Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: Swallowtail

During a day of botanizing three days ago, 30 June 2015, at the property belonging to Judy Osborne - James River, N. of Sundre - we happened to notice this beautiful, pale Swallowtail butterfly at rest, deep within a tangle of small branches. This is the first one I've seen this year that wasn't flying high overhead. Not the best photo, but needed to add it to an album. Just three of us went with Judy to visit her cabin (or, as she describes it, her "shack") and the surrounding forest and river. What a beautiful property she has - 100 acres of forest, meadow, and river valley. We so appreciate her having us there to record all the plants, insects, birds, etc. that we could find. I've never seen so many beautiful wild Roses! She also has a Great Gray Owl, but there was no sign of it while we were there. We are always happy to visit someone's land and compile a very detailed list of our findings for them. It's always a win/win situation - we enjoy what we are doing and love to explore a new location, and the owner ends up with a record of what was found on their property. Judy very generously provided a delicious lunch for us, too, which we ate out on the deck, surrounded by busy little Pine Siskins visiting her bird feeder. Thanks so much for this absolute treat, Judy, and for driving the three of us out there from our meeting place in the city. We were so lucky with the weather, enjoying a day of sunshine. How things changed when we got back to Calgary. Our meeting place was near Chinook Mall and to drive home, I had to drive through flash flooding!! I don't remember ever having to drive through water like that! What a storm this part of the city must have had while we were way NW of Calgary! www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/flash-flooding-causes-prob...

Five days ago, on 5 July 2014, I decided at the last minute that I just couldn't take being in an "oven" any more. The hot, sunny weather we are having at the moment turns my house into an oven (no air-conditioning) and then tends to stay that way for many days or weeks afterwards. I left the house later than I had hoped (10;00 a.m.) and drove NW of the city and NW of Cochrane. Hadn't been that way for a long time and wanted to see if I could find an owl of some sort, especially a Great Gray Owl. No luck, and in fact it seemed like all wildlife was in hiding, except for four Deer. My morning's finds included a patch of beautiful Indian Paintbrush flowers. Also a noisy little Wren that I saw when I pulled over to take a look down a hillside, to see if I could see the Red Fox that had just run across the road ahead of me - no luck. The next sightings were a lone Deer - forgot to check its tail, but it had enormous ears - and a Tree Swallow that was perched on its bright orange nesting "box". Nearby, there were several of these Swallowtail butterflies down in the mud along the edge of the road. Before I could get there, a car came along in the opposite direction and off flew every single one. By the time I had photographed a few nearby wildflowers, one butterfly did return, so I was able to get a few shots, including this macro of the two tails on its hind wings. Deciding to return to Highway 1a the same way as I came, I passed two horses that always seem to be in the same place. I'm never sure about the health of these two, and they never seem "happy" animals, though maybe they are just getting very old. The white horse seemed to like resting its head against the rough bark of the tree they were standing under, or maybe it liked the smell of it. When I reached the road that I wanted to check out (including for a possible owl), I found that it had just been oiled ready for a new surface to be laid, so that plan had to be abandoned. Wanting to stay away from my unpleasantly hot house for as long as possible, I came home via Bragg Creek and some of the backroads that I love, SW of the city. Brown-Lowery Provincial Park was my first stop - and it has the wonderful, added benefit of an outhouse in the parking lot - the first one I'd seen all day! I checked out the area near the parking lot and then went maybe a hundred feet into the forest. After checking for any fungi (none yet), I heard a very loud cracking of branches and eventually spotted a huge, very dark shape through the trees. From that angle, it looked horribly like a Bear, but when it lifted its head from feeding, I was so relieved to see that it was "only" a huge Moose! A young couple were coming along the trail towards me and I said they must have seen it even closer. My voice was heard by the animal and unfortunately it moved quickly away. I like to think that a Bear or Cougar would react in the same way, lol! From Brown-Lowery, I passed my favourite little wetland and found the Wilson's Snipe standing, as usual, on a fence post. Sorry, everyone, you might just get fed up of Snipe photos - if you aren't already! Got home around 6;00 p.m., feeling content that, even though the morning had been pretty disappointing, the day was a a good one.

This was a rapid, two-shot chance, but at least I managed to get one photo that is fit to post (horrid, messy background, though), LOL. Seen briefly at the Perrenoud Natural Area, north west of Calgary and north west of Cochrane. Thanks, Art and Terry, for the exact ID!

Not the kind of photo I would love to have got of this beautiful Old World Swallowtail, but I was lucky to get even this, LOL! We saw it fluttering by while we were on a botanizing hike south of Calgary, in the Nanton area. It landed for a second or two and I was able to quickly grab a couple of shots for ID purposes. I so rarely see these.

I'm still posting butterfly images taken in the ENMAX Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo : ) Butterflies are only there for part of the year, so I want to make the most of the chance to see and photograph these beauties. This is a female. Weather has been so bad for a while and I need sunlight to pour in through all the glass windows, so I haven't been over for another visit yet. "The Common Mormon Papilio polytes is a common species of swallowtail butterfly widely distributed across Asia. This butterfly is known for the mimicry displayed by the numerous forms of its females which mimic inedible Red-bodied Swallowtails, such as the Common Rose and the Crimson Rose .... The male has one morph only. It is a dark-coloured swallow-tailed butterfly. The upper forewing has a series of white spots decreasing in size towards the apex. The upper hindwing has a complete discal band of elongated white spots. It may or may not have marginal red crescents. The males are smaller in size than the females. The female of the Common Mormon is polymorphic. In South Asia, it has three forms or morphs." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Common_Mormon

My photo doesn't do justice to this absolutely gorgeous, quite large butterfly, seen in the ENMAX Conservatory at the Calgary Zoo. It stayed where it was, so I didn't get a chance to get it with a less cluttered background. Kind of neat to see in large size, if you have the time to take a peek. "The Emerald Swallowtail (Papilio palinurus) is a butterfly found primarily in South East Asia and is one of the very few green butterflies around. It is also referred to as Emerald Peacock or Green-banded Peacock Swallowtail. There are several subspecies (from Burma, Borneo, Indonesis, Nias and the Philippines)." en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Emerald_Swallowtail After a long morning walk at Carburn Park today, I called in to see "my" owls and then took just a short walk and found another pair of Great Horned Owls that I had heard about. Saw two adults, but no sign of any young ones. Have a botanizing walk all evening, so once again I'm getting little time here on Flickr.

A beautiful Swallowtail butterfly that a friend pointed out to me when we were on a day-long hike yesterday. I was on the edge of a hill and so had to watch my footing. Wasn't room for me to move any further round in order to avoid the leaf that covers part of the wing. What a hike we had, in such an amazing place. Up and down hills and then through a spectacular, small canyon. I could barely move by the time I finally got home and this morning wasn't much better, LOL, but it was surely worth every minute of agony!

I was thrilled to bits this morning, on a walk at Bowmont Park (Maranatha Church entrance), when this gorgeous Tiger Swallowtail butterfly flew near us. Of course, it is missing an antenna and a "tail", but the colours and patterns are still beautiful! After disappointment when it flew off before I could get a photo, it then landed on a nearby tree - and just sat there! couldn't believe it - I never see these butterflies land, or if they do, then it always seems to be high up in a tree. Today, I was able to approach fairly close. Now there is one less thing on my "Wish List", LOL! At the top of my list, a Blue Jay close-up remains number one!

Spent a very enjoyable day at Brown-Lowery park today, maybe a 45 minutes' drive south-west of Calgary. This time, we walked through wonderful, dense forest up to Eagle look-out. Here, there is a beautiful view over the valley, rolling foothills of the Rockies and the mountains in the far distance. I believe the temperature was around 30C again, so a hot climb, but we were rewarded with all sorts of interesting plants, insects, a fungus or two, and a few birds, including this gorgeous Swallowtail. There were lots of these butterflies flying around, but this was the only one that landed! Not only was I lucky with that, but this one is a different kind of Swallowtail from another Swallowtail I recently uploaded. Thanks, Doug, for driving David and myself there and back - much appreciated!