Shepard plant with sunburst

This morning, 11 January 2019, I met up with nine friends for a walk at Shannon Terrace, Fish Creek Park. It was a very slow morning for birds, but after about two and a half hours, we had found 11 species of bird.

The other six photos I posted tonight were taken yesterday, 10 January 2019. Unfortunately, the Snowy Owl - the second of three that I found - decided to perch on top of such an ugly insulator atop a utility pole.

The first time I drove east to look for Snowy Owls was on 5 January, which turned out to be a day of dreadul, dense fog. I quickly gave up on the idea of searching for these beautiful Snowies that day. Today, the sun was shining, so I reckoned I would try again. Not much snow to be seen in the fields - sort of a patchwork of stubble and snow, which would make finding distant owls rather difficult. I like my Snowies close, ha, so I tend not to search the fields, keeping my eyes on the road instead.

The first two owls were on the same road, quite a distance apart. Couldn't believe my luck! Once I was back on a main road, I suddenly decided to take one of the back roads and was amazed to come across a third Snowy Owl. This one was skittish and took flight when I was stopped way, way down the road. The first owl simply stayed put on its insulator. The second owl stayed for a while, but then suddenly spotted movement way across the field. Off it flew and I could see it swoop down and then land on a distant fence post. From several highly zoomed-in photos, I could see strands of dried grass in its talons and it started preening, presumably after catching and eating some poor little Meadow Vole.

On the way home, I passed the huge Shepard Energy Centre along the Glenmore Trail and pulled over to take a quick shot of the billowing clouds of vapour.

“The $1.4-billion plant in east Calgary is capable of generating more than 800 megawatts of electricity for the provincial grid, the city-owned utility company said in a release. 'The facility is the largest of its kind in the province and an important step in Alberta's transition away from aging coal-fired generation facilities,' Enmax said.

Enmax announced the project in 2007 and it became a joint venture with Edmonton-based Capital Power Corporation as a 50 per cent owner in late 2012.

It uses combined-cycle technology that has two combustion turbines to generate electricity while making use of waste heat through a steam turbine for extra power production.
The centre is about 30 per cent more efficient than conventional coal plants and will emit less than half the CO2 per megawatt hour, as well as less carbon monoxide, sulphur dioxide, and nitrogen dioxide gases, Enmax says.

Its cooling towers will also use 14 million litres of reclaimed water per day from the city’s Bonnybrook wastewater treatment plant, the company says.

"With this crucial infrastructure added to Alberta's electricity system, we will bring reliable electricity to Albertans for decades to come,” said Enmax CEO Gianna Manes in a release.”

www.cbc.ca/news/canada/calgary/shepard-energy-centre-powe...

Grand opening video
globalnews.ca/video/2019487/grand-opening-of-calgarys-she...

calgary.ctvnews.ca/alberta-s-largest-natural-gas-fuelled-...

I am not on my computer very much at the moment, because I am just so fed up of it freezing constantly and I have to keep starting over again. If I am able, I really have to get back to editing and posting more photos from our Ontario and Quebec trip back in May 2018. Not sure I am going to be able to finish them before my next trip, but at least I can get further ahead than I am now.