Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#195

There were a few of these very cute Golden-Mantled Ground Squirrels at Cameron Falls, in Waterton Lakes National Park. There were picnic tables nearby and where there are people, these little creatures know that, if they are "lucky", someone will give them food. I noticed this one doing its best to attract attention. "Spermophilus lateralis is found in Canada and the United States. It ranges from southeast British Colombia and southwest Alberta, into the western United States as far east as western Colorado and down to northwestern New Mexico and southern California. Golden-mantled ground squirrels have little positive economic importance to humans. They do however, provide amusement and enjoyment for many campers as they can become quite tame, living at campgrounds and taking food from eager campers hands. (Bartels and Thompson, 1993). Spermophilus lateralis can have a negative impact on the timber industry. In the fall, coniferous seeds make up a large portion of their diet, and S. lateralis can harm reforestation efforts by eating newly sprouted conifer seeds. They have little impact on agriculture because of habitat selection." animaldiversity.ummz.umich.edu/accounts/Spermophilus_late... A few of the things friends, Cathy and Terry, and I, saw during our three-day trip to Waterton Lakes National Park (26, 27 & 28 August 2014) included fantastic scenery, 4 Black Bears (including one that was swimming in the lake), Bison, Deer (including several that we saw in the village of Waterton, where we stayed the two nights at the clean and friendly Bear Mountain Motel), Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels, Chipmunks, various bird species including the endangered Burrowing Owls (new to all three of us), a few wildflowers, several Yellow-bellied Marmots (a first for me!), a few different insect species, and a family of some species of Grouse (still not sure what kind). I even got the chance to see three or four new-to-me old, wooden grain elevators.

A second distant and heavily cropped photo of this rare to uncommon (in Alberta) Northern Hawk Owl. This was the first time I had really seen one and the first chance I'd ever had to photograph one. It was so high up in the tall tree, that I couldn't see which way its head was turned and I ended up with rather too many head-turned sideways shots : ) Seen in the Water Valley area, northwest of the city and of Cochrane. The weather was sunny enough, but the wind was strong and cold.

Happy Chinese New Year to all the Chinese people living in various countries around the world as well as their own country. I almost missed out on the new Chinese New Year stamp for this year - someone posted an image a few days ago, but used an old stamp from a few years ago! When I saw it, I thought it looked too similar and so didn't bother to go and buy any. Hope no one else missed out for this reason. Fortunately, I had to call in at the Post Office yesterday to pick up a text book (that had used one of my images for the cover, yay!) and I happened to notice a picture of the 2010 New Year's stamp. When I saw that it was like this, I grabbed a few (I buy a few every year). The central design is raised in gold and is quite attractive. I always reckon the Chinese New Year stamps are some of our nicest stamps.