Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: juveniles

Suddenly decided to upload Saturday's images tonight - well, actually it's about 1:15 a.m. on Saturday morning. I have a whole day of botanizing again tomorrow (plus some clean-up), this time south east of the city at the Nodwell Sanctuary (i.e. a few dry hillsides plus some wetter wooded area at the bottom of the hills). I didn't want to send my best wishes for Father's Day later tomorrow evening, when the special day is just about over, so thought I'd better post it at the unearthly hour of 1:15 a.m.. I still haven't got all my stuff ready for tomorrow yet! So, Happy Father's Day to all you Dads out there (for Sunday 20th June) and to those of you who will quietly think of your Fathers who are no longer living. My own Father died about 33 years ago - people called him an exceptional photographer and he was the one who awakened my interest in photography (for which I am truly thankful every day). Everyone has or had a Father, so the day means something to each and every one of us - very different things for some compared to others. I hope that YOUR memories will be happy ones. A special Father's Day wish to my son, Steven, who is a really great Dad to his bright, smart, amazing 9-year-old son - oops, sorry, that's the Grandma in me talking, LOL! These three adorable baby Richardson's Ground Squirrels will find (or may have already found) that their Dad goes into hibernation any time soon, LOL. So much for having a Dad to look up to and spend time with. Seen at the top of the steep Weaselhead hill, North Glenmore Park. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Richardson's_ground_squirrel

LOL, a terrible photo, but I don't have a Snow Goose in my Birds of Alberta Sets. There have been very recent reports of a Snow Goose being seen here in the city. No sign of it when a few of us went looking in the afternoon of New Year's Day. However, this morning, we were thrilled to bits to see it along the edge of the Bow River, tucked in among many Canada Geese. For a second or two, it got to its feet and I was able to get this lucky shot before it turned itself into just another "bump" at the edge of the water. Apparently, there were also two juvenile Snow Geese at its side, presumably the bird behind the adult, to the left, and the bird immediately to its right. All these birds were at the FAR side of the wide river (as usual), hence a very distant view : ) This morning was pretty cold, -14C, and it was snowing lightly and very low light. We could hardly believe the birds we saw within two and a half hours, though - just amazing! Snow Goose-1 (ad)ult, 2 (juv)enile Canada Goose-500 Mallard-50 Green-winged Teal-1 (f)emale Bufflehead-10 Common Goldeneye-60 Barrow's Goldeneye-2 Common Merganser-4 Ring-necked Pheasant-1 (m)ale Bald Eagle-2, possibly 3 or 4. Two, 1 ad./1 juv. seen flying together, then two sightings of singles. Northern Goshawk-1 Merlin-1 f, in hot pursuit of a small finch. Rock Pigeon-4 Great Horned Owl-1 Northern Flicker-1 Black-billed Magpie-12 Common Raven-6 Black-capped Chickadee-12 House Finch-20 Common Redpoll-40 Straight afterwards, I called in at Sikome to say Hi to the pair of Great Horned Owls that were in their usual tree. No sign of the Porcupine today, though.