Wood Duck male

Yesterday morning, 21 October 2017, I went to the Grand Re-opening of the Wild Bird Store here in the city. It is also their 20th Anniversary. Their new location is within my driving comfort zone, so I decided to go.

The beautiful Swainsons's Hawk shown in my previous photo resides at the Alberta Institute for Wildlife Conservation and accompanied Janis while she gave a talk. It is four years old, has a damaged wing, and serves as a Wildlife Ambassador. Apparently, it gets on well with people and therefore has the right kind of personality to be trained for this important work. Quite a vocal bird, too, as we found out.

There were several other talks, one being given by Myrna Pearman from the Ellis Bird Farm and another by Chris Fisher. Both full of interesting information.

Afterwards, I decided to keep driving north, and called in at the Inglewood Bird Sanctuary. I rarely go there, as it always seems a long way to drive, and I tend not to see many birds when I go on my own. I was happy, though, to see a number of beautiful Wood Ducks and one of the Great Horned Owls, so my visit felt worthwhile.