Scenery 3

Another image from our wet, wet day on 31 May 2013, doing the May Species Count at the Whaleback. This beautiful area of rolling hills is 170 miles south of Calgary, just off Highway 22.

How I would love to have been out at Bow Valley Provincial Park yesterday, as well as on 28 June 2013, seeing all the water nearby. We got up to 33C (91F) or 35C (95C) yesterday, depending on which part of the city. The weather forecast said that it would feel like 38" (100F) when the temperature said 33C, and it sure was a HOT one! Most people here don't have air-conditioning, which is why I just had to spend a few hours driving around in a nice cool car. I don't know how all the people clearing flood debris coped with such high temperatures! This is a view looking over Middle Lake towards Mt. Yamnuska at the far right. This beautiful park lies at the very eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, maybe 45 minutes' drive west of Calgary. When we were there on 28 June, we walked along the Flowing Waters trail (wet in some places) and around Middle Lake. Many Springs trail is mostly flooded, so we couldn't do that one. The hamlet of Exshaw, just a few minutes away, was closed off due to flood damage. www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/9202254278

This is where seven of us spent the day yesterday, recording all flora and fauna that we saw. Bow Valley Provincial Park lies at the foot of the very first mountains when one drives westwards from Calgary for roughly 45 minutes. In other words, the Park lies at the eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains. It's a very popular place with botanists, birders and photographers of any kind. We weren't sure just what we would find when we arrived, especially how much or little the Park had been affected by the recent flooding in Alberta. Parts of the Park were closed, so we didn't walk at Many Springs, but instead walked the Flowing Waters Trail and around Middle Lake (that you see in my photo above). The water level was high and the reeds around one part of the lake were lying on top of the water. I had seen two Common Loons out in the middle of the lake on 18 June, when I spent the day in the rain walking around this lake and Many Springs. Wonderfully, these Loons were still there yesterday and we saw and heard them calling. Such an amazing sound. They tend to stay in the middle of the lake, which makes it difficult or impossible to photograph them. My next photo shows one of them, 48x zoomed and heavily cropped : ) The weather was perfect yesterday and it felt so good to be out and to have no rain at all. I couldn't help but feel rather guilty, though, going out enjoying myself in such a beautiful place, knowing that there were so many people back in Calgary and so many other parts of southern Alberta, who were dealing with flooded basements and other damage. The person who was going to be leading this trip lives in nearby Exshaw and he was unable to come because of dealing with the bad flooding there. In fact, sadly, it's most likely that he has lost his house completely. It's so frustrating to me that a painful back, hips, etc. won't let me help with any clean-up. All I can do is donate to the Red Cross, and carry on with my usual volunteers shifts. I was expecting to hear from many flood victims, but only had a call from one family who had had to come to Calgary from High River, where everyone was so badly affected by the floods. We are expecing a lot more calls from flood victims in perhaps another couple of weeks. Lol, I'm not sure if I slept for 12 or 13 hours last night!!! Haven't done that for years - I usually get between 2 and maybe five hours of sleep a night. Only got about an hour and a half of sleep befere I went on this trip yesterday, partly because I was busy posting the rest of my Flickr photos on another site, but mainly because of emotional tiredness from seeing all the devastation form the "Flood of the Century" in Calgary and the rest of the southern part of the province. I was so tired when I got home late afternoon and was falling asleep at my computer, so by 4:00 p.m. I had no choice but to lie down for maybe "an hour", ha.

This is where I spent 31 May 2013, with a small group of friends, doing the May Species Count for the Whaleback. This location is about 170 km south of Calgary, down towards Pincher Creek. I'm adding photos taken on that trip to a Set of photos that, up till recently, contained images taken on the Small Whaleback on 10 July 2011. On 31 May 2013, we covered the southern end of the Whaleback. As you can see from today's image, the whole area is made up of endless hills. The Rocky Mountains are off to the right of the photo, in the distance, quite close in this very southern part of Alberta. It rained or drizzled all day, so I had to battle water spots in the camera lens as well as low light and wind. Many of my photos are not really as sharp as I would have liked, but I am so glad that I went. The yellow Balsamroot, which we don't get further north, closer to Calgary, was just beautiful. A closer look at these plants revealed all the damage done to their leaves - we saw a couple of tiny, green, hairy caterpillars in the centre of one flower, but I'm not sure if these were two of the culprits. It was a good day, great company, a few interesting finds and glorious scenery to thoroughly enjoy. "More commonly known as the Whaleback, the Bob Creek Wildland and its sister area the Black Creek Heritage Rangeland protects Whaleback Ridge and one of Alberta’s most important elk winter ranges. A montane environment of Douglas Fir and rough fescue grasses, this area in southwest Alberta has sweeping vistas of the Livingstone Range hanging over the western boundary and the Castle Mountains to the south." www.crownofthecontinent.net/content/the-whaleback/cotCA82...

The light was rather low and flat on Saturday morning, 25 May 2013, when my youngest daughter and I drove some of the backroads SW of Calgary, including to visit this "famous" row of five red granaries. They seemed less red, somehow - maybe they are just showing their age more, losing that layer of old, red paint. Or maybe it was just the light - they look so different when the sun is shining on them. (Ha, couldn't stand looking at the original post, so I've just replaced it with a very slightly brighter copy). The far side of the sheds, there is a pile of colourful beehives and the bees had found them. Rachel had asked if I wanted to go along the backroads for my birthday - and what more enjoyable way to spend the day!!! Despite not being able to find a Great Gray Owl for her to see, certain other birds were right where I'd hope they would be - such as Red-winged and Yellow-headed Blackbirds, Wilson's Snipe, Mountain Bluebirds, Ruddy Ducks, Black Terns, etc., etc.. At one tiny slough, there were maybe just four or so birds on the water, and I suddenly realized that one pair was not "just" a pair of Common Goldeneye, but a pair of Barrow's Goldeneye (seen in the first photo I posted today), which Rachel had never seen. By the end of this great day, I think she had an even better understanding of why I love spending a day (any day!) in this way : ) The weather was good, other than a few raindrops, so we were lucky. Thanks so much, Rachel, for spending the day with me! Hope your photos came out better than mine did - got more blurry photos than I'd have liked, but that's usually the case, anyway, lol. By the way, if it's any comfort (and I'm sure it's not, lol!), we couldn't find any Great Gray Owls yesterday, on the annual May Species Count that covers some of the area you and I went to, plus other roads. Thanks for a super day!

Not the most inspiring image, but I was just so happy to come across a yellow field of Canola late this afternoon. Didn't have much choice for composition, but hopefully a few more fields will turn yellow closer to home. I was a bit more than than half way through a 253 km drive (which is a lot for me), after a few hours of walking with five others on private property to botanize the land, recording all flora nd fauna that we came across. My whole hour and a half drive to this place, NW of Calgary, was in wind and rain, but a while after we first arrived, the rain stopped and I drove home in sunshine. Ha, the whole drive there, I was asking myself why on earth I was doing this! Ended up being a very worthwhile and enjoyable day, though.

A photo taken on 3 October 2011, when friends and I went to Moraine Lake to hike the Larch Valley trail (a very strenuous uphill hike with 10 switchbacks, which nearly killed me!). The day was overcast for most of the time and the low light was not good for photography, but at least you get an idea of the magnificent colour of Moraine Lake and the spectacular mountains of the Valley of the Ten Peaks. "Moraine Lake is a glacially-fed lake in Banff National Park, 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) outside the Village of Lake Louise, Alberta, Canada. It is situated in the Valley of the Ten Peaks, at an elevation of approximately 6,183 feet (1,885 m). The lake has a surface area of .5 square kilometres (0.19 sq mi). The lake, being glacially fed, does not reach its crest until mid to late June. When it is full, it reflects a distinct shade of blue. The color is due to the refraction of light off the rock flour deposited in the lake on a continual basis." From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Moraine_Lake www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/9329240344

Another view taken from the Whaleback, a long drive south of Calgary. A group of us spent the day botanizing these hills for the May Species Count on 31 May 2013. Rained all day : ( However, the beautiful yellow Balsamroot was such a treat to see, as was the scenery.

Can you imagine having this for a view maybe 15 minutes' drive from home? I feel SO lucky!!! The gravel backroad, from where I took this image, is still within Calgary city limits. Looking west over the Foothills to the distant eastern edge of the Rocky Mountains, on 31 July 2013. Love this time of year, when a few of the fields burst into vibrant yellow Canola. www.flickr.com/photos/annkelliott/9417031400