Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: rock glacier

Three mornings ago, on 30 June 2019, I woke up earlier than usual. Once I was on my computer, I checked the weather forecast and saw raindrop icons in the forecast for the next week, but the 30th was for sun. I knew what I had to do! Luckily, I had a tank full of gas, so I grabbed both cameras and a snack or two, and headed out the door. I must be the only person who hadn't been to Kananaskis recently and taken photos of the tiny Pikas (Rock Rabbits), and that was my destination. Last weekend was a long weekend for Canada Day, and my plan had been to keep off the roads, as I was sure they would be busy, making it more difficult to stop whenever I wanted, to take a photo or two. However, when I saw the weather forecast, it changed my mind. Sunshine, blue sky with clouds, made it a perfect day to be out - I'm sure you agreed, Bonnie : ) A day in Kananaskis is always great, but sometimes 'great' turns out to be fantastic! Can't believe how lucky I was, not just in the mountains, but on the journey there and, at the end of the day, calling in at my 'usual' area closer to home. I suspect the Pika is most people's favourite - around 6 inches long and almost impossible to see against the mountainside of broken rocks that are the same colour as the Pika's fur. Starting to believe that maybe I was going to be out of luck, the first one appeared, racing in and out and over and between the endless, sharp rocks. Take your eyes off the animal and you stand a good chance of not being able to find it again. Then a second one appeared, a baby. It perched itself on top of a rock and simply stayed there for a few minutes. Several of my photos show the eyes closing slightly. However, eventually it did move, and off it went. When it appeared not too far away, I caught sight of it and thought at first it was a mouse, ha. So tiny! While I was searching for a Pika, a herd of Bighorn Sheep had come down the massive mountain side and, as they usually do, gathered right in the middle of the road to lick salt left by vehicles. After quite a time, there was an almighty BOOM that startled me and a handful of others. We hadn't noticed a Park's truck arrive, armed with 'bangers' to make the Sheep move from the road. Once the Park's person had left, the Sheep returned to the road. There were several young ones along with the females. It will take me ages to go through my photos, especially having to combine two cameras, but lots of images can wait till winter. More important, to me, is to continue editing and posting the remaining Texas photos, if/when I get time to do so. I suspect that, too, might end up being a winter project.

Fall began just 10 days ago but "winter" arrived this morning, 2 October! Maybe five or six inches of the white stuff so far. I have an appointment this afternoon to go and get my snow tires put on - the snow beat me by just a few hours. Our temperature is -3C (windchill -7C) and we are under a Snowfall Warning. On 28 August 2018, I drove SW of the city to Highway 40 and through Kananaskis. Almost a month later, on 25 September 2018, I did part of the drive again on the spur of the moment, after waking up and seeing sunshine, which seems to happen so rarely these days. I thought this might just be my last chance to see fall colours and, if I was lucky, a little Pika. A good thing I did go, now that snow has arrived. Sometimes, one is out of luck, but I was able to get a few Pika photos, mainly more distant shots. It was a relief to find that there was no snow on the ground, as walking on a talus slope that is also covered in snow and ice is really treacherous. These little Pikas/Rock Rabbits are only 6-9 inches long and are usually seen far away, running back and forth over the massive scree (talus) mountain slope that they call home. Very occasionally, one happens to come a bit closer, usually for just a quick moment. "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 A couple of short YouTube videos in case anyone wants to hear and see these absolutely cute creatures: youtu.be/OQ2IgcjVIfc youtu.be/US_Hy_eGPtg