Cinnamon Teal pair

nobody@ipernity.com (Anne Elliott) — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 15:13:20 +0000

The day before yesterday, 24 April 2016, I was out for the day, SE of Calgary around Frank Lake. Finally, after so much glorious, summer-like spring weather, the weather changed for the worse and we had a cool (needed gloves), very overcast day, with light drizzle some of the time. Not good at all for taking photos. We also had a fair bit of desperately needed rain that night. I was especially disappointed with the shots I took of a beautiful Western Meadowlark. Usually, they fly even when they see you in the far distance, but this beauty let me slowly walk quite close to get a number of (very grainy) photos. The quality is awful, but I don't get a chance to photograph Meadowlarks very often, so I did post one yesterday.

Eight friends and I had a great day, despite the weather. This is one of my favourite areas amd I just haven't been getting time to drive there myself for quite a long time. We started off at the main gate and drove to the blind/hide area, stopping half way to search for very distant birds. While everyone else had their binoculars pointed over the water, I was slowly walking towards the Meadowlark, who was singing its beautiful song. You can hear them and they sound so close, but their song seems to carry a long way. It kept flying away but each time returned to the same post. I was amazed and delighted that this one let me get so close. If the sun had been shining, it would have been perfect!

As usual when we go to Frank Lake, almost all the birds are very distant and pretty impossible to photograph. I did catch a male Red-winged Blackbird perched on a sign - the females have not yet returned here. The other amazing thing was when we had walked from the Frank Lake bird blind over to the water in the other direction, a flock of about 50 Tree Swallows were flying to and from a low tree/shrub, catching the many insects while in flight. Again, while everyone was searching over the water, I gradually made my way to within just a few feet of the bush. Quite a feeling to have so many Tree Swallows circling all the way around you. I have never ever seen so many of them acting like this, so it was a neat experience. This pair of Cinnamon Teal was swimming in a very small slough near Frank Lake, along with a few other birds, including Black-necked Stilts and American Avocets.

From this main area, we called in at the usual three other places around the lake. Two were rough roads that led to Basin 2 from the east and the west, and the third was the Ducks Unlimited location at the far southern edge of the lake, at Basin 3.

Thanks so much for a great day, Tony, and for the ride all day. I always look forward to the Frank Lake trips.

I will add our leader, Tony Timmons' list of species seen, adding that only 6 people walked as far as the Hudsonian Godwits - I was not one of them.

"Nine people were on the trip today to Frank Lake. Expected species were present in pretty fair numbers, with the best sighting being 15 Hudsonian Godwits at Basin 3.

A flock of 50 Tree Swallows hacking insects and using a small bush for a perch, made for an interesting scene.

We had 56 species for the trip

Horned Grebe
Eared Grebe
Western Grebe
Double-crested Cormorant
Great Blue Heron
White-faced Ibis (1 seen by Dan P.)
Canada Goose
Trumpeter Swan
Tundra Swan
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Green-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Ruddy Duck
Northern Harrier
Swainson's Hawk
Red-tailed Hawk
Gray Partridge
American Coot
Killdeer
Black-necked Stilt
American Avocet
Lesser Yellowlegs
Willet
Hudsonian Godwit
Wilson's Snipe
Franklin's Gull
Bonaparte's Gull
California Gull
Rock Pigeon
Mourning Dove
Great Horned Owl
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow
Marsh Wren
American Robin
European Starling
Song Sparrow
Dark-eyed Junco
Red-winged Blackbird
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Western Meadowlark
Brewer's Blackbird
House Sparrow"

Cinnamon Teal

nobody@ipernity.com (Anne Elliott) — Wed, 29 Apr 2015 15:46:45 +0000

Anne Elliott has posted:

I only had three photos of Cinnamon Teal on Flickr and all are distant. They are always far away when I very occasionally do happen to see one. This is my closest shot of one and far from good, but will do until I hopefully get a better one. They really are a beautiful duck and their colour is gorgeous when the sun shines on them.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Cinnamon_Teal/id

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cinnamon_teal

Three days ago, on 26 April 2015, I spent the day with a fair-sized group of friends, at Frank Lake. The weather was beautiful and, for once, not windy. Frank Lake and the surrounding area is one of my favourite places to spend a day or half a day.

On a trip like this one, there are a lot of the birds that I don't see, as I don't use binoculars. Also, my interest is not to see as many species as possible, but to hopefully come across a few birds close enough to photograph. Fortunately, at the bird blind/hide, a couple of Eared Grebe were within camera range as well as a Coot or two. Every once in a while, they stayed still for a few seconds before continuing their constant swimming and diving.

I will add the final list of the 51 species seen, complied by our Leader, Tony Timmons. Probably not of much interest to most people, but it does help my memory. Many thanks, as always, Tony, for a very successful and most enjoyable day! Really appreciate your giving up a precious weekend day to take us out there.

"The birds put on a spectacular show for the 19 participants on the Frank Lake trip today. We tallied 51 species. (Anne's note: on this trip one year ago, we found 53 species.)

Expected species were present in pretty good numbers; most noteworthy being American Avocet (200+) and White-faced Ibis (120). Thousands of ducks were on the Lake.

Thanks to Dan Parliament and Al Borgardt for scoping birds and sharing sightings with the group.

Before the start of the trip, Rose Painter spotted two Long-billed Curlew near Blackie. Later in the day, we searched for the birds without success.

Eared Grebe 250
Western Grebe 20
Double-crested Cormorant 25
Black-crowned Night Heron 1
White-faced Ibis 120
Canada Goose
Swan sp. 12
Gadwall
American Wigeon
Mallard
Blue-winged Teal
Cinnamon Teal
Green-winged Teal
Northern Shoveler
Northern Pintail
Canvasback
Redhead
Ring-necked Duck
Lesser Scaup
Bufflehead
Common Goldeneye
Hooded Merganser 2 f.
Ruddy Duck
Northern Harrier 3
Swainson's Hawk 3
Gray Partridge 4
American Coot
Killdeer 5
Black-necked Stilt 10
American Avocet 200+
Greater Yellowlegs 5
Lesser Yellowlegs 17
Franklin's Gull 1000
Bonaparte's Gull 10
Ring-billed Gull 5
California Gull 20
Rock Pigeon
Great Horned Owl ( 3 ad. + 3 owlets )
Black-billed Magpie
American Crow
Common Raven
Tree Swallow 60
Bank Swallow 1
Marsh Wren 4
American Robin
European Starling
Red-winged Blackbird
Western Meadowlark 5
Yellow-headed Blackbird
Brewer's Blackbird 1
House Sparrow

Tony Timmons"

Photos, videos and docs of Anne Elliott, with the keywords: "reddish chestnut colour"

Cinnamon Teal pair

Cinnamon Teal