Sowthistle(?) flower and seedhead

This evening, 26 August 2018, just after 10:00 pm, our temperature is 8C and it is raining! In Calgary, rain is forecast for tonight and tomorrow morning. Hopefully, it will help to clear the air of smoke from the British Columbia wildfires, even if only temporarily.

"Rain fell across southern Alberta overnight Saturday (25 August 2018), except in the area where it was needed most — around Waterton Lakes National Park, which is on evacuation alert due to a wildfire burning a few kilometres south across the U.S. border.

"Unfortunately most of the precipitation that did fall last night was north of Waterton Park itself," said Environment Canada meteorologist Alysa Pederson on Saturday." From the Weather Network.

I have just added 9 extra photos tonight, 8 of them taken on our trip to Eagle Lake yesterday. There are still further shots to add, probably tomorrow. I didn't take many photos during the few hours we were out, and they are mostly just shots for the record.

Thank you so much, Shirley, for inviting us all out to visit you yesterday (25 August 2018) while you were out again at your summer trailer at Eagle Lake for the weekend! It was a fairly cool day, which was great, but the smoke is still being blown in from the wildfires in British Columbia. I was just reading an article this morning about the awful air quality in Seattle and theirs has been roughly the same as ours. They reckon the very poor air quality is equivalent to smoking seven cigarettes a day.

It was such a pleasure to see some of "your" birds that you enjoy so much. Compared to our visit on 17 June 2017, there were fewer species to be seen, but enough to keep us happy. I think the highlight for me was a Western Kingbird that posed so beautifully on a tangle of metal pipes down near the edge of the water. The soapsud "icebergs" were interesting to see, but no doubt were polluting the lake!

I also loved taking a couple of quick shots of a cute goat just as we were leaving. We had stopped so that one of us could get out and buy several food items from a Hutterite stand that was in the trailer campground. I got out to get a bottle of water from my backpack in the back of the car and a friend in the car behind caught my attention and pointed out this animal posing so nicely.

Great to see everyone who went, and we all enjoyed an array of delicious salads and desserts that left me feeling full till the early evening. We also enjoyed meeting your two Grandchildren, Shirley, who happened to be staying with you for the weekend. So good to see them both making lists of the bird species seen.

Many thanks, Anne B, for driving some of us us east across the prairies. Hugely appreciated, as always!