Backlit beauties
Indian Breadroot
Early Cinquefoil
Nuttall's Sunflower / Helianthus nuttallii
03 Blowing in the wind
Red Baneberry
Paintbush, with a visiting Crab Spider
Bracted Honeysuckle / Lonicera involucrata
Orange False Dandelion / Agoseris aurantiaca
Thimbleberry / Rubus parviflorus
Mariposa Lily
Purple Prairie Clover
Shakin' all over
White Prairie Clover / Dalea candida
Paintbrush - green flowers, red bracts
Yellow Owl's-clover / Orthocarpus luteus
The cutest little furball
Yellow Columbine
A brief moment's rest
A brief moment of rest
Between a rock and a hard place
Push!
Light-coloured Pika
Mid-squeak!
It's that little guy (gal) again
Mariposa Lily
A brief close encounter
Muskrat ripples
Water Smartweed / Polygonum amphibium
Love those little Pika feet
Pika pose
It's Pika time - again
Wild Bergamot
Chocolate chip lichen / Solorina crocea
Muskrat, SW Calgary
Wild and wonderful Lupines
Indian Breadroot / Pediomelum esculentum
Red Baneberry, Waterton Lakes National Park
Pink Monkeyflower
Orange False Dandelion / Agoseris aurantiaca
Small and fast .... and adorable
Pika, on a windy day
Cinnamon Black Bear, Waterton Lakes National Park,…
Blue Flax / Linum lewisii
American Pika - such a cutie
Day 3, Large-flowered Bellwort / Uvularia grandifl…
Pika - tiny fluffball
Yellow Mountain-avens / Dryas drummondii
Just look at those toenails
Wild Blue Columbine / Aquilegia brevistyla
Munch, munch, munch ....
My first sighting of the season
Pink Monkeyflower / Mimulus lewisii
Wild Blue Columbine / Aquilegia brevistyla
02 Mountain Lady's Slipper / Cypripedium montanum
Mariposa Lily / Calochortus apiculatus
Louisiana Broomrape / Orobanche ludoviciana
Wild bergamot, Monarda fistulosa
Canada Violet / Viola canadensis
Clustered Broomrape / Orobanche fasciculata
Harebell / Campanula rotundifolia
Rough-fruited Fairybells / Prosartes trachycarpa
Hungry little Muskrat
Beetle on Fringed Grass-of-Parnassus
Prince's Pine / Chimaphila umbellata
European Skipper on wild Bergamot
Fringed Grass-of-Parnassus / Parnassia fimbriata
Nuttall's Sunflower / Helianthus nuttallii
European Skipper on Pearly Everlasting / Antennari…
Clustered Broomrape / Orobanche fasciculata
Orange False Dandelion / Agoseris aurantiaca
Yarrow with tiny visitor
Many-flowered Monkeyflower / Mimulus floribundus
Thimbleberry / Rubus parviflorus
Busy little Muskrat
Strawberry Blite / Chenopodium capitatum
Pretty shade of Paintbrush
Gairdner’s Yampah (Yampa) / Perideridia gairdneri,…
Rough-Fruited Fairybells / Prosartes trachycarpa
Pink Monkeyflower / mimulus lewisii
Harebell
A delicate shade of Paintbrush
Water Hemlock / Cicuta
Pink Monkeyflower / mimulus lewisii
Mountain Lady's Slipper / Cypripedium montanum
Orobanche / Orobanche fasciculata
Brightening up the forest
Shrubby Penstemon / Penstemon fruticosus
Mountain Lady's Slipper / Cypripedium montanum
Nodding Silverpuffs / Microseris nutans
Mariposa Lily / Calochortus apiculatus
Arrowleaf Balsamroot with Crab Spider
Bird's-eye primrose / Primula mistassinica
Horned Lark in April snow
Pika, up close
Jack Rabbit turning from white to brown
Growing at Pine Coulee Reservoir
Prairie Crocuses covered in water droplets
Early Blue Violets
Brrr ... shiver
Love a Pika's ears
Ice crystals on Prairie Crocus
Love those big ears and big feet
Gathering food for the winter
White-tailed Deer
Columbian Ground Squirrel
A moment of closeness
Horned Lark
"Just" a Mallard
Nibble ... nibble ... nibble
See also...
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Pika / Ochonta princeps
![Pika / Ochonta princeps Pika / Ochonta princeps](https://cdn.ipernity.com/200/78/44/41697844.1f4461df.640.jpg?r2)
![](https://s.ipernity.com/T/L/z.gif)
I'm back to Pika posting again. I took quite a few photos of two of these beautiful little Pikas back in the summer of 2014 - enough shots to keep me from feeling like going through them all straight away to find a few that were OK to post. So, every now and then, I will dip into the file of photos from that day.
On 19 August 2014, I was lucky enough to have the chance to try and photograph a couple of these absolutely adorable little (6 - 9") creatures : ) After a while, I was beginning to despair of ever getting any decent shots at all. These tiny Pikas, also known as Rock Rabbits, hardly ever remain still and they are extremely fast! Imagine a mountain hillside covered in sharp, jagged rocks of all sizes and then try to picture how difficult it is to find in the viewfinder the single rock on which one of these Pikas might happen to sit for a second or two, lol! As time passed, I managed to take quite a few photos, though many needed to be deleted. A couple of times, this Pika came bounding over the rocks near to where we were standing and just sat there, long enough to get a few very close shots. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length, so really are pretty small, especially when off in the distance.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika
I found this excellent and amusing YouTube video, 3:30 minutes long, It is The American Pika in the BBC's Life of Mammals series.
youtu.be/Sifk9uphr2Q
The weather forecast was not good for that day, but we were so lucky that, apart from a few raindrops, the rain stayed away. The sun actually came out at two locations we stopped at for a short while. Our 18-hour day (from 6;00 a.m. till midnight!) started off with the thrill of seeing these Pikas and ended with a brief sighting of a black Wolf crossing the road ahead of us in the dark. It disappeared into the blackness, but shortly afterwards, we heard three (possibly four) separate Wolves howling way off in the distance. We just stood there, in total awe, listening to this amazing sound. The only wild Wolf I had ever seen before was when I was in Yellowstone National Park two years ago. There, friends and I saw two Wolves feeding on a Bison carcass across a huge valley - so they were just distant specks, that became slightly larger specks when my camera was in full zoom.
In between these two highlights, we saw several Deer, a small group of Mountain Sheep on the road, a tiny Chipmunk, a few Cedar Waxwings, Columbian Ground Squirrels, a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk that sat on a branch out in the open for a long time, and two tiny Bats that flew very close over our heads when it was getting dark. We also saw an adult Spruce Grouse with two young ones.
Then, of course, there is the scenery! Blue sky to go with the splendour of the mountains would have been wonderful, but we had been having cold and gloomy weather for a while before this day out. Highway 40 and the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Lakes Trail both run through such spectacular scenery, so it was a real treat for me, especially as I won't drive to those areas myself.
On 19 August 2014, I was lucky enough to have the chance to try and photograph a couple of these absolutely adorable little (6 - 9") creatures : ) After a while, I was beginning to despair of ever getting any decent shots at all. These tiny Pikas, also known as Rock Rabbits, hardly ever remain still and they are extremely fast! Imagine a mountain hillside covered in sharp, jagged rocks of all sizes and then try to picture how difficult it is to find in the viewfinder the single rock on which one of these Pikas might happen to sit for a second or two, lol! As time passed, I managed to take quite a few photos, though many needed to be deleted. A couple of times, this Pika came bounding over the rocks near to where we were standing and just sat there, long enough to get a few very close shots. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length, so really are pretty small, especially when off in the distance.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika
I found this excellent and amusing YouTube video, 3:30 minutes long, It is The American Pika in the BBC's Life of Mammals series.
youtu.be/Sifk9uphr2Q
The weather forecast was not good for that day, but we were so lucky that, apart from a few raindrops, the rain stayed away. The sun actually came out at two locations we stopped at for a short while. Our 18-hour day (from 6;00 a.m. till midnight!) started off with the thrill of seeing these Pikas and ended with a brief sighting of a black Wolf crossing the road ahead of us in the dark. It disappeared into the blackness, but shortly afterwards, we heard three (possibly four) separate Wolves howling way off in the distance. We just stood there, in total awe, listening to this amazing sound. The only wild Wolf I had ever seen before was when I was in Yellowstone National Park two years ago. There, friends and I saw two Wolves feeding on a Bison carcass across a huge valley - so they were just distant specks, that became slightly larger specks when my camera was in full zoom.
In between these two highlights, we saw several Deer, a small group of Mountain Sheep on the road, a tiny Chipmunk, a few Cedar Waxwings, Columbian Ground Squirrels, a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk that sat on a branch out in the open for a long time, and two tiny Bats that flew very close over our heads when it was getting dark. We also saw an adult Spruce Grouse with two young ones.
Then, of course, there is the scenery! Blue sky to go with the splendour of the mountains would have been wonderful, but we had been having cold and gloomy weather for a while before this day out. Highway 40 and the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Lakes Trail both run through such spectacular scenery, so it was a real treat for me, especially as I won't drive to those areas myself.
ROL/Photo, have particularly liked this photo
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