collecting urban kilometres

Here are a few days of when I was "out & about" covering urban kilometres!

Fish Creek Provincial Park

It has been months since I poked my nose around Fish Creek Park!  I remembered from last year how beautiful it is there in autumn.  As this season is quickly moving along, I better get moving along and head south for a visit.  I left it a little late for catching the leaves on the trees. There were still lots of those earthy hues though and I was thankful for that.  Seeing a Pileated Woodpecker was a "lifer" for me!  I heard it loud & clear before I spotted it.  There were a few ducks swimming around.  I checked my bird book for help with an ID on this one. I believe it is a Ring-Necked Duck.  After a couple of hours and a few more kilometres covered, I was ready to head back up north.

Nose Hill Environmental Park

With these later sunrises, it was no problem to reach the top of Nose Hill for when the sun would peek above the horizon.  I had a spot in mind and headed there.  It a matter of a couple of minutes the day dawned.  I got the sunrise exactly where I wanted it!  It was around this time last year when we had a snowfall and Nose Hill looked beautiful all decked out in a covering of winter white.  This morning it looked beautiful too, dressed in autumn shades.  What wildlife there was, was curious about me and kept their eye on me.  The face of the female Downy Woodpecker looks quite cute as does the face of the Northern Flicker.  Then there is that coyote's face!  Nose Hill is such a great park to wander about for many kilometres, and that's what I did!

Laycock Park

While larch season has ended in the mountains, it is still a thing here in the city, but not for much longer though.   I walked The Great Trail south to Laycock Park where I knew some larch trees stood tall. The majority of them were in their prime with a few still having a week or so of life to live this season.  In the creek area, I spotted a Common Snipe.  It stayed still the entire time and watched we out of the corner of its eye.  The Magpies would not leave this Merlin alone!  It kept flying off from spot to spot and the Magpies were right after it.  I will have to learn what that is all about.   Visiting here today means another bunch of kilometres were added to my virtual challenge.  

Inglewood Bird Sanctuary

While hiking to Rummel Pass on Monday, I learned that Black-Capped Chickadees winter up here in the north.  I was thrilled to learn that!  There have been a few in each of the parks I hiked through these past few days.  They were bustling about at the Bird Sanctuary on this morning.   On this visit, the two Great Blue Herons were close enough together that I could capture them in the same photo, but, they would not stand straight up at the same time.   From following the bird group, I have learned that Wood Ducks are a big thing these days at the Sanctuary. They are plentiful and colourful!  That can be said too about the European Starlings.  What I noticed was when a Starling yells out, the feathers under their beak fluff up as you can see in the photo top right.   It was a frosty morning when I arrived and it stayed on the crisp side for the entire visit. That means when I get home, I get the pot boiling to make a cup of chai tea with an added teaspoon of Rolo chocolate powder!  The moments of viewing beautiful autumn colours along with ducks and birds are fleeting but the hot beverages are coming into season!