Gathering at the feeder

Update on my daughter: I went to the hospital to visit her for a few hours yesterday (22 August) and was just so thankful to find her sitting up in bed, fully alert and looking well! The IV antibiotics seem to be working, as her pain is subsiding. Hopefully, the rest of her recovery will go smoothly. As you can imagine, I had a few flashbacks to January of this year, when our older daughter was taken off life-support in the same hospital. I am just so very thankful that this very scary situation looks like it will have a happy ending. Thank you to everyone for your very thoughtful well-wishes!

Though I'm not keen on feeder photos, I do still take them, especially if the bird is one that is not often seen. This was the second chance to see an Evening Grosbeak that I've been lucky enough to get this year. The female is on the left and the male is the blurry bird on the right. In between them is a much smaller Pine Siskin. Not the greatest photo, but posted for the record.

"A heavyset finch of northern coniferous forests, the Evening Grosbeak adds a splash of color to winter bird feeders every few years, when large flocks depart their northern breeding grounds en masse to seek food to the south. The yellow-bodied, dusky-headed male has an imposing air thanks to his massive bill and fierce eyebrow stripe. The female is more subtly marked, with golden highlights on her soft gray plumage. This declining species is becoming uncommon, particularly in the eastern United States." From AllAboutBirds.

www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/Evening_Grosbeak/id

One month ago, on 23 July 2015, five of us spent the day botanizing the land belonging to Darryl Teskey, SW of Calgary and W of Millarville (maybe a 40-minute drive from Calgary). This was the first time I had been there and I'm so glad I was invited to go - I would have missed all sorts of things, including a family of Ruffed Grouse and several fungi. These Grouse were the rare rufous-morph, and we startled them when we were walking through the forest in their direction. Usually, you don't see Grouse because they are so well-hidden. When you get fairly close (sometimes very close) to them, they suddenly "explode" from the tangle of shrubs and plants of the forest floor, making ones heart beat fast! We were taken by surprise when we came across a nearby statue of Saint Francis of Assisi, who is known as the patron saint of animals and the environment. A nice idea, I thought.

Our walk took us over grassland and through forest, many places treacherous with so many fallen logs which were often barely visible. I have never, ever seen so many tiny Skipper butterflies - there must have been hundreds or even thousands of these bright orange beauties that were flying or perched on flowers of every colour.

Fortunately, the rain stayed away until we started driving back to Calgary. Quite a lot of black clouds, reminding me of the tornado that passed through Calgary just the day before (22 July 2015).

Our purpose, as always, was to find and list everything that we saw - wildflowers, trees, grasses, birds, insects, fungi, etc.. Our leader then compiles an extensive list of our finds and this is later sent to the landowner, along with any photos that we might take. Always a win/win situation, as the landowner then has a much better idea of just what is on his property, and we have a most enjoyable day. This summer, with quite a few botanizing outings like this, plus two 3-day trips to Waterton Lakes National Park, I am so far behind with the photos that I need to edit and e-mail! Most of my Waterton photos are still not posted.