Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: small tree

When I called in at Fish Creek Park to see if anyone had managed to find one of the tiny, popcan-sized owls, I found a number of photographers already there. Though the owl was perched high in a tree when I got there, it eventually made its way to a better place. This was a smaller tree right in front of us, where it sat and watched for a Meadow Vole. Sure enough, we saw it dive down to the ground maybe 6' away from our feet, and then fly up into a close deciduous tree in front of us. It sat for quite a long while, clutching its prey, and we wondered if the reason it wasn't eating was that it needed to cough up a pellet before it had room for more food. Sure enough, up came a pellet and the owl started to feed on the Vole's brains.. "Northern Pygmy Owls are 'sit and wait' predators, that hunt mainly by vision, diving down onto prey on the ground and driving the talons into the prey's throat. They will also attack birds in shrubs, crashing into the hapless victims. Most prey is carried off in the feet to feeding sites. Birds are usually plucked before being consumed. They often eat only the brains of birds and the soft abdomen of insects. One of these little owls can carry prey weighing up to 3 times its own weight. The Northern Pygmy Owl feeds on a wide range of small prey including small mammals, birds, and reptiles and amphibians. Voles make up the bulk of their diet, with birds comprising most of the rest (mainly songbirds, but as large as a California Quail). Other small mammals include shrews, mice, chipmunks, bats, moles, young rabbits, and weasels. Insects may be very important when they are most abundant. Other prey taken are toads, frogs and small lizards and snakes. During winter, surplus prey is cached in a cavity, often in large quantities. Summer caches are usually much smaller. Pellets are very small, averaging about 3cm long. They are formed only occasionally as these owls don't consume large amounts of fur, feathers, or bone. The pellets tend to fall apart shortly after ejection." From OwlPages. www.owlpages.com/owls.php?genus=Glaucidium&species=ca... "An owl pellet is a clod of fur or feathers and bone—the indigestible remains of the animals an owl has eaten. Because it swallows small prey whole and is able to digest only the fleshy parts, the owl regurgitates the remaining solid material as a compact pellet or casting. Where owls feed on insects, each regurgitated pellet contains the indigestible parts of the exoskeletons of numerous individual insects. Although birds of many species regurgitate pellets, pellets from large owl species are especially suited for study because they are big enough to be examined without a microscope, and they contain the entire skeletons of small animals the owl has eaten. (Pellets of other raptors, such as eagles and hawks, are less useful since these birds tear much of the flesh from their victims, and do not swallow bones.) Because owl pellets accumulate in predictable locations, they are readily available for collection and examination. Pellets last a long time in dry climates and in the protection of barns or other buildings. If they are soaked in warm water, carefully dissected, and examined under magnification, the identity of prey they contain can often be determined from the bones, teeth, and other remains. The remains hidden inside a pellet usually represent the entire skeleton of every animal the owl has eaten during a night of foraging. There are almost always remains of two or more animals in each pellet.” wdfw.wa.gov/living/owls.html

On my last visit to the Calgary Zoo, on 14 October 2014, I photographed the beautiful fall colours that this small tree was displaying. Not completely sure I got the correct ID for it – there were two small signs pushed into the ground and I wasn’t 100% sure this was the right one. "Makamik Crabapple is an improved cultivar of the Malus species. It is resistant to most of the common diseases known to Malus, however it may still suffer from powdery mildew. Its great ornamental value makes this an exceptional specimen tree year round. In the spring it is blanketed with stunning fuchsia coloured flowers. Its foliage is a copper tipped dark green that turns yellow in the autumn, and its clusters of dark red fruit can persist well into the winter. The loose spreading form of this tree makes it a great shade tree, however don’t plant it in high traffic areas as it can be messy with fruit litter. It is very tolerant of pollutants making it an ideal urban tree, able to survive in the city core." www.canadaplants.ca/display.php?id=612

"For many Native American tribes of the Northern Rockies, Northern Plains, and boreal forest region of Canada and the United States, chokecherries were the most important fruit in their diets. The bark of chokecherry root was once made into an asperous-textured concoction used to ward off or treat colds, fever and stomach maladies by native Americans. The inner bark of the chokecherry, as well as red osier dogwood, or alder, was also used by natives in their smoking mixtures, known as kinnikinnick, to improve the taste of the bearberry leaf. The chokecherry fruit can be used to make a jam, jelly, or syrup, but the bitter nature of the fruit requires sugar to sweeten the preserves. Chokecherry is toxic to horses, and moose, cattle, goats, deer, and other animals with segmented stomachs (rumens), especially after the leaves have wilted (such as after a frost or after branches have been broken) because wilting releases cyanide and makes the plant sweet. About 10–20 lbs of foliage can be fatal. Symptoms of a horse that has been poisoned include heavy breathing, agitation, and weakness. The leaves of the chokecherry serve as food for caterpillars of various Lepidoptera." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Prunus_virginiana Taken on 10 June 2014, in North Weaselhead. This was a most unfortunate day, for many of us. In the afternoon, four of us met up to go for a botany walk in North Weaselhead. Shortly before we were supposed to start, a lady came over to us in the parking lot, to let us know that our leader, Karel Bergmann, had just been in an accident. She said that he was so concerned about the rest of us wondering where he was, that she very kindly offered to drive to the park and find us and give us the news. I had seen a fire truck blocking the road, and so had turned up the road just before the one I needed, but of course never dreamt that it was there to help Karel. He was riding his motorcycle, when a young man (who was very upset over the accident, apparently) turned in front of him, cutting him off. Karel's leg was broken, which means that he will be missing the joys of summer - and we will be without a great leader for plants and mushrooms. We are all so thankful that the accident wasn't worse than it was! Good luck with your recovery, Karel! It will be so good to have you back with us once your leg has healed. Two of us decided that we would still go on the walk, despite Karel not being with us. I knew that we would most likely see only a few of the plants, but we did our best, and enjoyed ourselves. Towards the end of our walk, I heard a rustling in the leaves and bushes at the edge of the path and was really hoping that it might be one of these beautiful, small Thirteen-lined Ground Squirrels. We found two of them! Such a treat.

Amur Maple leaves at the Calgary Zoo on October 8th. Always a joy to see these, as we don't have all the beautiful red fall colours like in eastern Canada.

I was lucky to find one single Gardenia flower still in bloom in the new Enmax Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo. The scent from these flowers is just incredible and delightfully pleasant, not overpowering. "Gardenia is a genus of 142 species of flowering plants in the coffee family, Rubiaceae, native to the tropical and subtropical regions of Africa, southern Asia, Australasia and Oceania. The genus was named by Carl Linnaeus after Dr. Alexander Garden (1730-1791), a Scottish-born American naturalist. They are evergreen shrubs and small trees growing to 1–15 metres (3.3–49 ft) tall. The leaves are opposite or in whorls of three or four, 5–50 centimetres (2.0–20 in) long and 3–25 centimetres (1.2–9.8 in) broad, dark green and glossy with a leathery texture. The flowers are solitary or in small clusters, white, or pale yellow, with a tubular-based corolla with 5-12 lobes (petals) from 5–12 centimetres (2.0–4.7 in) diameter. Flowering is from about mid-spring to mid-summer and many species are strongly scented." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gardenia