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
Julia Heliconian / Dryas iulia
Rough-fruited Fairybells / Prosartes trachycarpa
Pretty lady
I said NO more photos!
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
See also...
Keywords
Authorizations, license
-
Visible by: Everyone -
All rights reserved
-
284 visits
Nodding (Musk) Thistle / Carduus nutans


Overslept by an hour and a half, so gotta post and run and see if there is any way to find the group of people I'm supposed to meet up with this morning!
Later: the large Nodding or Musk Thistle is my favourite species of Thistle. When I saw this one, it was obviously well past its prime. Unfortunately, this quite spectacular and beautiful species is on the list of Restricted, Noxious, and Nuisance Weeds In Alberta. It is a biennial that spreads rapidly by seed forming extremely dense stands, though when I have seen this species growing in several places within the city, there are usually only a few of them. However, if they are left ....
This photo was taken on 8 October 2015. Friend Sandy had asked if I wanted to go with her to join friends down at the Irrigation Canal in the city, for a birding walk. This was a long walk - three and a half hours - along both sides of the canal. It was a beautiful fall day with a lovely blue sky. Also, enough trees were still dressed in gold to give some colourful reflections in parts f the canal. The water level was very low, creating just a narrow strip of water with a wide mud bank on either side, that had attracted a number of Greater Yellowlegs and a single American Golden-plover juvenile. The latter was a new bird for me and, though I could only get a very distant, poor shot, I did post it on Flickr. To me, a juvenile American Golden Plover looks so similar to a juvenile Black-bellied Plover (from photos I've seen), but the ID for the bird we saw was given as American Golden-plover. Much of the time, there were pale, dead grasses in the background and this bird was almost invisible. Great camouflage.
We also saw several Hooded Mergansers there. I don't often see Hooded Mergansers and, when I do see one, it's always a long way away. They are quite spectacular ducks, especially the males, who have a crest at the back of their head and can raise this black and white "hood" or lower it.
The list of the 31 bird species seen (not all by me) from our leaders, Dan and David:
1. Canada Goose - 60+
2. Mallard - 150+
3. Northern Shoveler - 1
4. Green-winged Teal - 2
5. Hooded Merganser - 3 males
6. Common Merganser - 20+
7. Double-crested Cormorant - 4
8. Bald Eagle - 1, immature
9. Red-tailed Hawk - 1 (Harlan’s subspecies)
10. Rough-legged Hawk - 5 (4 dark phase, 1 light phase)
11. AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER
12. Killdeer - 1
13. Greater Yellowlegs - 38+
14. Long-billed Dowitcher - 11
15. Ring-billed Gull - 400+
16. Herring Gull - 2
17. Rock Pigeon - 32+
18. Downy Woodpecker - 1
19. Hairy Woodpecker - 2
20. Northern Flicker - 2
21. Merlin - 2
22. Black-billed Magpie - 15+
23. American Crow - 6
24. Common Raven - 2
25. Black-capped Chickadee - 7
26. White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
27. American Robin - 8
28. European Starling - 18+
29. Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2
30. American Tree Sparrow - 1
31. House Finch - 1
Later: the large Nodding or Musk Thistle is my favourite species of Thistle. When I saw this one, it was obviously well past its prime. Unfortunately, this quite spectacular and beautiful species is on the list of Restricted, Noxious, and Nuisance Weeds In Alberta. It is a biennial that spreads rapidly by seed forming extremely dense stands, though when I have seen this species growing in several places within the city, there are usually only a few of them. However, if they are left ....
This photo was taken on 8 October 2015. Friend Sandy had asked if I wanted to go with her to join friends down at the Irrigation Canal in the city, for a birding walk. This was a long walk - three and a half hours - along both sides of the canal. It was a beautiful fall day with a lovely blue sky. Also, enough trees were still dressed in gold to give some colourful reflections in parts f the canal. The water level was very low, creating just a narrow strip of water with a wide mud bank on either side, that had attracted a number of Greater Yellowlegs and a single American Golden-plover juvenile. The latter was a new bird for me and, though I could only get a very distant, poor shot, I did post it on Flickr. To me, a juvenile American Golden Plover looks so similar to a juvenile Black-bellied Plover (from photos I've seen), but the ID for the bird we saw was given as American Golden-plover. Much of the time, there were pale, dead grasses in the background and this bird was almost invisible. Great camouflage.
We also saw several Hooded Mergansers there. I don't often see Hooded Mergansers and, when I do see one, it's always a long way away. They are quite spectacular ducks, especially the males, who have a crest at the back of their head and can raise this black and white "hood" or lower it.
The list of the 31 bird species seen (not all by me) from our leaders, Dan and David:
1. Canada Goose - 60+
2. Mallard - 150+
3. Northern Shoveler - 1
4. Green-winged Teal - 2
5. Hooded Merganser - 3 males
6. Common Merganser - 20+
7. Double-crested Cormorant - 4
8. Bald Eagle - 1, immature
9. Red-tailed Hawk - 1 (Harlan’s subspecies)
10. Rough-legged Hawk - 5 (4 dark phase, 1 light phase)
11. AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER
12. Killdeer - 1
13. Greater Yellowlegs - 38+
14. Long-billed Dowitcher - 11
15. Ring-billed Gull - 400+
16. Herring Gull - 2
17. Rock Pigeon - 32+
18. Downy Woodpecker - 1
19. Hairy Woodpecker - 2
20. Northern Flicker - 2
21. Merlin - 2
22. Black-billed Magpie - 15+
23. American Crow - 6
24. Common Raven - 2
25. Black-capped Chickadee - 7
26. White-breasted Nuthatch - 1
27. American Robin - 8
28. European Starling - 18+
29. Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2
30. American Tree Sparrow - 1
31. House Finch - 1
- Keyboard shortcuts:
Jump to top
RSS feed- Latest comments - Subscribe to the comment feeds of this photo
- ipernity © 2007-2025
- Help & Contact
|
Club news
|
About ipernity
|
History |
ipernity Club & Prices |
Guide of good conduct
Donate | Group guidelines | Privacy policy | Terms of use | Statutes | In memoria -
Facebook
Twitter
Sign-in to write a comment.