Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: explore2014May30

A Northern Flicker, seen excavating a cavity at Bankside, Fish Creek Park, on 7 May 2014. I so rarely get out for a walk, but I'm glad I went that morning, and caught this male working hard. Most of the Flickers we see here are hybrids. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Northern_flicker www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/northern_flicker/id Overslept this morning, thanks to having to take a muscle relaxant tablet last night. Actually, I only took half a tablet, just to see what it would do, so I can't say I look forward to having to take a whole one for the next 30 days. These are part of the treatment for the inflammation of my rotator cuffs, especially in the right shoulder, along with an anti-inflammatory ointment, heat, etc.. Finally had my appointment with my doctor yesterday, and she said she doesn't think there are tears in the rotator cuffs. Have to set up physiotherapy (which normally I avoid, as it's expensive and I don't like having to go, ha). However, when something interferes with my photography - not to mention everything else I need to do - then I have no choice but to go : )

The first thing I'll add here is to say that I use 48x zoom on so many of my photos (probably most), no matter what the subject, from butterfly to bird - and especially Bears! Like the typical Black Bear that we might be lucky enough to come across, this one was just busy eating and checking out what was growing around it that looked good to eat (i.e. grasses, roots, not people., ha). My photos are taken from the safety of the car and the bears look much closer than they really were. Friends, Cathy and Terry, and I, don't stay for more than a short while, watching very carefully, to make sure that the animal shows absolutely no sign of discomfort or stress. The Bears we do see just slowly walk on by, feeding as they go, and don't attempt to approach the vehicle. One bear was so totally relaxed that it decided to have a quick roll in a large puddle not far from the edge of the road! It lay right down on its side and seemed to be enjoying the coolness of the water. Daytime temperatures of these two days were much warmer than we've had in about eight months. The sun shone most of the time and we couldn't have had better weather. Can't remember if it was the very first bear we spotted, we were of course thrilled at the distant sighting. And then, to our horror, we saw a photographer walking towards the bear, that was walking towards him!! The guy had parked in a small pull-off and was some distance from his vehicle. I'm still shaking my head that someone would do such a foolish thing. So unfair towards the bear, too, as it's always the animal that pays the price (i.e. having to be destroyed), if an attack takes place. Over the two days, we had 7 bear sightings, with three definitely different Black Bears (no Grizzlies), and possibly four. The rest of the sightings were of Bears we had already seen. We had left Calgary early morning on Wednesday (14 May 2014) and I think it was around 12:15 a.m. midnight (Thursday, 15 May 2014), that my friends dropped me off at home after two long, wonderful days in the Rocky Mountains, west of the city. Wednesday night was spent in a spotless motel, in a place that had so many Mountain Sheep roaming the streets, lol! Though we were hoping to see at least one Bear, I was (as always) happy as can be to see absolutely anything beautiful : )