Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#305

By looking at my previous image, you can probably guess why my thoughts went to summer colours and warmth! I found this beautiful Echinacea photo (taken on 4 September 2013 at the Reader Rock Garden) last night, after being out all day on a fun and enjoyable birding trip north of the city, with superb birder, Phil. The weather forecast turned out to be far from accurate and we found ourselves driving the backroads with snow swirling over the roads and in some places, you couldn't see where the sky ended and the earth began. Everywhere and everything was white. Winter outside the city is so very different from facing icy roads and heavy traffic in the city, with roads now edged in piles of dirty brown snow that has been cleared from the roads and just won't melt. Out in the countryside, winter has a pure, clean beauty, and we both loved the simplicity of this white landscape. Neither of us knew this area, east of Highway 22, though I may have been driven in some parts on a birding trip or two a few years ago. It's an area that is way beyond my driving comfort zone, so this was real treat for me. The cold, windy weather must have kept the birds taking shelter, though Phil did find a Great Horned Owl and, on the way back to the city, a Merlin. Lots of Ravens about and a few Sparrows and Pigeons, but no Snow Buntings or Horned Larks. I was just happy seeing the wintry countryside and a number of beautiful old barns. The shapes of these seem so different from barns that I see south of the city. Several white barns, too, not the usual red. Thanks so much for a great day, Phil - much appreciated! www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/12253134254

Amazingly, this adult Red Panda and baby (the whiter-faced one on the left) were still for a moment this afternoon. They have a spectacular, long, very bushy, striped tail. "The red panda (which is much smaller than the giant panda) resembles a raccoon in size and appearance. The red panda is found in a mountainous band from Nepal through northeastern India and Bhutan and into China, Laos and northern Myanmar. It is rare and continues to decline. It has already become extinct in 4 of the 7 Chinese provinces in which it was previously found. The major threats to red pandas are loss and fragmentation of habitat due to deforestation (and the resulting loss of bamboo) for timber, fuel and agricultural land; poaching for the pet and fur trades; and competition from domestic livestock." From www.animalinfo.org .

Have been feeling really unwell the last 7-10 days, so the very last thing I should have done was to drive to a new area by myself on a -20C day, LOL! I've battled a phobia of driving the last 31 years, so plucking up courage to do this drive meant a lot to me. Felt so good to have done it. Wonderfully, I bumped into a couple of friends who were already at the location, so there was someone to chat with while we stood and waited and waited and waited for this gorgeous Northern Hawk Owl to do something, ha, ha! They also very kindly brought back a cup of hot coffee for me when they drove into Cochrane for a quick break. We did see three of these owls along the stretch of road, but they were perched a long way away. Maybe they, too, were feeling the cold. The one above was in fact perched in a row of trees with masses of tangled branches, but I was lucky to just be able to shoot from the road, through a small gap. Greatly cropped, of course : ) Looks like it had had a fairly recent snack, judging by the colour of its beak. Takes about an hour and a quarter to drive here, north of the city. It was unbearably cold and I was still on the verge of shivering eight hours after getting home. As I said, not the wisest outing when sick : ) Can't wait to do it again, though, especially as our weather is supposed to warm up for a few days.

Friends invited me to go with them out to the mountains for the day today. It was an extra thrill when I found out that we were not only going to Banff, but a little further to Lake Louise as well. The weather was around 10C - that's PLUS 10C! Sorry all you folks out east, who are having -30C, but we have already had our share of that, LOL. It did get much colder when we reached Lake Louise - cold enough to fluff up this bird and to stop my camera from working for a while. When we first arrived in the parking lot, about five of these lovely Clark's Nutcrackers flew down to us. The lighting was not good with so many high mountains around us, but I was still so happy to finally get a better photo of a bird that I've only seen maybe three times before.

One of the small Sunflowers that I bought from Safeway on Friday. Three were like this one and two were bright orange. Nothing unusual, but I can never get too much of Sunflowers.

A little Chickadee from my walk this afternoon.