Fish Creek Park 4

Well, we may only have seen six species of bird on our morning's walk in Fish Creek Park yesterday, but there were certainly lots of these Bohemian Waxwings at the top of this tree briefly. It's the sort of photo I dislike taking and seeing, but this was a distant tree : )

One of my Christmas ornaments that I took with me to hang on a branch in Fish Creek Park a couple of weeks ago.

This rare plant in the Mint family (Lamiaceae) was growing in the only known place in Calgary - Bebo Grove in Fish Creek Park. This is apparently the most northern limit for this plant. There are two species of Dragonhead, one native and one introduced. My photo shows the non-native species. It always makes me wonder why a plant can be growing in one tiny location without spreading to other sites. Photographed on May 28th, when three of us did the May Species Count at Bebo Grove in the afternoon.

I happened to come across this photo in one of my files and wanted to send it to some local birding friends. It was at Shannon Terrace, Fish Creek Park, taken looking straight into the sun three years ago and the original image shows little more than a pure white photo. Managed to pull out some colour and blurry detail, and I know it is a dreadful photo, but It is kind of cute and does give an idea of just how tiny this popcan-sized Northern Pygmy-owl is. The owl had just swooped down a few feet from where about three of us were standing, watching the owl sitting in the tree in front of us. It then flew off with its catch (a tiny Meadow Vole) to a nearby fence post, with the sun right behind it unfortunately.

Couldn't resist photographing this donut, one of several that someone has placed on bushes at Votier's Flats, Fish Creek Park. A little stale perhaps? Every policeman/policewoman should have one of these native, perennial bushes in his/her garden, LOL. Definitely not the best food for wildlife - even if it was maybe from Tim Horton's!

It's always pure joy to see deer on our walks in the local parks. Our walk from Votier's Flats to Bebo Grove in Fish Creek Park yesterday morning started off with seeing this Mule Deer buck, a second buck and a doe coming down the hill, crossing the path way ahead of us, and disappearing into the woods.

We saw this amazing rainbow (it was a double one, too) after an evening botanizing session at Shannon Terrace, Fish Creek Park, way back on July 6th. It was the closest rainbow I've ever seen - seemed to fill the sky.

We came across this Robin on its nest when a few of us were doing the May Species Count at Votier's Flats, in Fish Creek Park on Saturday, May 28th. It was very close to the path and not very high up - always surprises me that Robins build nests that are so obvious - and I zoomed right in, of course, so got a close shot without disturbing the bird. I was back in the same area two days ago, and do you think I could find this nest again, lol? However, i did see another one, but it was very high up.

Not too inspiring an image, but I wanted it for my own record. I saw this Coyote and a second one that caught up to it, in the Marshall Springs area of Fish Creek Park, on October 19th. I'm not sure if the Coyote is looking over to where my friends were standing or whether it had already noticed something for a snack. A few seconds later, it had climbed up on to this rock and then came back down and pounced. I agree completely with what Art (LeapFrog!) says in a comment below. I always love to see them. We are also lucky enough to have Bobcats in this city park (though I haven't been lucky enough to see one yet!), a very occasional lynx sighting, Cougars have been seen, and occasionally a Black Bear will wander through. Moose were reported very recently, too.