Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: held in hand

This morning, the first day of September, is cloudy, cool (9C with a windchill of 6C), with very light rain briefly. It feels like summer is over - a summer that has passed in a flash. Some of the trees are already getting yellow leaves. I'm really hoping that fall this year will be long, sunny and beautiful. It is the Labour Day long weekend. "Labour Day is a statutory holiday in Alberta, which is a paid general holiday for employees who are eligible. Labour Day is on the 1st Monday in September every year." Yesterday, 31 August 2018, I went on a fungi foray with a group of friends, out west of the city at West Bragg Creek. The trail we followed was the same as the one I took friend, Pam, along on 15 August. On the way home, a handful of us called in at a second spot, but the mushrooms seen that day were all in bad shape yesterday. This last short walk started with four of us and then it was just our leader and myself towards the end. Near the beginning of this second walk, we discovered that there must have been heavy rain that had caused a small stream flowing down the hill. This had turned to wet, very slippery mud, which made walking somewhat treacherous - as I soon found out! What a sight I was, covered in mud from shoulder to shoes : ) A lot of mess to clear up when I eventually got home. A good job I had driven myself out there, not car-pooled. Once again, it shows how dangerous it can be to look for fungi, lol. We didn't see a lot of fungi, but enough to make the trip worthwhile. Our leader sent an email of photos and IDs of some of the ones we found, but there are others for which I don't have the ID. As always, any ID given for any fungus is tentative, as mushrooms are extremely difficult to identify. As far as eating wild mushrooms goes, unless you are a real expert, never take the risk of being poisoned or made very ill. Several species have deadly look-alikes. There are even some species that make you very ill if you eat them and drink alcohol, As our main Naturalist in the city always says: "All mushrooms can be eaten, sometimes only once!" An interesting little book is "Wild Edible Mushrooms of Alberta: a Field Guide" by Tom Cervenka, published by Northern Bushcraft. northernbushcraft.com/wild-edible-mushrooms-of-alberta.php People tend to have different opinions about mushrooms. Some go searching just for ones that are edible and can be collected, while others go to look for what species they can find. My reason is to simply take photos, leaving each one in place so that others can see the beauty that I was lucky enough to see. By the way, the mushroom in this photo was picked by our leader in order to show us the underside. Usually, we see Pholiotas growing around the base of a tree, but this little cluster was growing away from trees, in the grass at the edge of the trail. I love the texture of Pholiotas. It is important to note that it is illegal to pick mushrooms in national or provincial parks, protected areas such as ecological or special reserves, and recreation areas.

Not my hand, by the way! Took this photo on 7 July 2014, whilst on one of Don Stiles' annual Bluebird outings to see the Mountain Bluebird nesting boxes along his route, SW of the city. Some of these wooden boxes have been taken over by Tree Swallows, which are also banded and counted. Unfortunately, this year, all the Bluebirds had already fledged, but we saw a few boxes that contained Tree Swallow eggs and some that contained several (around 6) Tree Swallow babies. Actually, one box had 12 baby Tree Swallows (12 days old?), all tightly snuggled together, so obviously two adult females were using the same box. I've never seen that before. Can't imagine how cramped it will be as the babies grow bigger and four adults need to get through the small hole of the box to feed them! Most of the birds we saw had already been banded, but we did see Don band a few others that were now old enough to be banded. He places some dried grasses at the bottom of a bucket and places each baby in there after he has fitted a teeny band around one of its legs (actually, it's foot, as that first big bend is the heel.) Then they are all carefully placed back into the nesting box, ready for Mom and Dad to return to them, which they do immediately. For anyone who might wonder if a baby bird is handled, will its parents pick up my scent and abandon it? The answer below is from the Cornell Lab of Ornithology: A. It's a myth that parent birds will abandon young that have been touched by humans—most birds have a poor sense of smell, and birds in general identify their young using the same cues we humans do—appearance and sound. It's perfectly safe to pick up a fallen nestling and put it back in the nest, or to carry a fledgling out of danger and place it in a tree or shrub." Same would apply to bird banding. NO BIRD OR WILD ANIMAL SHOULD EVER BE KEPT AS A PET!

Several of us went with Don Stiles round his Mountain Bluebird route (SW of Calgary), on 24 June 2013. Don has been a dedicated monitor for about 30 years. This young Bluebird was out of the nest box (being held by one of the ladies in the group) along with its five siblings, to be banded. This is an outing that I look forward to each year.

I think this very small piece of ice had formed when the snow had melted in a footstep in the snow. No idea how I happened to notice it, but I did, lol! Just had to pick it up and hold it up to where the sun was trying to break through the clouds. Looks like one of the local Deer from the park : ) Sometimes, my friends must really think I'm weird, ha! Taken yesterday on a walk at Votier's Flats, Fish Creek Park. Actually, it was a heavily overcast morning, with a most unpleasant cold wind. Gotta dash, as I overslept till 11:00 a.m. (after getting to bed around 3:00 a.m.) and I have a volunteer shift to get to. It's snowing, again. Hope all my American friends will be lucky enough to enjoy a good meal tomorrow. A special Happy Thanksgiving to all those US servicemen and women (and their families, who also make so many sacrifices), who risk their lives on a daily basis, in order to keep the rest safe and free. Happy Thanksgiving, everyone! We have so much to be thankful for, even in the hardest of times. Special thoughts, also, for the people over on the east coast, who have been having such a difficult time due to Hurricane Sandy. Remember to enjoy the small things in life - they tend to be the most important things, too. Please drive safely if you are on the roads.