The perfect ending to a great day

Not to mention that I started the day with a Great gray Owl (posted yesterday), lol! Two days ago, 27 July 2013, was a good day and enjoyable, though I paid the price yesterday with an extremely painful body! A group of us met at Sarah Leete's again (first time was on 15th July 2013), to do a BioBlitz along the E side of the Perrenoud Wildlife Reserve, NW of Calgary. This means that an extensive list is made of all flora and fauna seen during the day. I wasn't expecting the walk/hike to be quite so far! The drive from home to Sarah's takes about an hour and a half, but I allowed a bit of extra time as I never know what traffic will be like. As it turned out, I was half an hour early - and this is what I saw! A beautiful Great Gray Owl, hunting for breakfast. It didn't stay for long, but I got two or three shots that I'll keep. I was really, really hoping that it would stay where it was till the rest of the group arrived, but it ended up flying off into the trees in the distance.

After our hike, I drove along a few of the roads up in the NW and then came home via a few of the backroads SW of the city. The very last thing I was lucky enough to see was this beautiful Moose, feeding behind a row of trees near the edge of the road. I was hoping she would stroll out into the open, but no, she just keep feeding on the leaves. Fascinating to watch her eat, stretching up to reach the leaves that were way over her head. My presence didn't seem to both her at all and she only gave me a couple of stares. No brilliant photos of her, but this might be the "best" one. Yesterday was a home day - I had no choice, not being able to move any part of me without feeling great pain, lol. Part of this was the result of having to walk along a very long Beaver dam - the most uneven surface you can imagine, never sure of whether you were going to disappear into the hidden water on either side of the very narrow, overgrown strip. And then, when we finally reached the other end, we discovered that there was just no way we could make our way ahead, crossing the various loops of the Grand Valley Creek. So, we had to retrace our very unstable steps along the dam again. The weather is overcast and dreary today, but yesterday was beautiful. One of those rare days this spring and summer without any rain!! It was a 13-hour day, driving 263 km.