Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: explore2014March27

Taken from deep down in my archives because I needed COLOUR, and I know many other people desperately long for anything other than WHITE : ) here in Calgary, it snowed all day yesterday and it's doing the same today. The temperature is -9C, with a windchill of -14C this morning. How much sense does it make that we live in a place where there has been snow and ice for six months? I guess one could always move to a different place - and risk facing wild forest fires (worse than ours), mudslides, tornadoes, hurricanes, and so on. Photographed this Gerbera at the Calgary Zoo on 23 March 2008. Stay safe and keep warm, everyone!

Another lucky shot of this very distant Long-tailed Weasel, seen on 24 March 2014, while several of us were waiting by our cars at the Pine Creek Sewage Treatment Plant on 194 Ave SE. Thanks so much for spotting this little guy, Wayne! Not easy to see something that is still wearing its white, winter coat against the snow. As you can see, spring is here in name only. It was snowing all day yesterday and again today. So glad I forced myself out the door - I go on so few walks any more - or I would have missed this Weasel sighting. Not a whole lot of birds to be seen on this walk and all were too far away to photograph, but it's good to see that some of the birds are gradually returning: Canada Goose-4000+ AMERICAN WIGEON-6 Mallard-1500 Bufflehead-60 Common Goldeneye-300 BARROW'S GOLDENEYE-1 m Common Merganser-7+ Bald Eagle-3 (2 ad./1 juv.) Ring-billed Gull-2+ California Gull-10+ Northern Flicker-2 Black-billed Magpie-16 American Crow-1 Common Raven-2+ Black-capped Chickadee-3 European Starling-40+ "The long-tailed weasel is the product of a process begun 5–7 million years ago, when northern forests were replaced by open grassland, thus prompting an explosive evolution of small, burrowing rodents. The long-tailed weasel's ancestors were larger than the current form, and underwent a reduction in size to exploit the new food source. The long-tailed weasel arose in North America 2 million years ago, shortly before the stoat evolved as its mirror image in Eurasia. The species thrived during the Ice Age, as its small size and long body allowed it to easily operate beneath snow, as well as hunt in burrows. The long-tailed weasel and the stoat remained separated until half a million years ago, when falling sea levels exposed the Bering land bridge, thus allowing the stoat to cross into North America. However, unlike the latter species, the long-tailed weasel never crossed the land bridge, and did not spread into Eurasia." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Long-tailed_weasel

Not the greatest quality, but this is the same little guy who was in a recently posted image, sitting on a very short, broken off branch, looking straight at me. These Red Squirrels are smaller than the introduced Eastern Gray Squirrels, and really are very cute. They defend their territory with very loud chatter. Taken on 20 February 2014 at Bebo Grove, Fish Creek Park.