Presenting.....

I got photos! They are not very good photos, but you can see the birds. I have eliminated the possibility that they are Merlins, wrong colour.

I checked with What Bird again and am no further ahead in identifying it. They may be Prairie Falcons, in which case, they are way far north of their usual areas, the call is close. They may also be American Kestrels, but they would have to have been the females or juveniles - again, the call is close. The only other thing they could be is Peregrines, there has been a nesting pair living year round in down town Edmonton for years now. Not exactly their usual hunting grounds, but they are there, too bad the call and the colour are not quite right.

The first two shots are the same bird. I am not sure clicking to enlarge will make it any clearer.



This is the second one and shooting into the light, all I have is silhouette - um and his dinner.

This is the third one we could find. A good shot from below that shows the detail of his tail (no, he restrained him or herself).



And as we were ending our walk, this was how the sky looked.


We could hear a fourth, but didn't catch sight of him/her. If anyone can give me another choice of bird, the call sounded most like the Merlin or the Prairie Falcon.

Have a good day all.

I'm a bit excited!

A friend and I usually take a walk around the neighbourhood in the evenings (about a mile) and tonight, we went a different direction. We saw at least three falcons! In the neighbourhood just south of where we live hanging around one of the school yards.

Just little ones and I ID'd them from the cry right off, as being either falcons or hawks, then we got a good look at the underside as one flew directly overhead.

Alas, I didn't have my camera with me and it was dusk enough that I couldn't be sure of the colouring.

We are going to go again a bit earlier tomorrow night - with camera and binoculars and sit quietly to see if we can catch sight of them again. Fast little buggers flyers that they are I may not get anything but blur.

I checked out What Bird and they may be either Merlins or a Sharp-Shinned Hawk, the Merlin call is closer though.


Hopefully I will have photos in the next day or so.

Have a good day.

WWC: "O" & South

Hello Tuesday! Weekly Word Challenge time and today we are challenged to represent the letter "O" and the word South. Please click to enlarge.




Plenty of "O's" here at the food store.














Two South ends ;)











I hadn't seen one of these hooks before.














Storm coming in from the South.













My Roots camera bag.

















The wee little compass (smaller than a dime) I have on my keychain showing which direction South is.













So, there you have it. If you would like to join in the fun, stop by and see Tink at Pickled Beef. Check the Link on my sidebar for more participants.

Have a good day all.

I don't know why...

but I started a new blog. Ostensibly to post the photos that don't get posted here. We'll see how well that works out. I may just drop this blog if I find I am doing more there. I don't know. The link is on the right at the top of the page.

Check it out, or not.

Have a good day.

WWC: Happy & Blue - how are you?

Ack! I almost forgot, so I went to the archives to see what there was and realized I hadn't posted these before. They are from before the computer crash...I am so glad they were able to repair it without having to reformat.

This was the sky one day and it was such a pretty blue I just had to take the shot.








We found this happy fellow while walking by the river.













And this maybe not so happy fellow also on the river trail.
















Same sky a few minutes later much more intense blue.











Sorry, that is all for today. If you would like to join the weekly word challenge, please see Tink at Pickled Beef and she will set you on the path.


Have a good day all.

Fireworks!

I need a sturdier tripod and to see if I can get a remote trigger for this camera.

Oh, well....this shot shows just how light it still is at 23.15 hrs. It also shows how far away the fireworks are ;) If you enlarge, you can just make them out sort of in the centre of the treeline.










This year we were supposed to have a monster fireworks show.












This might have been one of them, or just a very interesting effect by my camera.

















Of course, I may have missed it altogether, or they cancelled it at the last minute. I know they started earlier than they stated.

















I was shooting some on automatic with the fireworks setting and tried some on the bulb setting, I think so far the auto setting is best.









I'll try again at New Year's provided it isn't 40 below or some such stupid temperature.

Have a good day all.

Happy Birthday Canada!

There will be celebrations across our country today celebrating the British North America Act which united the four provinces of 1867 into one country.



Me, I'll be doing laundry and maybe some gardening ;)






Have a good Canada Day everyone!