Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: BRAVO

Late afternoon on 20 July 2017, the smoke haze from the B.C. and Alberta wildfires seemed to have lifted somewhat. So, I took a drive along some of my favourite roads SW of the city, seeing a few of the 'usual' things. These included this busy Mountain Bluebird, collecting some interesting insects for his babies. Also, an American Robin flew in just when I was looking for the Mountain Bluebirds, landed on a fence post, gave me time for one quick shot, and then off he flew. He, too, was busily collecting food for his family. I always think Robins are such beautiful, but often overlooked, birds. In between photographing Bluebirds, I drove part way along a road that I had only ever been on once before, and that was quite recently. Usually, I am home earlier than I was on this particular day. This later time meant that I was lucky enough to see two families of deer - White-tailed and Mule Deer. The first was a Mule Deer doe with her fawn standing at the edge of the road. I pulled over way down the road and waited till they had safely crossed. Managed to get a couple of distant shot through the windscreen, with the usual poor quality results. I knew that there would be a barbed-wire fence the far side of the road and I didn't want to spook them and risk them getting tangled in the sharp barbs. Several years ago, I had seen a huge Moose get spooked and then get briefly tangled in barbed wire - it spooked when it suddenly realized that some cows had quietly come up behind it!

I took quite a few photos of two of these beautiful little Pikas - enough shots to keep me from feeling like going through them all to find a few more that are OK to post. This is one of the closer captures, when this little animal froze for a few moments. On 19 August 2014, I was lucky enough to have the chance to try and photograph a couple of these absolutely adorable little creatures : ) After a while, I was beginning to despair of ever getting any decent shots at all. These tiny Pikas, also known as Rock Rabbits, hardly ever remain still and they are extremely fast! Imagine a mountain hillside covered in sharp, jagged rocks of all sizes and then try to picture how difficult it is to find in the viewfinder the single rock on which one of these Pikas might happen to sit for a second or two, lol! As time passed, I managed to take quite a few photos, though many needed to be deleted. Hope you don't get tired of seeing these little guys, but they are just so very cute. A couple of times, this Pika came bounding over the rocks near to where we were standing and just sat there, long enough to get a few very close shots. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length, so really are pretty small, especially when off in the distance. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika I found this excellent and amusing YouTube video, 3:30 minutes long, It is The American Pika in the BBC's Life of Mammals series. youtu.be/Sifk9uphr2Q The weather forecast was not good for that day, but we were so lucky that, apart from a few raindrops, the rain stayed away. The sun actually came out at two locations we stopped at for a short while. Our 18-hour day (from 6;00 a.m. till midnight!) started off with the thrill of seeing these Pikas and ended with a brief sighting of a black Wolf (could it be Skoki?) crossing the road ahead of us in the dark. It disappeared into the blackness, but shortly afterwards, we heard three (possibly four) separate Wolves howling way off in the distance. We just stood there, in total awe, listening to this amazing sound. The only wild Wolf I had ever seen before was when I was in Yellowstone National Park two years ago. Friends and I saw two Wolves feeding on a Bison carcass across a huge valley - so they were just distant specks, that became slightly larger specks when my camera was in full zoom, ha. In between these two highlights, we saw several Deer, a small group of Mountain Sheep on the road, a tiny Chipmunk, a few Cedar Waxwings, Columbian Ground Squirrels, a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk that sat on a branch out in the open for a long time, and two tiny Bats that flew very close over our heads when it was getting dark. We also saw an adult Grouse (Spruce Grouse?) with two young ones. Then, of course, there is the scenery! Blue sky to go with the splendour of the mountains would have been wonderful, but we had been having cold and gloomy weather for a while before this day out. Highway 40 and the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Lakes Trail both run through such spectacular scenery, so it was a real treat for me, especially as I won't drive to those areas myself.

Taken on a drive along some of the backroads SW of Calgary, on 21 June 2014. This male Mountain Blackbird was busy helping to catch insects to feed to their babies. He caught a very nice Grasshopper this time : ) It had rained the few days before this, so I really, really wanted to get out for a short time, even though I needed to get my things ready for a very early start the next morning, for the day trip to Dinosaur Provincial Park. In Bluebirds, the blue colour is produced by the structure of the feather - there is no blue pigment. "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. Examples include the blue feathers of Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Blue Jay's and Steller's Jays." www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Bluebird/id www.jstor.org/discover/pgs/index?id=10.2307/4077277&i...

Photographed in the ENMAX Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo, on 25 September 2012. "The Chocolate Pansy or Chocolate Soldier (Junonia iphita) is a butterfly found in Asia.... Individuals maintain a territory and are usually found close to the ground level and often bask in the sun." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Junonia_iphita

On a fairly recent visit to the Calgary Zoo, on September 26th, I happened to notice some very pretty bokeh hiding behind one of the enormous leaves of a tropical plant in the ENMAX Conservatory : ) Later, in the evening ... is anyone else having a problem with Flickr being ridiculously slow? Whatever I click on takes forever to open. Think I will have to give up.

I say "two-faced" as this silvery-haired seedhead is both beautiful and devastating. It belongs to Yellow Clematis (Clematis tangutica), which was introduced from Japan as an ornamental plant. "Many nurseries warn that it is an aggressive plant once established. Both urban and natural area infestations are becoming more common around Calgary and westward out to the mountain Parks." From the Alberta Invasive Plants Council. This vine will even climb and strangle a large Spruce tree!

One of the Pelicans at the Calgary Zoo. They never seem to be still when I'm there, feeding constantly on the little stream that runs through their enclosure. This is the male (you can see the remnants of the breeding "bump" on his upper bill) and there are two females with him. We do see Pelicans in the wild, too, but I believe there have been fewer of them this summer.

This wooden cabin/shack/(storage shed?) is out in Kananaskis, in the mountains west of Calgary, by Lake Louise. The snow-covered trees were so beautiful to look at earlier this winter.

Bought recently from Safeway, these very small Tulips were quite perfect.

This beautiful Jamaican Poinsettia bush/tree is growing in the Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo.

A closer sign of fall (autumn) - a tiny WIld Gooseberry leaf on a fallen log out at Maclean Pond, off Elbow Falls Trail.

Saw this bright red Dragonfly on a walk in Weaselhead yesterday. Even better than this was the Police Car Moth I saw.

These four little goslings looked as though they were planning "something". Too bad they grow up so fast!

Much of its time was spent in this tall, upright position. What a long, lean animal! Wow, just noticed that this made Explore #4 today, 28th December 2006!! Thanks everyone - very much appreciated! "Counting its tail, a large Long-tailed Weasel male, the largest of the three species in Canada, stretches nearly half a metre (20 in) in length, yet can slip into a hole just 3 cm (1.25 in) across. This enables it to enter small rodent tunnels used by mice and voles. In summer, it enters ground squirrels burrows in search of its favourite food. Average males measure 406 mm (16 in), their tail is 135 mm (5.25) long and they weigh 225 g (12.6 oz). Males are approximately 25 per cent larger than females, which on average weigh only 102 g (5.7 oz). When winter approaches, within 30 days it grows a coat of white, giving it perfect camouflage against the snow -- all except for the tip of its tail, which stays black. A hungry predator, such as a hawk or owl, aims for that black tip, enabling the weasel to escape. Towards spring, between late February and April, in only 25 days, it reverses the process, acquiring the cinnamon-brown topcoat it will use all summer. This includes brown feet, unlike the other two species which retain white feet. The underside is usually buff-coloured." (Taken from the weaselhead.org website).

This is what the Bow River looked like early this morning! The temperature was -19C with a wind chill of -30C to -35C!

Snowy Owl female and owlet at the Calgary Zoo. This is a cropped version of a photo similar to one I posted a while ago. So "ugly", it's cute!

One of the many species of butterfly to be seen in the Calgary Zoo Butterfly House.

Another photo taken at the Calgary Zoo. Happy Feathery Friday! The highest this got in Explore was #39 on 1st December 2006.