Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: flower bed

On 30 September 2018, 12 friends and I were lucky enough to see two beautiful Rusty Blackbirds. We were on a birding trip east of the city and we had stopped at one of the sloughs. IUCN Status: Vulnerable. I so rarely see these birds, so I’m always glad when I do see one. “The Rusty Blackbird is one of North America’s most rapidly declining species. The population has plunged an estimated 85-99 percent over the past forty years and scientists are completely puzzled as to what is the cause. They are relatively uncommon denizens of wooded swamps, breeding in the boreal forest and wintering in the eastern U.S. In winter, they travel in small flocks and are identified by their distinctive rusty feather edges and pallid yellow eyes.” From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/rusty_blackbird/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rusty_blackbird rustyblackbird.org/ One of our stops was by Chestermere Lake. Any birds were the far side of the lake, so I turned my camera lens to closer things, including this pink Showy Cinquefoil bush. Usually, bushes have yellow flowers, both in the wild and in gardens. The weather forecast was sufficiently bad that I almost decided not to go on this trip. As it turned out, I was glad I went, especially as we were lucky enough to see the Rusty Blackbirds and so many Snow Geese and Greater White-fronted Geese flying and down in the fields. Such an overcast day and SO cold! I think it was about -2C, with an icy cold wind. In fact, it was downright freezing and definitely not pleasant to be out in. At least it didn't snow. Why do we do it?? I'm not completely sure, lol.

Thought I would add a few photos this morning that were taken yesterday, 25 May 2018. Exactly why did I position the Tree Swallow right in the centre of the shot, with no room to crop to a much better composition? No idea, other than that the little focus rectangle was in the centre of my viewfinder, lol! Annoyed with myself when I do this. Anyway, this male Tree Swallow was looking so beautiful in the sunshine yesterday, when I was out for the day with my daughter, to celebrate yet another birthday for me. I always look forward to a day like this - my favourite way to spend a day! I hope she enjoyed it as much as I did. It was the first time she had been out in a car since her surgery in something like five weeks, so she wasn't too sure how well she would do. Apart from a meeting I went to the evening before, it was the first time I had been out anywhere since getting back from my Pt Pelee trip a week ago, so I wasn't too sure how well I would do, too. Fortunately, the severe pain I have had the last few weeks due to inflamed shoulder rotator cuffs (again) and painful kneecaps being pulled out of place, that flared up just in time for my two-weeks away, is gradually improving, and all went just fine yesterday. Just glad that we saw Mountain Bluebirds, too. Our day started with breakfast at the Saskatoon Farm followed by wandering the grounds, taking photos, which we both love to do. Then we called in at the garden nursery, "Spruce it up" I think it's called. From there, we drove westwards till we reached a favourite area, finding Mountain Bluebirds and Tree Swallows, but no sign of any kind of owl. Not too surprising, as it was afternoon by then. Not even a Wilson's Snipe perched on a fence post. Up early this morning, as I made a last-minute decision to at least try a bit of the annual May Species Count walk in the city today. Very overcast and windy - where is the sun? Tomorrow's Count is driving (carpooling) out of the city in one of my favourite areas.

It's -1C this morning and heavily overcast, but supposed to get up to 6C this afternoon. The next four days are expected to be between 10C and 12C, which would be good. Thought I'd post something bright and cheery - also in case anyone is getting fed up of seeing owl photos : ) On 7 June 2015, it was a hot day – way too hot for my liking. I was not keen on the idea of being out in the sun for three hours, but neither could I have stayed in my place one more minute - it felt like an oven! I decided to join birding friends for a walk at the west end of South Glenmore Park and we had a lovely, leisurely walk, stopping often to look at, or listen to, a variety of birds. I think my favourites were a pair of colourful American Goldfinch. It was also fun to see a little Black-capped Chickadee looking out from its nest cavity. There were quite a few species of wildflower as well. I so rarely go on a walk these days, so I tend to miss many of the wildflowers. The Chive flowers in this photo were taken during this walk, but I can't remember where I saw them. I know it was at or near the end of the walk, so maybe they were growing near our meeting place by the Sailing Club in South Glenmore Park. Will add Janet and Bernie’s bird list below, for my own memory. Thanks for such an enjoyable afternoon, both of you! A stop afterwards at the Good Earth café was so much appreciated, too. 1. Great Blue Heron - 1 2. Canada Goose - 40 3. Mallard - 5 4. Gadwall - 2 5. Swainson's Hawk - 1 6. Franklin's Gull - 30+ 7. Woodpecker sp. likely Sapsucker - 1 8. Olive-sided Flycatcher -1 9. Least Flycatcher - 12 10. Red-eyed Vireo - 2 11. Black-billed Magpie - 1 12. American Crow - 4 13. Common Raven - 1 14. Tree Swallow - 4 15. Black-capped Chickadee - 2 @nest site. 16. House Wren - 11 17. American Robin - 6 18. Cedar Waxwing - 6 19. Yellow Warbler - 10 20. Chipping Sparrow - 1 21. Clay-coloured Sparrow - 4 22. Baltimore Oriole - 1 23. Red-winged Blackbird - 3 24. Brown-headed Cowbird - 3 25. House Finch - 3 26. American Goldfinch - 5 27. House Sparrow - 2 Least Chipmunk - 1 Muskrat - 1 Yellow Swallowtail Butterfly - 10+ Blue Azure - 1 Alpine sp. Butterfly - 15+

All three photos posted this morning were taken yesterday, 8 October 2015. Friend Sandy had asked if I wanted to go with her to join friends down at the Irrigation Canal in the city, for a birding walk. This was a long walk - three and a half hours - along both sides of the canal. It was a beautiful fall day with enough trees still dressed in gold to give some colourful reflections. When we arrived at the meeting place, we were greeted by a couple of beautiful flowerbeds full of vibrant colour. I hadn't expected to see garden plants still in bloom on 8 October. The water level of the canal was very low, creating just a narrow strip of water with a wide mud bank on either side, that had attracted a number of Greater Yellowlegs and a single American Golden-plover. The latter was a new bird for me and, though I could only get a very distant, poor shot, I've posted it this morning. To me, a juvenile American Golden Plover looks so similar to a juvenile Black-bellied Plover (from photos I've seen), but the ID for the bird we saw was given as American Golden-plover. Much of the time, there were pale, dead grasses in the background and this bird was almost impossible to see. The list of the 31 bird species seen (not all by me) from our leaders, Dan and David: 1. Canada Goose - 60+ 2. Mallard - 150+ 3. Northern Shoveler - 1 4. Green-winged Teal - 2 5. Hooded Merganser - 3 males 6. Common Merganser - 20+ 7. Double-crested Cormorant - 4 8. Bald Eagle - 1, immature 9. Red-tailed Hawk - 1 (Harlan’s subspecies) 10. Rough-legged Hawk - 5 (4 dark phase, 1 light phase) 11. AMERICAN GOLDEN-PLOVER 12. Killdeer - 1 13. Greater Yellowlegs - 38+ 14. Long-billed Dowitcher - 11 15. Ring-billed Gull - 400+ 16. Herring Gull - 2 17. Rock Pigeon - 32+ 18. Downy Woodpecker - 1 19. Hairy Woodpecker - 2 20. Northern Flicker - 2 21. Merlin - 2 22. Black-billed Magpie - 15+ 23. American Crow - 6 24. Common Raven - 2 25. Black-capped Chickadee - 7 26. White-breasted Nuthatch - 1 27. American Robin - 8 28. European Starling - 18+ 29. Yellow-rumped Warbler - 2 30. American Tree Sparrow - 1 31. House Finch - 1

This gorgeous Lily was enormous! Not sure I've ever seen such a huge flower. On 7 August 2015, four of us were extremely fortunate to have the chance to visit the home and highly varied topographic 62-acre property belonging to Frances and David Dover. We felt honoured and privileged to meet and spend time with Frances and David, and also their daughter Carolyn and her husband Clair. A delightful family who welcomed us so warmly into their home and land. This acreage of grassland, forest, rolling hills - and special gardens - is not far from Millarville, SW of Calgary. In fact, it's in an area that I often drive through when I only have time for, or only feel like doing, a short drive. Amazing what little gems exist out there. This is not just a beautiful property, but is very special for various reasons. For one thing, read any history of Alberta and you will find the Dover family, including David's mother, Mary Dover. Second, among the trees and open "lawns", there are Peony flower beds, containing 100-150 heritage Peonies, each one different, that have now multiplied to more than 300 plants. Unfortunately, they bloomed a couple of weeks early this year, and all the flowers had gone to seed. Another open area had a different kind of ground cover - Thyme, which smelled wonderful. If I remember correctly, this was the open space where the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra performed on one occasion! There are two large ponds on the property and another smaller area of water that they hope to turn into a Japanese Garden. There is a total of seven wetland basins, including these. It was while walking around the Japanese Garden that a large brown 'shape' could just be seen through the dense trees - a handsome Moose buck. I will look properly at the four or so photos I just managed to get and may slip one of them into my photostream sometime soon, just for the record, definitely not for the photo quality : ) This was also where a Great Horned Owl was seen flying through the trees by some of us (not me, ha!). There are grassy paths winding through the acreage, up and down hill, that take David seven hours to mow. They are not pristine, velvety paths, but instead, they seem to take nothing away from the wildness of the whole area. One of the animals that have passed through is the Cougar. In fact, several years ago, I saw a video taken on a nearby (or adjacent?) property, where a 'kill' and night-time camera had been set up and a total of six different Cougar individuals were seen! Even the Dover's home is unique and beautiful. It is completely built of concrete (and glass) - floors, walls, ceilings, roof, deck, and so on. A Hummingbird feeder and regular bird feeders, set up on the patio, attract a variety of birds. We sat on the patio after our walk to eat our packed lunches - and to enjoy a delicious Orange Pound Cake that Frances had made for us, along with refreshing Iced Tea - thank you so much for going to this trouble, Frances! While I was waiting for one of three tiny Calliope (?) Hummingbirds to come back, I was lucky enough to see a little Mountain Chickadee, along with many Pine Siskins. We could also hear a Red-tailed Hawk in the area. Saw a total of 22 bird species this day. There is just so much I could write about this visit and family. Instead, or for now, I will add several links to more information on the Internet. This was a memorable day for us. Thank you so much, Frances and David, Carolyn and Clair, for being so kind and welcoming us into your home and gardens. books.google.ca/books?id=Tr36Tq_gadcC&pg=PA290&lp... www.westernwheel.com/article/20110727/WHE06/307279983/-1/... David's mother, Mary Dover (her father was A. E. Cross), was "a dynamic and distinguished Calgarian, particularly known for her work with the military during World War II." As well as being an army officer, and an alderman, she was also a preservationist. See the following link. www.albertachampions.org/champions-mary_dover.htm#.VcY1KP... ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesMainResults.aspx?XC=/searc... glencoe.org/documents/10184/637479/The-History-of-Elbow-P... page 44-45

"In 1989, the book "In A Canadian Garden" was written by Nicole Eaton and Hilary Weston. They chose to include Mary Dover's (David Dover's mother's) garden. They wrote: "This garden deserves particular mention here because, to more traditional gardeners, it may not seem at first glance to be a garden at all. Mary cherishes the wilderness of the landscape in which she lives, and she has chosen to "edit" it rather than tame it. With the exception of one extravagant planting of peonies, she has added only small traces of herself - a fruit tree here, a clump of flowers there - to the land. Among other plants, she brought in "a triple line of 100 peonies." These heritage peonies have happily seeded over the past decades and now number nearly 300 plants. They thrive on the land in the Canadian Foothills and produce offspring each Spring as the snow melts and the ground thaws. There is a growing interest in the Dover Gardens in Millarville, Alberta and Mary's son (David) and his wife (Frances) are working to maintain that wildness "edited" not tamed. At a time when development attempts to move into the "emerald valley", Dover Gardens is being seen increasingly as an oasis, providing tranquility to the land and for its visitors. Today, the 300 plants range from single blooms, like Scarlet O'Hara, to the semi-doubles, such as Buckeye Belle, to the double blooms in soft pink, including Pink Chiffon, to the Japanese orchid pink petals, with narrow shredded darker pink petals of the peony identified as Do Tell. This year, several of the majestic deep red single blooms in plants grew taller than the pink varieties, with the stems stretching out and upward." From a reprint from the Canadian Peony Society • November 2014: Peonies Bring Majesty to the Canadian Foothills, by Frances Jackson Dover. This photo shows one of the Peony flower beds, with a stone statue of Buddha that travelled here from the Far East. Unfortunately, they bloomed a couple of weeks early this year, and all the flowers had gone to seed by the time of our visit on 7 August 2015. For more information about the wonderful day we spent with Frances and David Dover (his mother was Mary Dover), their daughter Carolyn and her husband Clair, check the Hummingbird photo I posted today, at the following link. flic.kr/p/xbAikB