These will be the last photos I post for maybe a couple of weeks, as I am taking a much-needed break!

These large hawks are rare to uncommon in Alberta from April to September. I have seen several of them in the wild over the years, which is pretty special, but only from a very long distance and much too far for photos. I have seen a captive one at the Zoo and down at the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre, but not recently. We were both delighted to see this female lying on her nest.

Three days ago, I was so torn as to whether or not to accept an invite from my friend, Pam, to take a drive SE of the city. I really, really wanted to go, even more so as I have barely been out for ages. However, I am running out of time to get certain things done, and also I was concerned that if I slightly moved in a 'wrong' way, my knees would give way or my rotator cuffs and lower back would become even more painful. Not what I need, especially right now. In the end, I decided that, yes, I would go after all, and I am so glad that I made that decision.

We started off at Frank Lake, a place that is very familiar to both of us. We knew that Western Grebes and Eared Grebes were being seen and we both hoped they would be there that morning. A pair of Eared Grebes gave a little performance of part of their mating dance. Taken with the Nikon B700 - in fact, I gave up using the FZ200 for pretty well all my photos at Frank Lake and just kept my fingers crossed that the new B700 would give me at least a few photos that were good enough to keep. I am still having the problem of image shift on some of the shots - photo jumps upward, downward or to one side, cutting off parts of birds and resulting in ridiculous compositions. At Frank Lake, I could rest both elbows on a very sturdy window ledge, making it impossible for normal, self-created camera shake to happen.

Though I have quite a few photos of Eared Grebes on my Flickr photostream, I think I only have one previous photo of a Western Grebe. I don't see them very often and when I do, they are so far away. They were far away when we were there, but we were able to watch as they did a bit of their mating dance, including when each bird gathered a beak full of wet, rotting plant material and they went face to face in an amorous gesture. These birds also swam off separately, giving us a few chances for further shots. Still at the blind, we were so lucky when a pair of Eared Grebes came close enough to capture a shot or two of part of their mating dance.

By the way, the blind is surrounded by lake and flood water! Parts of the boardwalk were under 5" or 6" of water, through which we had to wade. If you do go, make sure you concentrate, or you might find yourself swimming in the lake! Elsewhere in the whole SE area, there was a lot of water in some of the fields, creating what I suspect will turn out to be only temporary sloughs.

A few of the other birds we saw two days ago at various places included a few dozen Tundra Swans; plenty of Northern Shovelers; several Western Meadowlarks; a Great Horned Owl and her little white, fuzzy owlet, sitting on a distant nest; and a Ferruginous Hawk female lying down in her nest. Of course, the usual suspects included Canada Geese, Mallards, and so on.

When it came time to leave Frank Lake, I had assumed we would then start on the drive back to the city. Instead, Pam surprised me by saying that we would go further south - and further south we definitely went! Made such a great day. Thanks so much, Pam, for this treat - greatly appreciated.