Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: explore2014May09

This is "Cemetery Jack", a Jack Rabbit that I often see hopping around the cemetery I had to drive through the day before yesterday. After a volunteer shift (indoors) in the afternoon, the sun was still shining, so I decided to call in at the Reader Rock Garden on the way home. This Jack Rabbit sometimes comes down into the Garden, for a change of scenery. I wasn't sure if anything was growing there yet, but I did find a scattering of Hepatica and Squill in bloom. Many other plants were starting to produce leaves, so maybe spring really will happen after all! Looking at this photo, it's hard to believe that we had something like 10" of snow two or three days earlier! This poor animal, he must be wondering whether to let the brown hairs keep growing or to start growing more white ones, ha. I wonder if wildlife does get confused over our crazy Calgary weather. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_jackrabbit

April 27 (2014) was a day that was spent with a group of friends, driving around Frank Lake, SE of Calgary, checking to see what bird species we could find. 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, with a good number of bird species found - a total of 53 species. All the birds were extremely distant, apart from a couple of owl nests and a pair of Tree Swallows, so my photos are more or less limited to landscape, hoarfrost, etc., all of which I love. I always tend to miss quite a few of the birds, as I get distracted by other things, such as this melting hoarfrost with refractions of the blue sky and grassland.

The landscape is pretty flat in the area around Frank Lake, but I love it. Land and sky just seem to go on and on forever. This photo was taken on 27 April 2014, at the southern entrance to the lake, which is off to the left of my image. That day was spent with a group of friends, driving around the lake, checking to see what bird species we could find. 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, with a good number of bird species found - a total of 53 species. All the birds were extremely distant, apart from a couple of owl nests and a pair of Tree Swallows, so my photos are more or less limited to landscape, hoarfrost, etc., all of which I love. Yesterday, 7 May 2014, was such a beautiful day, and it really felt like spring (apart from a chill to the air). The sun was shining and it felt good to be outdoors. When I opened my front door, I found a notice taped to it, informing me that all vehicles had to be moved out of the parking lot for the whole day. There was quite a build-up from gravel from the endless winter months, and it had to be removed. Fortunately, I was up early so that I could go on a birding walk in Fish Creek Park. By the time we had watched a Northern Flicker at a tree cavity, a Yellow-bellied Sapsucker at a different tree, Tree Swallows swarming over the Bow River, A Ring-necked Pheasant male, and a Yellow-rumped Warbler, I could see that I would be late getting to my volunteer shift, so I left my friends early. Called in for just a few minutes to see if there was any owl activity (none, other than the adult male giving his face a quick scratch, lol), and then left for my shift. From there, towards the end of the afternoon, I decided to drive to the Reader Rock Garden, to see if there were any plants in bloom yet - just a sprinkling of colour here and there, though many plants had started sprouting their leaves. The usual spring flowers included a few Hepatica and Squill. After using my camera yesterday morning and late afternoon, I notice that my arms are more painful. Not a good time of year for this, with everything starting to grow and happen.