Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#237

We don't have the glorious Maple leaves that some parts of Canada have, that turn a rich red in the fall. Our fall colours are mainly yellow with an occasional splash of orange. There are two species here that I sometimes see that remind me of what we are missing - wild Gooseberry and the plant/shrub that is in this photo. I'm not sure what it is, but perhaps some kind of currant bush? Just a quick shot, taken on 20 September 2014, when I was walking along the path to see the family of Beavers. I haven't been there for quite some time, so I hope all is well with them. I actually got out on a birding walk yesterday morning, a rare thing for me these days. We walked along the path in South Glenmore Park, overlooking the Glenmore Reservoir. We found only 20 species of bird, mainly the usual ones such as Chickadees, Crows, Ravens, Coots, Robins, and Nuthatches. However, we were lucky enough to see an immature Pacific Loon that was out in the middle of the reservoir. Then it disappeared and, for a brief couple of seconds, reappeared somewhat closer to us. I was able to get just one 48x zoomed shot, heavily cropped, that I might post sometime, as that was my first "proper" sighting of a Pacific Loon. So amazing to see how long these Loons can stay underwater and then reappear such a long distance away. We also were treated to two Common Loons that flew overhead. Though we saw so few birds and bird species, it was a beautiful, sunny morning, with temperatures of 10°C to 16°C.

Three days ago, 19 August 2014, I was lucky enough to have the chance to try and photograph a couple of these absolutely adorable little creatures : ) After a while, I was beginning to despair of ever getting any decent shots at all. These tiny Pikas, also known as Rock Rabbits, hardly ever remain still and they are extremely fast! Imagine a mountain hillside covered in sharp, jagged rocks of all sizes and then try to picture how difficult it is to find in the viewfinder the single rock on which one of these Pikas might happen to be sitting for a second or two, lol! By the time you find the rock, the Pika is long gone. This little Pika had just made another trip to its small cave among the rocks, with yet another huge mouthful of grasses and plants. They rely on existing spaces between the rocks for their homes - they don't dig a burrow, though they can dig to make their home bigger. Because the Pikas are a similar colour to many of the surrounding rocks, it is so difficult to see them - unless you happen to catch sight of some movement or you see a bunch of greenery moving at top speed over the rocky mountain side. As time passed, I managed to take quite a lot of photos, though many will need to eventually be deleted. Came home with too many photos to go through when I got home at midnight that night, but yesterday, I finally had a chance to take a better look. I still haven't added a bit more information about a few of the things we saw on our drive. Maybe today? Hope you don't get tired of seeing these little guys, but they are just so very cute. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length, so really are pretty small. And, no, I didn't put one in my pocket to bring home with me! "The American Pika is a generalist herbivore. It eats a large variety of green plants, including different kinds of grasses, sedges, thistles and fireweed. Although pikas can meet their water demands from the vegetation they eat, they do drink water if it is available in their environment. Pikas have two different ways of foraging: they directly consume food (feeding) or they cache food in haypiles to use for a food source in the winter (haying). The pika feeds throughout the year while haying is limited to the summer months. Since they do not hibernate, pikas have greater energy demands than other montane mammals. In addition, they also make 13 trips per hour to collect vegetation when haying, up to a little over 100 trips per day." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_pika Link to a video that someone has posted on YouTube, to see and hear these little Rock Rabbits: youtu.be/W4U9IxhQSTc WHERE IS SUMMER??? Yesterday and today (22 August 2014) have been cold and wet! It is 10°C as I type (shortly before 11:00 a.m.), and it's raining lightly. Looks like next week will be warmer and drier. "Thermometers have been plummeting all week in Alberta, with below-seasonal temperatures making it feel more like fall than summer across the province ... The province can expect temperatures to remain below-seasonal for the remainder of the week, although slightly increasing on the weekend." From the WeatherNetwork. A quick note about my youngest daughter's NEAR-ADVENTURE two days ago! Some of you may have seen on the News in the evening that a man climbed into a city bus that was idling while the driver took a break, and took it for a joy-ride! My daughter was the only person on the bus while it was idling - she had just got off work - and the man told her to get off, before he drove off in the bus! I'm so thankful (so is she!) that she didn't have to stay on the bus till the Police managed to catch up with the bus and catch the guy.

A familiar, round bird, the Black-capped Chickadee is such a welcome sight on a cold winter's day. This little guy/gal flew into a spot of sunshine on the railing of a wooden bridge at Burnsmead, Fish Creek Park.