Today's (30 December 2017) weather forecast: "Extreme Cold Warning. A prolonged period of very cold wind chills is expected. Extreme cold conditions are expected to continue through the weekend." Our temperature today is -29°C (windchill -38°C) and light snow is still falling. Will this extreme cold ever end? Having just done three, day-long Counts in such bitterly cold weather, it looks like things should warm up just in time for the Fish Creek Provincial Park's annual New Year's Day Count. We will have an awful lot of snow to trudge through, though.
A video from the Weather Network website, showing how cold it is in Calgary right now:
www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/videos/gallery/watch-this-ho...
This photo was taken yesterday, 29 December 2017, when four of us (using just one car) took part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the Cochrane Wildlife Reserve area. I'm not sure why it's called Wildlife Reserve, as it consists of back roads and farms just like on our other Counts. The area we covered (right on the east edge of the count circle) was east of Highway 22/Cowboy Trail (across from the Water Valley area).
The first evidence of any wildlife for me, first thing in the morning, was a Jackrabbit that was nibbling on snow-covered plants right outside our leader's house. Of course, at 7:15 in the morning, it was still dark.
This is one of the Llamas seen at one of the farms we called in at during our coverage yesterday. This farmer has several of these large, amusing animals, and they are always one of the highlights of this Count for me. I'm not sure how many Llamas they have - somewhere around 7? Most of these animals were given to them by other farmers who no longer wanted them.
"Llamas appear to have originated from the central plains of North America about 40 million years ago. They migrated to South America and Asia about 3 million years ago. By the end of the last ice age (10,000–12,000 years ago) camelids were extinct in North America. As of 2007, there were over 7 million llamas and alpacas in South America and, due to importation from South America in the late 20th century, there are now over 100,000 llamas and 6,500–7,000 alpacas in the US and Canada." From Wikipedia.
Another of my favourite farms to stop at has a beautiful, old dog named Fang, along with beautiful cats, and I always look forward to seeing them each year. This day, though, with a temperature of -23C all day (windchill probably at least -30C), kept cats indoors. I caught a brief glimpse of just one cat outside. The neighbouring farm, which is also included in our area, has two beautiful old, red barns and I was longing to see these again. Unfortunately, no one was home, but I did get the chance to take two rapid shots through the trees of one of the barns, from a side view, which I had only seen for the first time on last year's Count.
Another farm we stopped at had beautiful Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls coming to a feeder. A joy to see these splashes of colour in a very cold, white, white world.
So, it was a very enjoyable day, though there were not all that many species or individual birds to be seen. Too cold and too much snow to spend much time searching various farmyards, and we had finished the Count by 2:30 pm. I will add a list of the bird species seen, in a comment box below. Many thanks, Dave, for driving us. You did a great job of handling roads that were not in the greatest condition, and it was greatly appreciated. The light was awful all day, and it was so difficult to see where the ditch was and where one road turned off to another. There is no way I would ever try driving on our back roads in winter! Also, a huge thank-you to the various landowners who were kind enough to allow us to wander around their farmyards. These visits make our day much more interesting!
Tags: Alberta Canada Cochrane Wildlife Reserve Audubon Christmas Bird Count 2017 NW of Calgary farm animal Llama domesticated head shot funny face funny expression portrait close-up front/side view field snow snow-covered trees outdoor winter cold temperature -23C low light 29 December 2017 FZ200 FZ200#4 P1280253 annkelliott Anne Elliott © Anne Elliott 2017 © All Rights Reserved
© All Rights Reserved
Today's weather forecast: "Extreme Cold Warning. A prolonged period of very cold wind chills is expected. Extreme cold conditions are expected to continue through the weekend." Our temperature today is -29°C (windchill -38°C) and light snow is still falling. Will this extreme cold ever end? Having just done three, day-long Counts in such bitterly cold weather, it looks like things should warm up just in time for the Fish Creek Provincial Park's annual New Year's Day Count. We will have an awful lot of snow to trudge through, though.
A video from the Weather Network website, showing how cold it is in Calgary right now:
www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/videos/gallery/watch-this-ho...
This photo was taken yesterday, 29 December 2017, when four of us (using just one car) took part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the Cochrane Wildlife Reserve area. I'm not sure why it's called Wildlife Reserve, as it consists of back roads and farms just like on our other Counts. The area we covered (right on the east edge of the count circle) was east of Highway 22/Cowboy Trail (across from the Water Valley area).
The first evidence of any wildlife for me, first thing in the morning, was a Jackrabbit that was nibbling on snow-covered plants right outside our leader's house. Of course, at 7:15 in the morning, it was still dark.
Each year, I look forward to seeing several Llamas at one of the farms we call in at during our coverage. This farmer has several of these large, amusing animals, and they are always one of the highlights of this Count for me. I'm not sure how many Llamas they have - somewhere around 7? Most of these animals were given to them by other farmers who no longer wanted them.
"Llamas appear to have originated from the central plains of North America about 40 million years ago. They migrated to South America and Asia about 3 million years ago. By the end of the last ice age (10,000–12,000 years ago) camelids were extinct in North America. As of 2007, there were over 7 million llamas and alpacas in South America and, due to importation from South America in the late 20th century, there are now over 100,000 llamas and 6,500–7,000 alpacas in the US and Canada." From Wikipedia.
Another of my favourite farms to stop at has a beautiful, old dog named Fang, along with beautiful cats, and I always look forward to seeing them each year. This day, though, with a temperature of -23C all day (windchill probably at least -30C), kept cats indoors. I caught a brief glimpse of just one cat outside. The neighbouring farm, which is also included in our area, has two beautiful old, red barns and I was longing to see these again. Unfortunately, no one was home, but I did get the chance to take two rapid shots through the trees of one of the barns, from a side view, which I had only seen for the first time on last year's Count.
Another farm we stopped at had beautiful Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls coming to a feeder. A joy to see these splashes of colour in a very cold, white, white world.
So, it was a very enjoyable day, though there were not all that many species or individual birds to be seen. Too cold and too much snow to spend much time searching various farmyards, and we had finished the Count by 2:30 pm. I will add a list of the bird species seen, in a comment box below. Many thanks, Dave, for driving us. You did a great job of handling roads that were not in the greatest condition, and it was greatly appreciated. The light was awful all day, and it was so difficult to see where the ditch was and where one road turned off to another. There is no way I would ever try driving on our back roads in winter! Also, a huge thank-you to the various landowners who were kind enough to allow us to wander around their farmyards. These visits make our day much more interesting!
An article from CBC News, including words from Brian Keating about how birds stay warm in such cold weather:
www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/how-birds-survive-winter-1...
""Common Redpolls can survive up to 20 hours without access to food, even if temperatures drop to -54 C," Brian Keating said.
Redpolls have specially designed esophageal pouches that allow them to hold on to seeds, then later slowly digest them to provide them with energy to maintain their core at a balmy 40 C — "kinda like throwing logs on a fireplace.
Their internal temperature can be 73 degrees warmer than the surrounding air, with the two extremes being separated by less than a half a centimetre layer of feathers."
Tags: Alberta Canada Cochrane Wildlife Reserve Audubon Christmas Bird Count 2017 NW of Calgary farm farmyard nature wildlife ornithology avian bird birds Common Redpoll Acanthis flammea finch family female perched metal fence side view bokeh outdoor winter cold temperature -23C low light 29 December 2017 FZ200 FZ200#4 P1280332 annkelliott Anne Elliott © Anne Elliott 2017 © All Rights Reserved
© All Rights Reserved
I finally bought myself an ipad mini, having never had a smart phone or any kind of tablet before. It was partly in frustration at not knowing where I was when I took various photos and, consequently, not being able to find something again. A friend had told me that with an ipad mini comes a GPS location for each photo. So far, I have used it on two or three of our recent Christmas Bird Counts. When I get out of the car at certain stopping points, I just take a quick shot or two, before we start walking, in the hope that I will remember the farmyards. I later delete the photos when I have looked at them on my computer. This one photo actually caught my eye, as it almost looked reasonable, so I decided to post it on Flickr just so that I can see what (EXIF) information comes with it. I'm finding it an enormous learning curve and am in a total mess with it. Yesterday, it said on the ipad mini that I had No Internet. No idea how that happened and haven't a clue what to do. Before too long, I need to make an appointment at an Apple store to get desperately needed help with everything.
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This morning's temperature is -29C (windchill -40C), with a lovely blue sky and sunshine. I have no intention of going out today, except to clear all the snow off my car ready for tomorrow's New Year's Day Bird Count for Fish Creek Park. This extreme cold is just brutal! Three COLD, day-long, out-of-the-city Christmas Bird Counts have been more than enough.
A video from the Weather Network website, showing how cold it is in Calgary right now:
www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/videos/gallery/watch-this-ho...
This photo was taken the day before yesterday, 29 December 2017, when four of us (using just one car) took part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the Cochrane Wildlife Reserve area. I'm not sure why it's called Wildlife Reserve, as it consists of back roads and farms just like on our other Counts. The area we covered (right on the east edge of the count circle) was east of Highway 22/Cowboy Trail.
The first evidence of any wildlife for me, first thing in the morning, was a Jackrabbit that was nibbling on snow-covered plants right outside our leader's house. Of course, at 7:15 in the morning, it was still dark.
One of my favourite things to photograph on this annual Count are the Llamas at one of the farms.. This farmer has several of these large, amusing animals, and they are always one of the highlights of this Count for me. I'm not sure how many Llamas they have - somewhere around 7? Most of these animals were given to them by other farmers who no longer wanted them.
"Llamas appear to have originated from the central plains of North America about 40 million years ago. They migrated to South America and Asia about 3 million years ago. By the end of the last ice age (10,000–12,000 years ago) camelids were extinct in North America. As of 2007, there were over 7 million llamas and alpacas in South America and, due to importation from South America in the late 20th century, there are now over 100,000 llamas and 6,500–7,000 alpacas in the US and Canada." From Wikipedia.
Another of my favourite farms to stop at has a beautiful, old dog named Fang, along with beautiful cats, and I always look forward to seeing them each year. This day, though, with a temperature of -23C all day (windchill probably at least -30C), cats stayed indoors. I caught a brief glimpse of just one cat outside. The neighbouring farm, which is also included in our area, has two beautiful old, red barns and I was longing to see these again. Unfortunately, no one was home, but I did get the chance to take two rapid shots through the trees of one of the barns, from a side view.
One farm we stopped at had beautiful Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls coming to a feeder. A joy to see these splashes of colour in a very cold, white, white world.
So, it was a very enjoyable day, though there were not all that many species or individual birds to be seen. Too cold and too much snow to spend much time searching various farmyards, and we had finished the Count by 2:30 pm. I will add a list of the bird species seen, in a comment box below. Many thanks, Dave, for driving us. You did a great job of handling roads that were not in the greatest condition, and it was greatly appreciated. The light was awful all day, and it was so difficult to see where the ditch was and where one road turned off to another. There is no way I would ever try driving on our back roads in winter! Also, a huge thank-you to the various landowners who were kind enough to allow us to wander around their farmyards. These visits make our day so much more interesting!
Tags: Alberta Canada Cochrane Wildlife Reserve Audubon Christmas Bird Count 2017 NW of Calgary farm farmyard building wooden barn red old field snow rural rural scene -23C all day overcast outdoor winter 29 December 2017 ipad mini 4 Apple test shot annkelliott Anne Elliott © Anne Elliott 2017 © All Rights Reserved
© All Rights Reserved
This morning's temperature is -29C (windchill -40C), with a lovely blue sky and sunshine. I have no intention of going out today, except to clear all the snow off my car ready for tomorrow's New Year's Day Bird Count for Fish Creek Park. This extreme cold is just brutal! Three COLD, day-long, out-of-the-city Christmas Bird Counts have been more than enough.
A video from the Weather Network website, showing how cold it is in Calgary right now:
www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/videos/gallery/watch-this-ho...
This photo was taken the day before yesterday, 29 December 2017, when four of us (using just one car) took part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the Cochrane Wildlife Reserve area. I'm not sure why it's called Wildlife Reserve, as it consists of back roads and farms just like on our other Counts. The area we covered (right on the east edge of the count circle) was east of Highway 22/Cowboy Trail.
The first evidence of any wildlife for me, first thing in the morning, was a Jackrabbit that was nibbling on snow-covered plants right outside our leader's house. Of course, at 7:15 in the morning, it was still dark.
One of my favourite things to photograph on this annual Count are the Llamas at one of the farms.. This farmer has several of these large, amusing animals, and they are always one of the highlights of this Count for me. I'm not sure how many Llamas they have - somewhere around 7? Most of these animals were given to them by other farmers who no longer wanted them.
"Llamas appear to have originated from the central plains of North America about 40 million years ago. They migrated to South America and Asia about 3 million years ago. By the end of the last ice age (10,000–12,000 years ago) camelids were extinct in North America. As of 2007, there were over 7 million llamas and alpacas in South America and, due to importation from South America in the late 20th century, there are now over 100,000 llamas and 6,500–7,000 alpacas in the US and Canada." From Wikipedia.
Another of my favourite farms to stop at has a beautiful, old dog named Fang, along with beautiful cats, and I always look forward to seeing them each year. This day, though, with a temperature of -23C all day (windchill probably at least -30C), cats stayed indoors. I caught a brief glimpse of only one cat outside. The neighbouring farm, which is also included in our area, has two beautiful old, red barns and I was longing to see these again. Unfortunately, no one was home, but I did get the chance to take two rapid shots through the trees of one of the barns, from a side view.
Another farm we stopped at had beautiful Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls coming to a feeder. A joy to see these splashes of colour in a very cold, white, white world.
So, it was a very enjoyable day, though there were not all that many species or individual birds to be seen. Too cold and too much snow to spend much time searching various farmyards, and we had finished the Count by 2:30 pm. I will add a list of the bird species seen, in a comment box below. Many thanks, Dave, for driving us. You did a great job of handling roads that were not in the greatest condition, and it was greatly appreciated. The light was awful all day, and it was so difficult to see where the ditch was and where one road turned off to another. There is no way I would ever try driving on our back roads in winter! Also, a huge thank-you to the various landowners who were kind enough to allow us to wander around their farmyards. These visits make our day so much more interesting!
Tags: Calgary Alberta Canada our leader's garden sidewalk nature animal wild wild animal wildlife Jackrabbit white white winter coat eating feeding snow plant side view outdoor 29 December 2017 FZ200 FZ200#4 P1280223 annkelliott Anne Elliott © Anne Elliott 2017 © All Rights Reserved
© All Rights Reserved
This morning's temperature is -29C (windchill -40C), with a lovely blue sky and sunshine. I have no intention of going out today, except to clear all the snow off my car ready for tomorrow's New Year's Day Bird Count for Fish Creek Park. This extreme cold is just brutal! Three COLD, day-long, out-of-the-city Christmas Bird Counts have been more than enough.
A video from the Weather Network website, showing how cold it is in Calgary right now:
www.theweathernetwork.com/ca/videos/gallery/watch-this-ho...
This photo was taken the day before yesterday, 29 December 2017, when four of us (using just one car) took part in the annual Audubon Christmas Bird Count for the Cochrane Wildlife Reserve area. I'm not sure why it's called Wildlife Reserve, as it consists of back roads and farms just like on our other Counts. The area we covered (right on the east edge of the count circle) was east of Highway 22/Cowboy Trail.
The first evidence of any wildlife for me, first thing in the morning, was a Jackrabbit that was nibbling on snow-covered plants right outside our leader's house. Of course, at 7:15 in the morning, it was still dark.
One of my favourite things to photograph on this annual Count are the Llamas at one of the farms.. This farmer has several of these large, amusing animals, and they are always one of the highlights of this Count for me. I'm not sure how many Llamas they have - somewhere around 7? Most of these animals were given to them by other farmers who no longer wanted them.
"Llamas appear to have originated from the central plains of North America about 40 million years ago. They migrated to South America and Asia about 3 million years ago. By the end of the last ice age (10,000–12,000 years ago) camelids were extinct in North America. As of 2007, there were over 7 million llamas and alpacas in South America and, due to importation from South America in the late 20th century, there are now over 100,000 llamas and 6,500–7,000 alpacas in the US and Canada." From Wikipedia.
Another of my favourite farms to stop at has a beautiful, old dog named Fang, along with beautiful cats, and I always look forward to seeing them each year. This day, though, with a temperature of -23C all day (windchill probably at least -30C), cats stayed indoors. I caught a brief glimpse of just one cat outside. The neighbouring farm, which is also included in our area, has two beautiful old, red barns and I was longing to see these again. Unfortunately, no one was home, but I did get the chance to take two rapid shots through the trees of one of the barns, from a side view.
Another farm we stopped at had beautiful Pine Grosbeaks and Common Redpolls coming to a feeder. A joy to see these splashes of colour in a very cold, white, white world.
So, it was a very enjoyable day, though there were not all that many species or individual birds to be seen. Too cold and too much snow to spend much time searching various farmyards, and we had finished the Count by 2:30 pm. I will add a list of the bird species seen, in a comment box below. Many thanks, Dave, for driving us. You did a great job of handling roads that were not in the greatest condition, and it was greatly appreciated. The light was awful all day, and it was so difficult to see where the ditch was and where one road turned off to another. There is no way I would ever try driving on our back roads in winter! Also, a huge thank-you to the various landowners who were kind enough to allow us to wander around their farmyards. These visits make our day so much more interesting!
Tags: Alberta Canada Cochrane Wildlife Reserve Audubon Christmas Bird Count 2017 NW of Calgary farm nature wildlife avian ornithology bird Pine Grosbeak Pinicola enucleator Finch family winter Finch male side view perched tree branch snow cold outdoor winter 29 December 2017 FZ200 FZ200#4 P1280317 annkelliott Anne Elliott © Anne Elliott 2017 © All Rights Reserved beautiful_expression
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