Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: explore2014April25

This beautiful female Northern Flicker was busy building a nest in this tree cavity, on 22 April 2014, at Carburn Park. "Both sexes help with nest excavation. The entrance hole is about 3 inches in diameter, and the cavity is 13-16 inches deep. The cavity widens at bottom to make room for eggs and the incubating adult. Inside, the cavity is bare except for a bed of wood chips for the eggs and chicks to rest on. Once nestlings are about 17 days old, they begin clinging to the cavity wall rather than lying on the floor. Northern Flickers usually excavate nest holes in dead or diseased tree trunks or large branches. In northern North America look for nests in trembling aspens, which are susceptible to a heartrot that makes for easy excavation. Unlike many woodpeckers, flickers often reuse cavities that they or another species excavated in a previous year. Nests are generally placed 6-15 feet off the ground, but on rare occasions can be over 100 feet high. Northern Flickers have been known to nest in old burrows of Belted Kingfishers or Bank Swallows." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/northern_flicker/lifehistory en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_Flicker

Just a reminder that some things about winter really are beautiful. I doubt that anyone wants to hear those words, though, after seven months of endless cold, snow and ice, lol! It's 3°C this morning and we should be getting rain later with mixed precipitation overnight and light snow tomorrow morning. These ice crystal-covered blades of grass were seen on 7 January 2013 at Hull's Wood in Fish Creek Park.

Another shot from the archives, taken on 12 June 2013, on a drive SW of Calgary. The Mountain Bluebirds have arrived back in Alberta, but it will be a while before that have all built their nests and had their young. Last night, I was looking for a photo that had colour, to post this morning, and came across this one. Last summer, I took so many photos of Bluebirds, especially this pair, and have so far only posted very few. This female caught rather an interesting, fancy looking meal for her babies. I found it fascinating to see the different kinds of insects that they caught, and each time they returned with something new, they would perch on the barbed-wire fence near the nesting box and give me a few wonderful poses : ) In Bluebirds, the blue colour is produced by the structure of the feather - there is no blue pigment. "Tiny air pockets in the barbs of feathers can scatter incoming light, resulting in a specific, non-iridescent color. Blue colors in feathers are almost always produced in this manner. Examples include the blue feathers of Bluebirds, Indigo Buntings, Blue Jay's and Steller's Jays." www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Mountain_Bluebird/id www.jstor.org/discover/pgs/index?id=10.2307/4077277&i...