Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Prairies

As you can see from this image, the weather was simply beautiful yesterday. I was so lucky to be invited to go SE of Calgary to the Blackie area with friends Cathy and Terry, to do some exploring : ) Blackie is located approximately 70 kilometres (or 85 kilometres, depending on where you read it) southeast of Calgary. We stopped at this particular spot to admire this old homestead. The snow drifts were untouched, pristine, and with glorious bright blue patches and you can just see the very distant mountains. Believe it or not, we saw 17 owls, 12 Snowy Owls and 5 Great Horned Owls!!! We were thrilled at this spot that a Horned Lark was perched on the fence, singing its little heart out : ) The first photo I uploaded this morning - Red Fox - shows how our great day started off! Thanks so much for a great day, you guys!

As you can see from this image, the weather was simply beautiful when I was so lucky to be invited to go SE of Calgary to the Blackie area with friends, Cathy and Terry, to do some exploring : ) Blackie is located approximately 70 kilometres (or 85 kilometres, depending on where you read it) southeast of Calgary. We stopped at this particular spot to admire this old homestead. The snow drifts were untouched, pristine, and with glorious bright blue shadows and you can just see the very distant, snow-covered mountains. We were thrilled at this spot that a Horned Lark was perched on the fence, singing its little heart out : )

Yesterday, I finally found a Great Horned Owl sitting in an old, far-away barn, on our way to spend the day botanizing at Dry Island Buffalo Jump Provincial Park. One or two of you might just remember that I have always wanted to find an owl sitting in a window frame like this - only, of course, I pictured it taken on a lovely sunny day and a little closer or more accessible : ) However, I was so, so thrilled when we passed this delapidated barn and as we were passing I thought I spotted a pale coloured "something" sitting there. Friend and driver, Sandy, slowed down and turned around - which meant that friends in the car behind, who must have wondered what we were doing, also had to turn around. Thanks everyone, for patiently waiting while I grabbed two or three photos! The Owl only sat there briefly, and then flew off with several Starlings (?) in hot pursuit! As you can see by the sky, the weather was already really crummy (and only got worse as the day went on). Thankfully, some colour was added by the surrounding Canola field. Well, I was already on a great, natural high from our day at Plateau Mountain two days earlier - but seeing this owl sure topped up that feeling! Ha, I hope you find my excitement over such a comparatively small thing, amusing!

Not sure which species of Cladonia lichen this is. This little grouping was growing at Horseshoe Canyon, August 21st last year, when a few of us spent the day botanizing the canyon. This location is in the Badlands of Alberta, east of Calgary. This is a macro shot - these Cladonia are only tiny. Later: thanks to Doug (dougwaylett) for the ID, Cladonia pyxidata, Pebbled Pixie-cup. Much appreciated! According to the Alberta Wild Species General Status Listing, 2010, the status of Cladonia pyxidata is Secure.