Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#119

Finally, I bought myself one of these colourful, grafted cacti (just $3 something)! They always catch my eye when I walk pass some, and the word "photos" came into my mind, LOL. I wonder what you all thought it was in the thumbnail, LOL. An orange animal?? Was out walking for about four and half hours this morning from Bow Valley Ranch in Fish Creek Park, all the way south along the Bow River, way, way past the Highway 22X bridge. Quite a long walk, and my poor joints and muscles are complaining like crazy, after not being worked much at all for the past month! We were thrilled to bits to see a Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) on one of the wetland ponds south of the Highway 22X bridge. I'd never even heard of this bird before! It was on the partially frozen pond with hundreds of "regular" Gulls. The Lesser Black-backed Gull is an "accidental" bird. "This Eurasian species regularly occurs as a non-breeder on the East Coast. There are several reports of this bird from Alberta, including a photo record." From Birds of Alberta by Fisher and Acorn. I would have posted a photo, but the bird was so far away, needing a scope to see it properly. Thanks, Tony, for spotting this great find and for lugging your heavy scope all the way there and back!

We are still in our deep-freeze, so thought I'd post this photo of a bright orange Straw Flower grafted on to this spikey cactus. Made me think of a little candle flame. Tomorrow is supposed to bring us out of our present bitterly cold temperatures, which sure will feel good, soaring to a high of around -6C tomorrow afternoon. Then we have about five days of highs between -4C and +4 C! It will feel almost tropical : )

I placed these on top of my printer, bent down and hoped I'd be able to catch some blue sky as a background : ) I rather liked the lighting effect when I did this, unexpected though it was! I can barely keep my eyes open this evening - very, very short of sleep, plus I was out from 7:45 a.m. till 3:45 p.m., searching for different bird species out in the mountains. The sun was so bright and this, plus being so tired, is making my eyes keep closing. Had a lovely day trip, though, along the Sibbald Flats area and out past Barrier Lake. We saw some Trumpeter Swans on a couple of sloughs (ponds), and Townsend Solitaires, which we rarely get to see. Lots of other species, too, of course. Also saw my very first Mountain Bluebirds of this year. After a long, severe winter, it feels so wonderful to see that very first splash of brilliant blue.

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

Another photo from yesterday, of a little Black-capped Chickadee. Love their shiny little eyes.

I happened to turn my head whilst talking to someone on a winter walk and found myself looking into the big round eyes of this tiny owl sitting on a nearby branch. Had to wipe the ice off my camera lens in order to try and get any photos. They are very poor quality but this is the only Northern Saw-whet Owl that I have ever seen. I believe the highest this photo got on Explore was #119 on 11th November 2006. Thanks, everyone!