I love these Eared Grebes, with their bright red eyes that look like red buttons. I spent a while trying to photograph several of them at Frank Lake (SE of Calgary) two days ago, 18 May 2013. I say "trying", as I found them to be fairly fast swimmers, who like to keep changing direction.
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eared_Grebe/id
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-necked_Grebe
Tags: Alberta Canada SE of Calgary Frank Lake nature water lake ornithology avian bird birds water bird Grebe Eared Grebe Podiceps nigricollis Podicipediformes Podicipedidae Podiceps breeding plumage golden plumes adult swimming side view red eyes baby young Explore interestingness# explore2013May21 migratory #GreatNature
© All Rights Reserved
Much more delicately coloured than the male, this little female Mountain Bluebird still has a beauty of her own. She's looking up to keep her eyes on the numerous Tree Swallows that were flocking to the neighbouring nesting box, maybe 30' away. Taken SW of Calgary on 14 May 2013.
I have been loyal to Flickr ever since I posted my very first image on 27 August 2006. Now, with 8,877 images uploaded, I'm sure that I will continue to be here on Flickr. Too many friends and Contacts to walk away from, for a start. So many things I don't like about the new Flickr layout. I now use Chrome to open Flickr, as IE makes an even worse mess of things. For instance, my banner photo is so blurry on IE, but OK on Chrome. The display of Sets is awful and so user-unfriendly - all those enlarged cover photos (now the birds have no head!) make it so difficult to tell what is even in the various Sets. The titles placed on top of the image make it very hard to read what they say. The Home Page? Such an unpleasant, awful mess, so I just avoid it. Simply out of curiosity, because lots of people have mentioned this other website, I posted four of my photos to it just to see what their layout is like. Rather similar to the old Flickr, actually. I'll add two links, to my photo page and to the page that contains just one album, to show what they look like. Have to admit that with the new Flickr layout, I think our photo page does display our photos in quite a nice way and makes the photos look really good. The individual image page looks good on black, but the description and layout of the comments is not something I like at all. A mess.
My photo page:
www.ipernity.com/doc/293827
My Album (i.e. Sets) page:
www.ipernity.com/doc/293827/album
Tags: Alberta Canada SW of Calgary backroad nature ornithology avian bird birds Bluebird Mountain Bluebird female perched barbed-wire looking up side view adult Explore interestingness# explore2013May23 #GreatNature
© All Rights Reserved
Oh, boy, this image looks even blurrier than it did in the wee hours of this morning, when I was editing it! It was taken at 9:00 p.m. on 10 May 2013, when it was beginning to get dark. Better than nothing, though, as this is not what most people ever get the chance to see : ) (Apologies to the squeamish!). This is the female Great Horned Owl (alias "Mom") down at Sikome in Fish Creek Park. Both her young ones had managed to claw and flap their way up to the top edge of the nesting cavity - you can just see the top of the second one's head. Along came Mom with take-out supper - no preparation time, no cooking time, just ready to go, lol. We think it could have been a Blue-winged Teal that she had just caught. Both young owls fledged in the following few days and now are way up in the trees, greatly hidden by the freshly bursting leaves. They are going to be very, very wet owls today, as it is raining again. There is a Heavy Rainfall Warning in effect for us.
This species of owl will eat other kinds of owl, birds (from Kinglets to Great Blue Herons, including Pheasants!), rabbits, mice, voles, fish, squirrels, insects such as earthworms, and many other prey. The Great Horned is also a natural predator of prey two to three times heavier than itself, such as Porcupines and Skunks. Also, dare I say it - cats and small dogs!
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Horned_Owl
"The Great Horned Owl is the only animal that regularly eats skunks. It will take large prey, even other raptorial birds. It regularly kills and eats other owls, and is an important predator on nestling Ospreys."
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/great_horned_owl/id
Tags: Calgary Alberta Canada Fish Creek Park Sikome nature ornithology avian bird birds bird of prey owl Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus adult female owlet two siblings young nesting tree perched edge camouflage feeding supper duck on the menu Excellence AvianExcellence #GreatNature
© All Rights Reserved
I seem to have been really lucky with Mountain Bluebirds the last couple of weeks, though the lighting hasn't always been the best. I never get tired of seeing these gorgeous blue birds. The male is spectacular, but the female with her more grey colouring, has her own beauty, too. Taken on 14 May 2013, along a backroad SW of Calgary.
In Bluebirds, the blue colour is produced by the structure of the feather - there is no blue pigment. "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. Examples include the blue feathers of Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Blue Jay's and Steller's Jays."
www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Bluebird/id
www.jstor.org/discover/pgs/index?id=10.2307/4077277&i...
Tags: Alberta Canada SW of Calgary backroad nature ornithology avian bird birds Bluebird Mountain Bluebird Explore interestingness# explore2013May19 #GreatNature
© All Rights Reserved
This Great Horned Owlet was not one of the "usual" ones, but one of three found at a different park in the city. They may have all fledged by now, as this photo was taken on 15 May 2013, and at least two of the owlets had "branched" - only maybe a foot along one of the branches close to the nest. I think that is Mom you can partly see in the background. This was the first time I had seen any of these owlets.
Tags: Calgary Alberta Canada nature ornithology avian bird birds bird of prey owl Great Horned Owl Bubo virginianus young owlet nesting tree perched Explore interestingness#415 explore2013May18 Excellence AvianExcellence #GreatNature
© All Rights Reserved
