For my Brother

Another photo that thankfully came out well enough to upload : ) This young Red Fox was hanging out in the den area with one of his/her siblings while we watched from the car.

Yes, I survived the full-day hike yesterday, though my body isn't moving quite like it should today, LOL. The scenery was spectacular and the wildflowers just wonderful. Two of us were taken to this trail by a friend who had been there a handful of times before. Both guys have had a lifetime of walking and hiking - and then there was me, LOL. However, we were stopping constantly to search for plants, record them and photograph them, so it was not a brisk-walking hike, thank goodness, otherwise I wouldn't have gone. Lost count of the number of times I glanced at the mountain sides to check that there were no Grizzly Bears in sight, though one had been along our trail at one point, turning over large rocks to see what was underneath. Thanks, David, for sharing this special place with us, and thanks for your patience with a slower walker : ) I SURVIVED!! We walked along this valley, gradually climbing upwards until we reached Gunnery Pass (1874 m, 6150 ft) and then returned to the car via the next valley. This photo was taken from on the way up the ridge that was our high point, looking back along the valley from where we had come. Have to admit that I was very conscious of the fact that the further we went, the further we had for our return journey : )

I dashed down to the park yesterday afternoon to try and get a few snowflake photos. Got an awful lot of blurry photos, but also maybe two or three that were just about sharp enough. This was the most complete snowflake that came out, but I wasn't sure about it on a black background. Not very Christmasy, so I'll keep a brighter shot of a slightly melted snowflake for a bit closer to Christmas. If you happen to think of it (you know, in between baking, cooking, shopping, wrapping, etc., etc., - yeah, right!), let me know which one you prefer. I just couldn't make up my mind which was my favourite of the two. It was slightly windy and, oh boy, does that make it harder to get anything that is so light and delicate in focus, LOL. I guess I should have taken my tiny, table-top tripod that I tend not to bother with any more. I loved it when I was trying to focus on a certain snowflake and another one with a completely different pattern, gently landed on it or nearby. What a magical world it was : ) I had such a lovely morning today - a Christmas get-together with a whole bunch of friends whom I hadn't seen for about a year and nine months!! My out-of-town botanizing trips are always on Fridays, so I've been unable to go these usual weekly get-togethers with friends. What a wonderfully warm, welcoming bunch of people they are - I'm very lucky to know these folks! I have to set my two alarm clocks and my kitchen timer for around 3:50 tomorrow morning - i.e. not all that much later than I normally get to bed! - as I have to be halfway across the city for 6:30 a.m., ready for travelling westwards with a few friends to do the Christmas Bird Count in Canmore (near Banff). Just hope I don't sleep through my alarms! I think it was three years ago that it was -30C on this Canmore Count and five hours of walking in it was not exactly fun : ) No bird photos, but I got some beautiful icicle shots, ha. The 2010 count is the National Audubon Society's 111th annual Christmas Bird Count! Sunday is the Calgary Christmas Bird Count, so it will be another early start.

Two of the tiniest mushrooms you could imagine, but I thought they were so pretty. The caps must have been less than a quarter of an inch! Tiny mushrooms are one of my favourite kinds of fungi to photograph : ) Found at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on September 7th. More blurry than I like, but I love the colours. I wanted to thank four of my friends for such an enjoyable, fun lunch yesterday - the yummy Festive Meal at Swiss Chalet! Joan, Suzanne, Margit and Sheila are not birders or botanizing friends - which, I am ashamed to say, has meant that it must be about a year since our last get-together. Tells what good people they are to not forget about me and to put up with my constant absence due to nature walks and day-trips in spring, summer and fall!!! Thank you, ladies, for such a lovely time yesterday. And thank you, Joan, for taking the time to check my Flickr photostream - means a lot to me : )

The paths at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary are obviously not made just for animals of the human kind! These Mule Deer looked almost Christmasy in the distance.

This was a young House Sparrow that I saw while visiting Heritage Park with my oldest daughter on 21st June. It offered me the chance to get two or three nice shots : ) en.wikipedia.org/wiki/House_Sparrow

Yet another view of the "famous five" red sheds south of Calgary : ) I had been looking forward to seeing them surrounded by piles of snow, but I found that there was far less snow than I had been expecting. Still pretty, though, I thought, including the curves of the tracks. Got home 45 minutes ago (7:15 p.m.) from a long day's Christmas Bird Count in the Snake's Head/Sundre area, north west of Calgary. This was our final Count. My alarm was set for 3:50 a.m., though it took me a while to drag myself out of bed after only one hour of sleep! An overcast day today with a few snowflakes and a temperature, I think, of around -12C.

I was standing maybe six feet away from this beautiful Snowy Owl (female or juvenile) in the Canadian Wilds area of the Calgary Zoo. It was sitting near the edge of a bank about five feet high, near the edge of the path through the aviary. At first, a slight hiss came from that partly open beak - obviously a little warning to not invade its territory. Then the owl became used to my presence. I took a pile of photos with my new Panasonic FZ18 camera, too, but found that when I use flash with it, images come out darker than with my Canon S3 IS. Consequently, the eyes were barely yellow from the FZ18, which I didn't like, so I'm posting a photo from my Canon.

Well, the poor Prairie Crocuses looked rather battered and droopy this morning, after the awful snow storm we had two days ago! They were all closed up, with their little fur coats - solar heating, Crocus style! "This furry little perennial is actually not a crocus, which is in the Lily family; it's really an anemone, in the Buttercup family."