Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: footprints

A huge leap from the rainforest of Trinidad photos posted yesterday to the snowy shots posted today! Yesterday, 4 March 2018, was such a beautiful day, and I decided to join seven friends for a walk down into Weaselhead in the afternoon. The previous day, a birding walk had been cancelled because the weather was so bad and the long, steep hill down to river level was very icy. It is almost unheard of for a birding walk to be cancelled! The roads were not in good condition especially the residential streets. I have a bad feeling that my car is now stuck in the ruts outside my place - when I got home after the walk, it was almost impossible to drive over the mounds of snow that have built up over the last few months. Not sure how I am going to be able to reverse out of this spot. Guess I will find out. I have lived in this city for 40 years and I don't remember ever seeing this much snow on the ground. Just crazy. There were not a whole lot of birds to be seen on yesterday's walk, but it is always a delight to see the dainty little Common Redpolls. I seem to remember that last winter, there were no Redpolls to be seen. Nice to see a beautiful lone Coyote travelling across the frozen, snow-covered Elbow River. I will add the leaders' list of species seen in a comment box below. Coffee at Tim Horton's afterwards was enjoyable, as always. Thanks for a great walk, Janet, Bernie and Stephen! I always appreciate your giving up your Sunday afternoon for the rest of us. I made the mistake of checking the weather forecast for Alberta for the coming spring and summer, though of course we all know that the forecast is often incorrect. For us, it will be a cold spring followed by an above normal summer. More big storms to come - actually, March is said to be our snowiest month, anyway. Looks like it could be another year without mushrooms growing, just like last year. The temperature this morning, 5 March 2018, is -22C (windchill -29C).

On 12 February 2018, I ended up going for a short drive SW of the city, to my 'usual' area, partly just to get a change of scenery. I hadn't driven out of the city since 17 December 2017. Almost no wildlife to be seen, other than a Raven, a Magpie, a Rough-legged Hawk perched at the top of a tall tree, and a couple of small, unidentified birds that flew across the road ahead of me. Still, I did take a handful of winter scenic shots and a couple of barns/sheds. Would love to know what made all these tracks in the snow - maybe deer, coyote, Moose? To drown my sorrows over not being able to find any owls of any kind, I decided to call in at a small cafe/restaurant in the area and brought home a bowl of delicious chili with garlic bread. Made an enjoyable ending to my afternoon drive.

A lovely, sunny day (so far) today, 15 February 2018, with a temperature of -16C (windchill -24C). We had a little bit of fresh snow overnight. On 12 February, I ended up going for a short drive SW of the city, to my 'usual' area, partly just to get a change of scenery. I hadn't driven out of the city since 17 December 2017. Almost no wildlife to be seen, other than a Raven, a Magpie, a Rough-legged Hawk perched at the top of a tall tree, and a couple of small, unidentified birds that flew across the road ahead of me. Still, I did take a handful of winter scenic shots and a couple of barns/sheds. Would love to know what made all these tracks in the snow - maybe deer, coyote, Moose? To drown my sorrows over not being able to find any owls of any kind, I decided to call in at a small cafe/restaurant in the area and brought home a bowl of delicious chili with garlic bread. Made an enjoyable ending to my afternoon drive.

Yesterday, 18 January 2018, I almost came home with an empty memory card in my camera. Luckily, we were treated to a distant view of a Pileated Woodpecker at the furthest point of our walk, and then to a couple of gorgeous Pine Grosbeak males feeding on berries. Usually, when I see Pine Grosbeaks, they are either flying high overhead or else perched at the top of a very tall tree in the distance. To see them close shows them in all their glory. In some ways, I think a back view is the most beautiful, showing the black and white wing pattern. Much as I would love to jump in my car and go for a drive, I just haven't been able to do so the last 10 or so days, dealing with various services shutting down after my credit card was compromised by someone in eastern Canada, and consequently cancelled. So, a morning's walk in Fish Creek Park with a group of friends sounded appealing, especially as others had seen a Black-backed Woodpecker, a Three-toed Woodpecker and even the tiny Northern Pygmy-owl. As almost always happens, none of these birds were seen yesterday, ha. "Fish Creek Park is a provincial park located in the southern part of Calgary, Alberta, Canada. It is the second largest urban park in Canada after Pippy Park in St. John's and one of the largest urban parks in North America, stretching 19 km (12 mi) from east to west. At 13.48 km2 (5.20 sq mi), it is over three times the size of Vancouver's Stanley Park. The growth of Calgary has left the park bordered on all sides by the city. It is also bordered on the west by the territory of the Tsuu T’ina Nation (Sarcee), a First Nation. Fish Creek flows along the length of the park and joins the Bow River at the east side of the park. Fish Creek park used to span the width of the city but Calgary has grown beyond the edges of the park." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fish_Creek_Provincial_Park We are still having milder weather, often sunny and even a few degrees above 0°C on some days. Yesterday was 2C-7C, which felt wonderful. Perfect weather for getting out ... sigh. We know there is still plenty of snow that will come before spring arrives.

Taken near the Ptarmigan Cirque parking lot, Kananaskis, on 23 November 2013, when a birding friend and I went to see if we could find a White-tailed Ptarmigan. Ha, we've tried several times in previous years, but still no luck. These birds live up in the mountains and are pushed to lower ground in the winter months. They are so hard to find, though sometimes you do see their tracks in the snow. The tracks in my photo are, of course, human tracks, lol.

Pushed myself out the front door this afternoon to go on a walk from Glennfield to Shaw's Meadow, Fish Creek Park. The sun was shining and the temperature was about -8C (windchill about -14C), but it felt much colder. Not sure where all the wildlife was - I didn't see even one little Chickadee, but did see a Raven and a Magpie and heard a Downy Woodpecker. Bird numbers seem to be extremely low these days.

I just liked the way the sun was lighting the snow and these tracks the other day, east of Bebo Grove in Fish Creek Park. Looks like someone cross-country skied. I wonder what the other, smaller, fainter track is that crosses diagonally. Any suggestions?

We came across these Porcupine tracks at Carburn Park on April 19th. I think this was the first time I had ever seen a pattern like this in the snow. Hope the little guy has a clearer path by now! It did snow heavily again yesterday, but most of it didn't stick to the ground, just the grass was rather white. The forecast for today was more snow, but this afternoon is nice and sunny. Snow/rain showers for tomorrow and chance of thundershowers tomorrow afternoon (up to 8C).

This little spot down by the Bow River caught my eye about five weeks ago. I liked the contrasting patterns and shadows, and especially the texture of the area in the top right corner. Much as I find the cold so unpleasant, I know I will miss the beauty that winter has to offer.

I don't usually alter the saturation levels of any photo, but for some reason I did this time. I accidentally moved the level too far, but then decided to leave it like that, just for fun and for some added colour to an otherwise white image.

When I was on my walk this afternoon, I noticed a set of prints in the snow, coming out of a grove of trees. There were no human footprints with these animal tracks, so I wondered if they belonged to a Coyote. My footprint, going in the opposite direction, gives a sense of scale. Can anyone ID this animal print? I have seen a Coyote in that area a couple of times.

Again, the rather sepia colouring reminds me of sand by the ocean, leaving footprints that soon become shapeless.