In my wildlife photography, I have identified a variety of birds of prey from North America, Peru, Costa Rica, China, and Africa.

Swainson's Hawk (Alberta)

Ferruginous Hawk (Alberta)

American Kestral (Peru)

Lesser Kestral (Kenya)

Merlin (Alberta)

Prairie Falcon (Alberta)

Red Tailed Hawk (Alberta)

Golden Eagle (Utah)

Bald Eagle (Weaselhead, Calgary)

Northern Goshawk (Calgary, Alberta)

Greater Yellow Headed Vultures (Peru)

Broad Winged Hawk (Weaselhead, Calgary)

Steppe Eagle (Kenya)

Secretary Bird (Kenya)

Osprey (Weaselhead, Calgary)

Lapett Faced Vulture (Kenya)

Black Shouldered Kite (Costa Rica)

Andean Condor - Male (Peru)

Andean Condor - Female (Peru)

Black Vultures (Peru)

Sharp Shinned Hawk (Alberta)

Bat Falcon (Costa Rica)

Roadside Hawk (Costa Rica)

Mountain Caracara (Peru)

Cinerous Harrier (Peru)

Northern Harrier (Alberta)

Harris Hawk (Arizona)

Gray Hawk (Arizona)

Turkey Vulture (Arizona)

Rough Legged Hawk (Alberta)

Snake Eagle (Kenya)

California Condor (Utah)

Please remember that these are for identification purposes, and may not represent the best photos.  Please let me know if you see any errors in identification and feel free to leave comments! As I get more bird photographs, I will add them as new posts.

White Ibis (Costa Rica)

Sacred Ibis (Africa)

White Faced Ibis (Alberta)

Hadeda Ibis (Africa)

Puna Ibis (Peru)

Green Ibis (Costa Rica)

Great Egret (Costa Rica)

Cattle Egret (Africa)

Snowy Egret (Arizona)

Boat Billed Heron (Costa Rica)

Tri Coloured Heron (Costa Rica)

Fasciated Tiger Heron (Costa Rica)

Capped Heron (Peru)

Adult Black Crowned Night Heron (Arizona)

Juvenile Black Crowned Night Heron (Peru)

Gray Heron (Peru)

Little Blue Heron (Peru)

Great Blue Heron (Calgary)

Green Heron (Arizona)

Rufescent Tiger Heron (Peru)

Yellow Billed Stork (Africa)

Marabou Stork (Africa)

Saddle Billed Stork (Africa)

Roseate Spoonbill (Costa Rica)

American Bitterns

Please remember that these are for identification purposes, and may not represent the best photos.  Please let me know if you see any errors in identification and feel free to leave comments! As I get more bird photographs, I will add them as new posts.

Northern Flicker - yellow shafted, red shafted (Inglewood)

Pileated Woodpecker (Weaselhead)

Red Crowned Woodpecker (Costa Rica)

Downy Woodpecker (Weaselhead)

3 Toed Woodpecker (Kananaskis)

Keel Billed Toucan (Costa Rica)

Yellow Bellied Sapsucker (Calgary)

Black Throated Barbet (Kenya)

Black Fronted Nun Bird (Peru)

Hairy Woodpecker (Inglewood)

Yellow Tufted Woodpecker (Peru)

Acorn Woodpecker (Arizona)

Arizona Woodpecker (Arizona)

Gila Woodpecker (Arizona)

Gilded Flicker (Arizona)

These are the hummingbirds I have seen in various parts of the world. Please remember that these are for identification purposes, and may not represent the best photos. Please let me know if you see any errors in identification and feel free to leave comments! As I get more bird photographs, I will add them as new posts.

Green Crowned Brilliant (Costa Rica)

Brown Violet Ear (Costa Rica)

Steely Vented (Costa Rica)

Rufous (Trochu, AB)

Purple Throated Mountain Gem - Male (Costa Rica)

Purple Throated Mountain Gem - Female (Costa Rica)

Black Bellied (Costa Rica)

Long Tailed Hermit (Costa Rica)

Coppery Headed Emerald (Costa Rica)

Scaly Breasted (Costa Rica)

Striped Tail (Costa Rica)

Green Violet Ear (Costa Rica)

Violet Sabrewing - Male (Costa Rica)

Violet Sabrewing - Female (Costa Rica)

Ruby Throated (Calgary, AB)

Ruby Throated (Trochu, AB)

Reddish Hermit (Peru)

Green Thorntail (Costa Rica)

Costa's (Arizona)

Amazilia (Peru)

Giant (Peru)

Anna's (Arizona)

Oasis (Peru)

Sparkling Violet Ear (Peru)

Collared Inca (Peru)

Gray Breasted Sabrewing (Peru)

Broad Billed (Arizona)

Magnificient (Arizona)

White Eared (Arizona)

Today was the art change out at the Canmore Hospital. The new artwork will be on display until June, but there is a gala opening on February 11 from 7pm – 9 pm. Come check out the great work, including five of my own pieces, which will be put up for for display as well as purchase.

http://www.caag.ca/?ai1ec_event=gala-opening-for-art-from-the-heart

Having visited the hospital this morning, it really is amazing what art has done for the atmosphere of the hospital. It is hanging at reception, down the halls, and in display cases. From someone who feels negatively about hospitals, I think this is a great idea and changes the “sterilized” ambience into something much more pleasant.

http://calgary.ctv.ca/servlet/an/local/CTVNews/20120202/CGY_rabbits_canmore_120202/20120202/?hub=CalgaryHome

I went to Canmore today and was able to find two wild rabbits that had not yet been captured. According to the above article, each rabbit costs the Society $100 — this seems fairly low considering they are spaying/neutering and providing a life home for the rabbits. Here’s hoping these two are rescued.

I have been interested to watch the social media blitz regarding Guzoo and even tweeted about it. However, since I have never been there, I decided to visit on August 1, 2011 and see what it was like for myself. The following represents my personal opinions.

It wasn’t horrific; but, in my opinion, it wasn’t good enough either.

Driving up to the main gates there is a posting of the charter of rights and freedoms. When you pay your entrance fee, you are asked to sign in (not sure of the purpose of that) and asked if you want to sign a petition in favour of Guzoo (which I didn’t). My husband signed in and I was asked to sign as well, unless we were married. They also reserve the right to refuse photography — when I asked about this, she said I could take pictures as long as I wasn’t an animal activist, adding that this doesn’t seem to stop them. There was also a questionable “effing” sign above the gift shop.

Throughout our trip, we only saw two workers (who were unable to tell us what type of birds were caged when there was no sign) but there were plenty of visitors on that day.

I looked up the Zoocheck report from July 11/07 (http://www.zoocheck.com/Reportpdfs/Guzoo07.pdf) and decided to make comparisons to what I observed. Many of the issues were the same.

• Drinking water for animals is still dirty
• “This Animal Bites” signs are still up (but not for animals like the tiger, lion!)
• The tiger cage was quite small as were the padlocks used around the zoo
• Ability to move away from the public is still not an option for many, including tigers. The guinea pigs that I went to see ran away from me, but there were many of them with only one or two wooden boxes to hide in.
• Breeding issue — I do not know what is allowed, but there was a family of lynx, including 3 cubs, while we were there.
• Weather — many animals either had no shade, or not much daylight
• Cages — I don’t know what the standards are exactly, but I was surprised to see that the lions had linked fence rather than actual bars. The gap between the public fence and the enclosure fence seemed quite small to me (maybe 3 feet?)
• Safety — the Japanese Macaque was playing with a rusted metal hook as we watched
• Domestic dogs — the same dogs pictured were present outside of the entrance, which did not have a closed gate. One visitor had a pet dog on a leash while walking through the zoo. The baby emu that was allowed to wander the grounds freely went after the dog until the owner picked it up.

Interestingly enough, the domestic cats were caged up. However, there were three tiny kittens who were small enough to squeeze in and out of the bars, which they did, and able to roam should they have chosen.

These are my personal observations — I do not have any professional zoo knowledge and/or connections. The standards mentioned are from a Zoocheck report.

Searching for jaguars in Brazil`s Pantanal is quite the adventure. Most of them are found in a reserve that is situated on an island. This means that to get there you need to take a six hour boat ride — at top speed. Now that you have travelled so far, you will stay on a houseboat outside of the reserve for five nights. While there are obviously no guarantees, there is no mistaking that you are there to see jaguars and that is your primary goal. To accomplish these you spend eight hours a day on a boat circling the island.

We spent two full days and three nights there without seeing a jaguar.

It was warm and windy, although hot and calm are the best conditions for seeing jaguars. On the third day I was getting a bit desperate, but the weather had changed for the better — it was close to 40 degrees. Never having seen a jaguar in its native habitat, it`s very difficult to know what you are actually looking for. At one point, Stefan and I saw an animal walking the edge of the jungle — it might have been a capybara — but when we moored we saw it was a female jaguar! She was beautiful and to our delight was with a male partner; our guide had only seen two jaguars together once before. We could hear them wandering around and while they allowed us some pictures, they wouldn’t stray far from the vegetation.

This was early in the morning  so we continued on. The only time you are allowed to get out of the boat is during the one bathroom stop at lunch where everyone else stays in the boat and you face towards the jungle hoping for the best! Of course emergency breaks on the boat are easier for guys, but not quite so glamorous for girls!  Our third sighting was probably our best one in terms of photographic opportunity.  He looks like the roughest of the bunch and had been in a huge fight. He stayed at the edge of the trees letting us observe and take photos — he even turned his back on us to sleep! Later that day we spoke to the rangers of the reserve and they were unaware that this male was even in the reserve. Of course we had pictures to prove it.

After seeing three jaguars in one day, we were ready for a new adventure and used our last day to travel the lagoons outside of the reserve. This allowed us to see some new things, such as an amazing Wood Stork rookery. Just before lunch, a boat came up to us explaining that they had just seen a jaguar along the beach.

The chances of seeing jaguars outside of the reserve were small, but we rushed over anyway. It had been scared off, which was disappointing. But our wildlife luck stuck with us, and we soon found our fourth jaguar — outside of the reserve!

Each jaguar has a unique series of spots on its forehead so that you can tell them apart. We saw a total of four different jaguars, and each encounter was equally as unique!

15 Game Bird Species

Please remember that these are for identification purposes, and may not represent the best photos.  Please let me know if you see any errors in identification and feel free to leave comments! As I get more bird photographs, I will add them as new posts.

Ruffed Grouse (Weaselhead)

Gray Partridge (East of Calgary)

Yellow Necked Spurfowl (Africa)

Crested Guan (Costa Rica)

Helmeted Guineafowl (Africa)

Ring Necked Pheasant (East of Calgary)

Andean Guan (Peru)

Gambel's Quail (Arizona)

Wild Turkey (Arizona)

Spruce Grouse (Water Valley)

Peacocks (Vancouver Island)

California Quail (Alberta)