A Day of Surprises

Welcome to my first blog post. This will be your ticket to some behind the scenes of how I plan where to go on my tours, where I go to get some amazing photos, and some other fun posts. This first post will cover one of the two trips I have taken this past January: Brown Lowery Provincial Park and Lafarge Meadows.

January 21 2026: I started at Brown Lowery Provincial Park in Foothills County (close to Priddis) in the morning wearing my crampons due to very icy conditions in the park. Weather was decent being not too cold which is good because I tend to leave the gloves off. Makes it easier to quickly get the photos I want. You always have to be ready in case a bird flies in that tends to fly off again within seconds. Then I went on my phone and turned on the Merlin sound id app. A very useful tool to use when you are walking as it will tell you what bird you hearing or it may have picked up on your walk you may not have noticed. Keeping in mind that it is not always correct.

The first bird I saw was just past the parking lot and what I found the most on this hike. It is the Three-Toed Woodpecker. They have a black and white body with a little orange spot on the top of their head. I didn't get any photos of these two as they were quite far up the tree and they are quite common to find so I didn't bother.

I continued down the path, always watching my step to avoid any icy spots (I don't trust my crampons as much as I should, but when you are holding almost $2000 of equipment in your hand you have to be careful). I then heard a bird call which I didn't immediately recognize so I pulled my phone out and checked Merlin. It recorded this bird as a White-Winged Crossbill. I began searching for it and finally found it way up high at the top of a tree. Unfortunately I would not be able to get a photo of this as it is way too far and it would not have looked amazing. It also flew away not long after I found it and I didn't hear it again.

The route I took that day was from the entrance to Wildrose East all the way down to Old Mill. I then backtracked on Old Mill until I got to Raven. Then I took Raven to Pine Hill where I then made my way to the viewpoint up the hill. I then took Wildrose West back to the parking lot. Not a hugely long route, but enough to be able to try and find some nice wildlife. I was contemplating on going up the viewpoint at all, but I can't not go up there when at Brown Lowery. It is such an amazing spot where you get a great panoramic view of the mountains to the West and on clear days you can even see Calgary to the Northeast.

While on that route I saw numerous red squirrels and gray squirrels. Most of them chattered at me from branches above or scurried away as I walked along the trail. They tended to be quite camera shy today, except for one who somehow didn't notice me. It must have been more concerned with the little bit of food it found. I got eye level with it and started snapping some fairly close up photos. I crept closer and closer trying to decrease my zoom until it finally spotted me and it took off to eat its morning snack elsewhere. I didn't see much for most of my ascent to the top outside of some chickadees which flew about too quickly and disappeared into the forest.

After I basked in the beautiful sight of those morning mountains, I started my descent I heard some more chickadees which stuck around longer than the previous ones, so I checked my Merlin app to see which kind. In Alberta, the three most common chickadees found are Black-Capped (being the most common), Mountain, and Boreal. The app told me that these were boreal chickadees which I confirmed when one landed nearby. These ones will have some brown on their body whereas the others are typically just black and white. This was one of the three I did not have a photo of so I was stoked to have a chance of getting one. Unfortunately, all I as able to get were the classic bird butt photos, so I will have to try again another time.

Walking down I heard a much louder hammering on a tree which I suspect may have been a pileated woodpecker, but I could hear it and not see it so I cannot confirm. The sound they make pecking away at the tree to find bugs boom through the forest so loud it could have been quite far away. Especially when it is a dead tree.

I saw lots more of the Three-Toed Woodpecker where I was able to capture quite a few nice photos. I got two which I really liked: One had the woodpecker backlit to the rising sun where you got a silhouette as well as seeing some of the dust and debris it kicked up while pecking. The other photo was one that I was able to get closer to and you could see its little tongue going into the hole it made searching for any bugs to munch on.

After that, I just made my way back to the car. After getting back in, I decided I wanted to go to one more place as I really didn't see much there. So I made my way into the city to Lafarge Meadows/Sikome Lake which is part of Fish Creek Provincial Park You can almost always see a Great Horned Owl there and some other cool creatures that rely on having water nearby as the Bow River is right along the park. Here is my Merlin information from my time at Brown Lowery Provincial Park. I did not turn it on while at Fish Creek Provincial Park.

After parking, I made my way to the usual spot where you can find the Great Horned Owl. I met another birder along the way so we both searched around. Unfortunately, we were unable to find it which was a little disappointing.

Afterwards, I did see a bunch of Black-Capped Chickadees as well as a White-Breasted Nuthatch. I decided to head over towards the bridge which you pass under along the way to Lafarge Meadows. I looked in the water and saw a whole bunch of Goldeneye Ducks. There were also a bunch of Canada Geese and Mallards. Outside of the Goldeneye's, there wasn't really anything interesting. I walked along the Lafarge Meadows pathway and saw absolutely nothing and I didn't take along my crampons so I opted to not go off path where it is icy. I turned back to the Sikome Lake area and decided to walk the pathway over there to see what I could find.

I am glad I decided to go this way because I saw a couple things that I don't typically see there. Along the fenceline where the Sikome pool is, there was a pair of Ring-Necked Pheasants. They were hard to photograph through all the bushes and trees, but I got some photos I liked. Nothing super amazing though. I didn't want to wander too close as these birds are very skittish and I won't disturb a bird just to take a photo. It is best to leave them be and let your mind take photos instead.

The other critter I saw was not a bird at all, but a porcupine. I was scanning the trees on my way back and noticed a black ball up on a tree branch. I looked in my camera and it was not just a black ball, but a black ball of fur of a porcupine. I shocked myself when I saw it as it is very inconspicuous and hard to spot unless you're at a certain angle. Which explains why I didn't see it when I first passed it. I wandered into the bush to see if I could get a better angle as all I had gotten was its tail, but it was so neatly tucked in that it was hiding its cute little face anyway. I even let some others know about it who were walking past who were amazed at how camouflaged it was. They would never have seen it without me pointing it out.

After the excitement of spotting that magnificent creature, I figured I would call it a day. I was getting hungry and I had things to get done at home. I unfortunately didn't see as many creatures as I would have wanted to and I was disappointed I didn't get to see the owl, but Winter is not a great birding time anyway. My bird count that day was 8 plus one mammal. Days like these make me look forward to Spring when I can easily double that count.

I hope you enjoyed my first post and I will have a couple more on the way soon. One of my trip to Carburn park (which will be a fairly short one) and then one on the unintentional birding I did while on vacation at Disney World.