Confederation Cooper's Hawk

After our regular Sunday stroll ( 13th May) Dan lured me up to confederation park in Calgary to check out the Warblers, and he told me we shouldbe able to find a Cooper's nest. So off we went, we didn't have any luck with the warblers, but we did manage to find the Cooper's.

We were able to get pretty close.

I find them to be a great looking bird! 

Sorry it's bee so long between posts. I will get caught up.

Turbo

Sunday May 13- Butterflies

Sorry fore the long delay in posting, I have been away from home, then not feeling well since my return. I thought that I should try and get caught up with a big bird count coming up on Sunday I will get too far behind.
I was out of bed early Sunday morning and looking for something to shoot when I found this YHBB

The walk started well and I managed to grab this pale greenish fella with yellow?

The Clay Colured Sparrows were singing everywhere, I just can't hear them.

I would greatly appreciated if anyone can name these butterfly's I'm posting, I don't have a clue as to what they are.

And yet another mystery bug.

We found a pair of nesting Swallows they always do a great job of catching the sun's rays.

Did I mentions we saw a couple different kinds of Butterflies?

We saw our first Gadwall's of the year.

But the day wouldn't be complete without a butterfly.

But I couldn't leave you with all these butterflies so I thought that I would throw in a couple more birds. Like this Black Necked Stilt.

And maybe a spotted sandpiper.

I hope everyone has a GREAT week. I am off to Vancouver for the next 10 days.
Turbo

Mountain Bluebird morning.

Tim dropped by at 4:45 a.m. this morning, as we were headed out to get some up close Mountain Bluebird shots. A quick stop at Rotten Ronnie's and we were off. As the day was begining to lighten up we found Birds of Prey, deer and the odd Bluebird. I had to calm Tim down assuringhim we would be getting better opportunities, and we did. On our way to our 7th moose sighting of the day, one of which I am certain was Old Grey (see file photo from January 2009, I have been following her ever since)

We found this odd bird, I am hoping that some post processing will allow for a better image. For you folks in the US you probably recognize a wild turkey, but this is only my second sighting in Alberta.

While in tht road I was able to provide Timm with some long distance Elk views. While we were in that particular road we found a pair of Bluebirds and with the sun up now, we decided to break out the blind and see if we could get some decent shots.  You be the judge.:

Here is the male puffing out his chest to defend off the Swallows that were definitely interested in takingup residence.

Here the male is inspecting the new domicile.

Here are the happy couple getting ready to move in, she already has the bedding ready.

Here she is a beautiful bird in her own right!
On the way out Tim spotted a Ruffed Grouse under a big spruce. Tough lighting conditions prevent a post, but not too far down the road we ran into a second Ruffed and I think this is an okay shot.

Almost out we found this Red Naped Sapsucker.

We managed a third "game" bird of the day and that was this Sharptailed Grouse, the mate was there too but we didn't see it until they flew off.

And as long as the Redwing Blackbirds are offering me shots I will continue to shoot.

Overall an exceptional day. I almost had Tim home for his 11:00 a.m. appointment. Hope everyone has as successful day in whatever your endeavours are this weekend, and always!

Turbo

Kildeer, Shovelers, Cinnamon teal, Yellowheaded Blackbird, pheasant--Sunday May 7 Continued.

As I mentioned in the previous post I thought that I better not overexpose my audience, so here is the installment of birds out with Tim On Sunday afternoon after our morning walk. Before we go too far though I thought that I would post a decent shot of a Killdeer that I took last week with my trusty D80'

Back to our regularly scheduled programming!  Here is another looka t a pair of Northern Shovelers:

Next up is Cinnamon Teal, I wish I would have had the sun behind me, they really shine in the light.

We did manage to find a muskrat out on a sunny day as well.

Through the day we found 5 or 6 different Kestrels, our luck was even better when we learned where they like to hunt from:)

The Red Wings and YellowHeads were everywhere it seems, and everyone was bursting into song.

Of course by Supper time some of the more mature males just want to sit around.

Tim did send me off a shot of the femail pheasant we found a little later in the day. You don't often see them standing up like this without being in full trot.

And as I am kind of catching up with this post, I thought that I would throw in a shot I took this morning of a White Tailed Jack Rabbit that was sitting on my fron walkway, enjoy!

I hope everyone has a GREAT week!

Turbo

Willet, YHBB, American Pipit, Merlin, Whiteface Ibis right here in Alberta!

Well after a stellar morning, and missing out on a great evening last week, Tim decided to come along for cruise on Sunday afternoon. I believe it was a real treat as we had the opportunity to spot and photo several birds that he had never seen before. We started the day off with a Red fox, but no photos of any quality to post. Next up were some Northern Shovelers.

Then after a couple of "dry" ponds we found three (I think) different shore birds that I am yet to Identify:

I have shown them from smallest to largest, three distinctly different sized birds. Then there was this Swainson that flew overhead a litle while later.

Then another mystery bird?

We saw many Western Meadow Larks, and I was able to improve my front on shots that show their tremendous yellow breast and black vee.

After some more birds of prey and a couple of American Avocets, we found our big surprise for the day the White faced Ibis!

Beautiful irradecent feathers, and we foud three together, TERRIFIC!'

After the Ibis' we had no further expectations on the day, but we continued to find Birds of Prey everywhere including this Merlin

The day continued with a lot more waterfowl and Blackbirds like this Redwing

Sheesh I am going to cut this post off here as I have more to show you, including more mystery birds a muskrat, a couple of good Yellow Headed BB shots, and even a Hen pheasant.  I might have to borrow one of those from Tim, as he managed to get much closer than I.  I hope EVeryone has a GREAT week, what SUPER colour we are strting to get back into our lives:)

Turbo

Yellow Rumped, Orange Crowned, flicker, Brown headed cowbird Inglewwood in early May- Sunday the 6th

Got down to Inglewood a little early this morning, managed to find this Flicker excavting a new place for the family, or so it looked like.

We spent a little time at trying to grab a Swallow in the air.  I love how the wings are vertical and the head is horizontal here.

The Yellow rumped Warblers were every where!

Here is a bird I rarely shoot, but it came in so close I had to fire off a couple of rounds. The Brown Headed Cow bird.

Here is a shot of a Canada Goose nesting in the side of a tree. Pretty cool, she is only about 8 feet off the ground.

Managed to grab some pretty good Black Billed Magpie shots as well. The tail feathers on these birds cab just look outstanding in the sun.

We had a little drama overhead as this Redtail Hawk objected to the presence of this Bald Eagle. They were a long way off, so the quality of the image is not great.

Did I mention the Yellow Rumps were everywhere?

And we finished the day up with some Orange Crowned Warblers, a new bird for me.

That wraps up this Sunday morning walk portion of our show. We had many other birds and few mammals thrown in, but the post would be toooo long toinclude everything.

Turbo