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. 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…
What is Project 366? Read more here. As I was focusing on trying to get a good photo of the Black-backed Woodpecker – after all it was a lifer for me – all of a sudden something else appeared in the view finder. Something grey/brown scurried across the trunk. I knew immediately what it was….
What is Project 366? Read more here. A single branch was reaching out over the frozen creek. The branch was bare except a handful of dry and frozen catkins that were still attached to it, frozen in time. Many trees and shrubs have catkins. The most well-known in these neck of the woods are probably…
What is Project 366? Read more here. White-breasted Nuthatches and their close cousins, the Red-breasted Nuthatch are common songbirds down in the Whitemud Ravine year round. Next to the Black-capped Chickadees they are probably the most common birds one encounters. I have, however, had some difficulties getting good pictures of them as they never seem…
What is Project 366? Read more here. The rumour was that there was a Black-backed Woodpecker along the trail in the Whitemud Ravine. Although I had my doubts that we would find it we decided to go for it. To my surprise we had no trouble locating it. You just had to listen for the…
What is Project 366? Read more here. Today is my first birthday as a birder. Exactly one year ago – on December 16, 2018 – I went on my first birding outing with my brand new Nikon Monarch 5 binoculars. A 45 minutes drive took me to the Beaverhill Bird Observatory where I went for…
What is Project 366? Read more here. It was a cloudy mild winter’s day and our walk in the Whitemud Ravine started rather uneventful. If was not long, however, before we could hear the familiar drumming sound of a woodpecker going to town on a tree. That was the beginning of a nature walk with…