Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: southwest of Calgary

I had just finished a walk at the southern edge of the Cross Conservation Area on Sunday morning and started driving down a few country roads on my way home. I realized that I had no idea at all which gravel roads I needed to take, so returned to where a couple of the people were still talking. My sense of direction seems to be almost non-existant, so I said that I needed to follow behind someone till I got to familiar ground. That's when I noticed this beautiful Hawk perched on a fence post. I'm not good at Hawk ID, but my guess would be a Swainson's Hawk. If it is, then it is one of these birds that swooped down very low over my head yesterday, while I was taking photos in northwest Calgary, on the Bearspaw Lasso Trail!! It had already swooped down over all four of us, but I then seemed to be singled out as a good target for further attacks, LOL. There must have been a nest in the area.

Such a very heavily cropped photo, but I can get away with it at this size displayed on the computer. It's such a rare thing that I actually manage to find hawks when I'm driving and yesterday I saw about 7 or 8 of them just south of the city. All were circling way, way up in the sky, except for this Rough-legged Hawk who perched in a tree by the side of the road. Guess when a large, noisy truck went zooming by on an otherwise empty road! Luckily, I got this shot before it flew!

I thought these young White Spruce cones were attractive - neat colour and design. Almost looked jelly-like : )

A rather strange effect created by a mass of Water Striders on the Lily pond at an acreage southwest of the city, near Millarville. Three of us returned there recently to do another bio-assessment of this wonderful acreage.

Just a clump of trees that caught my eye the other day when driving home from Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. I always enjoy seeing the contrast between the yellow leaves and the Spruce trees. Looked more spectacular in person than it does in my photograph : )

Saw this Tree Swallow south west of the city, when I went looking for Mountain Bluebirds a week ago. I always love seeing these Tree Swallows with their gorgeous colour and iridescence. Shouldn't really be posting this evening, as I am totally, totally exhausted after a long, long day in the heat, botanizing Purple Spring Sand Dunes, down near Taber, southern Alberta. Left home at 5:15 a.m. and arrived back a short while ago, at 8:00 p.m.. A three-hour drive there and three hours back home, plus the driving we did when we were down that way, and of course the walking we did. Much too hot for me! The area doesn't really live up to its beautiful name - basically, it just looks like prairie grassland, but we did see some good plants, including at least one new one. On the way home, we also called in at a park in Lethbridge to see what birds (and plants) we could find. One of our highlights was seeing a Prairie Garter Snake - a new species, certainly for some of us, as we don't get these up in Calgary.

This rather fine mushroom was growing in the south, private part of the Cross Conservation Area, just southwest of Calgary.