Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: explore2014March31

Just a brightly coloured macro of a Goat's-beard flower that I grabbed from my archives last night. Taken at Nose Hill on 20 June 2012. I noticed something I'd never noticed before - the very tiny, flower-shaped tips of the inner petals (?). I really should know the names of the various parts of a flower after all these years, ha. This is one of our most invasive, destructive plants and it has taken over a lot of our parks and natural areas. Introduced from Eurasia. The bright yellow flower is beautiful, as is the dandelion-like seedhead, but what a huge problem it is. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tragopogon_dubius It's a really crummy day out there, yet again. STILL snowing and as dreary as can be. Got up early as I was supposed to go on a birding walk this morning, but can't face the thought of having to clear the snow off my car and then walk for three hours in -13C (windchill -20C) temperatrures. Been doing it for six months now, and enough is enough, ha. The rest of the week looks like it's expected to be much better, thank goodness. Stay warm, everyone!

Lol, I know there's a much better title for this shot, but my brain is just too tired to function! Maybe something along the lines of "Hmmm, wonder if I can move this one?" or "Hmmm, I THINK it's just the common lichen species"? All I know is that it's a really crummy day out there, yet again. STILL snowing and as dreary as can be. I was supposed to go on a birding walk this morning, but can't face the thought of having to clear the snow off my car and then walk for three hours in -13C (windchill -20C) temperatrures. Been doing it for six months now, and enough is enough, ha. The rest of the week looks like it's expected to be much better, thank goodness. Stay warm, everyone! On 10 August 2013, I went with friend Sandy to Bow Lake, in Banff National Park. It is located along Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway, said to be the most beautiful, scenic road in the world. She had seen a tiny Liverwort (non-vascular plant) maybe a week earlier on a different trip and wanted to go back to check it at a later stage, and asked if I'd like to go with her. How lucky I am! She had hoped that it might be a particular rare species, but as it turned out, it wasn't. Still an interesting species to add to the list of flora and fauna for the area. We walked very slowly along the Bow Glacier Trail, which runs along the right hand edge of the lake, searching for anything of interest and beauty. We went as far as the second rock fall, but didn't hike up to the Bow Glacier Falls. At the first rock fall, we were entertained, while having lunch, by several of these small Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels. They look rather similar to a Chipmunk and are very fast-moving animals, ha. They love a rocky mountain slope for their habitat. I posted a second, previously posted photo in a comment box. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Golden-mantled_ground_squirrel This photo is in the following SETS: WILD ANIMALS OF ALBERTA 2 www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157627108424381/ BOW LAKE & BOW GLACIER TRAIL www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157635021387503/ EXPLORE, FLICKR www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157594372373773

Sunday, 30 March 2014, and it's snowing - again, with more to come tomorrow. Temperature is -6C, windchill -12C. Only seven new photos from My Flickr Contacts this morning? On 17 December 2013, it was a long day of Christmas Bird Count south of the city. A group of nine of us, travelling in two vehicles, covered part of the huge circle around High River. A few others from Calgary, plus quite a few people from the town, covered the rest. We were so lucky with the weather - the temperature actually got up to 9C! We left Calgary at 7:15 a.m., but by the time we arrived at Frank Lake, our first destination, the sunrise was just beginning. On this count last year, every plant and blade of dry grass was covered in wonderful hoar frost - not so lucky this time. Snow depth was from bare ground to 15 cm, with drifts to 100cm, and there was no open water at the lake. From the report: 6 kms on foot; 75kms by car; 3 hrs on foot, 5 hours by car. The day was spent driving the backroads, and calling in at various homesteads and farms. We had three species of owl, which, as you can imagine, delighted everyone in my group. We had hoped to see a Snowy Owl, but no luck this year. My group had 19 species of bird by the end of the day - we finished driving around 4:00 p.m.. Noticeably lacking were small birds, such as Snow Buntings - so we had to make do with owls, lol! The final list for our group, covering two areas, was: Mallard-12/ 0= 12 Northern Pintail-1 f./ 0= 1 Common Goldeneye-4/0= 4 Gray Partridge-17/30= 47 Ring-necked Pheasant-3/0= 3 Bald Eagle-1ad/1ad= 2 Northern Harrier-1/ 0= 1 Great Horned Owl-4/1= 5 Long-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Short-eared Owl-2/0= 2 Rock Pigeon-47/7= 54 Downy Woodpecker-1/ 0= 1 Northern Flicker-1/0= 1 Black-billed Magpie-7/24= 31 Common Raven-2/1= 3 Horned Lark-2/0= 2 Black-capped Chickadee-0/1= 1 American Tree Sparrow-6/0= 6 House Sparrow-35/140= 175 The absolutely gorgeous, Crow-sized Long-eared Owl, seen in the photo above, was on someone's private land. We were given permission to wander around, searching the trees and open area. A few people had gone ahead of me just a matter of steps, when suddenly, to my amazement and total delight, I noticed this little owl hiding deep within a Spruce tree : ))) Couldn't believe my eyes! I've seen three of these Crow-sized owls before, but each time is as exciting as if it were the very first time. Actually, we had already seen another Long-eared Owl earlier in the day! You won't believe this, but two trees away from this Spruce tree - the trees were all squashed together and looked more like one huge tree - there was a beautiful Great Horned Owl! Of course, we were all hoping that the GHO wouldn't take the smaller owl for its supper! Oh, did I mention that two Short-eared Owls were spotted by someone in the first car, hidden amongst the dead grasses? They were sitting there, facing each other, and I managed to just get a couple of rather poor photos. Another thrill of the day : ) At the end of the day, some of the people involved in this count stayed for a pot-luck supper. Thanks so much to everyone who organized this annual Count and worked so hard with preparing for the meal. We always enjoy this time at the end of a long day, chatting about what we'd all been seeing in the various segments of the huge circle. Special thanks to Greg Wagner, who organized the whole event - well done, as usual, Greg : ) Thanks so much, Lorrie and John, for driving some of us the whole day and for picking me up and bringing me home - really appreciate your coming well out of your way to do this! This photo is in the following SETS: BIRDS OF ALBERTA 8 www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157633662858024/ OWLS 2 www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157625490621680/ LONG-EARED OWL www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157638800222153/ FRANK LAKE & AREA www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157629680856126/ EXPLORE, FLICKR www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/sets/72157594372373773/