Carburn Park

Shadows of birders taken at Carburn Park on January 23rd.

Saw this wildflower on a walk at Carburn Park this morning. "Cicer milkvetch (Astragalus cicer) is a cool season, perennial legume introduced to North America from Europe."

Hound's-tongue wildflower, seen on 14th July 2007 at Carburn Park. A non-native plant, introduced from Europe.

Saw this female Hairy Woodpecker on 11th May at Carburn Park.

I barely came to a halt to take this quick shot of (Brome?) grass covered in hoar frost the other day, but just had to try : ) Sometimes, birders keep walking at a steady pace and I get can easily get left behind if I stop to photograph something I want to shoot. The ice crystals have always completely melted by the time we have walked for three hours - but I never seem to get up early enough to get out there on my own to catch the frost, LOL. To those of you who never get snow or frost, it must be difficult to imagine everything around you covered in such ice crystals - so very beautiful. This was photographed at Carburn Park on December 11th. The background is the Bow River.

Gosh, I took this photo of Canada Goose goslings way back on 3rd May last year, at Carburn Park. I kept coming across it, but never got round to checking whether I had already uploaded it to my Flickr photostream. Apparently, I hadn't, and so here it is : ) If we can just get the next three months behind us, spring won't be all that far away ... sigh. Sounds so good!

All parts of this wild plant, which belongs to the Nightshade family, are poisonous. It contains toxic alkaloids and narcotics. I think the flower itself is quite impressive and I find the seedpods fascinating.

A typical view through the shrubs on a hoar frost day. Took this image while I was on a walk down by the Bow River at Carburn Park on December 11th. Have spent all day, leaving home about 5:50 a.m. and arriving home early evening, doing the Canmore Christmas Bird Count. Canmore is less than an hour's drive west of Calgary, near Banff, in the Rocky Mountains. A full day of walking, in temperatures around -21C, I think. I am absolutely worn out and it certainly didn't help that I left my glasses somewhere, either at a lady's house in Canmore or in someone's car. I need them for reading and the computer, so had to dash into Shopper's Drug Mart and grab a pair of non-prescription glasses. They seemed OK in the store, but I can't see that clearly now I'm at home. Oh, well, at least I can see better than without glasses. Not sure how on earth I'm going to get my glasses, but I'm really hoping I can get them before Christmas. So many people, so many pairs of winter boots and thick winter jackets, etc. that it's very easy to have something buried and missed. So annoying. Got the Calgary Christmas Bird Count tomorrow.

This morning started off grey and rainy but I decided that I would still drive over to Carburn Park for 9:00 a.m. in case the weather cleared. The sun was shining by the time we finished our walk : ) The fall colours are not as vibrant as they would have been had the sun been shining a little sooner, but still pretty.