Anne Elliott's photos with the keyword: glistening

Finally, there is a break in the extreme cold weather here, after maybe 10 or 12 days of temperatures that plunged as low as windchills of -43C on some of the days. This cold spell coincided with all the Christmas Bird Counts and yesterday's annual New Year's Day Count in Fish Creek Park. They have been brutally cold days, with quite a few people dropping out. Yesterday, only 8 of the 13 people who had said they were going, showed up. Today, 2 January 2018, the temperature just after noon is only -1C (windchill -3C). Of course, the birds had far more sense than the humans - the birds were hiding in sheltered places and my groups sightings were few and far between. A total of 7 species was the final total for my group for three hours of walking in the park. I suspect that at least some of the birds were up the cliff, eating at the feeders of all the houses that edge the park. Winter boots that say they work for temperatures down to -40C were struggling to keep toes warm yesterday. Our cameras stopped working, in protest of being subjected to such cold. It was a different kind of cold yesterday, maybe a damp cold. Most of our walking was through the trees, but part way when we did emerge, we found blue sky and sunshine. I love seeing the snow that has fallen along the top of the bridge railings. This is one of the maybe dozen photos my camera was able to take and one of only two or three that actually turned out. Definitely not a photographer's ideal morning, lol. After the count, everyone usually gathers at Tim Horton's, but this year, our usual Tim's was closed for some reason. The closest alternative was the nearby McDonald's. Only a few people turned up, but it was so enjoyable to sit and chat with friends over hot coffee and French fries (or some other equally unhealthy food).

This photo was taken on 29 November 2016, on the last of three recent trips to Kananaskis, to look for Whte-tailed Ptarmigan. I was so very fortunate to go out with different friends on two other days, on 22 and 23 November 2016, and lucky enough to see these birds all three times. I didn't have to trudge through snow on the first two trips, but was up to my knees in the white stuff for part of the third visit. The snow looked beautiful in the sunshine, so I took this quick shot of a fairly young little tree surrounded by sparkling snow. It was just so exciting to see the Ptarmigan - a bird that had been at the top or near the top of my mental Wish List for several years. As you can imagine, spotting a white bird against a snowy background from a great distance is pretty well impossible, especially if they are in the shade As photographers know, shooting white on white is never easy. These birds tend to walk around in just a small area for a while, feeding on the Willow buds, and then the group lies down, some of them burrowing till just the head and neck are visible, or some will burrow till they disappear completely under the snow. Every now and then, you can hear the little sounds they make. After resting, they repeat the feeding process and then rest again. As you can imagine, a turn of the head so that a bird is looking away from you, all that remains is something that looks like one of the many lumps of snow everywhere. "The smallest grouse in North America, the White-tailed Ptarmigan inhabits alpine regions from Alaska to New Mexico. It has numerous adaptations to its severe habitat, including feathered toes, highly cryptic plumage, and an energy-conserving daily regime." From AllAboutBirds. www.allaboutbirds.org/guide/White-tailed_Ptarmigan/id "The white-tailed ptarmigan (Lagopus leucura), also known as the snow quail, is the smallest bird in the grouse family. It is a permanent resident of high altitudes on or above the tree line and is native to Alaska and the mountainous parts of Canada and the western United States. It has also been introduced into the Sierra Nevada in California, the Wallowa Mountains in Oregon and the Uinta Mountains in Utah. Its plumage is cryptic and varies at different times of the year. In the summer it is speckled in gray, brown and white whereas in winter it is wholly white. At all times of year the wings, belly and tail are white. The white-tailed ptarmigan has a diet of buds, leaves, flowers and seeds. The nest is a simple depression in the ground in which up to eight eggs are laid. After hatching, the chicks soon leave the nest. At first they eat insects but later move on to an adult diet, their mother using vocalisations to help them find suitable plant food. The population seems to be stable and the IUCN lists this species as being of "Least Concern". From Wikipedia. en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White-tailed_ptarmigan

When birds are very few and far between, as seems to be the case so much of the time these days, there is no shortage of snow to photograph! Amazing how snow takes on so many different shades of blue, depending on the light and weather. This photo has such different colouring from the previous image. The photo above was taken at Bebo Grove, Fish Creek Park, on 24 February 2014. That was the last day I've been out till today, 7 March 2014, other than to have minor surgery on 25 February. Cabin fever set in a few days ago, lol, but today, I have a very early start, as I am going off for the day with friends.

Just very small, these delicate fungi seem to collapse just below the cap and I find them looking like this. Really helps when photographing them, as it is easier to get shots of topside and underside of the sparkling cap. Can't remember how big it was - maybe half to three-quarters of an inch across? Photographed at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park on August 25th. Luckily, it was growing in amongst the mosses near the side of the trail, where the sunlight was able to reach. Not a huge number of fungi to be seen, but some of them were rather nice. We really need rain, everywhere is so dry.

I loved the way the sunlight made the snow glisten.