Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#394

This Swainson's Hawk was hanging around a farm when I went for a drive SW of the city, on 26 June 2013. I'd noticed it in the area previously, but never close enough for a photo. Wish the sun was shining that brightly today, instead of the totally overcast sky. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Swainson's_Hawk www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/swainsons_hawk/id Just read the results of the 17th annual Great Backyard Bird Count (Feb 14 to 17, 2014), when scientists and citizens around the world joined forces for the Great Backyard Bird Count. The GBBC is a joint project of the Cornell Lab of Ornithology and the National Audubon Society with partner Bird Studies Canada and support from sponsor Wild Birds Unlimited. A couple of interesting facts are: "It was another exciting, record-breaking year for the Great Backyard Bird Count. The final 2014 GBBC results are in! Participants in 135 countries around the globe submitted more than 144,000 checklists. Canada made a stellar contribution with 13,458 checklists. The Northern Cardinal appeared on more checklists than any other bird, while the Red-winged Blackbird was the most numerous species, with more than 1.6 million individuals counted." From BirdStudiesCanada. "Last year’s bird count went beyond North America for the first time and shattered records for the number of bird species that were identified. According to the Cornell Lab of Ornithology, people from 111 countries and territories from all seven continents recorded more than 34.5 million birds, representing almost 4,000 species, in just four days." From CBC News. www.cbc.ca/news/technology/great-backyard-bird-count-appe... Too bad that people around the world can't get together like this when it comes to politics, not just birding! Well done, everyone!

Can you see why I did a "happy dance" (well, not quite, but there were a few exclamations out loud (even though I was by myself, ha)? This was such an amazing sight - a group of these mushrooms that looked almost like a set of fine pottery. I later came across another grouping and some of them were absolute perfection. It was hard to tear myself away from them - and I was worried that I might get home and find that all my photos were blurry, LOL. Not the case this time, thank goodness. Was out on a walk for a few hours this morning at the Paskapoo Slopes - we came across several nice mushrooms, yeah! After my afternoon shift of volunteering and then urgent food shopping, I arrived home to be greeted by one of the local Jack Rabbits. Happened to have my camera in my hand, so grocery bags were dropped and I managed to get a few shots as it sat there, obviously thinking that I couldn't see it.

If I remember correctly, this is the seedhead of a Scabious flower. Seen at Reader Rock Garden. Just had a VERY long day - my alarm went off at 4:45 a.m. and I left the house at 7:00 a.m. Three of us spent the whole day botanizing the Snake's Head Natural Area, north west of Calgary and then, on the way home, we called in at an interesting site near Water Valley, as guests of Dave and Bernie Amonson who have a quiet nature retreat which they call Brookbury Bridge. We thoroughly enjoyed exploring their nature trail and then were treated to barbecued hotdogs for supper. So, a long, long day of walking, recording and photographing plants and fungi. I got back home about 10:15 p.m. I am DEAD BEAT, but wanted to quickly (if there is such a thing) post my "daily three" to Flickr, LOL.