Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: explore2014April28

Yesterday, Sunday (27 April 2014), I went with friends to Frank Lake for the day. It started off extremely foggy with a touch of hoarfrost. Perhaps not the ideal weather for seeing birds, but the fog did eventually clear and the sun came out. It turned out to be a beautiful day and most enjoyable. We saw 53 bird species - all, except for two owl nests, were extremely distant, so any photos I took are so far away. Have to admit that I was fascinated by the hoar frost and (melting) ice crystals, so I spent some time taking photos these while my friends checked out the lake for distant sightings of birds. Before long, every ice crystal had melted and our winter wonderland vanished. Caught a distant glimpse of two White-faced Ibis, and several Snow Geese flew over. Greg Wagner from High River came to check out the lake while we were there, and he drew our attention to a Clarke's Grebe, which was a great sighting. Thanks, Greg! Three of the owl nests had young ones that could be seen, but through a tangle of branches, so useless for photos. The one nest had very young owlets, still with white feathers. Thanks, Tony, for leading this trip to one of my very favourite areas! Your trips are always very successful and so enjoyable.

An old photo from the archives, grabbed last night after a dreary, snowy day. A birding outing was postponed till another day, but I'm going on a different one today, so hopefully the forecast for sunshine will turn out to be accurate. No sign of the sun yet. Photo taken in the ENMAX Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo, on 25 September 2012. I believe this butterfly is a Sara / Heliconius sara. If someone is able to either confirm or correct the ID, that would be much appreciated - thanks!