Caboose Camping April 23, 2024

While window watching, one opened up so I jumped at the opportunity to embrace the opening!  With wonderful weather stretching over a few days along with a mid week vacancy at my favourite caboose, it was go time.  On the way to going to the campground where the Canadian Pacific Caboose is, I stopped by Ann and Sandy Cross Conservation to hike for a few hours.  

I’m not sure what I was thinking bringing loads of warm layers!  With the crazy mixed up weather we experienced, I was mixed up too, +12C felt like +25C!  De-layer, de-layer, de-layer!

The trails were dry and 99.9% clear of snow!

Yet, when there was snow, I played in it!

view west to our Rocky Mountains

I wondered would I see crocuses!  So happy when I did!  I have not had time to get back to crocus hunting in Calgary.

The Tree Swallows and Mountain Bluebirds were plentiful.  They were tormenting each other as each was protecting their nests in the bird boxes. This is a Tree Swallow, the sun sure made it shine brightly!

These are Mountain Bluebirds, a female and male.

They are watching over that box.

It was about an hour drive to my Caboose from where I was hiking.  I arrived right at check in time and took no time at all to unpack, change, open a beer, grab the chips and settle in outside in the sunshine where it now felt like +30C!

Once the sun went down, it was time to layer up.  I was now thankful I had that warm winter wear with me. It also meant soon the full Pink Moon would appear. It was still below the trees at this point, but I patiently waited!

enjoying a fire while waiting

It was a beautiful clear night and the full Pink Moon put on quite a show!

crafting : painting : birding

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Back in mid March when I got into macrame, the plan was to complete a few easy projects to get the hang of the craft and then move on to create a boho bag.  That idea has fallen by the wayside since I have been having so much fun working on smaller more meaningful items.  This angel is the latest addition to my meaningful collection.  I took her out into a treed area to get a photo of her in nature.  She represents my Guardian Angel who loved being out in nature.  We spent many times in various parks over the years, she loved the sights and sounds and smells of these places. I know my Guardian Angel has my back!  

she now hangs in my home on the fairy light tree

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Another thing that has fallen by the wayside are watercolour painting sessions.  After painting twelve full moon scenes and a cover scene, for my 2025 calendar, over a short period of time, I then pushed all the supplies to the side, not wanting to even touch a brush.  Except for this!  These splashes and swipes of paint represent a logo I designed.  There's more to this than meets the eye!  That's all I will say for now!  Stay tuned!

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Lately, not a day goes by that I am not "out & about" enjoying nature in some form or another!  I was not feeling like I wanted to sift through my crocus photos so sifted through my bird photos from the past three days.  Covering thirty kilometres throughout Beaverdam Flats, Carburn Park and Inglewood, I came away with some nice surprises and unexpected sights.  Of course, I did see some of those usual suspects such of this male House Finch...

....and his cutie-pie friend!

While standing in a location watching the ducks do their spring thing, I was startled by a flock of Tree Swallows that flew from the tree, so much so that I let out a WOOW.  What a sight to see watching them fly over top then in a matter of a minute all settle back down in the tree.  

This is a close up of a few of them as they settled down on a branch.  

I mentioned in a previous post about wanting to capture a video of a drumming Northern Flicker but had no luck. Well, I had better luck this time around!  

It pays to keep your eyes peeled in every direction.  Movement in the water below caught my attention and when I was able to get a better look, I saw this muskrat swimming by.  It quickly disappeared into an area around that log.  

It was a blind corner for both of us!  

I think I was more shocked than the coyote was. 

It just nonchalantly did an about face and sauntered off trail into the trees.  

While looking into the trees to see where the coyote went, I saw a flicker of a bright yellowish green colour.  I waited, I watched, I looked to left and right then there is was again.  This is the clearest photo I captured.  While it is facing away from me, I was able to see that red patch on the head.  Seeing this Ruby-Crowned Kinglet was a nice surprise!  

Another nice surprise was seeing this male Harlequin Duck.  I followed it back and forth for quite some time as it swam back and forth chasing after his lady friend.  At first I wandered what it was chasing after as I forgot how the females look so different.  The reminder came when I got home and made the ID's of my sightings.  

This was an unexpected sight!  While seeing deer is a common occurrence, seeing one with one antler is not.  It will soon shed the other one. This normally happens during January to March after mating season.  Throughout the summer, they will grow back.

The nice surprises and unexpected sights continued!  As I walked out of the trees to the trail by the river, this thing flew up from the water and landed on the grass in front of me.  I was camera ready, you need to be these days!  Once I got home, I used my app to make the ID.  This is a Cooper's Hawk. 

Oh my, even another nice surprise sighting!  This is an Osprey!  It was easy to photograph because it hoovered in one spot for a lengthy time.  It was eyeing the water beneath it. I was expecting it to do a deep dive to the water to capture food, but that did not happen, it just eventually flew away.  

My gosh, the sweet surprises kept happening!  I heard the tune and I could name it in five notes!  This is my first sighting of a Song Sparrow this season.  I ended up seeing three of them and they were all singing their little hearts out. 

Early on this day, I stopped by the Bald Eagle's nest viewing location.  The Eagle was busy busy busy doing something but I could not capture a good photo because of all the movement.  Later, on my way back, I stopped by again and captured this photo.  I chatted with another birders who told me it appeared her activity earlier was that of feeding babies but they did not see the babies nor do they know how many are in there. I won't have another opportunity to head back here for a week or so. 

These spring days have been so fulfilling!  

Camino de Santiago Virtual Challenge April 2024

And I'm off!  Again!  Virtually!  Twenty-eight plus hours by air virtually got me from eastern Australia to France to start my next conqueror challenge.  The Camino de Santiago is one of the original challenges and has seen close to 85,000 conquerors from all over the world take on this trek virtually.  No doubt many have completed the Camino in reality.  The route is 774 kms in distance.  I was not wanting to do another longer challenge but this one feels like a good fit right now.  This route is long enough so the plan is to virtually still be covering Camino distance while I am actually hiking in Austria in June. 

This is the route the challenge takes.  It starts in France and crosses over into Spain.  The closest I have been to Saint Jean Pied de Port in France is when I was in Figueres Spain back in 2022 which is a five hour and forty minute drive away. 

This is a close up of the route showing my marker at 16.8 kms along the way.  I received my race bid and my number is 84941, this is a popular challenge.

This is the photo I am using for my marker.  

It is from one of the walks I did along the Mediterranean while in Spain. 

at the start of the Camino de Santiago

first postcard that popped into my mailbox and I am sending off to you

A mere 16.8 kms into the challenge and this is the virtual view!  Oh WOW!

Great Ocean Road Virtual Challenge COMPLETE April 17, 2024

This was the virtual escape I needed many times over the past number of weeks!  On numerous occasions, it took self talk to get out the door facing winter conditions while being in the midst of spring. I was so over the wind, the cold, the ice, the snow but I had to get out there and accomplish some kind of distance.  Once back home, it was such a treat to enter my distance and virtually see myself along the ocean on a warm sunshine blue sky day.  I warmed up to you in so many ways!  Good-Bye Great Ocean Road!

from start to finish and all markers in between

Look at this!  The red shows the route I took for the Conquer 2022 Challenge that I called Aussie Coastal Bushwalk and the blue is the route I covered for the Great Ocean Road.  Another challenge the Conqueror people designed is the Great Barrier Reef.   Maybe some day I will tackle the short version, the only thing is there are no virtual views.  It would be fun to tack on a challenge north from the red or west from the blue.  

Now this is what I call a great ocean road!  This is just one of the hundreds of gorgeous views along the way.  At first, I got caught up in eyeing absolutely everything but that became too much time on the computer.  

these are the final three postcards that popped in that I am now sending off to you 

I already started a new virtual challenge and I will share a little bit about that in coming days!

enjoying what I get handed each day.....

.....as I go out each day looking for something to be handed!  

My plan for this day was to be a birder for a few hours with hopes of coming away with lots of sweet sightings!  While I had no success with seeing lots of interesting birds other than the usuals, I cannot feel disappointment as I saw several sweet sights of other sorts!  The lagoon at Carburn Park was still not fully thawed.  It looked so pretty showing off a clear reflection.  On this morning, I did stop and sit on a bench for awhile and savour the scene in front of me.

While exploring along another trail, a couple asked me if I knew where the porcupine was to which I replied "No, but do you know where the owl is?" to which they replied "No!"   A lady heard our discussion, offering to lead us to the porcupine.  This was one of them, high up in the tree.  I was thankful for my great zoom lens to captured its face.

This American Bald Eagle was hanging out, watching over the area!  

Or was it watching over something else?  

Upon close inspection with my great zoom lens, I spotted a Bald Eagle sitting in the nest!  The watch is on! I will have to come back another day to see if there are babies.  

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During this visit to the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary, a fellow asked me if I work there to which I replied "No"!  My initial thought was, am I spending too much time here!  It reminded me of when the Out There store was downtown kitty corner to the Bay.  I enjoyed going in over my lunch hour to drool over all the sporting gear.  Then one day the manager said to me, we are going to give  you a name tag because you are in here more than the employees.  

waiting for the deer to cross the trail 

This Northern Flicker was drumming on the green metal post.  It stopped when I came along.  I waited for it to drum again with plans of recording it.  It never did, it just flew off.  

a male Hairy Woodpecker

I had a plan during this visit!  Instead of taking photos of the Geese sitting on the railing, I would make a video of them as I walked across the bridge.  This was the outcome of that!  I am not sure which one is the male.  The first one hissed at me and the second one stuck its tongue out at me.  

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It was time once again to hit the hills at Nose Hill for crocus hunting.  I had much success!  I gave up sorting through the dozens and dozens and dozens of photos I took, and went with these few to share with you.  There were loads of bouquets, but they had lots of brush blown over them. It had been quite windy through the night and earlier on this morning.  

Another plan for today was to check out the location where I thought there may be a den.  As I approached the top of a little hill, I saw this, a coyote leaving the area where the digging was.  There was no activity around the actual digging so I moved on.  I will come back another day, maybe there will be babies to see. As I began to follow the trail.....

.....I saw something odd looking in the grass on the slope across the way.

Do you see what I see?

See that dark circle just below where I put the orange arrow?

Time for a closer inspection!

I followed the trail along the top just above the arrow until I got to where the snow was and where I thought the dark circle might me.  This is what I saw when I zoomed in with my great zoom lens.  It's a porcupine laying in the grass.  It was probably sleeping as they do their prowling around in the dark of night.  

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My initial thought a short distance along the trail at Confluence Park this morning was I should have stayed home!  It was cold, it was windy, it was snowing lightly!  I did not don enough warm layers! No, I am not winking at you, the snow was plastering my eyes!  I did cover 10.5 kms as I wanted to finish off the Great Ocean Road Virtual Challenge, I needed 10.1 kms to reach the finish line.

I went out looking to be handed something, something sweet that I could savour.  

I accepted what I was presented, ice formations and   

snow covered crocuses

Then, I spotted a "lifer"!  An American Pulpit!  This was the best I could do with photographing it, it was a distance away, it did not sit still, it then flew off.  I guess I will head back here another day to see if I can see it again!  

What ever you are handed when you are out & about, accept it and find a way to enjoy it!