Fabulous Fritillary

I always love to see these amazing Fritillary flowers in the spring. They make me think of little stained-glass, hanging lampshades : ) Taken at the Reader Rock Garden, when I called in after my volunteer shift yesterday afternoon. So glad I decided to go when I did, as it's 3C and raining here this morning. I also washed my car yesterday morning - a good thing, as there would have been so much mud washed off on to my recently cleaned parking spot. It feels good to be home in a way, after my "forced" day away from home yesterday (thanks to a Steet Parking permit that never arrived). The bags of new roof shingles are piled up on the roof and I think they could be there for a few weeks until my building takes its turn. To kill time yesterday, I left home around 8:15 a.m. and decided the first thing I would do was to go down to Fish Creek Park to check on the Great Horned Owls that are south from the Bow Valley Ranch. I had only seen two of the three owlets recently, sitting in their nesting tree. Yesterday, there was just one owlet left there, and Mom and her other two owlets were across the path and so high up in a tree. Not sure I would have found them, but I heard an owl calling and sure enough, there they were. Dad was in his usual tree, keeping guard. Several noisy Canada Geese were causing the owls a little concern. Mom was holding "something" large in her beak, which at first I thought looked like an unfortunate Ground Squirrel, then it began to look rather like part of a deer leg. I finally realized she was holding the tail half of a huge fish, which looked rather as if it had been lying around for a good week, lol! I never realized that owls also eat fish - somehow, it just didn't look right, lol. After a while, she flew over to the nesting tree and left the fish there, and then returned to her two oldest "kids". I also checked to see if I could find the Sikome family of Great Horned Owls, but couldn't see any sign of them. The leaves are opening fast on the trees, making it pretty much impossible to find them now. Best thing of all, though, was bumping into a couple of friends whom I hadn't seen for many months, who were also hoping to see the owls.