Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: tree trunk

Added a touch of filter in post-processing, as the original image was a bit blurry. SNOW, SNOW, GO AWAY. DON'T COME BACK ANOTHER DAY! Sigh, it snowed again overnight and this morning. There are about 10" of the white stuff along the top of my fence. After today, the forecast says we are in for some sunny, cold days. Sure hope the snow melts as fast as possible. All sorts of problems with Flickr this morning! Today, I have added 8 more photos from 8 September 2019, taken at Rod Handfield's acreage. On that day, we had such a wonderful four and a half hours, searching for different kinds of fungi in the amazing forest on Rod Handfield's land, SW of Calgary. I think this was our tenth visit - the first one I went on, being on 25 June 2009 - each one resulting in various different species. It was so overwhelming yesterday! You didn't know which direction to face and which mushroom to photograph first. They were everywhere! Such a contrast to our visit on 6 August 2017, when basically there were no mushrooms (other than maybe three), because everywhere had been so very dry. A day like this can be so exhausting, not just from the walking, but also because of all the excitement. That night, I slept well. The quality of many of my photos is not the best, as the day was very overcast - the last thing one wants when trying to take photos deep in the forest. After leaving Rod's, it did rain. I had driven myself there instead of carpooling, so that I could drive some of the backroads in the area after we had finished. The forecast was for sun and cloud - and I had foolishly believed it. The rain put an end to my plans and I headed for home. I'm so glad I had checked a special little spot near Rod's first thing in the morning, when I got there a bit too early. A few years ago, there was a beautiful display of Fly Agaric / Amanita muscaria mushrooms growing there, but not since then. To my absolute delight, there were maybe half a dozen, in different stages of development. Surprisingly, we didn't come across a single one in Rod's forest this year. As always, thank you so much, Rod, for so generously allowing us to explore your property. This has been my favourite place to visit for quite a number of years now. We greatly appreciate your kindness - you are always so welcoming, and we learn so much and discover so many beautiful things. Thank you, Karel, for leading the group and helping with identifications. I'm sure at least some of us are anxiously waiting for you to have time, in between leading botany walks, to post some of your photos along with their IDs. Meanwhile, "fungus" has to be sufficient for many. As usual, any IDs given are always tentative, not 100% confirmed. Rule is, if you are not an expert in mycology, do not pick wild mushrooms to eat!

Tomorrow, 31 August 2018, I plan to join friends out west of the city. Thought I would post tomorrow's photos tonight, so that I am not in such a rush early in the morning. Today, I spent time watching the first memorial service, in Arizona, for Senator John McCain. Some very moving words given by various people. On 5 August 2018, it was a long weekend here, thanks to a Civic Holiday today (Monday), I was pretty sure that there would be plenty of people at a park SW of the city, so I felt somewhat more confident about going a bit further into the forest. Also, there was a cycle race (?) going on, along the road that runs alongside the park, and there were a few more people in the area - just in case I came across a bear or a cougar! Mushrooms were what I was looking for, and I found several quite nice ones. Always a treat to come across a polypore that is covered in guttation droplets. "Some fungi are prone to exhibiting a curious phenomenon—they exude beads of moisture, called guttation. In several polypores, such as Fomitopsis pinicola, the liquid produced can look so much like tears that you'd swear the fungus was weeping. Or maybe sweating. Other species produce pigmented drops that can look like milk, or tar, or even blood." weirdandwonderfulwildmushrooms.blogspot.ca/2014/08/read-i... "Guttation, a term used in botany to describe the process by which plants excrete excess water through drops from their leaves. For some mushrooms this is so common that it is a reliable identification feature." www.fungimag.com/fall-2010-articles/mushroom-weepLR.pdf On the way home from the park, I stopped to see if any Mountain Bluebirds were still around. The male of one pair looked so dishevelled - I don't remember it being windy. So much work goes into feeding a young family.

With most of our autumn colour gone, it feels good to be able to look back to photos from 1 October 2016. On that day, I finally had my very first visit to the Silver Springs Botanical Gardens, thanks to friend, Sandy. I first heard about this beautiful place from my daughter, but I had never been, because it is way out of my city driving comfort zone. In the morning, it was raining, at least in my part of the city, and I wondered if going would turn out to be a big mistake. However, the rain stopped and stayed away while we were there and, though the sky was overcast, I was still able to photograph to my heart's content. I was surprised at how many flowers were still in bloom on the first day of October and I was extremely impressed with how meticulously these gardens are kept - every inch of them. So many different kinds of trees and plants, and it was very obvious that each area had been planted with so much thought and care. Unfortunately, the trees and plants weren't labelled, so I don't know what kind of tree is in this photo, but the colour of the bark after all the rain was this glorious colour. Amazing that dedicated volunteers have been, and continue to be, the ones to thank for these gardens. Thanks so much, Sandy, for giving me the chance to spend an afternoon in such beauty and peace! We all knew that snow wasn't far away and about a week after this visit, Calgary had its first snowfall of the season, the whole of the Thanksgiving weekend. It snowed overnight again last night and today, 18 October 2016, my car is once again covered in snow that will need to be cleared off. At least I now have plenty of bright, colourful photos that I will be able to post in between all the coming white, snowy images that will be taken during the seven, long months of winter. "The Botanical Gardens of Silver Springs is without doubt one of the Seven Wonders of Calgary, Alberta. It boasts 1350 square meters (14 600 square feet) of gardens which includes a spectacular Wall Garden that runs an uninterrupted 1300 feet. In the gardens you will find an endless variety of annuals and perennials ranging from artemisias to zinnias. Here indeed is a place to stop and smell the roses and the peonies and the delphiniums and the chrysanthemums and the … What makes these gardens so very special is that they were created and continue to be maintained by a band of green-thumbed enthusiastic volunteers. These hale and hearty diggers, planters, seeders, weeders, mowers, waterers, pruners and community builders work two to three mornings a week to keep the gardens in primrose shape and their efforts are truly appreciated by the many walkers, joggers, and cyclists. On any given day, hundreds of people walk the wall garden with their families, friends and out-of-town visitors. It has become a treasured destination site for many. For anyone who has spent time in the gardens, it is hard to believe that they have only been here since 2006 when a humble ornamental garden (400 square feet) was developed within the existing BirthPlace Forest tree beds. The BPF, by the way, saw 7000 trees planted in the area. The project was accomplished through a partnership of BP Energy, Calgary Parks, Regional Health and Golden Acres." From the gardens' website. www.botanicalgardensofsilversprings.ca/

Marie, hope you manage to see today's postings - was thinking of you while I added them. We had a great morning, didn't we? Thank you so much for always calling out to me when we were in the forest and waiting for me to catch up, to make sure I missed no beautiful finds! So much appreciated. This polypore is oozing just a few guttation drops. I have added a couple of previously posted photos, showing the beauty of a good covering if droplets, in a comment box below. Actually, I will also add a photo of a different kind of fungus oozing blue droplets and another one oozing ruby red drops. "Some fungi are prone to exhibiting a curious phenomenon—they exude beads of moisture, called guttation. In several polypores, such as Fomitopsis pinicola, the liquid produced can look so much like tears that you'd swear the fungus was weeping. Or maybe sweating. Other species produce pigmented drops that can look like milk, or tar, or even blood." weirdandwonderfulwildmushrooms.blogspot.ca/2014/08/read-i... "Guttation, a term used in botany to describe the process by which plants excrete excess water through drops from their leaves. For some mushrooms this is so common that it is a reliable identification feature." www.fungimag.com/fall-2010-articles/mushroom-weepLR.pdf All three photos posted this morning were taken three days ago, on 6 August 2016, when I went on a mushroom foray at Rod Handfield's acreage. Though this was a fungi day (well, morning), we also came across a few wildflowers, too. On this day, I found the whole day physically and mentally exhausting (a mix of stress and excitement), and I'm still feeling the effects three days later. It was a great day, too, thanks to friend, Sandy! She very kindly picked me up around 8:15 am and we drove SW of the city and SW of Millarville to Rod Handfield's acreage. For a number of years, this has been one of my favourite places to explore, as Rod's forest tends to be full of all sorts of beautiful finds. It is one of the two best places that I know for mushrooms, the other being Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. This year has turned out to be great for fungi, thanks to all the endless, torrential rain we have been getting the last few weeks, apart from the scattering of sunny days. This year has so far had such weird weather - a very mild, dry winter, a spring that was as dry and hot as a summer, and now a wet, thundery summer. We were expecting this year to not be good for mushrooms. We met a group of other interested people, most of whom we didn't know, and we searched the land for fungi. Right at the start, I was telling Sandy that on the last visit there, maybe four years ago (17 August 2010, so six years ago - how time flies!), we had seen a beautiful Amanita muscaria mushroom growing just a few feet from the start of the walk. Sure enough, there were several growing in exactly the same spot on Saturday, which was so exciting. Later in the walk, we saw two other patches of absolute beauties of this hallucinogenic, poisonous species. The rain was spitting during our walk, and the forest was so dark, but amazingly, some of my photos came out well enough. Thanks so much, Karel, for organizing and leading this trip and for sharing your knowledge with us! Sandy and I left the group around lunchtime, to go looking at vehicles at one of the dealerships. In the last year and a half, I have had to put far too much money into repairs for my poor old 17+ year old car and finally, I knew that I had no choice but to replace it. The muffler and a few other things died several days ago and instead of spending a fortune on repair, I decided I would rather put that money towards a new vehicle. I had been thinking about replacing it the last few years, but now, enough is enough! Update re: car. Yay, I finally did it! Yesterday, friend Sandy and I returned to the dealership just after lunchtime. I had to drive my old car there so that they could do an appraisal on it and tell me how much I would get for a trade-in. Before I went, I was feeling more confused and uncertain which car I would decide on. The few that the dealership had were not a colour I would want to drive or else they didn't have the right things installed. I was so relieved when I was told that I could order one to my liking and that the waiting period would be 2-3 weeks. Longer than I would have liked, but bearable (though I know I will be climbing the walls by the time my new car arrives!). The very patient, non-pushy salesman said why not take my old car home and use it just very locally till then. So, thankfully, I still have a (very noisy!) vehicle with which to go and get groceries, which was my main concern. No birding or mushroom trips, though, which will not be easy to bear. Having said that, I need to add that I know I am very fortunate that I am in a position to be able to replace my vehicle - feel very grateful and lucky. Thank you, again, Sandy, for helping me through this highly stressful (to me) ordeal!! It made an enormous difference .... THE difference.

A very sad day today, as I learned that local photographer, Brad Russell, passed away a few days ago. He had a close group of great friends (including John Andersen and Brett Abernethy) and they used to go out together with their cameras, day or night. Stunning photography by all. I only met Brad on one occasion, on a photo shoot with my daughter and her group at Heritage Park. Brad left a lasting impression on me - something great about his personality. My condolences to his family and to each of his friends. This photo was taken at the Calgary Zoo on 21 September 2015. I always have a problem with my lens fogging up in this hot, humid room. The ENMAX Conservatory butterfly house display is coming to an end. The beautiful tropical plants are beginning to fade and the number of butterfly species seems to be down. I noticed this beautiful Owl butterfly resting on a tree trunk. "Butterflies in the genus Caligo are commonly called owl butterflies, after their huge eyespots, which resemble owls' eyes. Owl butterflies are found in the rainforests and secondary forests of Mexico, Central, and South America. Owl butterflies are very large, 65–200 mm (2.6–7.9 in), and fly only a few metres at a time, so avian predators have little difficulty in following them to their settling place. However, the butterflies preferentially fly in dusk, when few avian predators are around. The Latin name may possibly refer to their active periods. Caligo means darkness." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl_butterfly The staff and volunteers do such a superb job of putting on a great display of tropical plants and butterflies for us over the summer. I know that I, for one, appreciate this so much - a wonderful chance to see and photograph things I would otherwise never see. Unfortunately, I missed the whole spring and summer, but luckily was able to get over to the Zoo two or three times very recently.

If I hadn't seen this large Darner dragonfly fly and land on a tree trunk some distance away from where we were standing, I'm sure I would never have noticed it. There were a lot of these large dragonflies flying near the edge of a large pond on Frances and David Dover's property. They are almost always in constant flight, but very occasionally, one will land and stay long enough to get a photo or two. On 7 August 2015, four of us were extremely fortunate to have the chance to visit the home and highly varied topographic 62-acre property belonging to Frances and David Dover. We felt honoured and privileged to meet and spend time with Frances and David, and also their daughter Carolyn and her husband Clair. A delightful family who welcomed us so warmly into their home and land. This acreage of grassland, forest, rolling hills - and special gardens - is not far from Millarville, SW of Calgary. In fact, it's in an area that I often drive through when I only have time for, or only feel like doing, a short drive. Amazing what little gems exist out there. This is not just a beautiful property, but is very special for various reasons. For one thing, read any history of Alberta and you will find the Dover family, including David's mother, Mary Dover. Second, among the trees and open "lawns", there are Peony flower beds, containing 100-150 heritage Peonies, each one different, that have now multiplied to more than 300 plants. Unfortunately, they bloomed a couple of weeks early this year, and all the flowers had gone to seed. Another open area had a different kind of ground cover - Thyme, which smelled wonderful. If I remember correctly, this was the open space where the Calgary Philharmonic Orchestra performed on one occasion! There are two large ponds on the property and another smaller area of water that they hope to turn into a Japanese Garden. There is a total of seven wetland basins, including these. It was while walking around the Japanese Garden that a large brown 'shape' could just be seen through the dense trees - a handsome Moose buck. I will look properly at the four or so photos I just managed to get and will slip one of them into my photostream sometime soon, just for the record, definitely not for the photo quality : ) This was also where a Great Horned Owl was seen flying through the trees by some of us (not me, ha!). There are grassy paths winding through the acreage, up and down hill, that take David seven hours to mow. They are not pristine, velvety paths, but instead, they seem to take nothing away from the wildness of the whole area. One of the animals that have passed through is the Cougar. In fact, several years ago, I saw a video taken on a nearby (or adjacent?) property, where a 'kill' and night-time camera had been set up and a total of six different Cougar individuals were seen! Even the Dover's home is unique and beautiful. It is completely built of concrete - floors, walls, ceilings, roof, deck, and so on. A Hummingbird feeder and regular bird feeders, set up on the patio, attract a variety of birds. We sat on the patio after our walk to eat our packed lunches - and to enjoy a delicious Orange Pound Cake that Frances had made for us, along with refreshing Iced Tea - thank you so much for this, Frances! Yesterday, while I was waiting for one of three tiny Calliope Hummingbirds to come back, I was lucky enough to see a little Mountain Chickadee, along with many Pine Siskins. We could also hear a Red-tailed Hawk in the area. There is just so much I could write about this visit and family. Instead, or for now, I will add several links to more information on the Internet. This was a memorable day for us. Thank you so much, Frances and David, Carolyn and Clair, for being so kind and welcoming us into your home and gardens. books.google.ca/books?id=Tr36Tq_gadcC&pg=PA290&lp... www.westernwheel.com/article/20110727/WHE06/307279983/-1/... David's mother, Mary Dover (her father was A. E. Cross), was "a dynamic and distinguished Calgarian, particularly known for her work with the military during World War II." As well as being an army officer, and an alderman, she was also a preservationist. See the following link. www.albertachampions.org/champions-mary_dover.htm#.VcY1KP... ww2.glenbow.org/search/archivesMainResults.aspx?XC=/searc... glencoe.org/documents/10184/637479/The-History-of-Elbow-P... page 44-45 ------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------ On the way home, I couldn't resist stopping at the photogenic row of five old, red granaries. I had seen someone's photo, taken fairly recently, of the surrounding fields golden with Canola. I was, sadly, too late, but I took a photo anyway - of course!

I'm posting my "daily three" around 2:00 am on 21 February 2015, as I'm not sure if I'll go for a day of birding. Depends partly on the weather (snow is forecast) and whether I end up sleeping right through two alarm clocks that play very loud music for an hour, and my kitchen timer, lol! On 8 February 2015, I decided that I would join a group of friends for a morning birding walk in Fish Creek Park. I tend to miss most of the walks, so felt it was OK to go a second time this week. We started at Shannon Terrace, covering a good part of the area, and then the group started heading eastwards, towards Bebo Grove. At that point, my body was telling me that I had done enough walking, so I left my friends and made my way back to the parking lot. We had already seen a beautiful Pileated Woodpecker, which was perhaps the highlight of the walk. The light was not good as the Woodpecker was quite deep within the trees. I timed my return walk well, as I saw a pair of these spectacular birds out in the open. I'm guessing that the earlier bird was one of the two I saw when I was by myself. After this walk, I went straight to the area of the park where the tiny Northern Pygmy-owl has been seen on quite a few of the days during the last few weeks. However, I was out of luck this day, Shortly after I arrived there, a friend drove into the parking lot and we got chatting about the extremely confusing system of the way roads outside the city limits are numbered. Roads can have two different numbers - a Range Rd/Township Rd number plus a street or avenue number. All the maps that I have seen give the RR/TWP number only, so it's very difficult to find a location given in St. or Ave. numbers. The reason for this chat was that some of us were unable to find on a map the locations for Wild Turkeys and Northern Hawk Owls that have been reported recently. My friend told me to hop in and we'd go looking for turkeys : )! He already knew this whole area SW of the city, but I had never driven that part. Even though we were unlucky with finding any of the birds, it was extremely helpful to me to just see what the area looked like - more hilly than I had imagined. An area where I know I could very easily get totally lost, especially given the confusing mess of road numbering! Many thanks, Phil, for this unexpected and very helpful trip!! I really appreciated it! "The Pileated Woodpecker is one of the biggest, most striking forest birds on the continent. It’s nearly the size of a crow, black with bold white stripes down the neck and a flaming-red crest. Look (and listen) for Pileated Woodpeckers whacking at dead trees and fallen logs in search of their main prey, carpenter ants, leaving unique rectangular holes in the wood. The nest holes these birds make offer crucial shelter to many species including swifts, owls, ducks, bats, and pine martens." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/pileated_woodpecker/lifehistory

Three days ago, on 8 February 2015, I decided that I would join a group of friends for a morning birding walk in Fish Creek Park. I tend to miss most of the walks, so felt it was OK to go a second time this week. We started at Shannon Terrace, covering a good part of the area, and then the group started heading eastwards, towards Bebo Grove. At that point, my body was telling me that I had done enough walking, so I left my friends and made my way back to the parking lot. We had seen a beautiful Pileated Woodpecker (photo posted two days ago), which was perhaps the highlight of the walk. The light was not good as the Woodpecker was quite deep within the trees. I timed my return walk well, as I saw a pair of these spectacular birds out in the open. I'm guessing that the bird in the photo that I posted two days ago, was one of the two I saw when I was by myself. I went straight to the area of the park where the tiny Northern Pygmy-owl has been seen on many days for the last few weeks. However, when I was at that location yesterday, no one there had seen the owl at all, making it the fifth day in a row that it had not been seen. Shortly after I arrived there, a friend drove into the parking lot and we got chatting about the extremely confusing system of the way roads outside the city limits are numbered. Roads can have two different numbers - a Range Rd/Township Rd number plus a street or avenue number. All the maps that I have seen give the RR/TWP number only, so it's very difficult to find a location given in St. or Ave. numbers. The reason for this chat was that some of us were unable to find on a map the locations for Wild Turkeys and Northern Hawk Owls that have been reported recently. My friend told me to hop in and we'd go looking for turkeys : )! He already knew this whole area SW of the city, but I had never driven that part. Even though we were unlucky with finding any of the birds, it was extremely helpful to me to just see what the area looked like - more hilly than I had imagined. An area where I know I could very easily get totally lost, especially given the confusing mess of road numbering! Many thanks, Phil, for this unexpected and very helpful trip!! I really appreciated it! "The Pileated Woodpecker is one of the biggest, most striking forest birds on the continent. It’s nearly the size of a crow, black with bold white stripes down the neck and a flaming-red crest. Look (and listen) for Pileated Woodpeckers whacking at dead trees and fallen logs in search of their main prey, carpenter ants, leaving unique rectangular holes in the wood. The nest holes these birds make offer crucial shelter to many species including swifts, owls, ducks, bats, and pine martens." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/pileated_woodpecker/lifehistory It's -9C (windchill -17C) this morning and the trees are all frosted. No time to go out with my camera as I have a volunteer shift to go to today. Anyway, it looks horribly cold and dreary out there, with no sign of blue sky, though it might change later today.

Yesterday, 8 February 2015, I decided that I would join a group of friends for a morning birding walk in Fish Creek Park. I tend to miss most of the walks, so felt it was OK to go a second time this week. We started at Shannon Terrace, covering a good part of the area, and then the group started heading eastwards, towards Bebo Grove. At that point, my body was telling me that I had done enough walking, so I left my friends and made my way back to the parking lot. We had seen the beautiful Pileated Woodpecker in this photo, which was perhaps the highlight of the walk. The light was not good as the Woodpecker was quite deep within the trees, but fortunately this photo was fit to post. I timed my return walk well, as I saw a pair of these spectacular birds out in the open. I'm guessing that the bird in this photo was one of the two I saw when I was by myself. I went straight to the area of the park where the tiny Northern Pygmy-owl has been seen on many days for the last few weeks. However, when I was at that location yesterday, no one there had seen the owl at all, making it the fifth day in a row that it had not been seen. Shortly after I arrived there, a friend drove into the parking lot and we got chatting about the extremely confusing system of the way roads outside the city limits are numbered. Roads can have two different numbers - a Range Rd/Township Rd number plus a street or avenue number. All the maps that I have seen give the RR/TWP number only, so it's very difficult to find a location given in St. or Ave. numbers. The reason for this chat was that some of us were unable to find on a map the locations for Wild Turkeys and Northern Hawk Owls that have been reported recently. My friend told me to hop in and we'd go looking for turkeys : )! He already knew this whole area SW of the city, but I had never driven that part. Even though we were unlucky with finding any of the birds, it was extremely helpful to me to just see what the area looked like - more hilly than I had imagined. An area where I know I could very easily get totally lost, especially given the confusing mess of road numbering! Many thanks, Phil, for this unexpected and very helpful trip!! I really appreciated it! Posting late today - felt that sleep was more important, ha. "The Pileated Woodpecker is one of the biggest, most striking forest birds on the continent. It’s nearly the size of a crow, black with bold white stripes down the neck and a flaming-red crest. Look (and listen) for Pileated Woodpeckers whacking at dead trees and fallen logs in search of their main prey, carpenter ants, leaving unique rectangular holes in the wood. The nest holes these birds make offer crucial shelter to many species including swifts, owls, ducks, bats, and pine martens." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/pileated_woodpecker/lifehistory

Yesterday morning, 20 November 2014, saw me out on a bird walk in the morning. The weather has been reasonably mild recently, with sunshine and blue skies. The only bird photo I got was of this male Hairy Woodpecker, which I’m posting today, partly for comparison with the Downy Woodpecker photo I posted yesterday. "The larger of two look alikes (Hairy and Downy), the Hairy Woodpecker is a small but powerful bird that forages along trunks and main branches of large trees. It wields a much longer bill than the Downy Woodpecker's almost thornlike bill. Hairy Woodpeckers have a somewhat soldierly look, with their erect, straight-backed posture on tree trunks and their cleanly striped heads. Look for them at backyard suet or sunflower feeders, and listen for them whinnying from woodlots, parks, and forests.” From AllABoutBirds. After the walk, I paid another visit to where the Long-tailed Weasel can sometimes be seen. Various friends were there, too, and we were treated to a few good photo opps, including with some of the eight or so Meadow Voles it caught while we were there. It is an amazing hunter, moving so rapidly over the uneven, snowy ground and tangles of dead plants and fallen logs. In the evening, I went to an excellent talk on Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park / Áísínai'pi National Historic Site, which is about a three and a half hour drive south of Calgary. I’ve only ever been there once and that was 30+ years ago. A fascinating landscape to see and photograph. Rattlesnakes, too! A 3:55 min video about Writing-on-Stone Provincial Park / Áísínai'pi National Historic Site from Alberta Parks: youtu.be/_zsdWv0mQMI

These are large, rather fancy butterflies, and I like its striped eyes - but not so much its furry body. Taken on 2 May 2011 in the ENMAX Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo. The tropical butterfly season at the Zoo must be just about over by now. The staff and volunteers do such a superb job of putting on a great display of tropical plants and butterflies for us over the summer. I know that I, for one, appreciate this so much - a wonderful chance to see and photograph things I would otherwise never see. Unfortunately, I haven't made it over there this year! "Butterflies in the genus Caligo are commonly called owl butterflies, after their huge eyespots, which resemble owls' eyes. Owl butterflies are found in the rainforests and secondary forests of Mexico, Central, and South America. Owl butterflies are very large, 65–200 mm (2.6–7.9 in), and fly only a few metres at a time, so avian predators have little difficulty in following them to their settling place. However, the butterflies preferentially fly in dusk, when few avian predators are around. The Latin name may possibly refer to their active periods. Caligo means darkness." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Owl_butterfly

I always love seeing a display of these mushrooms around the base of a tree in the forest. These ones were seen on 17th August at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park. I was there again this afternoon for a couple of hours, but everything was dry and there were far fewer fungi to be seen. I saw a dead young Coyote at the side of the road on my way to B L and pulled over just to make sure the animal was dead. Had obviously been hit by a vehicle, judging by its broken leg. I felt very sad driving the rest of the way to my destination.

This photo of a very fluffed-up, female Downy Woodpecker was taken on 19th January in Weaselhead. This past week has seen Calgary in a very frigid air mass, which was hard for us humans and must have been hard for the wildlife, too. Temperatures have risen since yesterday. It's only -5C (24F) this afternoon - balmy after temperatures and windchills down in the -35Cs and -40C.

These colourful Polypores are pretty common in the forest, growing on trees. Photographed this one at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on August 20th.

..... especially when August, which is supposed to be the peak of fungi season, has arrived, but you've barely seen a fungus of any kind anywhere. Just a few very unphotogenic specimens, along with some Boletes and maybe three or so beautiful individuals. So, we were happy to see this large cluster growing on a tree trunk while we were botanizing the land around the Medicine River Wildlife Centre (north of Calgary), July 19th.

I liked the vartiety of lichens growing on this small branch that is growing in the Hibernaculum in Fish Creek Park. We recorded about 104 Garter Snakes yesterday in roughly two hours; almost all were male Wandering Garter Snakes.

I don't think any of us would have noticed this tiny Wood Frog at the base of this tree if we hadn't happened to have been watching it jump in the grass. Seen yesterday, when a handful of us went to the Bentz Lake Natural Area, north of Calgary and west of Sundre. A good part of the day (I left home about 6:45 a.m. and got back around 7:00 p.m.) was spent exploring a forested area, recording all the flora and fauna of the location. In between, we would walk closer to the small lake through a bog area that was VERY wet - LOL, I had soaking wet feet for about nine hours of the day! However, we had seen from the road, at the start of our full day, that there were some yellow Pondlilies growing on the lake surface, and nothing would have stopped me from reaching them to get a few shots of this new (to me) flower! They are absoutely beautiful, and I was torn as to whether to upload a close shot of this or the little red mushroom. The mushroom won : ) The following link goes to a short, fascinating video on YouTube, about how Wood Frogs freeze solid in the winter. www.youtube.com/watch?v=Fjr3A_kfspM