Pretty lady
Nodding (Musk) Thistle / Carduus nutans
For Chiara
Down in the forest
Deciduous yellow
Partially Leucistic Red-breasted Nuthatch
Crested Wheatgrass / Agropyron cristatum
Coral Fungus
Changing colour ready for the winter
Hibiscus
Nodding (Musk) Thistle / Carduus nutans
Trust
Poppy seedpod
White-faced Whistling Duck / Dendrocygna viduata
Halloween colour
Yellow False Dandelion seedhead
Sparkles on Forgetmenot Pond
Eastern Kingbird at Marsland Basin
The challenge of bird photography
Stinkhorns from 2012
Resting in the meadow
I'm blurry, but I'm cute
Eurasian Lynx
Leopard Tortoise / Stigmochelys pardalis
African Crested Porcupine / Hystrix cristata
Taveta Golden Weaver / Ploceus castaneiceps
Colonel Walker House, Inglewood Bird Sanctuary
Cone paradise
Nodding (Musk) Thistle / Carduus nutans
Along the Irrigation Canal
Shapeless fungi
The last of the fall colour
A narrow strip of light
Ring-necked Duck
Forest treasures ... Pholiota squarrosa
Mountain Ash berries
Hungry little Muskrat
Always breathtakingly beautiful
Tundra Swans
Longhorn Beetle / Pseudogaurotina cressoni
Fence line in the fall
Flat Topped Coral / Clavariadelphus truncatus
Black-crowned Night Heron juvenile
European Skipper on Timothy Grass
Moss-rose, Happy Hour Mix / Portulaca grandiflora
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I said NO more photos!


I took this photo at the Calgary Zoo on 29 September 2015. That day, my alarm clock was set for 6:30 am so that I could go on a birding walk with friends. Unfortunately, I didn't read the e-mail carefully enough, so hadn't seen that the meeting place was not where I thought. Of course, no one else showed up where I was, so I took myself off to the Calgary Zoo instead. I had planned on going there after the walk, anyway.
This beautiful tropical bird, a Golden-breasted Starling, took my breath away! It has such vibrant colours and sheen, and an extremely long, narrow tail (which obviously isn't seen in this close shot). Unfortunately, the light is terrible in this hot, humid building, so I find it's difficult to get a sharp photo of anything, hence the grainy shot.
"The golden-breasted starling (Lamprotornis regius), also known as royal starling, is a medium-sized, up to 35 cm long, passerine in the starling family. It is distributed in the grassland, savannah and shrubland of East Africa, from Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and northern Tanzania.
The adult has a metallic green head and upper back, bright golden yellow breast and belly, dark bill and legs, white iris and metallic violet blue on wings, back, neck and its long tail feathers. Both sexes are similar. The young are duller than the adult.
The golden-breasted starling is a social animal, living in groups of three to twelve individuals." From Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden-breasted_starling
Later: I discovered a Calgary Sun newspaper article from 23 June 2015, about a family that discovered this bird (or a different individual - I seem to remember seeing two of these birds when I was there) that had escaped from the Zoo.
www.calgarysun.com/2015/06/23/inglewood-family-helps-calg...
This beautiful tropical bird, a Golden-breasted Starling, took my breath away! It has such vibrant colours and sheen, and an extremely long, narrow tail (which obviously isn't seen in this close shot). Unfortunately, the light is terrible in this hot, humid building, so I find it's difficult to get a sharp photo of anything, hence the grainy shot.
"The golden-breasted starling (Lamprotornis regius), also known as royal starling, is a medium-sized, up to 35 cm long, passerine in the starling family. It is distributed in the grassland, savannah and shrubland of East Africa, from Somalia, Ethiopia, Kenya and northern Tanzania.
The adult has a metallic green head and upper back, bright golden yellow breast and belly, dark bill and legs, white iris and metallic violet blue on wings, back, neck and its long tail feathers. Both sexes are similar. The young are duller than the adult.
The golden-breasted starling is a social animal, living in groups of three to twelve individuals." From Wikipedia.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden-breasted_starling
Later: I discovered a Calgary Sun newspaper article from 23 June 2015, about a family that discovered this bird (or a different individual - I seem to remember seeing two of these birds when I was there) that had escaped from the Zoo.
www.calgarysun.com/2015/06/23/inglewood-family-helps-calg...
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