Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#432

Two days ago, 26 April 2015, I spent the day with a fair-sized group of friends, at Frank Lake. The weather was beautiful and, for once, not windy. Frank Lake and the surrounding area is one of my favourite places to spend a day or half a day. On a trip like this one, there are a lot of the birds that I don't see, as I don't use binoculars. Also, my interest is not to see as many species as possible, but to hopefully come across a few birds close enough to photograph. Fortunately, at the bird blind/hide, this pair of Eared Grebes was within camera range. Every once in a while, they stayed still for a few seconds before continuing their constant swimming and diving. The light was such that, much of the time, you couldn't tell that they had red eyes - and really it's the eyes (and the golden "ear" feathers) that add so much beauty to these birds. The eyes always make me think of red buttons : ) This Grebe is the most abundant Grebe in the world, and it occurs on every continent except Australia and Antarctica. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Eared_Grebe/id en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black-necked_grebe I will add the final list of the 51 species seen, complied by our Leader, Tony Timmons. Probably not of much interest to most people, but it does help my memory. Many thanks, as always, Tony, for a very successful and most enjoyable day! Really appreciate your giving up a precious weekend day to take us out there. "The birds put on a spectacular show for the 19 participants on the Frank Lake trip today. We tallied 51 species. (Anne's note: on this trip one year ago, we found 53 species.) Expected species were present in pretty good numbers; most noteworthy being American Avocet (200+) and White-faced Ibis (120). Thousands of ducks were on the Lake. Thanks to Dan Parliament and Al Borgardt for scoping birds and sharing sightings with the group. Before the start of the trip, Rose Painter spotted two Long-billed Curlew near Blackie. Later in the day, we searched for the birds without success. Eared Grebe 250 Western Grebe 20 Double-crested Cormorant 25 Black-crowned Night Heron 1 White-faced Ibis 120 Canada Goose Swan sp. 12 Gadwall American Wigeon Mallard Blue-winged Teal Cinnamon Teal Green-winged Teal Northern Shoveler Northern Pintail Canvasback Redhead Ring-necked Duck Lesser Scaup Bufflehead Common Goldeneye Hooded Merganser 2 f. Ruddy Duck Northern Harrier 3 Swainson's Hawk 3 Gray Partridge 4 American Coot Killdeer 5 Black-necked Stilt 10 American Avocet 200+ Greater Yellowlegs 5 Lesser Yellowlegs 17 Franklin's Gull 1000 Bonaparte's Gull 10 Ring-billed Gull 5 California Gull 20 Rock Pigeon Great Horned Owl ( 3 ad. + 3 owlets ) Black-billed Magpie American Crow Common Raven Tree Swallow 60 Bank Swallow 1 Marsh Wren 4 American Robin European Starling Red-winged Blackbird Western Meadowlark 5 Yellow-headed Blackbird Brewer's Blackbird 1 House Sparrow Tony Timmons"

I really prefer to not have people in my photos, but sometimes people just don't move away, lol. I waited and waited, hoping that I would soon have the view to myself, but it never happened. They do give an idea of the size of the creek at Red Rock Canyon, though. Unfortunately, we got to this location a bit too late to catch the sun on both sides of the creek - how the colour changes when in shadow. "The rock layers in Waterton are primarily eroded sediments laid down particle by particle at the bottom of an ancient sea which existed 1,500 million years ago. Evidence of this ancient seabed is provided by fossilized ripple marks and salt crystal casts. These rock layers make up the park's geological foundation. The park's unusual red and green rocks are shaly siltstones called argillite. The red rocks contain oxidized iron; the green rocks contain unoxidized iron. Beige/grey/brown rocks are limestone or dolomite. A noticeable black band seen on the face of some park mountains, called the Purcell Sill, is igneous rock." www.pc.gc.ca/eng/pn-np/ab/waterton/natcul/natcul1/a.aspx Friends, Cathy and Terry, and I, spent two nights (26 & 27 August 2014) in Waterton, driving the four different roads within the park for those two days, including the Red Rock Parkway. The third day, we drove eastwards from the park before driving all the way back to Calgary. Of course, we couldn't have had a more beautiful area to explore during our three days! Waterton Lakes National Park has amazing scenery and wildlife. The weather forecast that I saw before we left Calgary said that we were in for three beautiful days of sunshine - too often, it can be rainy weather. So, luck was on our side, giving us warm, sunny days - until the BIG STORM hit! We had driven eastwards from the park, hoping to see Yellow-bellied Marmots and, if we were really lucky, a Burrowing Owl. The storm was approaching very fast, around 5:00 p.m., and when we tried to get away from it, it quickly engulfed us. Someone from The Alberta Tornado Watch identified this storm as a Mesocyclone. Thankfully, we were not right in the very centre of it, but it was still a very scary experience. A few of the things we saw during our three-day trip included fantastic scenery, 4 Black Bears (including one that was swimming in the lake), Bison, Deer (including several that we saw in the village of Waterton, where we stayed for two nights at the clean and friendly Bear Mountain Motel), Golden-mantled Ground Squirrels, Chipmunks, various bird species including the endangered Burrowing Owls (new to all three of us), a few wildflowers, several Yellow-bellied Marmots (a first for me!), a few different insect species, and a family of Dusky Grouse (uncommon in Waterton Lakes National Park). I even got the chance to see three or four new-to-me old, wooden grain elevators.