Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#219

All three photos posted this morning are from my archives. Our forecast is for snow today, so I thought I would post photos with colour. On 29 September 2015, I had set my alarm clock for 6:30 am so that I could go on a birding walk with friends. Unfortunately, I didn't read the e-mail carefully enough, so hadn't seen that the meeting place was not where I thought. Of course, no one else showed up where I was, so I took myself off to the Calgary Zoo instead. I had planned on going there after the walk, anyway. "Nestled at the very heart of the Calgary Zoo, these pink beauties might seem dainty, but don’t let their slender bodies and fancy feathers fool you. Flamingos are tough cookies. They can stand on one leg for hours and, in the wild, withstand extreme conditions – including stifling summers and frigid winter temperatures that dip to -30 C. In the wild, Chilean Flamingos live near salt lakes, coastal mudflats and marshes. Their diet consists of algae and small aquatic animals. If flamingos don’t eat pink food, their feathers turn white. At the zoo, special diet supplements keep the birds’ feathers vibrant." From the Calgary Zoo Website. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chilean_flamingo "When not eating or preening, flamingos will sleep, facing the wind, head tucked under their wings, usually standing on one leg, with the other leg tucked up under their feathers. They do this to conserve warmth, whether they're in a warm or cool climate." Read more: Information on Pink Flamingos | eHow.com www.ehow.com/about_5082532_information-pink-flamingos.htm... "Chilean flamingos live in large flocks in the wild and require crowded conditions to stimulate breeding. During breeding season, males and females display a variety of behaviors to attract mates, including head flagging—swiveling their heads from side-to-side in tandem—and wing salutes, where the wings are repeatedly opened and closed. Males and females cooperate in building a pillar-shaped mud nest, and both incubate the egg laid by the female. Upon birth, the chicks have gray plumage; they don't gain adult coloration for two-three years. Both male and female flamingos can produce a nutritious milk-like substance in their crop gland to feed their young. The Chilean flamingo's bill is equipped with comb-like structures that enable it to filter food—mainly algae and plankton—from the water of the coastal mudflats, estuaries, lagoons and salt lakes where it lives." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flamingo

I think this is a double Cosmos flower. It was growing near a bed full of single Cosmos flowers in the Dorothy Harvie Gardens at the Calgary Zoo a week ago. So many of my photos seem to be very dark/with black backgrounds recently. Once the snow flies, I guess my photos will lighten : )

Not sure that I really needed the extra "heat" that feels like it's coming from this image, on yet another very hot day, but I loved the way the sunlight on these gorgeous flowers made them glow. Seen in a friend's garden that is just ablaze with these wonderfully bright blooms.

I saw this whole huddle (?) of adorable Canada Goose goslings yesterday, when I went with Ron (Flickrite Ronaldok) down to the Coaldale Bird of Prey Centre near Lethbridge in southern Alberta. They were hanging out with Mom and Dad near one of the ponds at the Centre. We'd been watching several goslings and then suddenly Mom stood up and revealed this tightly packed bundle of downy feathers : )