Killdeer nest

ALBERTA EMERGENCY ALERT, 27 May 2018:

calgaryherald.com/news/local-news/emergency-alert-issued-...

"An emergency alert has been issued for the Municipal District of Foothills due to a large wildfire in Kananaskis Country.

The alert issued by the district indicates the blaze is about 16 kilometres southwest of Bragg Creek “and is moving in a northeasterly direction toward the extreme northwest corner of the MD of Foothills.”

Voluntary evacuation is in effect for areas west of Highway 762, between Highway 22 and 178th Avenue W.

Alberta Wildfire information officer Matt Bell said the wildfire is listed at 100 hectares and is considered out of control."

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Yesterday, Sunday 27 May 2018, was the second day of the annual May Species Count. On the Saturday, I had taken part in the Count at Votier's Flats, Fish Creek Park. We took three cars yesterday, but one car had to leave early. The Count started at 8:00 am and, when we arrived at the starting point and briefly got out of our cars, someone spotted this Killdeer nest right by the cars - I stood in the road and zoomed in. The adults were very near by, but we did not see them do the broken-wing action. Instead, they just kept walking down the road, no doubt hoping that we would be distracted. Later in the day, we had a great view of a different Killdeer performing the fancy broken-wing activity. This year, we finished our Count around 2:00 pm, which was earlier than usual. The number of species was quite a bit lower than the last two years. Usually, we see a great variety of birds at one of our stops (Barb Castell's), but things were very quiet yesterday. As Barb reminded us, there are more birds earlier in the day, and late afternoon to early evening. Thanks, as always, Barb, for letting us wander round your beautiful garden!

We were very lucky with the weather for our Count. I think the temperature got up to about 22C, cooler than the last few days - today is forecast to have a high of 28C. After driving various back roads, we ended up at Brown-Lowery Provincial Park, where we stopped to eat our lunch. The parking lot was absolutely packed. A short walk within the forest produced two or three past-their-prime Calypso Orchids. Each year, we do this walk to look for these gorgeous flowers, though Brown-Lowery is actually covered by a different group of people for the Count. Not a single owl of any kind was seen by our group yesterday, unlike last year, when we had a beautiful Great Gray Owl.