Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#68

On 27 July 2014, a few of us had a "tour" of a naturalist's garden, as part of an Open House here in the city. I was glad to have the chance to take a few photos of some colourful flowers, including the Showy Milkweed that I posted yesterday. This tiny Crab Spider had obviously slowly changed its colour to camouflage itself against the yellow flowers. "Thomisidae do not build webs to trap prey, though all of them produce silk for drop lines and sundry reproductive purposes; some are wandering hunters and the most widely known are ambush predators. Some species sit on or beside flowers or fruit, where they grab visiting insects. Individuals of some species, such as Misumena vatia, are able to change color over a period of some days, to match the flower on which they are sitting. Some species frequent promising positions among leaves or bark, where they await prey, and some of them will sit in the open, where they are startlingly good mimics of bird droppings. These spiders may be yellow or white, depending on the flower in which they are hunting. Especially younger females, which may hunt on a variety of flowers such as daisies and sunflowers, may change color "at will". Older females require large amounts of relatively large prey to produce the best possible clutch of eggs. They are therefore, in North America, most commonly found in goldenrod (Solidago sp.), a bright yellow flower which attracts large numbers of insects, especially in autumn. It is often very hard even for a searching human to recognize one of these spiders on a yellow flower. The color change from white to yellow takes between 10 and 25 days, the reverse about six days." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Misumena_vatia It's supposed to get up to 34C (93.2F) this afternoon! Far too hot without air-conditioning! Maybe thunderstorms, which would feel great. After my volunteer shift, I need to go food shopping - can't wait to stand in the frozen foods section : )

Two days ago, on 5 July 2014, I decided at the last minute that I just couldn't take being in an "oven" any more. Not complaining about the hot, sunny weather we are having at the moment, but my house turns into an oven and then tends to stay that way for many days or weeks afterwards. I had hoped to leave the house earlier than I did (10;00 a.m.) and drove NW of the city and NW of Cochrane. Hadn't been that way for a long time and wanted to see if I could find an owl of some sort, especially a Great Gray Owl. No luck, and in fact it seemed like all wildlife was in hiding, except for four Deer. My morning's finds included a patch of beautiful Indian Paintbrush flowers (deep pink, yellow, green and peach colours) Also a noisy little Wren that I saw when I pulled over to take a look down a hillside to see if I could see the Red Fox that had just run across the road ahead of me - no luck. The next sightings were a lone Deer - forgot to check its tail, but judging by the enormous size of its ears, I think it must have been a Mule Deer - and a Tree Swallow that was perched on its bright orange nesting "box". I wonder who chose one of the coloured, metal boxes this year; he or his mate, lol. Nearby, there were several Swallowtail butterflies down in the mud along the edge of the road. Before I could get there, a car came along in the opposite direction and off flew every single one. By the time I had photographed a few wildflowers, one butterfly did return, so I was able to get a few shots. Deciding to return to Highway 1a the same way as I came, I passed these two horses that always seem to be in the same place. I'm never sure about the health of these two, and they never seem "happy" animals, though maybe they are just getting very old. The white horse seemed to like resting its head against the rough bark of this tree, or maybe it liked the smell of it. When I reached the road that I wanted to check out (including for a possible owl), I found that it had just been oiled ready for a new surface to be laid, so that plan went out the window. Wanting to stay away from my unpleasantly hot house for as long as possible, I came home via Bragg Creek and some of the backroads that I love, SW of the city. Brown-Lowery Provincial Park was my first stop - and it has the wonderful, added benefit of washrooms in the parking lot - the first ones I'd seen all day! I checked out the area near the parking lot and then went maybe a hundred feet into the forest. After checking for any fungi (none), I heard a very loud cracking of branches and eventually spotted a huge, very dark shape through the trees. From that angle, it looked horribly like a Bear, but when it lifted its head from feeding, I was so relieved to see that it was "only" a Moose! A young couple were coming along the trail towards me and I said they must have seen it even closer. My voice was heard by the animal and unfortunately it moved quickly away. I like to think that a Bear or Cougar would react in the same way, lol! From Brown-Lowery, I passed my favourite little wetland and found the Snipe standing, as usual, on a fence post. Sorry, everyone, you might just get fed up of Snipe photos - if you aren't already! Got home around 6;00 p.m., feeling content that, even though the morning had been pretty disappointing, the day was a a good one.

Another photo taken at the Calgary Zoo, on the day when this gorgeous Great Gray Owl skimmed my head twice and my jacket sleeve once! It was perched on a tree stump, maybe 8 or 9 feet from me and caught me totally off guard when it flew "at" me! I think it just wanted to get to the other side of the path, LOL. Such a beautifully marked bird of prey. With its head lowered slightly, you get a better view of the pattern created by all those tiny feathers.

Love these bright orange Lilies! Photographed this one yesterday morning at Reader Rock Garden. Was out all day today, botanizing an area in Sheep River Natural Area (south of Calgary). Most of the walk was through woodland, as well as down by the river/streams. (Later: after being out for the whole day, walking in the heat, and after not getting even a single minute's sleep the night before, I was falling asleep at my computer. Had no choice but to fall into bed around 6:00 in the evening. Now here I am, wide awake at 3:00 in the morning, finishing off adding tags to last night's photos, LOL! One, if not THE highlight from yesterday's outing, was seeing some tiny Bird's Nest fungi!

This is where I spent the evening of the Summer Solstice! We walked around Manysprings pond, looking for all sorts of plants. It is such a beautiful wetland area at the foot of the eastern edge of the mountains, very rich in flora and fauna.