Licking the salt
Oh, so cute
A beautiful display of Fireweed
Edelweiss
The Kent (Superman) Farmhouse
Embracing the sun
Juvenile Spruce Grouse
Cautious mother of twins
Pika, busily feeding
Yellow Penstemon
I see a Sora
The smoke breathing monster
Police Car Moth
A touch of iridescence
Red-tailed Hawk with tree bokeh
Pale Enargia (Enargia decolor)
Yellow-bellied Marmots
Yesterday's storm clouds near Skiff, Alberta
Time to relax
At the end of the rainbow
Pure joy
Spruce Sawyer / Monochamus scutellatus
Purple-flowering Raspberry / Rubus odoratus
Aphids on Fireweed
Fine old vehicle
What could be cuter?
The joy of vibrant Fireweed
What big feet you have
Shades of brown
Broad-headed bug
Common Branded Skipper on Alfalfa
The twins' Mom
Cabbage White butterfly
Black Henbane seedpods
Clouds over Frank Lake
One of two little fawns
Mourning Dove
Richness in nature
Erosion in Dinosaur Provincial Park
Female House Finch
Just before it jumped
One of its favourite perches
Tiny Crab Spider
Now that's a whole lot of bull
Glad to see Gladioli
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A quick, two-second rest


Two days ago, 19 August 2014, I was lucky enough to have the chance to try and photograph a couple of these absolutely adorable little creatures : ) After a while, I was beginning to despair of ever getting any decent shots at all. These tiny Pikas, also known as Rock Rabbits, hardly ever remain still and they are extremely fast! Imagine a mountain hillside covered in sharp, jagged rocks of all sizes and then try to picture how difficult it is to find in the viewfinder the single rock on which one of these Pikas might happen to sit for a second or two, lol! The rock in my photo was a particularly nice one, standing out because it was bigger than the rocks immediately around it and it was covered in various Lichens. This little Pika made a quick, two-second stop on it several times, surveying the grasses and plants around it before dashing to gather a huge mouthful of "fresh greens" and then bounding up the rocky mountain slope to add its collection to a little cave among the rocks. They rely on existing spaces between the rocks for their homes - they don't dig a burrow, though they can dig to make their home bigger. Because the Pikas are a similar colour to the surrounding rocks, it is difficult to see them - unless you happen to catch sight of some movement or you see a mouthful of green moving at top speed over the rocks.
As time passed, I managed to take quite a lot of photos, though many will need to eventually be deleted. Came home with too many photos to go through when I got home (at midnight!) and yesterday evening finally had a chance to take a better look. Hopefully today, I'll have a chance to add a bit more info about our great day out! Hope you don't get tired of seeing these little guys, but they are just so very cute. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length, so really are pretty small. And, no, I didn't put one in my pocket to bring home with me!
"The American Pika is a generalist herbivore. It eats a large variety of green plants, including different kinds of grasses, sedges, thistles and fireweed. Although pikas can meet their water demands from the vegetation they eat, they do drink water if it is available in their environment. Pikas have two different ways of foraging: they directly consume food (feeding) or they cache food in haypiles to use for a food source in the winter (haying). The pika feeds throughout the year while haying is limited to the summer months. Since they do not hibernate, pikas have greater energy demands than other montane mammals. In addition, they also make 13 trips per hour to collect vegetation when haying, up to a little over 100 trips per day." From Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_pika
Link to a video that someone has posted on YouTube, to see and hear these little Rock Rabbits:
youtu.be/W4U9IxhQSTc
WHERE IS SUMMER???
Yesterday and today (21 August 2014) have been cold and wet! It is 11°C as I type (shortly before 1:00 p.m.), and it's raining. Looks like next week will be warmer.
"Thermometers have been plummeting all week in Alberta, with below-seasonal temperatures making it feel more like fall than summer across the province ... The province can expect temperatures to remain below-seasonal for the remainder of the week, although slightly increasing on the weekend." From the WeatherNetwork.
My youngest daughter's NEAR-ADVENTURE yesterday. Some of you may have seen on the News yesterday evening that a man climbed into a city bus that was idling while the driver took a break, and took it for a joy-ride! My daughter was the only person on the bus while it was idling, and the man told her to get off, before he drove off in the bus! I'm so thankful (so is she!) that she didn't have to stay on the bus till the Police managed to catch up with the bus and get the guy.
As time passed, I managed to take quite a lot of photos, though many will need to eventually be deleted. Came home with too many photos to go through when I got home (at midnight!) and yesterday evening finally had a chance to take a better look. Hopefully today, I'll have a chance to add a bit more info about our great day out! Hope you don't get tired of seeing these little guys, but they are just so very cute. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length, so really are pretty small. And, no, I didn't put one in my pocket to bring home with me!
"The American Pika is a generalist herbivore. It eats a large variety of green plants, including different kinds of grasses, sedges, thistles and fireweed. Although pikas can meet their water demands from the vegetation they eat, they do drink water if it is available in their environment. Pikas have two different ways of foraging: they directly consume food (feeding) or they cache food in haypiles to use for a food source in the winter (haying). The pika feeds throughout the year while haying is limited to the summer months. Since they do not hibernate, pikas have greater energy demands than other montane mammals. In addition, they also make 13 trips per hour to collect vegetation when haying, up to a little over 100 trips per day." From Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_pika
Link to a video that someone has posted on YouTube, to see and hear these little Rock Rabbits:
youtu.be/W4U9IxhQSTc
WHERE IS SUMMER???
Yesterday and today (21 August 2014) have been cold and wet! It is 11°C as I type (shortly before 1:00 p.m.), and it's raining. Looks like next week will be warmer.
"Thermometers have been plummeting all week in Alberta, with below-seasonal temperatures making it feel more like fall than summer across the province ... The province can expect temperatures to remain below-seasonal for the remainder of the week, although slightly increasing on the weekend." From the WeatherNetwork.
My youngest daughter's NEAR-ADVENTURE yesterday. Some of you may have seen on the News yesterday evening that a man climbed into a city bus that was idling while the driver took a break, and took it for a joy-ride! My daughter was the only person on the bus while it was idling, and the man told her to get off, before he drove off in the bus! I'm so thankful (so is she!) that she didn't have to stay on the bus till the Police managed to catch up with the bus and get the guy.
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