Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: sitting on log

One week ago, on 4 May 2016, I had a volunteer shift and then thought I might call in at the Reader Rock Garden afterwards. Changed my mind when I discovered that new road construction was taking place at the very first corner I was going to take, so I couldn't turn right. Instead, I called in at Fish Creek Park to check on the Great Horned Owls. I so rarely get photos of American Wigeons, as when I do see one, it is almost always way off in the distance. On this day, however, I was lucky enough to see a pair of them resting on a log, as well as a pair of Wood Ducks that were swimming nearby, all close enough to photograph. You can see just a tiny bit of iridescent green on this male's head, behind the eye. "A common and increasingly abundant duck, the American Wigeon breeds in northwestern North America and is found throughout the rest of the continent in migration and in winter. Its small bill and the male's white forehead, as well as certain aspects of nesting and feeding behavior, distinguish this species from other dabbling ducks." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Wigeon/id

Brief update on the massive Fort McMurray wildfire: "The wildfire near Fort McMurray continues to grow northeast of the city and could double in size by Saturday (i.e. today, 7 May 2016) afternoon, according to officials." Today, this is my main photo (i.e. the very last one to be posted). Yet again, some people have been recently seeing either my second or third photo as my main one. This morning, I uploaded each photo separately, so hopefully, my three photos will be seen by other people in the order in which I posted and in the order that I see them. Three afternoons ago, on 4 May 2016, I had a volunteer shift and then thought I might call in at the Reader Rock Garden. Changed my mind when I discovered that new road construction was taking place at the very first corner I was going to take, so I couldn't turn right. Instead, I called in at Fish Creek Park to check on the Great Horned Owls. I so rarely get photos of American Wigeons, as when I do see one, it is almost always way off in the distance. On this day, however, I was lucky enough to see a pair of them resting on a log, as well as a pair of Wood Ducks that were swimming nearby, all close enough to photograph. You can see just a tiny bit of iridescent green patch on this male's head, behind the eye. "A common and increasingly abundant duck, the American Wigeon breeds in northwestern North America and is found throughout the rest of the continent in migration and in winter. Its small bill and the male's white forehead, as well as certain aspects of nesting and feeding behavior, distinguish this species from other dabbling ducks." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/American_Wigeon/id

It felt a little strange to see this Eastern Grey Squirrel sitting on the log that I’ve photographed the Long-tailed Weasel standing in. Can’t remember if there were two or three Eastern Greys in the same area a few days ago, on 23 November 2014, one of them a black form. The Squirrel in this photo had such a beautiful, bushy tail. “The Eastern Grey Squirrels come in two main colour varieties or morphs, black and grey, and there are a few with shades of reds or even yellows in their pelage. A new-born litter may contain individuals of all colours. In the east, due to predatory pressure, grey individuals have a better chance of avoiding detection in grey-barked trees while black ones survive best when in stands of black-barked Black Oak or Black Walnut trees. In Calgary, litters seem to be evenly divided between grey and black. In winter, black individuals appear to be more numerous, particularly during cold days; perhaps their black fur absorbs more radiant heat, allowing them to be more active than their grey brothers or sisters.”From talkaboutwildlife.ca. “Like many members of the family Sciuridae, the eastern gray squirrel is a scatter-hoarder; it hoards food in numerous small caches for later recovery. Some caches are quite temporary, especially those made near the site of a sudden abundance of food which can be retrieved within hours or days for reburial in a more secure site. Others are more permanent and are not retrieved until months later. Each squirrel is estimated to make several thousand caches each season. The squirrels have very accurate spatial memory for the locations of these caches, and use distant and nearby landmarks to retrieve them. Smell is used once the squirrel is within a few inches of the cache.” From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eastern_gray_squirrel

Another photo of this gorgeous Northern Flicker, this one showing the black bib and all those amazing black spots (which I love!). From a local Naturalist: "This photo shows characteristics common to the Northern Flickers in the Calgary area. All of our birds are basically hybrids between the western Red-shafted and the eastern Yellow-shafted forms. This bird is a male, indicated by the moustache or malar stripe. This is normally red in the western form and black in the eastern form. Both colours occur on this bird. The yellow shafts of the eastern form are plainly visible in the wing of this birds. Also characteristice of the Yellow-shafted is the red nape patch. Uncharacteristic is the gray throat, typical of the western form. The markings around the eye, while most like the western form, are more exaggerated."