Today's the day! April 8, 2024

For millions of people, today was the day to experience the solar eclipse which was the case for me too but even more so today was the day that I saw my first crocus of the season.  I aimed for the sunny slopes up on Nose Hill.  If they were out yet, I knew these slopes would be where I could spot them, and spot them I did!  There were loads and loads of very young buds on many of the slopes.  This was my favourite crocus of the day as it was the most mature of all that I saw.

many looked like this...

...and like this.  There were an abundance of bouquets, yet they were too small to get a good photograph.  It was very slow going at times as each bud I saw stopped me in my tracks.  Once I was content with my crocus collection for the day, I had other business to take care off, so off I went to where the trees were.

Yesterday, I went to Carburn Park with hopes of finding the owl that lots of people saw on Saturday.  I had no luck.  Even throughout this winter, I did not see the owl that usually hangs out in the Birth Forest. SO, I made my own owl!  This is my most recent macrame project.  I loved the look of it in the tutorial yet it was not rated as easy nor as a beginner project.  I knew I could at least give it a try, and it did try my patience, I persisted through though and this is the outcome. The piece of driftwood that it is perched on is from a beach in Nova Scotia.  I brought it with me to Nose Hill to capture this photo and now it hangs on my fairy light tree at home.   

Leaving the forest behind to hit the hills again, I heard a sweet song.  My thoughts at first were a little song bird of some short has arrived in the city.  When I looked up, this is what I spied, a Northern Shrike, yikes!  While they are a song bird and sing pretty tunes, they are also a vicious bird.  It sang continuously and what I learned was they will sing a pretty song to entice smaller song birds to drop by for a visit and then they attack it.  

This is the spectrogram of it singing.  I recorded it for about 15 to 20 seconds with my Merlin app and the lower dark circle type spots are when it sang out. I have the sound but do not know how to share it here.  Maybe one of my followers knows how I can share it.

a beautiful sight

Upon arriving back home, I had a quick snack then headed back out.  I wanted to be "out & about" while the solar eclipse was occurring.  I knew it would not appear as much here as it would only be just short of 40% of the sun covered.  I took these two captures while googling to know what was happening when.

I began walking at Confluence Park at 11:30am and walked until 1:15pm.  I watched the clock so at the precise time of maximum eclipse for Calgary, I snapped this shot.  Nothing appeared different to me other than it felt a tiny bit chillier and the wind picked up, which may or may not have had anything to do with the eclipse.  

I also then quickly snapped this photo of the male Mallard Duck.  I have these two photos and a few others to acknowledge that I was outside experiencing the solar eclipse and what it looked like while I was doing so.  It really just felt like any other day in appearance (other than seeing a watch party up on a little hill) but in my mind it felt different.