Myrna Pearman Receives RDRN Owl Award

        Each year the Red Deer River Naturalists(RDRN)  presents the Owl Award to someone who has made a significant contribution to the organization . This year RDRN chose Myrna Pearman to receive the Owl Award.

Judy Boyd, Myrna Pearman, Keith Kline
Photo by Stuart Little

       Myrna has been active with RDRN for a long time . She has contributed in many different ways. She has served on the board, been president , done the news letter on several stints, wrote "Nature Scape Alberta" as well as selling many of the books.

      For the last few years Myrna has done the RDRN newsletter. It has become more than just a news letter. Some excellent articles and information are now in the newsletter. The Newsletter design has dramatically improved. Now we have an attractive logo that we use for all RDRN productions and great color.
 
      Myrna has also been doing the recruiting of speakers for our general meetings. She gets excellent speakers and both members and public benefit from and enjoy the speakers.

Myrna with her award.     
Photo by Stuart Little

     RDRN had benefited from Myrna's efforts over a long period of time. We appreciate her contributions.

Another Chukar Sighting

        Tonight about 7:00 PM I saw another chukar across from the Bower subdivision in Red Deer. I have seen chukars in this area for three summers. Usually I make only one or two sightings a summer. This is the second sighting this summer.

        A few weeks ago I stopped on the Bower trail and got talking to some people. The lady told me how that she had a chukar nest in her yard in the summer of 2009. Ten eggs hatched. The little guys seemed to disappear quickly so she thought than none of them fledged. She sees a chukar in her yard regularly and it feeds from her ground feeders in the winter. Other people have had chukars feed at their feeders in the winter. I suspect that there is more than one bird.

        Since I've written about chukars before I am interested in feed back. Tell me if you have seen chukars in your area.

A Friendly Coyote

         This summer a litter of coyotes was raised on a quarter section which is within the city limits of Red Deer. This quarter is farmed and presently half of it is used for grazing and the other half for hay production. The west side of the quarter has the Waskasoo creek running through it so there is a pleasant wooded ravine.

photo by Bertha Ford

        This quarter section is less than one km from a major city mall so I'm sure that the coyotes visited the mall each night and had a feast. I'm sure that much food each day is just dropped in the parking lot. So the coyotes were well fed and they didn't have to work very hard for a living.

         Most years there are a number of coyotes on this property and probably there were regular litters of coyotes raised. This summer a bike path was completed on the south side of the property so all of a sudden the secluded coyote den became rather public. Morning cyclists and walkers reported seeing the coyotes. The same thing occurred in the evening. People were thrilled to see coyote pups within 200 m. There was a chain link fence between the people and the coyotes. The coyotes became used to the fans.

       Less than one km away is the Sunny Brook Farm Museum. Most summers the museum will add chickens or other small livestock to make their displays more attractive. This year they had a number of goats. A number of goats went missing. It doesn't take much of a guess to decide what happened to the goats. So the cute little coyotes were a nuisance and pest just a short distance away. Pretty intelligent animals.

The Pelican: a Thing of Beauty

        This morning at 10:15 A. M. I spotted three pelicans rising on a thermal over Sunnybrook in Red Deer. They made a few turns and were rising. Then I guess the thermal petered out and they coasted down and around so that they came right over my house at about 100 m elevation.


Photo by Bill Heinsen


       Now I am fascinated with pelicans as the soar using the thermals on a sunny day. The brilliant white contrasts with some black under the wings. They gracefully ride the thermals and once in a while take a few powerful wing beats to move around in the thermal.

      Most days you can spot pelicans around Red Deer as they summer up and down the red Deer river using the islands for safe loafing grounds.

     My favorite time watching Pelicans in flight was a time they were flying down the Red Deer River. I happened to be standing on a high bank at River Bend. The pelicans flew at eye level with me as they cruised down the river.

More Chukar Sightings in Red Deer

          Last year I posted on a chukar sighting I made in Red Deer and asked people to let me know if they saw any chukars. The chukars I saw were on the east side of the Bower subdivision along a strip of green and along Piper Creek. Later I had reports from 30th Ave north of Save On foods. Then I had a report from Oriole park which is in the north west section of Red Deer. Then I had a report of a sighting from the Pines which is north of the Parkland Mall.

      About this time I was riding my bike along the green strip west of the Bower subdivision and there in the wide open was a chukar. The bird just sat about 15 meters from me and did not move. This was about June 1.  I was surprised to find a chukar in the same spot as last year as I assumed that with reports of sightings in other areas that the birds had moved. Or have the birds come back? Whatever is going on it would appear that there are a number of chukars in Red Deer and that they have survived a couple of winters. Nests have been found and young have been observed but we don't know if the young have survived.

      So once again if you see chukars in Red Deer, let me know or phone the Kerry Wood Nature Center 403-347-2010. If people observe chukars in any area let me know. It would be interesting to see what these birds are doing.

Fish Spawning in Piper Creek

         For 41 years I have lived less than a kilometer from Piper Creek. Piper Creek flows from drainage south east of Red Deer. Much of this land is agricultural and has cattle pastured along the unarable land beside the creek. Where I live the creek flows through a heavily wooded coulee. The water in Piper Creek is not high quality as agricultural run off and city runoff enters the creek at various places.

       Nevertheless, I have spent some time watching for evidence of fish in the creek. I know that historically fish spawned in this creek. There were no beaver dams to block swimming upstream until recent times. About 25 years ago a kid told me that he caught a jack fish in the creek in the Bower Woods area opposite Sunnybrook.

       This year I hit pay dirt. I spent a few minutes watching for fish on May 16. . I saw a sucker swim by. I was disappointed that I only saw one fish as they usually are in  fairly large groups. A few minutes later I saw four fish that I could not identify. They were not suckers or jack fish. These four fish were from 7- 11in long and were narrow in width. They swam by very quickly so I only had a brief glimpse of them. Someone else had reported seeing fish in this same area and reported their sighting to the Kerry Wood Nature Center.

      The location in the creek where I saw the fish is important as these fish have come up the river escarpment so they have not only swum upstream but have gained altitude.

     I was happy to see the fish as I was rewarded for looking for so many years. It is important to report these sightings as it confirms the creek to be a body of water for fish and thus fall under specific regulations and these can be used when  development threatens the creek as a proposed road crossing.

      I would be interested in hearing from others who have seen fish in Piper Creek.

Looking for a Home

      My neighbor, Duane,  was surprised a few days ago to find a couple of mallards in his yard. They were in the small back yard as well as the open front yard. We live in an urban area which has some urban parkland, but we are almost one km away from a creek and natural area.

      It is becoming more common to find wildlife in urban areas. These areas provide suitable habitat for some species but I must admit that for ducks it's a bit out of the range. We have a fairly good population of jackrabbits as there's suitable food and cover. We have deer that wonder through on a regular basis. Coyotes and foxes are probably more common than we think as they prowl around at night. I have had moose in my yard several times. Dogs these days are very closely controlled so they do not chase deer. And of course birds do fairly well in the numerous trees planted in yards and along streets and in closes.

       Now for several years I have seen mallards near Duane's house. They have certainly been in his neighbor's yards and out in the close. Last year the mallards were in the close for such a long time that I suspicioned that they were nesting. I searched but did not find a nest. So this year Duane will have to watch his yard and let us know if he has any ducklings. I think that as time goes by we will see more wildlife inhabiting our neighborhoods.