Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: disappearing

This was our last sighting, towards the end of a great day out. This huge Skunk ran fast across the road, right in front of our moving car, and disappeared into the grass. It was too quick for me to catch a decent shot, but I wanted to add a photo to my albums, just for the record. Two days ago, on 25 September 2017, I spent the day with a friend, travelling south of the city to the Pine Coulee Reservoir and area. I absolutely love the rolling hills scenery in this whole area. I have still never driven it myself, as I know I could very easily get myself totally lost in the middle of nowhere. Most of the birds we saw were far away, needing Tony's spotting scope or at least binoculars, except for a Eurasian Collared-Dove, a Belted Kingfisher and several small birds. Meanwhile, I was also enjoying the scenery and anything else that caught my eye. We called in at the Pine Coulee campground and the Willow Creek Provincial Park campground and did a walk at each. Both were deserted and so peaceful. At the Willow Creek Provincial Park campground, the silence was broken by the call of a Belted Kingfisher. There was a bright yellow sign warning that there was a bear in the area, but it was nowhere to be seen. The weather was perfect all day, starting off chilly, but getting up to about 20C in the afternoon, and a sky full of clouds. Thanks so much for the invite, Tony - much appreciated and thoroughly enjoyed! Pure luxury, too, not having to drive. "Located 119kms south of Calgary. 9kms west of Stavely on road #527. Willow Creek Basin Southern Alberta. The campground is situated on the south west shore of Pine Coulee Reservoir and contains 25 campsites for both RV's and tents. Most of the sites are surrounded by willow bushes creating a wind break and some privacy. A few choice sites are located near the lake. Amenities include, group camping, fire pits but no firewood available, dry toilets, water, garbage bins, power, boat launch, and picnic tables. Pine Coulee Reservoir is excellent for water skiing, wind surfing and fishing. Due to the lack of lakes located near Calgary you can expect to see hordes of boaters here during the summer. Boaters should use caution near the southeast end, there are a several large rocks submerged just under the surface that have destroyed many props and claimed a life. The reservoir was created for irrigation and is approximately 18kms long. It holds strong Walleye and Northern Pike populations and there is a public dock located next to campground where you can sit and fish. You'll need a fishing license to try your luck. The well maintained grassy area in the center of the campground is a good spot for astronomers and star gazers." From AlbertaWow. www.albertawow.com/campgrounds/Pine_Coulee/Pine_Coulee_Ca...

On 15 May 2014, my friends, Cathy and Terry, and I, drove to a lookout point, where we saw the most wonderful sight! Can't remember if this photo was taken from the lookout, or a little further down the road. I was beyond thrilled to see the mountain peaks appearing and disappearing from sight. When we got up that morning, we could see the low cloud over the mountains from the motel we stayed at overnight. I was hoping so much that it would hang around long enough so that we could get a few beautiful views on our early morning drive. The sight that greeted us, as we pulled off the road at this particular lookout, was absolutely breathtaking! I've never seen anything like it before - though I don't get to the mountains very often at all. Each peak in turn would disappear and then reappear, constantly changing the scene before our eyes. For a photographer, this half hour or so could not have been more amazing - just ask my friends if I was happy or not, lol! When I think how easily we could have missed this experience, if we had arrived half an hour later. My friends and I had left Calgary early morning on Wednesday (14 May 2014) and I think it was around 12:15 a.m. midnight (Thursday, 15 May 2014), that they dropped me off at home after two long, wonderful days in the Rocky Mountains, west of the city. Wednesday night was spent in a spotless motel, in a place that had so many Mountain Sheep roaming the streets, lol! Though we were hoping to see at least one Bear, I knew I would be happy as can be to see absolutely anything beautiful : ) This includes the wonderful low cloud in this image - possibly the highlight of the trip for me : ) On the other hand, everything was a highlight in my eyes! Over the two days, we had 7 bear sightings, with three definitely different Black Bears (no Grizzlies), and possibly four. The rest of the sightings were of Bears we had already seen. My friends are good at telling individual bears, often by a certain scar and, of course, the actual location. Many of the bears we see, they have seen before. Basically, it's all about timing, as with any wildlife. A few minutes earlier or later and we would have missed seeing something special. We just happened to be lucky - with the Bears and low cloud. All wildlife/nature photographers know it's all about timing : )

On 15 May 2014, my friends, Cathy and Terry, and I, drove to this lookout point, where we saw the most wonderful sight! (This photo was taken using a lot of zoom!). I was beyond thrilled to see the mountain peaks appearing and disappearing from sight. When we got up that morning, we could see the low cloud over the mountains from the motel we stayed at overnight. I was hoping so much that it would hang around long enough so that we could get a few beautiful views on our early morning drive. The sight that greeted us, as we pulled off the road at this particular lookout, was absolutely breathtaking! I've never seen anything like it before - though I don't get to the mountains very often at all. Each peak in turn would disappear and then reappear, constantly changing the scene before our eyes. For a photographer, this half hour or so could not have been more amazing - just ask my friends if I was happy or not, lol! When I think how easily we could have missed this experience, if we had arrived half an hour later. My friends and I had left Calgary early morning on Wednesday (14 May 2014) and I think it was around 12:15 a.m. midnight (Thursday, 15 May 2014), that they dropped me off at home after two long, wonderful days in the Rocky Mountains, west of the city. Wednesday night was spent in a spotless motel, in a place that had so many Mountain Sheep roaming the streets, lol! Though we were hoping to see at least one Bear, I knew I would be happy as can be to see absolutely anything beautiful : ) This includes the wonderful low cloud in this image - possibly the highlight of the trip for me : ) On the other hand, everything was a highlight in my eyes! Over the two days, we had 7 bear sightings, with three definitely different Black Bears (no Grizzlies), and possibly four. The rest of the sightings were of Bears we had already seen. My friends are good at telling individual bears, often by a certain scar and, of course, the actual location. Many of the bears we see, they have seen before. Basically, it's all about timing, as with any wildlife. A few minutes earlier or later and we would have missed seeing something special. We just happened to be lucky - with the Bears and low cloud. All wildlife/nature photographers know it's all about timing : )

After waiting about a year to get back to Bow Valley Provincial Park (W of Calgary), to see the wonderful display of wildflowers, it turned out to be a very wet day for us. Everywhere was so green and clean and fresh and the flowers looked beautiful covered in raindrops. However, I completely forgot that water droplets can cause blur in a photo and almost all my photos needed to be deleted. I think this image was taken from the Many Springs Trail, full zoom, so even though it looks as if we were walking high up in the mountains, the trail was actually down at road level. Something is definitely wrong with Flickr this morning. I posted my "daily three" images almost four hours ago and it shows only a total of 10 views for the three photos together. Not one comment, which is highly unusual. I mention this only because it's obvious that Flickr is not working properly. Anyone else experiencing this? Just checked My Contacts' new photos and there are only photos uploaded by four people, so my photos are most likely not showing up on their pages, either! I guess that's another problem, sigh. 8 hours later - just got home, and found that there has been basically no activity on my photos from today. Just left a message on the Help Forum. Hey, Flickr - what's going on? Something needs fixing! Please .....