After covering ten kilometres at Glenbow Ranch today, I am now at the 75% completion point of my Kruger Park Virtual Challenge. More about my visit to the Ranch later in this post, but first an update on making progress along this journey. At 412 kms long, my intentions were for this challenge to carry me through the spring and most of the summer months. Being antsy and having happy feet, my goal is now to reach the finish line before summer even starts on June 20th.
My pacer (that red pin) is no where to be seen when I look back!!!
On May 14th this postcard popped into my mailbox and here I pass it on to you.
At that time I thought it would be nice to have virtual views of animals to entertain me along the way.
These are a few of the virtual views over the past number of kilometres. I had to search almost above and beyond to see these beautiful sights. In the first photo there is actually an elephant on its own at the right under the tree down by the river. This is the first virtual animal sighting! That being said, The Conqueror crew announced this version of the Kruger Park Virtual Challenge will be discontinued come September 1st and no more bib numbers will be sold. They listened to the feedback from the participants about the boring road route, lack of pretty sights or animals, and only a small portion of the route is actually in Kruger Park. They heard us and are taking action!
My next progress report for this challenge will be whenever I reach the finish line!
I have already been perusing the other challenges offered, dreaming of where I might like to venture next.
Glenbow Ranch Provincial Park
Deja-vu, I better get busy being "out & bout" before we are rained on again! The window wasn't wide so I did not want to go far. A visit to Glenbow Ranch would fit the timeframe. I knew it would be one of those days where the views that were up close would be the focus. It was all cloud cover beyond that.
The majority of sparrow shots in my previous posts had to be re-identified. I updated them with the correct name. While they are easy to spy, they are complicated to ID, I am learning all about that. I found a chart that was posted in a group I belong to. It shows simplified, elementary-like shapes & colours of sparrow types which is ideal for beginner birders like me. Very, very closely comparing colour schemes on the head, I am certain this time I got these right!
These were the only spring babies I saw today!
It was a nice surprise to see some crocuses were still looking healthy and in full bloom. I tried to focus on getting crisp and clear images showing the rain drops. I came upon one area that was covered in shooting stars and that was an even nicer surprise. I did get down and dusty and a tad damp capturing these photographs. With all this rain and then the sun to come, the wildflower season should soon spring to life!
Impressive speed. I hope the summer weather arrives soon.
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