Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: south of Highway 22X

Just had to get out of the house for a short while yesterday afternoon, so drove a few of the backroads south of the city, south of Highway 22X. We had an amazing hoar frost yesterday and the day before, but the sky was so dull and so little light, which made taking photographs difficult. Came across two of these beautiful horses on my way home. A strange feeling - almost like looking at something that has used Colour Select : ) I soon discovered that the roads were becoming slippery. Also found out, after plunging up to my knees in the white stuff, that the snow in the ditches that had looked pretty solid was in fact still soft beneath the upper crust! So much for getting to the barbed wire fences to take a few close-ups : ) Today, the weather is even worse, and it is treacherous underfoot. Snowing quite heavily.

Passed this little red barn the other day, when I drove a few of the backroads south of the city. That day and the previous one, we had had a beautiful hoar frost, so I just had to go and enjoy it out of the city, despite the fact that the sky was grey and not a glimmer of light anywhere. Was out all this morning on a walk at Griffith Woods. Very few birds to be seen and nothing unusual. I did learn one thing, though - trust your intuition. If a small creek looks just that much too wide for YOU to leap (well, slight exaggeration!) across, then don't do it, LOL! Now I need to go and limp around the local grocery store : ) Thanks for trying, Phil!

Isn't this baby Mountain Bluebird just the cutest little thing? It's only one or two days old and has these most amazing hair-like feathers. The sun was gleaming through these fine hairs - not sure why the background is black but it does show off all the silver down. Yesterday evening, I went with a gentleman who has had a Bluebird nesting box route for something like 25 years, recording and banding the various birds he finds. These include Tree Swallows, too. Apparently, in all these years, this gentleman has never known a mother to abandon her babies after they have been picked up and banded. The Mountain Bluebird population was dropping drastically but, thanks to this nesting box program, their numbers are increasing again. By the way, this is not MY hand! This is the third year in a row that I have gone on this short drive south of the city and I enjoy it every time. Actually, this time, there was an added bonus - we were shown a flying squirrel that has taken over a nesting box.