Splash of countryside colour

I was surprised to suddenly come across this colourful display not far from the edge of a gravel back road yesterday. Nicely done, I thought.

Yesterday, 11 July 2018, my place was just too hot for comfort. so I took a short drive SW of the city to see what I could find. I had been wondering if the Mountain Bluebirds were still around and I wanted to check on them. A few were found and two pairs gave me a few chances to take photos. The first pair I checked on was nowhere to be seen - and then I knew why. Way down the road, perched on a high power post, was a Red-tailed Hawk. Once the hawk had flown off over the fields, the Bluebirds appeared. Certain other bird species were not seen during the time I spent out there, so I guess I will have to try again another day.

The highlight of my drive was suddenly spotting a beautiful female Moose who was busily feeding on the trees and bushes a short way into the forest. It was so dark within the trees that I almost missed seeing her. In fact, I thought I had spotted a deer, but a quick U-turn and I discovered it was a Moose, not a deer. She was in no hurry to move away and was still there when I left her. Almost every one of my photos came out blurry - most likely because I was shooting from the driver's seat across the passenger seat, with the car still running : ( I had pulled over in a place that was not the best for stopping, so wanted to be able to move if I needed to. Happy that a handful of photos came out OK, though.

This morning, I have posted 10 photos from yesterday's drive - mainly just odds and ends. Still more that I want to upload, so that I can get back to dealing with photos from a number of other recent trips. Sorry to flood Flickr.