I've been in Coaldale for a few days, taking advantage of the free wifi in the library to work and write. Located about 10 miles east of Lethbridge (4th biggest city in Alberta), it's a small, quiet town (pop. 7500), serving as the local commercial center and community gathering place. There's a big school — the kids are still reluctantly walking and biking there. It has an unleashed dog park, swim center, auction house, 24-hour MacDonalds and a brand-new housing development where houses are on sale for "in the mid-400s." There is a considerable Mennonite population here, as well. It has two claims to fame: the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre and the "Gem of the West" Museum. I went to one and not the other.
Besides smelling manure, I awoke to strange noises on the roof.
Magpie Morning
It sounded like something was attacking the kayak with a scratching or pecking noise. That's enough to get one moving quickly as I wasn't too sure what to make of it. I looked out the windows, but didn't see anything amiss, but I pounded on the roof, for good measure.The noise did stop momentarily, but then started hearing more noises outside the door.
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| Baby magpie |
Luckily it was early in the morning so there was no traffic, and the avian antics went on for awhile. The older baby reminded me of Tigger from Winnie the Pooh. Sort of a happy-go-lucky bounce, bounce, bounce. The other little baby wasn't as energetic, but it still managed to safely cross the road while the parents hovered nearby.
A robin made the mistake of getting too close and was roundly scolded and chased off. (I can't imagine a robin being a threat, but I suppose if you're a magpie parent, with babies on the ground, everything seems like a threat!)
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| Canada geese in the wetlands |
Birds of Prey
It just seemed like it was going to be a bird day from the get-go!I really wanted to go to the Alberta Birds of Prey Centre. When we were in England over ten years ago, Casey and I went to one in the Cotswolds, and we really enjoyed it. Since it was early, and they weren't open yet, I took the opportunity to go for a walk through the wetland areas in the neighborhood. I didn't see anything terribly exciting except for lots of Canada geese goslings, but that was okay, it was just nice to go for a walk. A few people were out walking their dogs.
Not sure if it's just me, but it seems like the houses in Canada are generally taller; or the aspect ratio is different. Just an observation, but curious what a "standard" house is like!
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| Baby barn owl |
Turns out there were two baby barn owls that are being raised in the office. I've never seen any baby owl before, so wasn't prepared for what they looked like! How do I say this? They had faces only a mother could love — quite unkempt — kind of like teenagers that have just woken up in the morning.
Which might not be far from the truth!
The first area I went to was the "Hawk Walk" where we could see owls and hawks. When I say "we" there were some families with young children here. One little boy was more interested in bugs crawling around than in the birds. His dad was sort of shaking his head — you could just see him thinking... "I brought him here to see the birds, and all he's interested in are bugs!" Maybe the child will become a entomologist someday!
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| Burrowing owl |
They are small owls, very social, and inhabit gopher holes. In the wild, they are pretty well camouflaged, but you'll see their round eyes staring at you from the ground. You'll can also see them flying (usually around dusk), on the hunt for rodents.
We each got to pet a burrowing owl (they are pretty adorable), and because of their size, they are not very threatening to small people.
They also had several barn owls and great horned owls, which is the "provincial bird" of Alberta.
I find owls to be endearing birds. They either look somewhat grumpy and disgruntled, or sleepy, or too dignified for anything to bother them. They often seem to be aloof and above it all.
I know I shouldn't anthropomorphize. These birds are just being what they are and behaving normally. I'm sure they aren't grumpy or disgruntled. They are just owls. But still…
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| Great horned owl |
I remember in England, the handler said that owls were a bit "thick," meaning that they were none too bright. He thought it was a misnomer for owls to be called "wise." Casey and I believed that was because they found the owls hard to train, rather than being dumb.
I got to hold one of the big great horned owls, which actually weigh about three lbs. — pretty substantial for a bird (think three loaves of bread hanging from your wrist).
The docent girls answered lots of questions, like, "How do they eat?" (They try to swallow their prey whole, and since the esophagus is only about as big as a human index finger, it must really stretch to accommodate prey).
"Watch out," said one of the docents. "They have bad breath!" Apparently their favorite food is skunks. It would appear that owls have good eyesight and hearing, but no sense of smell! (And no, they don't feed them skunks here — they go through a lot of chicken!)
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| Bald eagle named "Lincoln" |
It's amazing and instructive to be able to see these some of these birds, because we don't have them in California (or they are uncommon). I remember being terribly excited to see a pair of nesting bald eagles in Tomales Bay – I think the first ones I'd ever seen in the wild.
And of course, I'm hoping to see more — in the wild — as I travel north.
It's especially instructive to be able to see them so close and so clearly, instead of squinting through binoculars or a spotting scope. I'm still having trouble telling some of them apart, and it doesn't help that (1) males sport different plumage from females, (2) that juveniles look different from either sex, (3) that they have different feathers in different seasons, and (4) that there are different "morphs," plus (5) variability between individuals.
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| Golden eagle "Spirit" |
Ferruginous hawks are the largest hawks, almost the size of an eagle, and they are only found here on the Canadian plains. Swainson's hawks are the most common of the larger hawks found here.
The golden eagle, named "Spirit," is in captivity because it was shot, and it actually is blind (it's hard to tell, either from behavior or appearance). Spirit is a good ambassador for the Centre!
I talked to one fellow who worked for a construction company; he had called in to report a wounded bird at the side of the road and rescued by the Centre. He said it was good to see it healing in good hands and hoped that it would be returned to the wild soon.
Many of the birds are here because they have been rescued, and while they do try to return them to the wild if at all possible, sometimes that isn't feasible, so the rescued birds have a safe place to live and educate the public.
The Centre actually only open during the summer, so the rest of the time the birds are in large aviaries, so I hope that they aren't too stressed by being "on display" for a few hours a day. The girls said that they birds live almost twice as long here than they do in the wild.
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| Ferruginous hawk, "Victoria" |
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| Peregrine falcon |
They had some other aviaries outside, so I went to see those while waiting for the flight demonstration.
A peregrine falcon, more burrowing owls (they have a breed/release program here, which is a good thing since the species is endangered), a barred owl, more eagles, hawks, and then quite a number of water fowl, which the children were having fun feeding.
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| Pekinese ducks |
In those days, we didn't worry about feeding them bread. After Thanksgiving, we'd put all our breadcrusts from making turkey stuffing into a paper bag and go to the Baylands (same place where the burrowing owls were) where there was a community duckpond, along with the yacht harbor and small-plane airport. The ducks eagerly greeted new people; I swear they knew what we were there for! It was such fun to have so many ducks waddle up out of the water and gobble up the bread.
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| Red-tail hawk taking off |
Now they have "duck feed" pellets, which I guess is better for the ducks, and the kids still get a charge out of it, although something is missing from life when you can't entice a duck to grab a piece of crust from your fingers!
They also had a flying demonstration with one of the red-tail hawks.
They had to consult the wind monitor, because these powerful birds cannot fly in winds above 15km/hr. They get blown off course: "clear to the end of the field," said the handler.
The docent gals obviously have deep affection for these birds ("I LOVE my job," said one). They joked that the birds are actually quite lazy; they fly for food, not for "fun."
And indeed, that's what happened on this occasion. They got several flights out of him, but on one of the flights he just landed on the ground, not the post. It took some coaxing (getting his attention with a piece of meat) to get him to come back on the post.
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| Here you can see why this bird gets its name! |
Ungainly or not, this bird was really quite handsome, and, again, was helpful to see him up close. When a bird is flying overhead, I still can't tell the difference between a red-tail and a red-shouldered hawk from the ground.
But here, I certainly could see why it's called a "red tail!"
I'll close off this post by with a few more photos; it's been really hard to choose which ones to post here.
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| Burrowing owl in aviary exhibit |
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| Barn owl |
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| American white pelican flying free overhead |
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