Yesterday's adventure

Yesterday, 21 November 2015, turned out to be a fun day for a group of us, driving SW of the city into the rolling hills to look for birds. We started off ‘well’, when our driver reversed into another birder’s car right there in the parking lot where we met. The crunch sounded really bad, but thankfully damage was very minimal! Then, much later - this photo is being posted for interest, not photographic merit, lol! Not MY vehicle!

As you can see, we had a fair amount of recent snow. Absolutely love the scenery (see main photo posted this morning) - never get tired of it. I think my favourite time of year to see it is in the winter months - as long as someone else is driving : )

Our drive took us south to the Millarville area, where we were hoping that we might just see Wild Turkeys, a Gyrfalcon or a Northern Hawk Owl. No luck with the last two, but we were lucky enough to see a number of distant Wild Turkeys at two different locations. Just couldn't get a decent shot of any of them, especially when they were moving about through the trees. I had had a look for these months ago, when people were reporting seeing them, but I wasn't able to find any.

I think we did just as well, if not better, with mammals than bird species, seeing several beautiful male deer and a couple of distant Coyotes. Then, later on, we were amazed to see a group of three Moose and just a short distance along the road, a group of five Moose. To see even one lone Moose is exciting, but to see eight in one day was amazing and most unusual. Unfortunately, they were all too far away to get even half-decent shots, but I may post one sometime, just for the record. I will add our leaders' final species list when it is available.

Towards the end of our trip, a friend asked what I was going to be doing afterwards and when I said I had no plans, invited me to go along with him and his friend to look for Great Gray Owls and Snowy Owls. I said I would just grab my backpack from the car I had been riding in, By the time I had got my things out, I happened to turn round to go to their car, when I discovered there were no cars left!! Thank goodness my original drive was still there, as the vehicle I was going to transfer into was way down the road! My friend had forgotten me, lol! When he suddenly realized it, he had stopped and was either going to turn around or back up and had instead gone half way into the snow-covered ditch. Impossible to get out, so he was going to have to get a ride with someone else till he could reach a place where cell phone service was available and then call for a tow truck. I'm so glad I wasn't in his vehicle - can't help but wonder if my added weight might have caused his car to roll over, lol! And so I returned to the city with my original friends - safe and thankful. Thanks so much for driving for the day, Andrew - much appreciated! To my other friend, who shall remain anonymous (lol), I do hope it didn't take too long for your car to be rescued!