelling buds of poplar and willow are relished, and in summer and fall, the birds gorge on the ripening berries of pincherry, Saskatoons and other juicy morsels." talkaboutwildlife.ca/profile/?s=346

We were delighted to see this male Evening Grosbeak and his mate yesterday, when we called in at the Handfield's property, west of Millarville. They were sitting in a tree of tangled branches but also flew down to the feeder. I prefer a natural setting to a feeder, but I think my better shots of the female were taken when she was at the feeder. And now I need to go and get myself ready to go with a friend north west of the city to the Water Valley area. This is where Sandhill Cranes have been reported recently, as well as Great Gray Owls and even a Barred Owl (or was it a Boreal???) Keeping my fingers crossed for the Cranes in particular ... but you know how it works, LOL. "The Evening Grosbeak is 18.5 cm long. The adult has a short black tail, black wings and a large pale bill. The adult male has a bright yellow forehead and body; its head is brown and there is a large white patch in the wing. The adult female is mainly olive-brown, greyer on the underparts and with white patches in the wings." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Evening_Grosbeak

Such a treat to have the chance to see a wonderful pair of Evening Grosbeaks a couple of days ago! After botanizing Janel Butler's farm, we called in at a beautiful private acreage belonging to the Handfields - they had so kindly allowed us to botanize their land last year). These two acreages are west of Millarville, south west of Calgary. I think this shot shows the female better than one that I took of her perched in a tree, so will post this photo first and then will add the other image soon. If I remember correctly, i've only ever had the chance once before to see these beautiful birds. Just look at the size of that beak, LOL! All the fresh air, heat and bright sunlight that I've been exposed to recently (plus huge lack of sleep!) just knock me out. Very bad when it comes to driving. "The Evening Grosbeak is a year-round Alberta resident, usually in the northern half of the Province, but may be found in the southern mountains and the Cypress Hills as well. This big-beaked bird is a common winter visitor to central and southern Alberta towns and cities. When not stuffing themselves at winter feeders, grosbeaks use their specialized beaks to crack the winged seeds of Manitoba maple (boxelder) and green ash trees. In spring, swelling buds of poplar and willow are relished, and in summer and fall, the birds gorge on the ripening berries of pincherry, Saskatoons and other juicy morsels." talkaboutwildlife.ca/profile/?s=346

This was the only bird photo I managed to get on our Christmas Bird Count in the Cochrane Wildlife Preserve/Water Valley area on 29th December! The few birds we did see were far away, much too distant to get photos. I don't usually see Pine Grosbeaks, so wanted to add this to my Birds of Alberta Set, even though it's a distant and rather uninspiring capture, LOL.

A new bird for me today! At least, I can now say that I have properly seen an Evening Grosbeak, not just a very distant silhouette or movement that a friend put a name to! I was relieved that one photo turned out sufficiently well to keep and post. Was having strange problems with my camera all day and when I got home, discovered that I had accidentally pressed the Manual button, LOL. We saw this gorgeous bird at a lady's property south of 22X, south of Calgary. Will post the only photo I managed to get of the female another time. Once again, I have had a day out, so will be so short of time to "play" : ( These birds are uncommon, but erratic, year round in Alberta. Everyone was really happy to see them, as it seemed a pretty special sighting. "The Evening Grosbeak's bill can exert an incredible force per unit area - it might be the most powerful of any North American bird." From Birds of Alberta by Fisher and Acorn.