Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Selasphorus rufus

I am SO stressed out! Just spent the last three hours, while a technician went through my whole computer remotely, deleting every virus that has accumulated. I was told that I phoned them just in time, as I was not far away from losing everything on my computer. I always have Norton installed on my computer, but apparently the last three months I have not had Network Security working on my computer. Can you believe I had 5,614 viruses and if I had reached 6,000, everything would have been lost? Yikes! Funny, as the last few days, I have been backing up my photos to external hard drives and a flash drive. A very costly morning, but now my computer is fine and I have a five-year Security. Just went to Google and discovered that all my endless bookmarks have disappeared ... sigh. Oh, well, I guess I start all over again - oh, they have all reappeared. Before all this, I was on Facebook and had clicked on a video link from a friend's Facebook page. Suddenly, my whole screen was filled with the Virus alert. I don't know if that link was the actual cause of all this problem, or if it was 'the last straw'. Thankful for the clear help from the technician! Much appreciated. --------------------------------------------------------------------------------- On 9 July 2018, I went for a trip to Kananaskis with friends Shirley and Pam. This was planned as a bear hunt - but not a single bear was to be seen : ) As usual, when it comes to wildlife, it's all about timing. You can be lucky or unlucky, and I guess this was not our lucky day, at least not as far as bears were concerned. We left the city at 7:00 am to give ourselves the best chance. Within just a matter of minutes, we came upon a Great Blue Heron and a couple of Black-crowned Night-Herons, which was wonderful. Couldn't get good photos of them, just shots for the record. Our day was certainly starting off well. We travelled to Kananaskis via Highway 1, but returned to the city along the south portion of Highway 40. When I go to Kananaskis on my own (only about three times so far), I only go south to Highway 40, never on Highway 1. I believe it takes about the same time to drive either way. No sign of a bear, anywhere, but of course, we were surrounded by spectacular scenery all day. We had great weather, with a high of about 27C. Unfortunately, there was some haze over the mountains. One of our stops was at Peninsular, at Lower Kananaskis Lake. Such a peaceful spot, with just a handful of people fishing and several people in canoes or kayaks. The main thing we saw there was a Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel down on the rocks. Another place we wanted to get to was the area where the Pikas can be seen. For the first while, we began to think that we were going to be out of luck. Fortunately, one little Pika did eventually show itself and we were able to get a few photos. When I don't get photos that I'm quite happy with, it is a huge incentive to drive myself out there for another chance. While we were there, we did see a little Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel (not the one in this photo), who was happily munching on Yellow Columbine flowers. Surprisingly, no Mountain Sheep were to be seen, here or anywhere else on this day. A final stopping place was on the way home along Highway 40. We had forgotten that this place is closed on Mondays. I remember last year, when I drove out there myself, I had been banking on buying a sandwich for my lunch and for getting gas for my car. However, we did see at least two tiny Hummingbirds there, nesting Barn Swallows, and several interesting moths that I had never seen before, including a beautiful One Eyed Sphinx Moth. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Rufous_Hummingbird/overview So, all together, an interesting, fun day spent in good company. We are so very lucky to live within reach of such a breathtaking area!

Waterton Lakes National Park is where three friends (Anne B, Janet and Shirley) and I went for two days, 11 and 12 June 2018. Part of Monday was spent travelling south to Waterton, stopping at several places en route, including Lundbreck Falls. Our first short stop was in Kananaskis, where we enjoyed watching two or three tiny Hummingbirds and a pair of colourful Barn Swallows. We actually got to witness two Hummingbird males fighting, down on the ground - too far for me to get photos, other than one very distant, blurry shot. I am not a fan of taking photos at feeders, but will still do so if it offers me a good view of a bird. Took me a few moments to find this little Rufous in a tree - distant, but a more natural setting. With no stops, it takes roughly three hours to get to Waterton. We stayed on Monday night at the Bear Mountain Motel in Waterton town. Tuesday morning, we drove around the Waterton area, hoping to maybe see more bears, and then made out way back north, reaching Calgary late afternoon/early evening. As it was, we were so lucky to see a gorgeous Cinnamon Black Bear early evening on Monday, at first from a great distance across the lake and then unexpectedly close. Also spotted a Black Bear in among the blackened, burned trees that were near the edge of the road. It was very difficult to see and impossible to see an open spot through which to take photos - but it was our second bear. I had been hoping to someday get a chance to get down to Waterton, especially to see how it looked after the devastating Kenow wildfire that damaged or destroyed so much of the park in 2017. Most of the park is still closed, but the whole town site and Chief Mountain Parkway and area are open. To me, the park looked beautiful, with enough green areas to contrast with the dead trees on the mountain sides. Firefighters did such a brilliant job last year of saving the whole town, and a team of firefighters form Calgary had been given the task of doing all they could to save the historic Prince of Wales Hotel. There it still stands, untouched. One can see how close to the town and iconic Hotel the fire had come - right up to the very edge, where a sprinkler system had been set up before the fire got close. Supper on Monday was at Zum's restaurant - an interesting place with walls covered with old vehicle licence plates. Apparently, people send them to the restaurant from so many places, near and far. The food was good and, after a short drive to see what we could find, we returned the next morning for breakfast. Apart from the wind, we were very lucky with the weather for our two days. No rain, thank goodness. The morning was chilly and so was the night. On Tuesday, the temperature got up to 20C on our way home. Amazing how much one can see in just a couple of days!

All three of my photos uploaded today have been heavily cropped : ) This tiny Rufous Hummingbird male was photographed on June 27th, at Highwood House along Highway 40, in Kananaskis. Friends Phil and Jan very kindly invited me to go along with them when they went back to check these birds again. A few days earlier, they had stopped there and found that the lady who captures and bands these fast-flying birds happened to be there with her set-up. On Wednesday, she was all prepared to band, but it was so windy that the net around the feeder was blowing about , which kept the birds from flying closer. I took a few photos of the Hummers, but, boy, I find it's a real (almost impossible!) challenge for a point-and-shoot camera : ) This posted image is the "best" of them and may be the only photo I can post. These tiny birds are so interesting (and vicious, too!). I didn't know till Wednesday, that the males will sit in a tree and they know how to position their body so that the sun catches their orange-red gorget (feathers on the throat and chin)) and this sends off an amazing "flash" of brilliant colour that could be seen right across the parking lot. Spectacular! What a way to attract the females, lol! en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufous_Hummingbird www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/rufous_hummingbird/id

The lady who owns Highwood House (a little store/coffee place on Highway 40) had just finished telling us that this year, there have been disappointingly far fewer Hummingbirds visiting her various Hummingbird feeders hung around the outside of the building. So, I had hoped, but didn't really expect, to see one of these very tiny birds, while we enjoyed a coffee on our way home from Plateau Mountain. I was thrilled when this little male Rufous Hummingbird suddenly appeared! I have longed to go to Highwood House for the last few years, but it's not somewhere I will drive to, so this was a real treat for me. Needless to say, I would love to have spent ages there, so that I could have tried for a "proper" shot : ) Thanks for driving some of us, Arnold! Greatly appreciated! www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/rufous_hummingbird/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rufous_Hummingbird How the weather has changed, lol! This afternoon, gone is the sun, replaced by grey sky and strong winds and it looks like we are in for a storm. And, yes, here comes the rain! So glad I'm not up on Plateau Mountain today!