#SpringEquinox

#SpringEquinox

The Welcome Back.

Mountainous Parts of the Northern Hemisphere. March 20, 2023.

#WhiteTailedJackrabbit

Encounter with a young White-tailed Jackrabbit at sunrise this morning. These guys are nocturnal so probably he was on his way for a good night sleep.

Often people come across these bunnies in spring and mistakenly assume they are abandoned by their mothers; but they're not. The Edmonton Humane Society has issued a public statement asking people to not bring bunnies into animal shelters.

#Dark-eyed Junco

As the end of April approaches, this beautiful blizzard of Snowbirds is about to leave our area to the Grand North regions. It still amazes me that for such a small and fragile species most of them choose to go to their winter range origin, in cold temperature, to breed.

#RavensNest

A new nest has been located about 2 km from here by observing activities nearby. And that nest has been built on an approximately 60° sidewall at about 50' from the ground on the far West mountain range.

At this moment the nest is completely uncovered and can easily be spotted by predators but for Ravens, it's part of the game. I've been observing Raven's nests for years now and I know that Ravens around here prefer to build in deciduous trees. Eventually growing leaves will produce fresh air while protecting the nest against bad weather. Also youngsters don't have much feathers and sunshine will keep them warm while parents are away looking for food. Coniferous trees would simply create too much heat with no air while sap would damaged their feathers that later would not be useful for their first flight lesson.

Anyway, their nesting period has started in mid-March which now makes more than 21 days of brooding so far; meaning eggs have hatched and we're about to see some serious activities up there. Also meaning 4 to 7 new Ravens in the valley.

#SproutCycle

Mountainous Parts of the Northern Hemisphere. April 25, 2023.

#CommonGrackel

…with all these temperature variations around here, no one can really be sure if it's Spring Season.

But today a small flock of these magnificent Common Grackels has arrived to enjoy the sun with us so, it's official now. We're in!