Making friends

I wasn't too sure this afternoon, when this heavy set dog and his buddy "welcomed" us on a farm northwest of the city, but they were only doing their watch-dog duty : ). Four of us had set out at 7:00 a.m. (actually, I had left home at 6:30 a.m.) to drive around the area near Cochrane, to record birds and mammals seen on the Cochrane Bird Count. We found only 12 species of bird but 6 species of mammals, including two Moose. We did a pretty brutal hike at Big Hills Spring Provincial Park, often following the partly frozen creek seen in my previous photo. Lots of snow on the ground, of course covering those nasty fallen branches and rocks : ) Around mid-afternoon, we called in at a farm to see what birds might be hanging around. However, our vehicle got stuck in the snow in the long driveway and took forever to get it cleared. The owner of the farm got his son to drive a piece of equipment to help clear some of the snow and get us out of there. By this time, the decision was made to call it a day and return home. Our temperatures rose to around 4C this afternoon, but there was a very cold wind.