Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: explore2012April28

A beautiful female Mountain Bluebird, seen along one of the gravel backroads SW of Calgary, on 24 May 2010. Another photo from my archives that I had put aside a few weeks ago - before my arms became extremely painful from too much mouse-clicking. Today, at least I will get a break for a while, as I have to find a few things to do away from home. They are going to be cleaning and removing all the loose gravel from my parking lot sometime during the day and so everyone has to move their car to the street before 9:00 a.m.. However, I discovered at the Annual Meeting a few days ago that one has to have a special parking pass in order to park on the street now. Well, after three phone calls yesterday and getting no help from anyone in Byelaw, I gave up and so will have to stay away from home for the day. Unfortunately, it is a gloomy day with more rain expected, so I will go and get my Taxes done first : ) In Bluebirds, the blue colour is produced by the structure of the feather - there is no blue pigment. "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. Examples include the blue feathers of Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Blue Jay's and Steller's Jays." www.birds.cornell.edu/allaboutbirds/studying/feathers/col... www.jstor.org/discover/pgs/index?id=10.2307/4077277&i...

Yesterday was cold, windy and so overcast and gloomy, with a forecast for rain. Unfortunately, I had to move my car from the parking lot so that all the gravel and dirt could be removed from it. I learned a few evenings ago at a meeting that one has to have a parking pass to park on the street. I phoned three Bylaw people about how to get a pass, without any luck, so in the end I reckoned I would simply have to find things to do away from home for the whole day. Went and got my Taxes done first thing - the lady who has helped me the last few years retired last year, so I went to a Tax Company. Holy smokes - talk about expensive!!! About four times what I have been paying all the previous years! Hope I can find somwehere much cheaper for next April. Still, at least it's done and out of the way, which is a good feeling. Then I drove over to the Zoo, which normally I would never do on such a grey day, but I knew it would "kill" a few hours. On the way home, I decided to call in and see one of the Great Horned Owl families in Fish Creek Park. Found Mom perched high up on her nest, but there was no sign of any of the owlets while I was there - still not sure how many there are, but certainly two. I've still only seen the top of one owlet's head. When I couldn't take the cold wind any longer, I checked back home and was relieved to find that they had just finished cleaning the huge parking lot. Nicely done.