Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#81

Posted mainly for a splash of bright colour, which I'm needing at the moment : ) Our weather has calmed down after our two days of severe snowstorm a few days ago. Yesterday, 13 September 2014, I finally got out for a drive. I hadn't been out of the house for a few days and was beginning to get cabin fever. Driving down my street, I finally got a look at just how much tree damage the late summer snowstorm (actually two storms, on 9 and 10 September) had caused. My street is lined with huge piles of cut-down branches, waiting for the city's machines to come and remove them. My drive took me as far as Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, SW of the city, as I wanted to see how much snow was on the ground in the forest. From the muddy parking lot, I could see that the ground between the trees was covered with a lot of snow, hiding everything that might have been there, including wildflowers and mushrooms. It will take some time for all this sheltered snow cover to melt. I saw practically nothing during my drive, other than a Magpie, the Red-tailed Hawk that I'm posting today, horses and cows. Looks like we may have to wait till spring arrives next year before getting the chance to photograph much, if anything, other than snow photos. Many parks and natural areas are now closed because of the damage caused by the snowstorms. It's feeling rather like the situation last summer, when everywhere was closed for months because of the damage caused by the Alberta Flood of the Century. This Poppy photo was taken way back on 27 August 2010, during a visit to the wonderful homestead and gardens belonging to the late Jim Coutts, near Nanton, Alberta. I used to look forward so much to our occasional visit, especially seeing Jim's beautiful Poppy gardens. Interesting to note that Jim used to be the former principal secretary of Prime Minister Pierre Trudeau.

From my archives, a beautiful Great Horned Owl seen at the Coaldale Bird of Prey Centre, near Lethbridge, on 16 May 2009. I had a different owl of this species sit on my hand - the most amazing feeling! I was also lucky enough to hold a tiny Burrowing Owl, and a Barn Owl on a different visit. It's so much fun photographing the birds at this Centre, but of course there is nothing like photographing them in the wild. We are very fortunate to have so many Great Horned Owls in Calgary, LOL! No wonder it was chosen as the Provincial Bird. This Centre is "Canada’s largest birds of prey facility. Situated on a 70-acre wetland area site, the centre is a celebration of nature featuring the hawks, falcons, eagles and owls of Alberta. Throughout the site and along the pathways, a number of birds of prey are sitting on their perches only feet away from visitors. These birds are all in various stages of training and receive lots of exercise in the daily flying programs. At the centre, they have one of North America's largest captive breeding populations for the endangered Burrowing Owl." This morning, 10 March 2014, the temperature is 1C, and it looks like wet flurries could be expected for later this afternoon and scattered flurries this evening. Yesterday's wonderfully mild weather melted a fair bit of our accumulated snow.

I always love discovering one of these very small mushrooms in the forest. This was one of the very few fungi I could find on that day, at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, as this season has been very poor. Not sure if this is the lichen that produces mushroom-like growths. IF it is, then the information below would apply. Once again, I am turning to a great online resource - Doug (dougwaylett). I have looked on several websites for information on Lichenomphalia, but anything I found was far too technical for me to understand. Doug has explained more simply how this little beauty is both a Lichen and a Mushroom. "Lichenomphallia umbellifera 'Lichen Agaric/Mushroom Lichen' is a fungus/lichen that is almost always found growing on a rotting log that is coated with algae. Lichenomphallia is a genus of lichenized Basidomycetes or club fungi which has spores produced on club-shaped basidia. The lichen fungus resembles a mushroom and the algae are concentrated in special tissues or lobes at the base of the fruiting body. This plant is found in both books on Lichens and books on Mushrooms usually under the genus Omphalina." Doug Waylett. Thanks so much, Doug, for confirming my ID! I did wonder if that was algae growing down at the left lower edge. Now, the ground is covered in white, after it snowed overnight : ( It's -8C (17F) just before 11:00 a.m. and snow is forecast for the rest of the day and evening, if it happens. Looks like the days after that should be cold, but sunny. And so winter begins ....

Not sure what created the bokeh in this image - maybe moisture on the trees and bushes? Or maybe specks of snow being blown off the branches? I thought it made quite a pretty background for this little White-breasted Nuthatch who lives in one of my local parks. This was taken yesterday, when it was about -25C, and I lasted only a few minutes in this place, hoping to get at least one or two photos before I had to head home to defrost.

I couldn't believe the beautiful pattern on this Crocodile Monitor Lizard at the Calgary Zoo. It looks as if it is made from exquisite, fine, beadwork! Truly amazing! "Varanus salvadorii, first described in 1878, is the largest species of monitor lizard found in New Guinea, and is believed to be one of the longest lizards in the world, reaching up to 244 cm (8.0 ft). It is an arboreal lizard with a dark green body and yellowish bands, a blunt snout and a very long tail. It lives in mangrove swamps and coastal rain forests in the southeastern part of the island, where it feeds on birds, small mammals, eggs, and carrion in the wild, using teeth that are better adapted than those of most monitors for seizing fast-moving prey. Like all monitors it has anatomical features that enable it to breathe more easily when running than other lizards can, and V. salvadorii is thought to have greater stamina than most monitors. Little is known about its reproduction and development, as the species is very difficult to breed in captivity. V. salvadorii is threatened by deforestation and poaching, and is protected by the CITES (Convention on International Trade of Endangered Species) agreement. The lizard is hunted and skinned alive by tribesmen to make drums, who describe the monitor as an evil spirit that "climbs trees, walks upright, breathes fire, and kills men". However they also say that it gives them warnings if there are crocodiles nearby." From Wikipedia.

Just a different angle on one of the orange Sunflowers that I bought from Safeway recently. I rather liked the purple.