White-tailed Deer through the snow

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 the third photo I posted, 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 : ) Always just as enjoyable to sit and chat as it is to be on a walk itself.