Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#451

Temperatures got up to around 32C or 33C yesterday afternoon, 16 July 2014. My desk thermometer said it was 32C in my computer room, so I knew I just had to get out for a while, to enjoy the air-conditioning in my car. The backroads SW of the city come in handy when I don't have a lot of time, and I can usually find something of interest to photograph. I had pulled over to check a pond for birds, when this little Muskrat appeared. It stopped not far from me and checked me out for a while, lol, giving me a chance to get a few shots. "An adult muskrat is about 40 to 60 cm (16 to 24 inches) long, almost half of that tail, and weighs from 0.7 to 1.8 kg (1.5 to 4 lb). Muskrats are much smaller than beavers (Castor canadensis), with whom they often share their habitat." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Muskrat

The light was just too harsh to get a decent, detailed photo of these little fungi, but I thought they were still cute enough to post : ) Not sure, though, if these are tiny mushrooms or if they belong to a lichen that produces very similar mushroom-like growths. I find it too difficut to tell the two apart. Seen when a few of us spent the day botanizing at the Waiparous trails, high above the Ghost River, NW of Calgary, on 31 August 2012.

On 23rd July 2007, I spent a wonderful day with a friend who had asked if I'd like to go to the Coaldale Birds of Prey Centre, near Lethbridge, southern Alberta. It was just over a two-hour drive there and the temperature down south was 37C (98.6F)! They have injured birds there and they use them for educational purposes or to release back into the wild if possible. 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."