Grafted

Finally, I bought myself one of these colourful, grafted cacti (just $3 something)! They always catch my eye when I walk pass some, and the word "photos" came into my mind, LOL. I wonder what you all thought it was in the thumbnail, LOL. An orange animal??

Was out walking for about four and half hours this morning from Bow Valley Ranch in Fish Creek Park, all the way south along the Bow River, way, way past the Highway 22X bridge. Quite a long walk, and my poor joints and muscles are complaining like crazy, after not being worked much at all for the past month! We were thrilled to bits to see a Lesser Black-backed Gull (Larus fuscus) on one of the wetland ponds south of the Highway 22X bridge. I'd never even heard of this bird before! It was on the partially frozen pond with hundreds of "regular" Gulls.

The Lesser Black-backed Gull is an "accidental" bird. "This Eurasian species regularly occurs as a non-breeder on the East Coast. There are several reports of this bird from Alberta, including a photo record." From Birds of Alberta by Fisher and Acorn. I would have posted a photo, but the bird was so far away, needing a scope to see it properly. Thanks, Tony, for spotting this great find and for lugging your heavy scope all the way there and back!