Yesterday at the Nature Centre

The people in our local weather office are saying that our temperatures are back to their seasonal norm today. It is 14 degrees C, not 31 C! The sky is grey, it feels damp but no rain is forecast.

It seems that yesterday was the perfect day for a walk at the Fort Whyte Nature Centre. There are Canada Geese and Cackling Geese all over the grounds – on the paths, in the water, even peering into the Interpretative Centre.

The trees are bursting with fall colours.

It was simply a glorious day. You could ‘smell’ autumn.

The nest boxes are all empty waiting for spring to arrive next year.

This little female Mallard was hiding along the shore in the trees away from all the ones that were dabbling on the other side of the pond.

There was certainly a lot of dabbling going on.

I love how this one uses the orange paddles to turn them around in the water. It was amazing to watch.

As late afternoon approached, there were six American White Pelicans that flew in along with a myriad of geese. By evening all of the ponds and fields will be covered.

Despite the fact that a beautiful fall day is a reminder of winter to come, it remains my favourite season. The colours of the leaves are just stunning.

Incoming.

The geese will continue to arrive until the third week in October when most will have migrated south for the winter. Today, Blackbirds are filling in the ponds of the City (or so I am told and from pictures I have seen). There are meeting or marshalling points where the birds wait for the others to arrive before migrating in mass.

With the change in weather, there will be more birds moving through our City on the way to warmer climates. Migration is a huge challenge – finding safe places to stop, water, a good food source – it is not easy for the birds to take on these thousands and thousands of kilometres. We hope that each arrives safely at their destination.

Thank you for joining me. Have a wonderful Friday.