What is Project 366? Read more here. In Post 271: A Rivulet of Water I came across a small stream of running water in an otherwise frozen landscape. As odd as this phenomenon was I did not have a good explanation for what caused it, but I theorized: “Is it discharge from a human-made source…
What is Project 366? Read more here. Birders always look forward to the first bird of the year. In his Birding Without Border book Noah Strycker describes the first bird of the year as: On New Year’s Day, superstitious birder-watchers like to say, the very first bird you see is an omen for the future….
What is Project 366? Read more here. A walk along the Whitemud Ravine and the North Saskatchewan River is a walk through time. The creek and the river are like time machines revealing past history by carving themselves slowly through earth revealing. The ancestral North Saskatchewan River flowed across the prairies for millions of years…
What is Project 366? Read more here. 2019 is coming to an end tonight and so is my Alberta Big Year. It seems appropriate to reflect back on the year that has past and some of the accomplishments and memorable moments. But first, let me introduce the New Year’s jackrabbit. This not so little fella…
What is Project 366? Read more here. So finally I was able to take a walk on the creek. The temperature has been consistently well below the freezing point for over a month now and the Whitemud Creek is covered by a thick layer of ice. Well-traveled trails on the ice provided enough reassurance that…
What is Project 366? Read more here. Although the winter officially begun less than a week ago (on winter Solstice on December 21) we have been in the grips of subzero temperatures for several months by now with both the Whitemud Creek and the North Saskatchewan River solidly frozen for quite some time now. On…
What is Project 366? Read more here. What would be more fitting on Christmas Day than a cute little Downy Woodpecker that was enjoying the sunshine today down in Whitemud Ravine. Downy woodpeckers are the smallest of North America’s woodpeckers and other than being smaller are virtually identical to the Hairy Woodpecker. Despite their similarities…
What is Project 366? Read more here. A stubble field is a type of agricultural crop residue consisting of the cut stems after the crop has been harvested. Usually the stems are ploughed directly in to the ground in springtime. Stubble fields serve many functions, including nutrients recycling as the stems compost and fertilize the field…
What is Project 366? Read more here. It was the first hunt of the year for the Snowy Owls of the Ray Gibbon Drive in St. Albert. It was a beautiful winter’s day with the sun beaming down from a clear blue sky and the temperature in the single digits below freezing point. As we…
What is Project 366? Read more here. Today is the first day of winter and it is also Winter Solstice with the shortest amount of day light hours and longest night of the year. Tomorrow the tables will have turned and we would have gained a whopping whole second of day light, from today’s 7:27:42…