Yesterday's COLD walk

I am posting these three photos this morning just for the record of yesterday's horribly cold walk in Fish Creek Park. The temperature was only around -15C (windchill was much colder!), but there was a light wind and it was the worst kind of cold.

Our walk started at the Ranch and, after just a short walk west in the hope of finding a Pileated Woodpecker that strangers had told us about, we made our way east to the Bow River. It looked as cold as it felt! Worth it, though, to see a Great Horned Owl at the start of our walk, perched very high up in a Spruce tree. There was a tangle of thin twigs right in front of its face, but the owl lowered its head just once to see us better and I clicked.

On the way to the river, we noticed, through the lightly-falling snow, several White-tailed Deer in the distance. Though the river was not frozen over, endless small pieces of ice were flowing fast, with a few ducks in the water, too. In this photo, if you look carefully, you can see two Bald Eagles perched in the trees on the far side of the river.

It was a long walk, two and a half hours, giving me the 10,000 steps for the day - which so very rarely happens these days (the last two years). Because there were so few birds to stop and watch, the walk was almost non-stop walking, which I always find difficult and painful. The only way to fix that was with a stop at Tim Horton's for coffee afterwards : ) Always just as enjoyable to sit and chat as it is to be on a walk itself.