Got to be birds flying higher

Canada also observes Black History Month in February! I highly encourage anyone interested in Black history or Canadian history to watch this great documentary about a famous Alberta cowboy--John Ware. I love that someone did a deep dive into his life--Alberta has a lot of invisible Black history.

Watch on YouTube

One dream I made come true this summer was rafting down the Bow River, something I’d never done despite living in Calgary for 30 years. It seems like something one just does and rafters floating down the Bow are a common summer sight.

Unfortunately, I've never been lucky enough to live close to the river, so getting there is a challenge. There are raft rentals in Northwest Calgary, but I also couldn’t round up friends or my husband to go with me. Hubs went rafting enough times as a youngster and didn’t want to do it again.

I found a company called RiverWatch who does educational rafting tours in Calgary and Edmonton, and sometimes they have special events such as a Feast and Float, where you arrive at a dinner :D

Given the cost of rentals and logistics, $49 for a raft ride was a no-brainer to me. However, I still couldn’t round anyone up to go because price was a barrier. Fair enough! Instead of waiting another year, I booked the trip and just went!

All I had to do was get myself down to the Fish Creek Provincial Park boat launch. RiverWatch handles the rest, shuttling the group to a boat launch near Heritage Drive. You float down the river until you end up where you arrived. Pretty smart. I ended up taking a cab from downtown to Fish Creek PP and fortunately my driver was delightful and knew exactly where I wanted to go.

Considering I was caught in the rain the previous day birdwatching, I was prepared for anything, including bringing a long-sleeved jacket and rubber boots. The morning was beautiful and I hoped it stayed that way!

At first I was nervous getting into the boat—we saw on the edges instead of inside, but after a while I felt confident I wasn’t going to fall overboard and we paddled here and there.

Rafting really gets you close to nature--we saw so many birds, such as a belted kingfisher, cormorants, ducks, Canada geese, swallows and a bank swallow colony. The weather was sunny at times and cool and misty at other times, a reminder of how quickly conditions change in the Foothills. My camera and binoculars stayed at home because I didn't know if I'd be able to use them. Even my phone stayed in a baggie just in case! It was so, so peaceful and lately I’ve felt nature has been missing a lot in my life. It was really good to reconnect with that part of myself.

The folks on my boat were really fun compared to the other boat that had a large, noisy family. We stopped around noon and hiked into a picnic area that had real washrooms, LOL.

I ate lunch with an older couple who kindly gave me a ride to the train station at the end of the journey. I really didn't want the float to end because it was so relaxing. However, my body complained the next day about sitting too long and paddling too much, so a four hour float ride was just the perfect amount of time in hindsight!

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11 years ago in June, where I live was rocked by catastrophic flooding. This June we had a catastrophic feeder main break which has turned into 9 days of water restrictions such as less flushing, less showers, less laundry...less anything water related. I had my first shower since Sunday this afternoon and it was Navy-style--get wet, turn off the tap, lather up and rinse. I'm no stranger to taking a bucket into the shower with me during the summer to throw on the grass, but now I'm saving the bucket for other things. Fingers crossed this can get fixed soon. The upside has been being able to WFH all week. Someone must have done the math on all the flushing :-D

We took some extra days off around Canada Day, and because my husband works for an American company now, he also had July 4th off. The weekend weather forecast wasn't looking too great--chances of rain or high temperatures--but we played it by ear and managed to get a lot of fun stuff done.

We road tripped down to the Alberta Birds of Prey Center in Coaldale, about 2 hours south of Calgary. My last visit was in 2007 and so much has changed in 15 years. For example, now there's a duck pond, full of domestic and wild ducks and, of course, Canada geese. Baggies of duck chow are $2 and unfortunately, the ducks weren't too hungry as there were also a lot of little kids there, all with their own baggies. I filled the bird feeder with the leftovers, and the house sparrows, who usually eat anything, weren't too impressed. There was also a wetland, which was new to me.

Other improvements include a classroom building with windows to a large eagle aviary, new shelters for the hawks, eagles, and owls so visitors could see them up close, and an improved flying area. The flying area used to just have logs for seating. Now they have comfortable benches. We watched a bald eagle named Jefferson fly back and forth while the handler talked about bald eagle facts. I took my zoom lens and it was worth lugging it around because I got some really nice photos of Jefferson.

I had my picture taken with a burrowing owl named Sage and I looked like such a dork! You'd think I never saw a bird before 😄 Fortunately Sage was up to the task of looking majestic:

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Lots of birds are on display although sadly, most of them are injured and can't be released. The centre also does rescue and rehab, so there's always hope when a bird is injured.

It's been ages since we went for a good long country drive, and although we lunch at McDonald's, it was still a nice trip. Hubs and I enjoy long car trips. We talk about lots of things and there's no interruptions. Overall, it was a satisfying day, despite arriving home at 9pm--we paid my MIL a visit on the way home. It was still the kind of day that heralds the beginning of summer :-)

davesmusictank recently posted a weather forecast, so I thought I would do the same. It's so terribly hot and hard to stay motivated or focused. Our house, being on a corner, traditionally gets East-West sun all day. It's great in winter, but horrible in summer and after 13 summers where the house regularly hit 90F indoors, we splurged on AC. Even so, the AC has been working hard. A heat warning is in effect for the whole week.

My friend and I went birdwatching on Thursday morning. It was a real treat as she felt comfortable enough to  have me ride along in her car. We went to the 68th Street Wetlands and I was so unprepared for a summer outing. I got a touch of sunburn because I couldn’t find the sunscreen. I also forgot the camera battery on the charger, so I only have cell phone pics to share. Fortunately, I didn’t pack the big lens, whew. I would have needed the big lens to get decent bird pictures though.

Calgary’s Southeast, somewhat like the Northeast, is a weirdsville zone. The community of Forest Lawn used to be it’s own town and was incorporated into Calgary in 1961. There’s a wide avenue, 17th Avenue SE, that was essentially Forest Lawn’s main street. There’s a mish mash of old and new and industrial. The wetlands are bordered by Elliston Park, new condos and the East Calgary landfill. My friend said that if the wind was blowing the right way, we would smell the dump, but as every birder knows, dumps are great places to spot birds!

Part of the pathway around the wetlands is paved and the rest is a gravel access road around the dump’s storm ponds for those who want to go off-trail. We saw a stunning variety of birds in the 3km walk that took us about three hours. The trick is standing in place long enough for the birds to appear :-)

We saw 42 different species and many of them were lifers for me. I edited the list to show lifers in italics:

Canada Goose, Blue-winged Teal, Cinnamon Teal, Northern Shoveler, Gadwall, American Wigeon, Mallard, Canvasback, Redhead, Lesser Scaup, Ruddy Duck

Pied-billed Grebe, Horned Grebe, Red-necked Grebe, American Coot, Black-necked Stilt, American Avocet, Killdeer, Wilson's Phalarope, Spotted Sandpiper

Franklin's Gull, California Gull, Black Tern, Double-crested Cormorant, Great Blue Heron, Black-crowned Night-Heron, Black-billed Magpie, American Crow

Common Raven, Tree Swallow, Barn Swallow, European Starling, American Robin, Clay-colored Sparrow, Savannah Sparrow, Song Sparrow, Yellow-headed Blackbird

Red-winged Blackbird, Brown-headed Cowbird, Brewer's Blackbird, Common Grackle, Common Yellowthroat