Forgetmenot Pond
The joy of peace and quiet
Fence line in the fall
Deciduous yellow
Sparkles on Forgetmenot Pond
Travelling the Cobble Flats road
Morning awakes
Sunlight on the low cloud
Licking the salt
Moose cow looking for salt
Pika / Ochonta princeps
A day in the mountains
Yellow Warbler male
Yellow lady's-slipper
One of my favourite views
Spotted Sandpiper
Flycatcher sp. - Willow or Alder Flycatcher
Middle Lake, Bow Valley Provincial Park
Willow Flycatcher
Fleabane
Kalm's Lobelia / Lobelia kalmii
Now they can't see me
Osprey take-off
Strawberries and cream fungus / Hydnellum peckii
Paintbrush - green flowers, red bracts
Mt Lorette Ponds, Kananaskis
Wind-blown Osprey
Unidentified fungus
Treasures of the forest floor
Slightly patterned
A joy to behold
Strawberries and Cream fungus / Hydnellum peckii
Green jelly mass on Buller Pond
Above the tree line
Unexpected closeness
A view from Mt. Shark
Tiny Hummingbird at Highwood House
Female Spruce Grouse with one of her young
The cutest little furball
Golden-mantled Ground Squirrel
Mt. Buller, Buller Pond, Kananaskis
Bighorn Sheep - she's a beauty
A bright splash of blue in August
Northern Willowherb / Epilobium ciliatum
Young Spruce Grouse
Northern Gentian
A gathering of female Bighorn Sheep
One of my favourite meadows
Looking beautiful
Mushroom in a wonderfully lush setting
Young Spruce Grouse
A brief moment's rest
Chipmunk with a yummy snack
Peninsular, Lower Kananaskis Lake
A brief moment of rest
Quite a typical view
Lower Kananaskis Lake at Peninsular
Lichens and moss at Rock Glacier
Between a rock and a hard place
The long road south
Lichen at Rock Glacier
Push!
Our beautiful foothills on an overcast day
Young bull Moose
Love a Pika's ears
Driving in a winter wonderland
Licking salt off its lips
A young male Moose
Mountain splendour
Moose portrait
Love those big ears and big feet
Sunshine on a mighty peak
Such a cute little thing
Gathering food for the winter
A patchwork of lichens
Sitting in the middle of the lake
Another car gets a licking
A moment of closeness
Set from the movie, The Revenant
From shadow to light
Such a fun Moose
Time for another Pika shot
Coyote relaxing in the sun
Gentle and curious
How did he get there?
Our mountains in winter
Ice as far as the eye can see
One sweet, curious female
Red Fox in a mountain location
Sunlit peaks
A final goodbye
No equipment needed - just a tongue
Sunbathed mountain slopes
A place of peace and beauty
Happy New Year, everyone!
Time to rest
Light and darkness
Free car wash, anyone?
A solitary Moose cow
Heading into the sun
Texture of burnt trees
Just in time
Soaking up the incredible beauty
Male Moose are judged by the size of their antler…
Moose in a winter wonderland
Pine Grosbeak
Yesterday morning's sunrise
Stocking up on food for the winter
Between the trees
Purple Club Coral / alloclavaria purpurea
Pika storing food for the winter in its cave
Just a small mouthful
Forgetmenot Pond
Living in a rocky world
A moment to ponder
Cedar Waxwing with mountain bokeh
Forgetmenot Pond - one of my favourite places
Watching and waiting
Looking a lot like fall
Where I was, yesterday
A change from Marmots
Harebell and tiny visitors
Pika, busily feeding
Oh, so cute
A quick, two-second rest
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Pika, up close
Sorry, I'm back to Pika posting again. I took quite a few photos of two of these beautiful little Pikas - enough shots to keep me from feeling like going through them all straight away to find a few that were OK to post. So, every now and then, I will dip into the file of photos from that day. When this little animal ran over towards us and froze for a few moments, it gave us a wonderful chance for close images.
On 19 August 2014, I was lucky enough to have the chance to try and photograph a couple of these absolutely adorable little creatures : ) After a while, I was beginning to despair of ever getting any decent shots at all. These tiny Pikas, also known as Rock Rabbits, hardly ever remain still and they are extremely fast! Imagine a mountain hillside covered in sharp, jagged rocks of all sizes and then try to picture how difficult it is to find in the viewfinder the single rock on which one of these Pikas might happen to sit for a second or two, lol! As time passed, I managed to take quite a few photos, though many needed to be deleted. A couple of times, this Pika came bounding over the rocks near to where we were standing and just sat there, long enough to get a few very close shots. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length, so really are pretty small, especially when off in the distance.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika
I found this excellent and amusing YouTube video, 3:30 minutes long, It is The American Pika in the BBC's Life of Mammals series.
youtu.be/Sifk9uphr2Q
The weather forecast was not good for that day, but we were so lucky that, apart from a few raindrops, the rain stayed away. The sun actually came out at two locations we stopped at for a short while. Our 18-hour day (from 6;00 a.m. till midnight!) started off with the thrill of seeing these Pikas and ended with a brief sighting of a black Wolf crossing the road ahead of us in the dark. It disappeared into the blackness, but shortly afterwards, we heard three (possibly four) separate Wolves howling way off in the distance. We just stood there, in total awe, listening to this amazing sound. The only wild Wolf I had ever seen before was when I was in Yellowstone National Park two years ago. Friends and I saw two Wolves feeding on a Bison carcass across a huge valley - so they were just distant specks, that became slightly larger specks when my camera was in full zoom.
In between these two highlights, we saw several Deer, a small group of Mountain Sheep on the road, a tiny Chipmunk, a few Cedar Waxwings, Columbian Ground Squirrels, a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk that sat on a branch out in the open for a long time, and two tiny Bats that flew very close over our heads when it was getting dark. We also saw an adult Spruce Grouse with two young ones.
Then, of course, there is the scenery! Blue sky to go with the splendour of the mountains would have been wonderful, but we had been having cold and gloomy weather for a while before this day out. Highway 40 and the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Lakes Trail both run through such spectacular scenery, so it was a real treat for me, especially as I won't drive to those areas myself.
On 19 August 2014, I was lucky enough to have the chance to try and photograph a couple of these absolutely adorable little creatures : ) After a while, I was beginning to despair of ever getting any decent shots at all. These tiny Pikas, also known as Rock Rabbits, hardly ever remain still and they are extremely fast! Imagine a mountain hillside covered in sharp, jagged rocks of all sizes and then try to picture how difficult it is to find in the viewfinder the single rock on which one of these Pikas might happen to sit for a second or two, lol! As time passed, I managed to take quite a few photos, though many needed to be deleted. A couple of times, this Pika came bounding over the rocks near to where we were standing and just sat there, long enough to get a few very close shots. They are about 15 to 23 centimetres (5.9 to 9.1 in) in body length, so really are pretty small, especially when off in the distance.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pika
I found this excellent and amusing YouTube video, 3:30 minutes long, It is The American Pika in the BBC's Life of Mammals series.
youtu.be/Sifk9uphr2Q
The weather forecast was not good for that day, but we were so lucky that, apart from a few raindrops, the rain stayed away. The sun actually came out at two locations we stopped at for a short while. Our 18-hour day (from 6;00 a.m. till midnight!) started off with the thrill of seeing these Pikas and ended with a brief sighting of a black Wolf crossing the road ahead of us in the dark. It disappeared into the blackness, but shortly afterwards, we heard three (possibly four) separate Wolves howling way off in the distance. We just stood there, in total awe, listening to this amazing sound. The only wild Wolf I had ever seen before was when I was in Yellowstone National Park two years ago. Friends and I saw two Wolves feeding on a Bison carcass across a huge valley - so they were just distant specks, that became slightly larger specks when my camera was in full zoom.
In between these two highlights, we saw several Deer, a small group of Mountain Sheep on the road, a tiny Chipmunk, a few Cedar Waxwings, Columbian Ground Squirrels, a beautiful Red-tailed Hawk that sat on a branch out in the open for a long time, and two tiny Bats that flew very close over our heads when it was getting dark. We also saw an adult Spruce Grouse with two young ones.
Then, of course, there is the scenery! Blue sky to go with the splendour of the mountains would have been wonderful, but we had been having cold and gloomy weather for a while before this day out. Highway 40 and the Smith-Dorrien/Spray Lakes Trail both run through such spectacular scenery, so it was a real treat for me, especially as I won't drive to those areas myself.
Chrissy has particularly liked this photo
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