Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Antennaria rosea

The day before yesterday, 27 July 2019, was such an enjoyable day, with a few lovely surprises. We had been invited to do a bio-blitz (i.e. list every plant, tree, bird, insect, fungi, etc. species) on the property belonging to Dennis Apedaile and family. This forested area is NW of Cochrane, reached by a beautiful road that was new to us. The night before the trip was SO hot indoors (no air-conditioning), I didn't get even one minute of sleep all night. The early morning started off with our first sighting - one of the neighbourhood Jackrabbits, seen when we were leaving our leader's house. The next sighting, and unfortunately only seen by me, came as a total surprise. We were driving along the highway when I spotted a black dog in a field. I was a bit surprised to see it wandering on its own. OMG, it's not a dog, it's a Black Bear!! We were going too fast and passed it before anyone else could see it. Wish I had thought about trying to get a photo - no time, anyway. Nine of us from Calgary took part in this bioblitz, along with three ladies from the Summer Village on Ghost Lake. We were also joined by about 12 members of Dennis & Charlotte’s family, their friends and neighbours. A fun, most enjoyable group of interesting people. Our group took our lunch with us, but we were encouraged to also help ourselves to the delicious food provided. The morning and part of the afternoon were spent on a slow walk along various forest trails on the Apedaile's acreage. We came across all sorts of wildflowers, the odd insect, and yes, we even found a few mushrooms, including Aspen Boletes. Birds were almost non-existent! I spotted a Hummingbird that flew to one of the feeders, a Black-capped Chickadee flitted about in the trees near the house, and someone noticed a Red-breasted Nuthatch. Everyone was thrilled to bits to suddenly notice something fairly small flying in all directions near a fire pit, that had a tangle of dead branches and a few pieces of wood piled up. It was a Little Brown Bat! After a few seconds, it flew into this pile, hid from view, and stayed there. When it was time to leave, we began walking towards our cars, when suddenly the wind became very strong and it started to rain. It didn't last long, but unfortunately, we had to make a very hurried departure. Thank you so much, Dennis and Charlotte, for letting us come and explore your wonderful property! Having you all come along with us made the visit even more enjoyable. Thanks, too, to good friends, Dorothy and Stephen, for driving four of us there and back. As always, so much appreciated.

"Pink and Cream clusters of flowers sit atop a slender stalk and remind one of the pads of a cats paw, hence its name. It makes a great ground cover with a mat forming habit and silvery green wooly foliage that retains its color and form year round." From wildaboutwildflowers.ca www.wildaboutflowers.ca/plant_detail.php?Rosy-Pussytoes-12 en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antennaria_rosea I was so lucky to be invited to join friends Sandy and Heide on a three-day trip to Waterton Lakes National Park, from 19-21 (inclusive) June 2015. We met up with other members of the Alberta Native Plant Council for their annual Botany Alberta weekend. Most people who attended stayed at the Crooked Creek Campground, a 5.6 km drive east of the Waterton Park Gate on Highway 5, but my friends and I stayed at the Crandell Mountain Lodge on the edge of Waterton town. The ANPC people had a list of species that they hoped to find, and they were very successful. Our stay down south overlapped the annual Waterton Wildflower Festival, but we came across very few people on our various drives and hikes. Needless to say, I was extremely fortunate to spend three days with people who are very knowledgeable about plants and many other things. This meant that I got to see many wildflower species, including several that were new to me, such as the gorgeous Mariposa Lily. It was one of the flowers that was on my mental Wish List - and there were hundreds of them to be seen! I had also never seen the spectacular Bear Grass and I was so thrilled that there were still several plants in bloom. Absolutely made my day! Our two main hikes of the weekend were the Bertha Lake Trail as far as the Bertha Falls (on 20 June), and the Crandell Lake Trail (on 21 June). The photo above was taken on our hike to and at Crandell Lake. Makes me smile when a described "short, easy hike" in a book or on the Internet turns into a full day of exploration along the trail, taking hours to reach the destination, though returning to the cars in a much shorter time. Our walks/hikes are very slow-paced with endless stops to look at/for plants and to take photos. This makes it possible for me to go along. The wind made photographing plants a real challenge, including the beautiful Mariposa Lilies in the meadow along the Hay Barn road. Though I took plenty of photos, I wasn't sure that I would end up with any that were sharp enough. Trying to catch a quick shot when a flower is blowing in and out of the viewfinder is not easy! Unfortunately, I'm no longer able to get down and take macro shots (my lens needs to be about 4" away from the subject), so my photos have to be telemacro. I've just been trying to find a list of plant species in Waterton Park, but have so far been out of luck. I do have the book, "Wildflowers of Waterton Park" by Jacinthe Lavoie and Ian Wilson, which has an Index of Plant names, but I was hoping to find a list that I could print out. It's going to take me ages to type descriptions for the various photos I'll slowly be posting, and I will no doubt keep adding new bits and pieces over time. There is just so much information I want to add, but my descriptions are already way too long. Also, my photos of quite a few of the plants will be posted for the use of ANPC members and are, unfortunately, really poor images. Need them added to my Waterton Lakes album, so please bear with me : ) Luckily, you don't even need to look at them.

Photographed (macro) on July 10th on our hike on the Small Whaleback, about two and a half hours' drive south of Calgary. The whole flower cluster was maybe three-quarters of an inch across, at most.

Managed to "blow out" the white in this photo : ) I so rarely see the pink Pussytoes - usually I see one of the species of white Pussytoes. The Pink is so pretty, though. Seen off Elbow Falls Trail (Highway 66) in the area of the Ing's Mine parking lot. Taken using Raynox 250 macro lens, only partly zoomed in. These are tiny flowers in reality! That's the "problem" with macros and supermacros - they are so misleading - but I love them! Holy smokes - fell asleep for two hours in front of the TV this evening - just woken up to find that it was 10:00 p.m. Thank goodness I didn't sleep right through an hour of blaring, alarm clock music this morning, which is what I did yesterday morning (plus another hour and a half) and consequently missed a day trip with a few friends to Bow Valley Provincial Park. The University of Calgary held their Open House at their Field Station in Kananaskis today - near Barrier Lake. Four of us went to the mountains for this and enjoyed going on a botanizing walk first on our own. Then two of us went on a Butterfly walk with a young, very knowledgeable guy named Steve, who is at the Station for part of the year. We saw several different butterflies and two or three other insects - and we made it rain, LOL! The wildflowers are just so spectacular at the moment - a joy to see so many bright orange Western Wood Lilies, for a start. Absolute food for the soul! Barb, if you happen to read this - thanks SO much for the drive today and for changing your plans and going out of your way for me. Appreciated SO much!!! This is all interfering with being on Flickr - sorry, everyone! Fall and winter are getting closer and closer and our very short growing season will be over and I won't be out for as many full-day botanizing outings. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antennaria_rosea

Also called Rosy Everlasting, this wildflower belongs to the Aster family. The leaves of this plant were sometimes chewed by Blackfoot children and used in tobacco mixtures.