When winter comes to the mountains

A rather hazy photo taken two days ago, on 13 October 2016, when I joined a group of friends for a birding walk in South Glenmore Park. When I walk in this area, it's usually for the fresh air and exercise. As far as the birds are concerned, everything tends to be over on the far side of the Glenmore Reservoir. It's no fun at all trying to photograph birds that are barely visible with the naked eye! On this day, some of those very distant specks turned out to be Surf Scoters and Western Grebes.

The first part of our walk was going westwards along the rough trail near the edge of the water, and on our return walk, we used the main, paved path. It was during the latter half of the walk that we spotted something moving in the tall grasses. Really, all you could see at first was a pair of ears. It could easily have been someone's dog, but when a little more of it showed through the grass, we could see it was a beautiful Coyote. Lovely colouring and looking very healthy.

I will add our leader's list of species seen:

S. Glenmore Reservoir, SW Calgary, 0915-1200, Thu13Oct2016. Completely overcast, calm -1 to 1°C

1. American Wigeon-1+
2. Mallard-25
3. Ring-necked Duck-6+
4. Scaup sp.-10+
5. Surf Scoter-9+
6. Bufflehead-20
7. Common Goldeneye-15
8. Common Merganser-3
9. Horned Grebe-50+
10. Red-necked Grebe-1
11. Eared Grebe-2
12. Western Grebe-15
13. Sharp-shinned Hawk-1
14. American Coot-50+
15. Bonaparte’s Gull-7
16. Herring Gull?-3
17. Downy Woodpecker-21
18. Northern Flicker-2
19. Blue Jay-2
20. Black-billed Magpie-10
21. American Crow-4
22. Common Raven-3
23. Black-capped Chickadee-30
24. Red-breasted Nuthatch-3
25. Brown Creeper-2
26. Hermit Thrush?-2

Red Squirrel 4
Coyote 1

After the walk, friend Sandy invited a couple of us back to her place for lunch. Very enjoyable and much-appreciated - thanks, Sandy! This was the view taken from this area, looking west towards the Rocky Mountains. The snow we had over the Thanksgiving weekend in Calgary had all melted.