Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: White-tailed Jack Rabbit

This morning, I am posting three photos from my archives, all taken in June 2014. I just haven't been getting out and, on the very occasional time I have been out with my camera, there has been so little to photograph. As for Mountain Bluebirds, I have seen one very distant male so far this spring. Ha, is it really spring? We had yet another snowfall yesterday! This White-tailed Jackrabbit was busily eating grass at the Union Cemetery, right alongside the Reader Rock Garden. Sometimes when I see it, it's happily hopping around at the Reader Rock Garden. This time, I spotted it as I was driving very slowly through the cemetery on my way home, enjoying nibbling on blades of grass - it obviously tasted far too good to leave just because of me. Taken on 25 June 2014. We have a lot of these Jackrabbits in the city - apparently, they tend to come out at night (nocturnal), but I often see them in my neighbourhood in the daytime. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_jackrabbit

Almost three weeks ago, on 30 June 2016, I just made it in time for a botany visit to our main naturalist leader's home and garden. He and his wife have an amazing double-lot garden, full of so many kinds of flowers, including a good variety of native plants. They also had a little visitor in their front garden, a Jackrabbit, hiding from us all - or at least thinking s/he was hidden. One of my favourite plants is Showy Milkweed - love the cluster of individual flowers and buds growing on a rounded head. These plants have spread over a lot of the front garden. All they need now is for Monarch butterflies to fly a bit further north than they usually do and discover this little bit of butterfly heaven. In 2012, though, it was very unusual, as people were seeing a few of these amazing butterflies in Alberta, including in Calgary. I even got to see and photograph a couple of Monarch caterpillars in this garden in July 2012, for the very first and last time. Milkweed does not normally grow in Calgary, though we have seen a plant or two growing in the wild at one location in the city. "Monarchs only use milkweed for their eggs - no other plant will do. There is a good reason for this. Milkweed is poisonous and the caterpillars absorb the poison into their bodies, thus making them immune to predators." From edmontonnaturalizationgroup. The National Geographic has an amazing, fascinating video of the life story of these spectacular butterflies - couldn't find a link to it, unfortunately. edmontonnaturalizationgroup.org/blog/2012/08/13/wildflowe... ""Pollination in this genus is accomplished in an unusual manner, as the pollen is grouped into complex structures called pollinia (or "pollen sacs"), rather than being individual grains, as is typical for plant pollen. The flower petals are smooth and rigid, and the feet of visiting insects (predominantly large wasps, such as spider wasps, which visit the plants for nectar) slip into notches in the flowers, where the sticky bases of the pollinia attach to the feet, pulling the pollen sacs free when the pollinator flies off. Bees, including honey bees only gather nectar from milkweed flowers, and are generally not effective pollinators despite the frequency of visitation. Species in the Asclepias genus grow their seeds in pods. These seed pods contain soft filaments known as either silk or floss. The filaments are attached to individual seeds. When the seed pod ripens, the seeds are blown by the wind, each carried by several filaments." From Wikipedia. Our leader also has a large vegetable garden. One thing that always fascinates me is the Egyptian Walking Onion. Each one seems to take on its own artistic shape and I love to photograph these - both fascinating and quite beautiful. In the afternoon of this day, we experienced a huge rain and hail storm. Fortunately, it cleared up in time to go on Don Stiles' annual evening Bluebird route trip. I always look forward to going with Don on his nest box route, checking on a few of the boxes and finding either Bluebird or Tree Swallow eggs or babies. Don records all the information about numbers and dates, and also demonstrates how he carefully bands the young birds. Thanks, as always, Don, for an enjoyable evening outing and thank you for all the many, many years (must be somewhere around 35?) you have spent helping to preserve our beautiful Bluebirds. We all enjoyed seeing the various other bird species during the evening, too.

This White-tailed Jack Rabbit (Jackrabbit) was busily eating grass at the Union Cemetery, right alongside the Reader Rock Garden. Sometimes when I see it, it's happily hopping around at the Reader Rock Garden. This time, I spotted it as I was driving very slowly through the cemetery on my way home, enjoying nibbling on blades of grass - it obviously tasted far too good to leave just because of me. Taken on 25 June 2014. We have a lot of these Jack Rabbits in the city - apparently, they tend to come out at night, but I often see them in my neighbourhood in the daytime. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_jackrabbit

It snowed again last night. The temperature this morning (18 November 2015) is -4°C (windchill -11°C) and I suspect everywhere will be very slippery. This White-tailed Jackrabbit was busy munching on grass outside the place where I volunteer. On 28 October 2015, I finished my shift - highly stressful, as we are having to learn a completely new computer data system! - and there was this beautiful animal. I had seen it (or a different one) right there once before, but I didn't have my camera with me on that occasion. This hare was moulting ready for winter and snow, changing from brownish grey in the summer to become white all over except for its ears. Hope it has completely changed by now, as it snowed again last night (17 November 2015). "The white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii), also known as the prairie hare and the white jack, is a species of hare found in western North America. Like all hares and rabbits, it is a member of the family Leporidae of order Lagomorpha. It is a solitary individual except where several males court a female in the breeding season. Litters of four to five young are born in a form, a shallow depression in the ground, hidden among vegetation." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_jackrabbit

This White-tailed Jackrabbit was busy munching on grass outside the place where I volunteer. Yesterday, 28 October 2015, I finished my shift - highly stressful, as we are having to learn a completely new computer data system! - and there was this beautiful animal. I had seen it (or a different one) right there once before, but I didn't have my camera with me on that occasion. This hare is moulting ready for winter and snow, and changes from brownish grey in the summer to become white all over except for its ears. "The white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii), also known as the prairie hare and the white jack, is a species of hare found in western North America. Like all hares and rabbits, it is a member of the family Leporidae of order Lagomorpha. It is a solitary individual except where several males court a female in the breeding season. Litters of four to five young are born in a form, a shallow depression in the ground, hidden among vegetation." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_jackrabbit

Yesterday, 16 September 2015, I called in at the Reader Rock Garden after my volunteer shift. There seemed to be more flowers in bloom than on my previous visit. Also quite a few distant small birds flitting from tree to tree at one point They were impossible to see well enough to get photos or IDs - this was the only bird I managed to photograph. I had noticed a Jack Rabbit in the garden and then, when I drove through the adjoining cemetery, it or another one was running in among the gravestones. When it saw my car coming, it froze and waited till I had moved on.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY to all Mothers and Mother figures (Grandmother, Step-Mother, Mothers-in-law, Guardians and so on). In Canada, Mother's Day is celebrated on the second Sunday of May each year. Of course, each and every day should be Mother's Day : ) Hope everyone is enjoying the new Flickr layout, lol! What a mess! Hope they get this all sorted out - and quickly. On 2 May 2015, I was out on a full-day birding trip that took us south of the city. I will add the report written by the leader of the outing, Terry Korolyk. Thanks so much for another great day out, Terry, and for your detailed account of the day! "The morning started out cool, overcast, and, windy with the temperature 3 degrees centigrade when I awoke in the morning. Nine participants showed up for the trip at the Glennfield Parking Area in east Fish Creek PP. Our first stop at Sheriff King slough in the southwest corner of the Highways 2A and 22X junction was probably helped by the weather as probably close to 200 BONAPARTE'S GULLS were an amazing sight as they foraged on the water, being forced to stay there overnight. Amongst the other waterfowl here, highlights were 1 male Barrow's Goldeneye and 1 male Greater Scaup. From there, we travelled through the Pine Creek valley to Highway 2A, moving southward then turning off on Highway 552 and going to the Dewinton area. We stopped at a very convenient Great Horned Owl's nest as we drove east on the road going past the Calgary Gun Club. The nest was in an Aspen almost hanging right above the road! One of the adults, a gray phase bird, was clearly visible, but, we could only barely make out that there were downy young in the nest. On the southern edge of Dewinton, I observed 3 COMMON GRACKLES, but a more thorough look revealed probably about 15 GRACKLES and almost as many Brewer's Blackbirds. These birds were almost a complete surprise. From here, there was a bit of a mixup and part of the group got separated. After meeting later, we talked about how we attempted to find each other, but kept missing each other. Amazingly, at the end of the day, we all ended back in Glennfield at the same time! We all checked sloughs in the Dewinton area. The Field Trip found 2 Least Sandpipers, 15 Lesser Yellowlegs, and 2 Greater Yellowlegs at a slough south of Dewinton, then proceeded westward through the hills enjoying looks at all the returning Spring birds. Cinnamon Teal were very common in the area. We enjoyed a combined flock of 200 of Yellow-headed and Red-winged Blackbirds foraging in a field by a marsh. Pushing on further westward, a Great Blue Heron flushed from a creek as we drove past on 1119 Drive, then as we stopped at a large slough further westward, we stopped to photograph a pair of Red-necked Grebes building a nest. A small, brown, stubby-tailed bird flushed from the shoreline. I attempted to find it; got a quick look at it, and am almost sure it was a PACIFIC or WINTER WREN! We turned south on 160 St where at a quiet marsh at the bottom of the road, we saw Horned Grebes and Canvasbacks. A Red-tailed Hawk that burst suddenly from out of the trees appeared somewhat buffy, possibly being a CALURUS subspecies light phase Red-tailed Hawk. From off Highway 22 south of Turner Valley, we took a road through the foothills past a large marsh which had large numbers of Canada Geese and Ring-necked Ducks. In Aspens beside the marsh, it was lovely to see and hear our first returning male YELLOW-RUMPED WARBLERS of the season. Careful searching uncovered a White-crowned Sparrow and at least 1 CHIPPING SPARROW. Just past the marsh, we found our final highlights of the day, separate lone male EVENING GROSBEAKS at treetops on each side of the road. Birds found by the lost? group( or, were we the lost group?) included a lone SANDHILL CRANE near the marsh at Highway 799 and 338 Avenue, and more Greater Scaup in this general area. They also found a couple of White-crowned Sparrows near Third Lake 2 kms. south of Highway 552 on 224 Street. Terry Korolyk" After getting back to our meeting place in the city, I thought I would call in at another part of Fish Creek Park to see if there was any activity from the Great Horned Owls. Very little was happening in the few minutes I was there, but I was lucky enough to see this White-tailed Jack Rabbit. It was eating the grass and was in no hurry to leave - until a family walked right between me and it. Needless to say, their small child wanted to catch it - and off it went. "The white-tailed jackrabbit (Lepus townsendii), also known as the prairie hare and the white jack, is a species of hare found in western North America. Like all hares and rabbits, it is a member of the family Leporidae of order Lagomorpha. It is a solitary individual except where several males court a female in the breeding season. Litters of four to five young are born in a form, a shallow depression in the ground, hidden among vegetation." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_jackrabbit

This White-tailed Jack Rabbit (Jackrabbit) was busily eating grass at the Union Cemetery, right alongside the Reader Rock Garden. Sometimes when I see it, it's happily hopping around at the Reader Rock Garden. This time, I spotted it as I was driving very slowly through the cemetery on my way home, enjoying nibbling on blades of grass - it obviously tasted far too good to leave just because of me. Taken on 2 July 2014. We have a lot of these Jack Rabbits in the city - apparently, they tend to come out at night, but I often see them in my neighbourhood in the daytime. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_jackrabbit flic.kr/p/nVM4c5

This little guy, seen at Reader Rock Garden over two weeks ago, seemed to think that if he kept really, really still, we wouldn't be able to see him, LOL. Beautiful little thing.