Wyndham Carseland March 4, 2023

With the favourable road conditions this morning, I drove just short of an hour southeast of the city to enjoy nature and see what birds are flying about.  The Park is closed to traffic at this time of year, so I parked at the gate and walked from there.  It was really pretty and glowing brightly from the recent new snow.  It was very cold too, I was underdressed.   

The small, hardy, birds were visiting while I was enjoying my visit.  There had been recent sightings of many species but today, lots were elsewhere.  My favourite Black-Capped Chickadees were the highlight for me.  They were plentiful and looking for treats which I had none of to share.  Even though the Chickadees are tiny their wing span is wide.

It was not until near the end of my visit that I saw any woodpeckers.  This is a Female Hairy Woodpecker.  She was very close to a Downy Woodpecker and when I saw them together the difference in size was very obvious.  The Hairy is larger with a longer beak.  

This was my first time for taking a video of a Black-Capped Chickadee.  

There were four White-Breasted Nuthatches chasing each other. This is one of them.  I am not able to tell the males from the females.  I watched for a little while and tried to analyze their behaviour using the tools  I learned in the last bird lesson I took.  While I did pass the test, I cannot tell you what they were up to other than flying after each other.  

Black-Capped Chickadee

Male Downy Woodpecker

This was one of the trails I hiked along.  It was a beaten path yet covered in a couple of inches of new snow.  The sun was just peaking through the cottonwood trees but there was no warmth from it yet.

I left the trees and followed along the Bow River to the weir.  Only the part of the river closer to the weir was fully open water.  Further east was all ice with ice chuck jams and then even further east, it was frozen and snow covered with no open water.

Come summer, I want to invest time nature journaling.  The painting at the top is somewhat of the direction I want to head.  It was done at home using photos that I took this morning.  The trees and river are not from my photos but just an inference.  I want to do the printing/writing myself and that will take loads of work to perfect.  I  tried but my penmanship with brush and watercolour paint is messy.  It's messy even when I try printing with my watercolour pens if it is more than a word or two.  I look forward to a few months from now when it will be warm enough to sketch/paint on location.