Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Harebell

On 23 July 2015, five of us spent the day botanizing the land belonging to Darryl Teskey, SW of Calgary and W of Millarville (maybe a 40-minute drive from Calgary). This was the first time I had been there and I'm so glad I went - I would have missed all sorts of things, including a family of Ruffed Grouse and several fungi. These Grouse were the rare rufous-morph, and we startled them when we were walking through the forest in their direction. Usually, you don't see Grouse because they are so well-hidden. When you get fairly close (sometimes very close) to them, they suddenly "explode" from the tangle of shrubs and plants of the forest floor, making ones heart beat fast! Our walk took us over grassland and through forest, many places treacherous with so many fallen logs which were often barely visible. I have never, ever seen so many tiny Skipper butterflies - there must have been hundreds or even thousands of these bright orange beauties that were flying or perched on flowers of every colour. Fortunately, the rain stayed away until we started driving back to Calgary. Quite a lot of black clouds, reminding me of the tornado that passed through Calgary just the day before (22 July 2015). Our purpose, as always, was to find and list everything that we saw - wildflowers, trees, grasses, birds, insects, fungi, etc.. Our leader then compiles an extensive list of our finds and this is later sent to the landowner, along with any photos that we might take. Always a win/win situation, as the landowner then has a much better idea of just what is on his property, and we have a most enjoyable day.

Six days ago, on 23 July 2015, five of us spent the day botanizing the land belonging to Darryl Teskey, SW of Calgary and W of Millarville (maybe a 40-minute drive from Calgary). This was the first time I had been there and I'm so glad I went - I would have missed all sorts of things, including a family of Ruffed Grouse and several fungi. These Grouse were the rare rufous-morph, and we startled them when we were walking through the forest in their direction. Usually, you don't see Grouse because they are so well-hidden. When you get fairly close (sometimes very close) to them, they suddenly "explode" from the tangle of shrubs and plants of the forest floor, making ones heart beat fast! Our walk took us over grassland and through forest, everywhere treacherous with so many fallen logs which were often barely visible. I have never, ever seen so many tiny Skipper butterflies - there must have been hundreds or even thousands of these bright orange beauties that were flying or perched on flowers of every colour. Fortunately, the rain stayed away until we started driving back to Calgary. Quite a lot of black clouds, reminding me of the tornado that passed through Calgary just the day before (22 July 2015). Our purpose, as always, was to find and list everything that we saw - wildflowers, trees, grasses, birds, insects, fungi, etc.. Our leader then compiles an extensive list of our finds and this is later sent to the landowner, along with any photos that we might take. Always a win/win situation, as the landowner then has a much better idea of just what is on his property, and we have a most enjoyable day. This summer, with quite a few botanizing outings like this, plus two 3-day trips to Waterton Lakes National Park, I am so far behind with the photos that I need to edit and e-mail!

This delicate Harebell, complete with two tiny visitors, is one of the few wildflower photos that I got round to taking this summer. It was taken on 20 July 2014, the day that I plucked up courage to do a drive that I’d never done before - to Bow Valley Provincial Park, at the foot of the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. I had been that route to the park once before that I can think of, when I carpooled with others. A good part of the drive was in familiar territory, but I’d never driven the last part of the journey myself. I had met my daughter at 9:00 a.m. and we were both eager to see a display of birds of prey that had been brought up from the Coaldale Birds of Prey Centre.

Feels good to me to see a colour that is different from many of the photos I post in the summer - a pretty blue. These little, wild Harebells were growing at the Sundre Natural Area about 10 days ago. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Campanula_rotundifolia

After driving for almost an hour yesterday, west of the city, I found so few wildflowers in bloom and just a scattering of shrivelled up mushrooms. Everywhere is SO dry - we need rain desperately. This is about the most exciting photo I took yesterday, other than a butterfly and a few scenic shots, LOL. "Just" a regular Harebell, but the sunlight really made the colour pop.

This is such a pretty colour that I thought I would rescue this part of the image and crop away the blurry part : )

A close look at one of the pretty little Harebells that grow in Alberta. This one was out in the mountains, two days ago.

This is the famous bluebell of Scotland. Grows in Alberta July to August, though I have seen several isolated plants still in bloom this past week (early October).

These purplish-blue flowers grow from June to September in Alberta. Also known as Bluebell - this is the famous bluebell of Scotland.