It is, of course, all worth it. Cactus blossoms are far too pretty to be left unphotographed.
They were the reason I was out on the prairie but it’s not like I ever really need an excuse to go there. The native grassland of southern Alberta is pretty much my favourite place to roam. The cactus blossoms are just a bonus.
But they were a bonus I was actually looking for so I headed for the prairie along the Red Deer River near Gem to find them.
I’d started off the day in Okotoks at an opening I was invited to of a display of Indigenous dresses and other clothing at the Okotoks Museum and Archives be sure to check it out if you’re in town and considered heading further west to do some fishing once I’d toured the exhibit.
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I’d headed due east, hoping to find lots of birds. Migration is in full swing right now, so I followed my usual route past Chestermere and down a gravel road that passes several sloughs. It was still fairly early and the night had been chilly, so there were patches of thin ice on the first slough that I passed. But there were birds there, too.
I saw shovelers out on the water, squadrons of pintails flying around, mallards among the cattails, but they were all too far away for pictures at the first slough. At the second, about halfway to Strathmore, there were more ducks, shovelers and mallards again, a few pintails and pairs of American wigeons that flew off with a chorus of whistling cries.