Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#20

Just over a month ago, on 19 August 2014, I was lucky enough to have the chance to try and photograph a couple of these absolutely adorable little creatures : ) After a while, I was beginning to despair of ever getting any decent shots at all. These tiny Pikas, also known as Rock Rabbits, hardly ever remain still and they are extremely fast! Imagine a mountain hillside covered in sharp, jagged rocks of all sizes and then try to picture how difficult it is to find in the viewfinder the single rock on which one of these Pikas might happen to be sitting for a second or two, lol! By the time you find the rock, the Pika is long gone. They rely on existing spaces between the rocks for their homes - they don't dig a burrow, though they can dig to make their home bigger. Because the Pikas are a similar colour to many of the surrounding rocks, it is so difficult to see them - unless you happen to catch sight of some movement or you see a bunch of greenery moving at top speed over the rocky mountain side. At this time of year, they are so busy collecting plants and leaves to store in their little cave for the winter. As time passed, I managed to take quite a lot of photos, though many will need to eventually be deleted. Hope you don't get tired of seeing these little guys, but they are just so very cute. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length, so really are pretty small. And, no, I didn't put one in my pocket to bring home with me! "The American Pika is a generalist herbivore. It eats a large variety of green plants, including different kinds of grasses, sedges, thistles and fireweed. Although pikas can meet their water demands from the vegetation they eat, they do drink water if it is available in their environment. Pikas have two different ways of foraging: they directly consume food (feeding) or they cache food in haypiles to use for a food source in the winter (haying). The pika feeds throughout the year while haying is limited to the summer months. Since they do not hibernate, pikas have greater energy demands than other montane mammals. In addition, they also make 13 trips per hour to collect vegetation when haying, up to a little over 100 trips per day." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_pika Link to a video that someone has posted on YouTube, to see and hear these little Rock Rabbits: youtu.be/W4U9IxhQSTc

I made the "mistake" of treating myself to a small mixed bunch of Roses from Safeway a few days ago, to photograph them. Our weather has been dull and grey almost ever since, and there isn't any sunlight pouring in through my windows. So, my photos of these gorgeous Roses are not coming out as sharp as I would have liked. Some are still usable, though, including this one. They smell wonderful and look so pretty. For some reason, the tiny fruit flies seem to love them - I wonder if they were sprayed with something or maybe there is something sweet in the packet of "whatever it is" that was included, to supposedly make the flowers last longer. Just love the colours of this Rose! Haven't been on Flickr much today - I have finally just started saving the many, many thousands of photos I've taken in the last 15 months, and which are not saved anywhere except for on my hard drive. Now I've run out of room on my external hard drive, so will have to go and buy another one as soon as possible, before I lose motivation - which was SO hard to find!

A quick click of the shutter button and, if you are lucky, you'll capture at least part of one of these Red Pandas at the Calgary Zoo. This time, I was lucky enough to capture the "right" part, LOL! "The Red Panda, also called the Firefox, Fire Cat, Lesser Panda, or Ailurus fulgens ("shining cat"), is a mostly herbivorous mammal, specialized as a bamboo feeder. It is slightly larger than a domestic cat (40 - 60 cm long, 3 - 6 kg weight). The Red Panda is endemic to the Himalayas in Bhutan, southern China, Pakistan, India, Laos, Nepal, and Burma. There is an estimated population of fewer than 2,500 mature individuals. Their population continues to decline due to habitat fragmentation... Red Pandas are classified as Vulnerable. .... In southwest China the Red Panda is hunted for its fur and especially for its highly-valued bushy tail from which hats are produced. In the areas of China where the Red Panda lives, their fur is often used for local cultural ceremonies and in weddings the bridegroom traditionally carries the hide. The 'good-luck charm' hats are used by Chinese newlyweds." From Wikipedia.

"Love and gratitude" - one of the meanings of the pink rose. This beauty was in a small bunch of mixed roses that I bought from Safeway the other day, to make sure I have a few brightly coloured images to add when our snowy weather returns - as we know it WILL!