Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#292

This was one of the views seen from Marsland Basin, E of Calgary, taken from friend Lyn Gratz's acreage on 26 July 2015. On that day, 22 of us drove out to Marsland Basin, E of Calgary. Part of this beautiful wetland belongs to our friend, Lyn, and her partner - they have a house and yard that overlooks the wetland. This was the second time that I had visited the area, the first being on 28 June 2015. Each time, we have to sign a small guestbook. Also, everyone who can is asked to please submit a list of species seen any time you visit, to eBird. The birds on the water are very distant, so you need binoculars (which I don't have) and even better, a spotting scope. Really, they are too far away for photos, though I can get a distant shot with my point-and-shoot camera set at 48x zoom and then cropped. Like last time, I took a long look over the lake and then wandered round Lyn's property, this time finding a mushroom or two, a beautiful moth, a few Thistles, their two donkeys, a House Wren, an Eastern Kingbird, a Mourning Dove, and a family of Western Kingbirds (that were just about impossible to see as they flitted in amongst the high branches). The highlight of the visit for many of us was seeing a very, very distant family of American Badgers that were in a neighbour's field (so, private land), digging for prey (probably the nearby Richardson's Ground Squirrels). Where they were digging was off to the left of this photo. There are four family members, though some of us only saw three. I think I have only ever seen a Badger three times before in 37 years, the last one being on 11 June 2012, on one of Don Stiles' annual Mountain Bluebird outings. The General Status of the American Badger in Alberta is Sensitive. More detailed Status is "Data Deficient" - not enough current information to determine its status. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/American_badger A report from 2002: esrd.alberta.ca/fish-wildlife/species-at-risk/species-at-... After our visit to the Marsland Basin, friends Dorothy and Stephen drove two of us back to Calgary, travelling the roads slowly so that we could see a number of perched Swainson's Hawks, and a Meadowlark with mouth full of insects to feed to her babies. Thanks so much, Stephen, for the safe ride there and back. As always, hugely appreciated! For a list of the 53 species of bird that were seen at Marsland Basin, look under the Badger family photo. flic.kr/p/wygV8B

Yesterday, my youngest daughter and I went down to the Stampede Grounds, to soak up the feel of the annual "Greatest Show on Earth". We don't spend long down there, but we always look forward to the the Indian Village, Mini-Donuts and the baby pigs, lol. We like to wander through the agriculture area, too, seeing the beautiful horses, ponies, miniature horses and cattle. These are two of the tiny piglets that were with their Mom, each one a different colour from plain pink to mottled black. Not sure, but I think they were three days old. I must look up attendance numbers online - I'm curious because of the devastating Flood of the Century, which caused so much damage down at the Grounds (and everywhere else). You'd never guess that three weeks ago, the whole Grounds were under water. There were SO many people down there, enjoying themselves, which was so good to see. www.calgarystampede.com

These are beautiful Tulips in a small pot. I love the mixture of yellow and red/orange and the little red hearts that are (unseen) on the inside of the petals.

I tend to go for macros of a single flower head when photographing flowers, but I just loved the colours that I saw in this more distant view of white Zinnias and purple Ageratum. The Calgary Zoo garden was still bright and colorful a few days ago, though some of the individual flowers were beginning to show their age. Was out of the house today for six or seven hours, botanizing a great area. It was the Colpitts Ranch, west of the city. Joe, a very interesting and interested man, showed us around and took us through wooded areas, wet areas and meadows, pointing out everything of interest. Not the best time of year to do this, especially as the plants were mostly over and everywhere was much too dry for fungi, but we enjoyed ourselves and felt very fortunate to be allowed to do this. Thanks so much, Joe!