Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: interestingness#202

I was happy to come across some of these beautiful little Calypso Orchids on 10 June 2011, when I drove out west of Calgary to the forest around Maclean Pond, Kananaskis, off Elbow Falls Trail. They are such exquisite wildflowers! Unfortunately, a single flowerhead doesn't quite fit into a macro photo, but at least it does result in a blurred background (and in this case, a rather blurry flower, too, lol!). Towards the end of May, on the annual May Species Count, we always hope that these small, delicate Orchids will be in bloom. Sometimes, they are surrounded by snow, so they must be pretty hardy little things. It's hard to imagine seeing any kind of flower after the last six months of snow and ice on the ground!

I always love seeing Puffballs - which is a good thing, as there were more of these in Brown-Lowery Provincial Park two days ago than anything else, or so it seemed. We need some rain, as fungi are drying up everywhere - which can't be allowed to happen, LOL!

These little Common Redpolls are common in Alberta from October to April, but are predictably unpredictable as far as numbers are concerned. This bird was one of a flock that was flying around a farm area south of Calgary. It happened to land on this piece of farm equipment. I would guess that this is a female, as the males tend to have pinkish breasts. Yesterday, I was out from 6:10 a.m. to 6:30 p.m., taking part in a Christmas Bird Count on the Cochrane Reserve, north-west of Calgary. Not sure of the exact number of bird species we saw, but it was around 23.

Dare I post yet another Sunflower photo??? Sorry - I really will run out eventually, LOL! This orange Sunflower that I bought at Safeway is just such a beautiful flower, with its mix of colours and its hairy, spiky bracts (?). All natural colour, by the way!