Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: playing

HAPPY CHRISTMAS to everyone who celebrates this holiday season! Here, in Alberta, it is 11:30 am on Christmas Eve day - and it's SNOWING, so we will be having a freshly white Christmas. Our temperature is -11C, windchill -18C. For my family and me, this will be the first Christmas without my older daughter, so there will be sadness as well as happy memories. Fiona loved Christmas so much! This young kitten was one of three that my younger daughter and I saw at the Saskatoon Farm on 21 December, three days ago. They were the cutest little things, having free run of the place. One spot, that was very obviously a favourite, was the pile of boxes in bright, shiny, sparling wrapping, placed under the Christmas tree. Constantly on the move, except for this quick, 3-second rest, the kittens were not easy to photograph at all. The 'gifts', loosely joined together by a string of tree lights, gradually moved away from the tree, sliding over the wooden floor. What absolute fun for these little ones - and for any young girls that came to visit the Farm and were drawn like magnets to these irresistible cuties. I haven't taken any proper Christmas photos to post, so I was grateful for this shot. On 21 December 2015, my daughter and I had our Christmas get-together. Like last year, she asked if I wanted to spend the day out of the city, looking for Snowy Owls (and other things). We were both so happy to at least see a (very distant) Snowy Owl, which she cleverly spotted, even though we had hoped to find a much closer one. Thank goodness, last year, my daughter and I did see and photograph beautiful Snowies E and NE of the city that were nice and close. Finding one of these magnificent birds of prey was not the only purpose in our minds, though. It was our Christmas get-together, and we had a great day, in beautiful sunshine and in one of my favourite areas to explore. We had first planned to go NE of the city, but my daughter, waiting for her surgery on 11 January 2016, didn't feel up to travelling that far. Once she has recovered from her surgery, maybe we can go NE of the city and try for owls again. So, plans changed and instead, we went to the Saskatoon Farm for breakfast. This interesting place is maybe a 20-minute drive SE from the southern edge of Calgary. You can collect your own Saskatoon berries in season, look around their outside green houses, and their inside gift shop full of unusual things, and buy special baking, jams, teas and so on. They also have a restaurant that offers delicious food. www.saskatoonfarm.com/ Afterwards, we then went a bit further, to drive some of the roads east of High River, hoping to possibly find a Snowy Owl. We went as far as Mossleigh, where we stopped to take a few quick photos of the three grain elevators and then found a group of several old barns that I don't remember seeing before. They were off the main road, but fortunately the narrow gravel road had enough snow packed on it that the short drive was very smooth. From there, we also stopped at the little wooden church at Dinton. Later in the afternoon, we couldn't resist the temptation to call in at Glamorgan Bakery on the way home and buy a few Christmas goodies, followed by a desperately needed food shopping trip. I just hadn't had a chance to go grocery shopping and had run out of even basic things. This was a huge relief, especially as I knew that I would be having a very long day on 23rd December (yesterday), taking part in the Drumheller area Christmas Bird Count. Thanks so much for a great day out, Rachel. The best kind of day, as far as I am concerned : ) Many thanks, too, for the beautiful, very carefully chosen (as always!) Christmas gifts. Love the owl that looks rather like a furry, stuffed children's toy, that is in fact a wonderful heat pad (that you warm in the microwave), full of lavender. Haven't used it yet, but it will feel so good on my neck and shoulders that are painful from whiplash, thanks to the woman driver who suddenly came out of a parking lot exit and cut across my lane of moving traffic about three weeks ago! Nothing I could do, as I couldn't stop in time to avoid impact. So, I'm looking forward to having an owl on my shoulder : )

Don't ask me why I centred the deer in this photo! I do try not to do that, except when I crop a photo to square. Maybe I had planned to crop the photo, as it was taken from quite a distance, leaving the deer more to one side. Oh, well : ) The evening of 10 June 2015, was only what I would call a "magical"! Normally, I tend not to go out in the evening - usually just too tired and there are all sorts of things needing to be done on my computer. However, having driven SW of the city the previous day and noticing a baby Mountain Bluebird poking its head out of its nesting box, I knew that any time now, it and its siblings would be suddenly gone. I have been back more recently and found a Tree Swallow looking out from the Bluebirds' nesting box. It was early evening when I left home on 10 June, after a volunteer shift and a haircut. Really, I was just going to check on the Bluebirds and was not expecting to see all that much else.That's how the evening started, but as the evening progressed, the world seemed to come alive with bird song and activity. It has been a long, long time since I've experienced that, if ever. Though my trip was mainly just to check on the Bluebirds, I was also lucky to see an American Robin sitting on a barbed-wire fence just a couple of feet away from a brilliant blue male Bluebird. Talk about colour! They were way down the road, so I was only able to get a very distant shot. Also saw a number of Snipe that I love to photograph. When I reached the point where I was going to turn around and head for home, I saw yet another Snipe perched on a fence. Just a few feet from it, on the same fence rail, was a beautiful Swainson's Hawk! After posing for a while, both birds took off, with the Hawk in hot pursuit of the Snipe. I couldn't see how the chase ended, but hopefully the world is not missing a Snipe today. Closer to home, I suddenly spotted a beautiful female Moose at a small wetland, right before I turned on to the main highway. Not sure if it's because I took my first photos of her from inside the car, across the passenger seat, but most were blurry. Eventually, she left and started walking along the road away from the highway. I crawled along, watching her way in the distance. She kept walking from side to side of the road and then stopped to lick some salt off the road, bending her front legs to kneel in what looked a very awkward move : ) Driving back to the highway, I stopped to watch three or four young White-tailed Deer having fun at the wetland. This one would occasionally stamp one of its front legs in the water and then bound away a few feet. Funny to watch and so good to see it playing so happily. So, it was quite the evening, to say the least! I drove all the way home with a big smile on my face.

Yesterday evening, 10 June 2015, was only what I would call a "magical" evening! Normally, I never go out in the evening - usually just too tired and there are all sorts of things needing to be done on my computer. However, having driven SW of the city the previous day and noticing a baby Mountain Bluebird poking its head out of its nesting box, I knew that any time now that it and its siblings would be suddenly gone. It wouldn't surprise me if they fledge today, which means that another drive will have to be done to check. I have been out far more than usual the past 10 days or so and actually look forward to a day when I don't end up doing the drive. It was early evening when I left home yesterday, after a volunteer shift and a haircut. Really, I was just going to check on the Bluebirds and was not expecting to see all that much else.That's how the evening started, but as the evening progressed, the world seemed to come alive with bird song and activity. It has been a long, long time since I've experienced that. Though my trip was mainly just to check on the Bluebirds, I was also lucky to see an American Robin sitting on a barbed-wire fence just a couple of feet away from a brilliant blue male Bluebird. Talk about colour! They were way down the road, so I was only able to get a very distant shot. Also saw a number of Snipe that I love photographing. When I reached the point where I was going to turn around and head for home, I saw yet another Snipe perched on a fence. Just a few feet from it, on the same fence, was a beautiful Swainson's Hawk! After posing for a while, both birds took off, with the Hawk in hot pursuit of the Snipe. I couldn't see how the chase ended, but hopefully the world is not missing a Snipe today. Closer to home, I suddenly spotted a beautiful female Moose at a small wetland, right before I turned on to the main highway. Not sure if it's because I took my first photos of her from inside the car, across the passenger seat, but most were blurry. Eventually, she left and started walking along the road away from the highway. I crawled along, watching her way in the distance. She kept walking from side to side of the road and then stopped to lick some salt off the road, bending her front legs to kneel in what looked a very awkward move : ) Driving back to the highway, I stopped to watch three or four young White-tailed Deer having fun at the wetland. This one would occasionally stamp one of its front legs in the water and then bound away a few feet. Funny to watch and so good to see it playing so happily. So, it was quite the evening, to say the least! I drove all the way home with a big smile on my face. And now I have to dash and get ready to meet a few birding friends for a morning walk.

Meerkats are such fun animals to watch, giving such wonderful poses, especially when a group of them are standing on their hind legs, stretching as tall as they can. At the Calgary Zoo, a number of them are youngsters and they are so cute. There was a very long, empty, cardboard (?) tube in their enclosure and one little one was determined to try and squeeze into it. I really thought it was going to get stuck inside, but each time it managed to back out of it, thank goodness. Probably not easy to get a firm footing on a slippery cardboard surface, compared to a dirt burrow. "The meerkat or suricate, Suricata suricatta, is a small mammal belonging to the mongoose family. Meerkats live in all parts of the Kalahari Desert in Botswana, in much of the Namib Desert in Namibia and southwestern Angola, and in South Africa. A group of meerkats is called a "mob", "gang" or "clan". A meerkat clan often contains about 20 meerkats, but some super-families have 50 or more members. Meerkats have an average life span of 12–14 years." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Meerkat

On 14 September 2014, almost on the spur of the moment, I decided to join friends for a birding walk. The weather was so perfect, especially compared to the two consecutive snowstorms we had had on 9 and 10 September, that damaged thousands of trees in the city! After a quick look for birds along the avenue of trees near Fish Creek Provincial Park headquarters, we drove down to the Boat Launch area and from there we walked south along the Bow River. The Ospreys were flying near the river ad we saw one of them carrying a fish to take back to their nest. We saw 30 bird species, but nothing close enough for photos. After an enjoyable walk, a few of us called in at Tim Horton's for coffee and a snack. From there, I called in at a different part of the park and watched a family of Beavers swimming in their pond. While I was waiting, hoping that they might appear, so many American Robins were flying from branch to branch in the nearby trees and bushes. I always feel that Robins are so much taken for granted. Eventually, after a long wait, the Beaver's appeared. Such a treat to watch this family, especially the young ones. The photo above shows two of the three youngsters. Unfortunately, the light was not good, and most of my photos are blurry and need to be deleted : ( We were amazed, at one moment, when an old wooden pallet started moving in the pond and blocked a small passageway between the banks. One Beaver was pulling this discarded structure all on its own. I wonder if they had originally found it washed up nearby, after the Alberta Flood of the Century last year (2013). en.wikipedia.org/wiki/North_American_beaver

The adult female (i.e. Mom) made her way into the tiny pool in this separated area that is used when certain of the Amur Tigers at the Calgary Zoo have to be kept away from the other adult Tigers. Her three cubs, born March 30, 2012, joined her instantly and had great fun climbing over her back and playing with her tail - they love it in there! Photographed though a very dirty window with reflections of all the people watching in front of me and behind me, but a little darkening made it fit to post : ) Taken on 21 August 2012.