Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: near Canmore

This was one of two Coyotes I saw when I went for a wonderful day out with friends, Cathy and Terry, into the Smith Dorrien-Spray Trail area of the Rocky Mountains, on 20 May 2012. We watched this one from the car for quite a while, seeing how stealthily she could move. Every now and again, there would be a loud, warning screech from a Columbian Ground Squirrel. The Coyote made its way along the top of an embankment parallel to the road, sometimes in sight and sometimes disappearing into the nearest trees. Eventually, it crossed the road and we were able to watch it for a while longer. "The name "coyote" is borrowed from Mexican Spanish coyote, ultimately derived from the Aztec word cóyotl, meaning "trickster". Its scientific name, Canis latrans, means "barking dog" in Latin." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coyote Something is definitely wrong with Flickr this morning. I posted my "daily three" images almost four hours ago and it shows only a total of 10 views for the three photos together. Not one comment, which is highly unusual. I mention this only because it's obvious that Flickr is not working properly. Anyone else experiencing this? Just checked My Contacts' new photos and there are only photos uploaded by four people, so my photos are most likely not showing up on their pages, either! I guess that's another problem, sigh. 8 hours later - just got home, and found that there has been basically no activity on my photos from today. Just left a message on the Help Forum. Hey, Flickr - what's going on? Something needs fixing! Please .....

Though it is still five days till winter officially starts, we have already been living in winter conditions for many weeks. Yesterday, 15 December 2013, I got to experience winter in the mountains, as my plans ended up changing. It was the 62nd (?)annual Calgary Christmas Bird Count and I was signed up for it, as usual. However, I had been worrying all week about how on earth I was going to be able to cope with a day of walking the city residential streets. Last Christmas, I had to stay in the car and wait while the other few participants in my group walked some of the areas, as I was in just too much pain to continue. After doing little other than sitting at my computer recently (well, the last few months!), the pain level is even higher, so I knew I was going to be of little use yesterday. Rather than sit and wait in the car for long periods, I decided to cancel. This meant that I also missed the evening get-together for all the city birders who had spent the day out in the field, and this is always so enjoyable. I felt really bad about cancelling, as I dislike letting people down. Instead, I spent the day without any walking, other than a few steps whenever I got out of the car to take photos. Friends Cathy and Terry and I drove out to Kananaskis and along the Smith-Dorrien-Spray Lakes road. They were really hoping to see Moose. For me, seeing anything from scenery to maybe a bird or two, is more than enough to keep me happy : ) The only birds we saw were a couple of Ravens and two (or was it three?) Gray Jays (seen in my next photo posted today) and a beautiful male Spruce Grouse. The latter was down on the road when we first saw it in the distance, eating gravel to help its digestive system. Wouldn't you know it, just at that moment, a vehicle came from the opposite direction around a corner, and the bird flew up into a tree and "hid" behind a tangle of branches. You know how that goes - any birder / photographer will have had many similar experiences. Was able to take photos, but nothing too brilliant. Just thrilled to see one of these Grouse, especially a male. There was a lot of snow on the ground out there, though not on the trees. The road itself had been ploughed, which made driving easier. In one spot, the snow plough must have ploughed a little closer to the snowbank along the edge of the road and then drifting snow had been blown on top. Our front wheels started out in snow that was maybe an inch deep, but the deeper snow pulled the car closer and closer to the snowbank - and into the ditch we went!! We were only driving slowly, thank goodness. The snow came well up my side of the car and there was no way I could get out. Within just a matter of minutes, on this quiet mountain road where we had seen little traffic all day, several cars all came at once. Everyone stopped, discussed the situation, and within a very short time, one of them attached a rope and had us pulled out of the ditch. To say we were very thankful and grateful is an understatement! Can't thank all those people enough for rescuing us - it was later in the day and I knew that light would be fading, and I had visions of us having to spend a very cold night in the car! So, it felt wonderful to once again be on solid ground! For years, I have read about how dangerous this gravel road is, especially in bad weather, but I'd never pictured ending up in a snowbank, lol. Both Terry and Cathy are excellent drivers, so I always feel totally safe being driven by them - this was just one moment of bad luck. One that thankfully ended safely, so we were able to laugh about it afterwards. Thanks, guys, for a lovely day in beautiful scenery! And no walking : ) This morning, I overslept till about 11:00 a.m.! Did anyone else receive a similar e-mail today from an ipernity member? "je suis sur le point de te voler qlq photos (images) si tu ne vois pas d'objection, sinon j'éfface et on oublie ce message, bonne soirée." Translation: "I'm about to steal QLQ photos (images) if you see no objection, if I delete this message and forget, good evening." YES, I DO OBJECT!!!!!!!

There continues to be a common theme to my photos these days - sigh ... snow. However, this image shows a good side of winter : ) Had a wonderful day out in the mountains yesterday, thanks to friends Cathy and Terry! I so rarely get to the mountains, especially during the winter months, so it was a real treat to go with them to the Highway 40/Smith Dorrien area. Thanks so much, guys! The Smith-Dorrien/Spray Trail south of Canmore is a gravel road which passes through the heart of the scenic Smith-Dorrien Valley, one of the wildest areas of Kananaskis Country. I posted several photos to ipernity, this one included, and then I transferred almost 9,000 images from Flickr (thank goodness it's done!). The first few shots I posted are now duplicates and I'm not sure how to deal with them. For now, I've just copied and pasted the kind comments people made on the original posts, as obviously I don't want to lose them. I was just about to add this new copy to the groups I posted the original photos in, but that would be double posting, which would be really annoying to other members of the groups : )

Had a wonderful day out in the mountains on 13 January 2013, thanks to friends Cathy and Terry! I so rarely get to the mountains, especially during the winter months, so it was a real treat to go with them to the Highway 40/Smith Dorrien area. The Smith-Dorrien/Spray Trail south of Canmore is a gravel road which passes through the heart of the scenic Smith-Dorrien Valley, one of the wildest areas of Kananaskis Country. This was just one of the many beautiful mountain scenes - there's just something about snow that hasn't been crossed with a pattern of animal trails (other than a slump line). We saw so many rabbit tracks in some places. Thanks so much, guys, for giving me the chance to see such magnificent scenery!

Had a wonderful day out in the mountains on 13 January 2013, thanks to friends Cathy and Terry! I so rarely get to the mountains, especially during the winter months, so it was a real treat to go with them to the Highway 40/Smith Dorrien area. The Smith-Dorrien/Spray Trail south of Canmore is a gravel road which passes through the heart of the scenic Smith-Dorrien Valley, one of the wildest areas of Kananaskis Country. This was just one of the many beautiful mountain scenes - there's just something about snow that hasn't been crossed with a pattern of animal tracks. We saw so many rabbit tracks in some places. Thanks so much, guys, for giving me the chance to see such magnificent scenery! Having said that I so rarely get to the mountains, guess where I'm going today, on an annual birding day in the Sibbald and Exshaw area : ) Lucky me, though apparently very little was seen on the scouting day, except for two young Moose.

A blurry shot, unfortunately, of one of about eight beautiful Elk that were grazing near the main highway at Harvey Heights, Canmore, Banff National Park. Seen early in the morning in poor light when we were driving to our area for the Banff/Canmore Bird Count on December 17th. I don't usually see Elk, so wanted to add this photo to my Wild Animals of Alberta set. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Elk

I never fail to be in complete awe of our massive, spectacular Rocky Mountains! This is just a tiny section of the mountain peaks at Harvey Heights, near Canmore (which is near Banff).