Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#206

.... just not the species I was after, lol! After a three-hour walk in Fish Creek Park two days ago, I went straight to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. I don't usually go "chasing" after a rather more special bird that has been reported, but I will sometimes do so if it's an owl : ) Someone had photographed a little Northern Saw-whet Owl there recently, so I thought it was worth going to see if there was any sign of it. Ha, no there wasn't, but instead I found myself staring into a big, round, yellow eye, deep within a Spruce tree. Yep, a Great Horned Owl. When I first caught sight of the eye, I was seeing the owl from a different angle - at the end of my walk, it had shifted a little and was easier to see. Bumped into a fellow birder down there and when he couldn't find the Saw-whet either, he wondered if maybe this Great Horned Owl might have had Saw-whet for lunch. It was sitting in one of the trees where the little owl had apparently been seen.

A Red-sided Garter Snake being held so that it could be measured, marked and recorded. These really are attractive snakes - and those are words coming from someone with a fear of snakes, LOL! The Wandering Garter Snakes are a different matter - I just cannot get comfortable with those AT ALL, especially the larger, fat females - ugh! We saw about 57 snakes yesterday, a mixture of both species of Garter Snake. For anyone who has never tried to photograph a snake, you (or at least I) have to take lots of shots in the hope of getting one half decent image. These reptiles do not like being held and they writhe and twist. Every once in a while, one will be a bit calmer, thank goodness.

Now that the pair of Snowy Owls in the enclosure near the Tigers at the Calgary Zoo no longer have their three youngsters from two years ago living with them, hopefully, Mom and Dad will produce a new set of young ones this year.