Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#241

On 10 August 2013, I had such a wonderful day in the mountains! I don't get out there very often at all, and certainly not as far as we went today, so it was an absolute treat! In fact, it must have been something like 32 years since I went to Bow Lake, but I never forgot it and always longed to go back some day. Friend Sandy had found an interesting Liverwort (non-vascular plant) there and wanted to go back to see it at a different stage, hoping it would make ID a little clearer. She asked if I wanted to go with her - ha, yes, you bet! We went past Banff and Lake Louise, as far as Bow Lake (seen in my photo) along Highway 93, the Icefields Parkway. They do say that this scenic highway is the most beautiful in the world, and it's easy to believe. I had jokingly said to Sandy when we left Calgary, that what I would really like, please, was blue sky to start with it, then a few puffy white clouds and then maybe even a touch of grey with the white - and that's exactly what we got (plus some rain on the drive back to Calgary, which I definitely didn't ask for, lol. Though this particular view doesn't really do the area justice, I liked the bright orange/red of the canoeists.

This was a far-away shot and therefore is very heavily cropped! However, I am SO thrilled to have finally seen a Northern Hawk Owl and, as an added bonus, to get a few photos of it. Nothing great or spectacular, but I'm still on cloud nine : ) We drove northwest of the city and spent the day driving around the back roads hoping to see a Great Gray Owl and maybe even a little Northern Hawk Owl. Not many birds of any kind to be seen but, right at the end, we found this little beauty. It was perched on a very distant tree in a farmer's field. A few of us plodded through snow near the fence line and managed to get some shots. (The snow had quite a thick crust on top, so every step or two, you broke through the crust and plunged into deep snow - roll on spring!). It was extremely windy and chilly - hard to hold the camera - which is why the owl is all puffed up. Then, suddenly, it flew and landed on a fence post by the road where the cars were parked, just 10' from the rest of our group! I would have been able to get the most amazing close-ups, sigh ... These owls are rare to uncommon year-round in Alberta, and they are one of the most sought-after birds in Alberta.