Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: web

Calgary is under a Winter Storm Warning (27 April 2019). "Hazardous winter conditions are expected. Rapidly accumulating snow could make travel difficult over some locations. Visibility will be suddenly reduced to near zero at times in heavy snow and blowing snow." The snow hasn't arrived here yet - all we have had (so far?) has been a few minutes of sleet. Early evening, wow, we have such a snowstorm - almost total white-out, with blowing snow! I don't know how anyone can see to drive. Day 4 is finished - sigh of relief. The 17 photos I have just posted this afternoon are the remaining photos taken at Bishop City Park, on our way to Kingsville. Next, I will be able to start on Day 5, which was a day trip to the enormous King Ranch. One of the highlights of that day was seeing a pair of Ferruginous Pygmy Owls at the end of our private tour of the Ranch, as well as some new birds for us, such as the Scissor-tailed Flycatcher and the Vermilion Flycatcher. Perhaps the highlight for me was when I caught sight of a little Texas horned lizard near my feet, something I had longed to see for a few years. As far as animals go, two nice sightings were a Javelina/Collared Peccary and six exotic Nilgai antelope from India that had been imported to the King Ranch in 1930. We only got a fleeting glimpse of their rear ends as they raced away through the trees. Day 4, 22 March, of our 13-day birding trip to South Texas, 19-31 March 2019, was a day of birding and also driving from Rockport, where we had stayed for three nights, to Kingsville. Earlier in the day, we had spent time at the Leonabelle Turnbull Birding Centre/the Port Aransas Nature Preserve. We loved this great Birding Centre, getting great views of the various bird species, looking down from the new boardwalk that has been built after Hurricane Harvey destroyed the previous one in 2017. Lots of birds; even a huge Alligator. We spent some time on the beach at Mustang Island State Park, watching and listening to the Laughing Gulls. They are such fun to watch and to photograph. The Royal Terns are so beautiful, always looking quite regal in their posture. At one point, a man started feeding the Gulls down the beach, and they swarmed over and around him. Managed to get a couple of distant shots. After our short walk along this beach, we continued our drive towards Kingville, where we were going to spend two nights at the Hampton Inn. We had time to stop at Bishop City Park before we reached Kingsville. We saw several Aloe vera plants growing when we walked around the large duck pond. I think the first time I saw these succulents was at the Blue Waters Inn on the island of Tobago in 2017. Quite spectacular. We did see a Northern Rough-winged Swallow there and a Couch's Kingbird. "Bishop’s City Park is located just west of the U.S. Highway 77 Bypass on South Birch Avenue and features a community center, two baseball fields for little league and high school baseball, a covered basketball court and a large lot for recreational activities. In addition, the City Park also offers visitors a 0.6 mile hiking trail and a 9.1 acre lake in which waterfowl are frequent visitors. Several families of ducks and geese have also made their home under the park’s two observation decks built out over the lake." www.bishoptx.com/our-community/parks/#prettyPhoto

What??? Just checked our weather forecast and I found little snowflake icons for this coming Thursday, 13 September!! I am SO not ready for this. We did get snow in the mountains back in August. Yesterday, 8 September 2018, there was a second Fungi Foray out at West Bragg Creek. A handful of us from Calgary were there, plus so many people who belong to a mycological group. Many of them arrived armed with the dreaded baskets! Never a good sign, as that means mushrooms will be picked before those of us who are photographers and/or like to see mushrooms left where they are growing, get a chance to take photos. This year is not a particularly good year for mushrooms and other fungi. However, we did see quite a few different kinds, including this little family growing along the edge of a tree stump. As always, any IDs given are only tentative - have no ID for these. This little grouping was not in West Brragg Creek itself, but in a "secret" spot. Three of us went there after the foray. A treacherous place to try and walk, but a few different species can be found there. Definitely not a place for dozens of people. One of the things we wanted to check out in this second spot was a log that was covered in Blue Stain. On our last visit, we had photographed a white mushroom and when I got home, I noticed that the log below it had Blue Stain. We wanted to check if we could find any of the beautiful and unusual turquise fungi cups were to be seen. When we eventually found the right log in the forest (ha, ha!), we were delighted to see that there was a scattering of these teeny cups. Almost all of them were very pale, but some did have a turquoise rim. Will eventually post a photo of them. The weather was just perfect for our morning's walk. On the drive west of the city to West Bragg Creek, there was a beautiful Chinook Arch. I just had to pull over on the highway and take a quick shot through the windscreen. It was so tempting to keep driving further into the mountains - West Bragg Creek is right on the edge.

Those of you who know me, know how much I love owls : ) Needless to say, I couldn't resist taking a quick shot of this garden ornament in the attractive picnic area at Pioneer Acres. I liked the spider webs, too. Just for fun .... My daughter and I had a such a great day on 5 September 2017. She had a free day, so we decided to drive east of the city and visit the Pioneer Acres Museum. The day started off with seeing three perched Swainson's Hawks, which were a bonus. We had passed the colourful old truck and tractor displayed on tall posts, to indicate Pioneer Acres, on various occasions and this time, we actually went to the museum. What an amazing collection of old farming equipment, some standing outdoors and many others in large sheds. Have to say that I am always attracted to older, rusty things, and there was no shortage of these, either. "Pioneer Acres is operated by a team of volunteer members who, in many cases, have extended their golden years of retirement, performing the duties necessary to meet the club's objectives. These include work to collect, restore, maintain and demonstrate the artifacts which were used by the pioneers of early Alberta. The end result is that present and future generations have the opportunity to glimpse into our pioneering past through the artifacts on display and demonstrated. Younger members of the club also learn the care, maintenance and operation of these living artifacts." From link below. www.pioneeracres.ab.ca/member.aspx While we were walking round the grounds, visiting each massive shed in turn, my daughter spotted a Plains Garter Snake, and waved me over to see it. She also saw several birds running round behind one of the sheds, and when I went to check, I found there were four Gray Partridge running off in the distance. A distant Jackrabbit completed our wildlife sightings, first noticed when it was standing tall and upright on its back legs. My mind wandered to Alice in Wonderland : ) Though we did not do a tour of the inside of the "Long" House, we found it an impressive building, complete with a few Sunflowers, Hollyhock and other flowers in the garden, and a tall, metal windmill that had a different design from ones I usually see. "The "Long" House was built in 1914 by John Thomas on a farm just northwest of Irricana, Alberta. It has been lived in by three generations of the Long Family since 1914. The house was donated to Pioneer Acres, moved to our location, and restored to 1929 status." From the Pioneer Acres website. There is also an old schoolhouse on the Museum site. "The Crown School, built in 1905, was located west of Three Hills on Highway 583. It closed in 1953 and was bought by the district of Allingham for use as a community league. In 1996, the building was relocated to Pioneer Aces of Alberta Museum." From the Alberta Teachers' Association website. After spending a long time walking round the grounds, we decided to drive through Irricana itself in order to get back to the highway. I had seen photos on the Internet of three murals there - sunflowers, crayons, and a view of the old grain elevators that had once stood nearby - and I wanted to go and see them. All near each other, as this town only has a few streets. I had never been to Irricana before and I was impressed with what a delightful place it is, full of brightly coloured murals, and well kept. One of the outer roads had many flower beds along the edge, watered with well water, looking most attractive. I had asked my daughter if she was interested in calling in at the Silver Springs Botanical Gardens in NW Calgary, if there was time after our drive east. I had planned the drive ahead of time, partly because I had also seen a photo somewhere on the Internet of a rather nice old barn that I really wanted to see. We were not disappointed, though it was a shame to see that the cupola had fallen from the roof since that photo was taken. I had never driven through the town of Airdrie before, but did the "drive" on Google Earth the night before and it looked straightforward enough. Returning to the city via Cochrane, my daughter told me how to get to Silver Springs. I had never driven there before, but I had been there with a friend last year, I think on 1 October, and thoroughly enjoyed these meticulously kept gardens. We were just too hot and tired to see every inch of the garden, but finished off with photographing sunflowers and enjoying the American Goldfinches that were feeding on them, before we continued on our way. A great day, despite the heat and smoke from the B.C. and Alberta wildfires (distant low visibility, too). Thanks so much, Rachel - hope you enjoyed it as much as I did. We drove 256 km (used about half a tank of gas, or less). I was absolutely tired out from the heat and driving unfamiliar roads.

Photographed at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on 20 August 2011. A few holes, but, for the most part, a beautifully-made web. Such a clever little spider : )

I did darken this photo so that the web stood out more than in the original photo : ) Thanks so much, Aileen, for pointing out this beautiful spider's web yesterday, when we were botanizing the forest at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. I was concentrating on the backlit web, so didn't think of walking around to the other side so that I could get a photo of the topside of the spider. Today, I HAVE to make myself get a few things done in the house, ready for when my 12 boxes of sentimental items that belonged to my brother and my parents (and me) arrive from England. They are supposed to be in Calgary by the end of August, so I've almost run out of time to do more clearing of my basement to make room, and I absolutely have to do some very, very, very long-overdue cleaning this week before I dare let anyone into my place, lol. Every time I am out botanizing some location in or around the city, I can't help but think how sad it is that so many women are at home, vacuuming and keeping their homes spotless. My theory on that is that life is so short and there is so much amazing beauty out there for us to enjoy, why stay home and miss it all? I know which I would rather do, any day - which is why I have no choice but to plug in my poor, extremely neglected vacuum cleaner this week before the moving/delivery people arrive, ha. I hate the thought of having to disturb all the little dust bunnies - you know me, I love little creatures, whether wild or domesticated. Under the bed seems to be a common location to find dust bunnies, but mine are so clever, they climb on everything and try to hide there, ha. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Spider_web

A closer view of the amazingly beautiful spider web that we saw when we were on a hike at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on August 20th.

This was a fascinating thing to see down at the bottom of Horseshoe Canyon, in the Badlands of Alberta, north east of the city. Several of us spent the day on 21st August botanizing the amazing area. This spider web was so different and very intricate, constructed down in the grass. Too bad the little (?) owner didn't show itself - maybe camera shy?

On our walk this morning at Edworthy Park, a friend pointed out this beautiful spider's web very high up in a tree. In a different tree, we had been watching an adult Great Horned Owl with two young ones : ). A little further on, we stopped to watch a family of Magpies with several young ones that had been out of the nest for maybe two days. Always something to see and marvel at : )

Part of a spider web in North Glenmore Park. I was just a little amused to see a "knot" in an otherwise "perfect" web.

I'm sure that this Orb Weaver spider was only small, but this is the size I remember it as! At least! They build spiral, wheel-shaped webs.

Found this spider down near the border between Canada and the US, during a trip to Waterton Lakes in southern Alberta.