Thursday, September 10, 2009

flickers and canyons

Such a nice pose. Throughout our travels we came across many flicker families. They show wonderful flashes of bright yellow or reddish under-wings as they fly. Near Drumheller I photographed a yellow-shafted flicker and this fella who is a red-shafted flicker was flying with the family pack in Taber enjoying the cottonwoods by the river. The male red-shafted sports a red mustache while the yellow-shafted sports a black one. This was how the egg broke into the pan. To me it looks like a heart, although my daughter says it looks like a bum, all a matter of perspective I guess. MMM homemade hash-browns in the open mountain air, nothing tastes better.
Mountain in Waterton Parks. I like the composition. We only camped one night in the park as you pay a fee per person to enter the park then you pay the camping fee on top. Personally the girl at the main gate was a "nasty prejudicial type" so her reception into the park did nothing to encourage us to want to stay there. Thank goodness the fella at the campground was a joyful friendly sort otherwise we may not have even stayed the night. The following night we drove back to Mountainview to camp at Payne Lake, there the campground personnel were wonderful. The following day we set off north towards the Waterton reservoir and were gifted with two separate osprey platforms with osprey. You will have to check back to see photos of the osprey as they will be posted another day.
Red Rock Canyon in Waterton Park, the rock looks quite colorful where wet, kinda wished for a bit of a rain sprinkle to set off the colors. The following photo is a close up of the rock color when wet. An artists palette of color. Camping sure gives me a lot of inspiration, everything is so much more colorful when one cooks and eats outdoors. I am sure glad my legs held out to do some gentle walking on the river-side trails. I sure wish I had the strength in my knees to hike up and down hill, but alas, my knees just are not strong enough to hold.

No comments: