Beaver Has His Wood Stove Fired Up

Water Vapour Rising From Beaver lodge Vent

     Beaver Has His Wood Stove Fired Up this chilly morning. It is -37c at Elk Island National Park this morning, but the sun is shining. It is an optimistic sun. We all think it is much warmer when the sun shines through the ice fog.
     I did not realize that beaver cut firewood as well as food, lodge, and dam material. It is so cold in the park that the beavers have lit their wood stove, as evidenced by smoke rising from the lodge chimney. Every beaver lodge I came across today was smoking. Actually, the vapor we see rising from this beaver lodge is heat escaping through an air vent that the beavers build into their lodges. The vapor is most noticeable on cold days and when backlit by the sun.

Elk Herd Grazing and Browsing

     Ungulates were all out grazing and browsing this morning. A few elk still snuggled warmly in beds but most were up and about. Bison, moose and white-tailed deer were also up and about. None seemed to be out of sorts in any way due to the cold weather.
     I do enjoy being out in the park early in the morning hoping to see wildlife and beautiful landscape. The cold weather adds a bit of drama and tension to the land but life goes on. The cold seems to bother us and our equipment far worse than the wildlife.

Sunrise Star Burst

Cold Feeding Challenges

Fluffy Chickadee

     For the past couple weeks, Albertans have been struggling with a prolonged cold snap. Our outside temperatures have rarely been above -20 degrees and most often been around -30 or colder. Wind chill factor has often felt another 10 degrees of cold. Mother Nature has also blessed us with about a foot or more snow to add to our miseries. Most of us have warm homes or offices to live and work in, but many others are challenged to be working long hours outside. Vehicles and equipment never operate efficiently when it is so cold.

     Even as we struggle in our chilly lives, wildlife also work hard to maintain life and warmth. Each of our winter habitants has various strategies to find food and stay warm during the roughly six months of dark chill. I drove out to a couple of parks in the area to see how some of them are making out.

     Elk Island National Park is a great place to find ungulates during winter. Whether it is snowing or sunny, all have to find food. I selfishly enjoy stormy days for photography even though it is more challenging for the wildlife.

Browsing Moose in Snowstorm

     Moose are no doubt very well adapted to winter weather. Long powerful legs easily propel them through deep snow and over hidden deadfalls. They are very tall and have a long reach enabling them to stretch out for tall, tender willow and aspen twigs. Moose are constantly on the move nipping frozen branches before laying down to chew their cuds. Long dark, coarse guard hairs help shed water and prevent fine inner hair getting wet. Moose have no natural predators in Elk Island Park at this time as the wolves that were here a few years ago were shot by neighbouring ranchers. Bull moose have dropped their antlers by now and will begin growing new ones soon. The bane of moose is ticks. Ticks will be infesting them and we will start to notice bald white patches where hair has been rubbed off to try to relieve itching. Sometimes, hundreds and thousands of ticks will infest one moose and can eventually kill it. Starvation, blood loss, and exposure can be causes of moose mortality due to ticks.

Plains Bison Feeding in Snowstorm

     Bison, often called buffalo, live and are very well adapted to life on the plains and forest of the park. Plains bison use their massive heads and cloven hooves to shovel snow off grassy graze. The front half of their bodies are covered by long, dark brown shaggy fur coats. When the wind howls across open plains they face into the storm for protection. When they lie down to chew their cuds, snow can completely cover their shaggy body providing additional insulation and camouflage. Bison eat only grass and are bothered by no predators in this park. Bison are prolific breeders so Elk Island Park managers send excess animals to other places that want to introduce healthy and pure bison to areas that they have been extirpated from over the past 150 years. Bison from EINP have been sent to Banff and Grasslands National Parks, Russia, and many different states. EINP is home to purebred and disease-free herds of both plains and woodland bison. The two distinct species are kept separated by a fence and the Yellowhead highway.

Feeding is a Challenge

     Wapiti, or more commonly called elk are common in EINP but can be more challenging to find due to their naturally skittish nature. They are browsers and grazers so there is plenty of choice feed for elk. They do have to paw deep snow from grassy graze. Elk don’t seem to be pestered by ticks and since there are no wolves here, they have no natural predators within the fenced park. Elk will drop their antlers within the next month or so and begin to grow a new set immediately after. The dropped antlers of all deer family members provide nutrient-rich food for rodents throughout the coming year.

Bull Elk Bedded Down in Snowstorm

     In East Edmonton, along the North Saskatchewan River lies Hermitage Park. Within this municipal park, bird watchers have placed several feeders filled with seeds and suet to assist many of the winter-hardy birds through this challenging season. Chickadees, Dark-eyed Juncos, purple finches and Downey woodpeckers are busy collecting seedy meals. Magpies and blue jays are also aggressively choosing favourite seeds. Several Mallard ducks also wander beneath the feeders collecting dropped seeds. The main struggle for the small songbirds is to find safe roosts where they can huddle together out of the wind and snow. They will use woodpecker holes, downed logs or hide in protective branches of evergreen trees. They do have to watch for hungry weasels or house cats and predatory birds such as hawks and owls. If they cannot gather enough food during the day to fuel their small bodies, they will die.

Chilly Blue Jay

     One of the amazing sights I watch in this park happens in one of the storm-drain lakes. For some reason, there are three or four small openings in the ice near the shoreline. There must be small springs or inflows here that attract tiny fish called sticklebacks. Today, several magpies are fishing together with a lone mallard female bobbing in the largest opening. The magpies gather three or four fish in their beaks and fly off to hidden stashes or to eat in peace.

Ice Fishing Magpies

     Some of the birds could fly south to warmer climes for winter but others are confident enough to stay and make a living in this wintery region. Mammals have no choice to migrate from this area. They are all descendants that have survived here since the ice age about 12000 years ago. It gives me great pleasure to be a casual observer of how Mother Nature provides for Her creatures.

Who Landed here?

Robert Scriba

Sit Spot, Sit Company

Sit Spot, Great Sit Company                                            Robert Scriba

     Last weekend Fay and I cashed in our Christmas present to ourselves with a trip to Jasper National Park. As we raised our kids when we lived closer, we often visited this quiet park to watch wildlife and enjoy the spectacular mountain scenery. It has been about two years since we last enjoyed a relaxed time in this place. There have been big changes, most notably, the color of the mountain cloaked forest.

Bull Elk grazing under a Mountain Pine Beetle-killed pine tree. Note the pines forest in the background has also been killed off.

      It used to be green but is now red. The Mountain Pine Beetle has ravaged the mature Lodgepole Pine forest. This native to B.C., beetle has progressed in its pine harvest from British Columbia over the Rocky Mountains into Alberta. It has also adapted to Jack Pine forest and could eventually range all the way across the Boreal forest into Eastern Canada. There seems to be no way for man to halt this progression. The rusty red coloured pine trees are now dead and drying up. Within a couple of years, the red needles will fall off leaving only pitchy, tinder-dry tree skeletons. Coupled with the dry, often windy climate of this park, and dry fuel of the needles and trees, there is a very real possibility of massive wildfires in the years to come. Jasper park residents, wild and human are at very high risk. This pesty invasion has already changed the landscape enormously and will continue to for years to come.

      In the meantime, we will continue to watch Mother Nature’s wonders with awe and respect.

      One of my greatest pleasures is to find a spot where I can sit and contemplate, maybe even meditate. I prefer a natural spot where there is little sign of human activity which is increasingly becoming more challenging. As I get a bit older each year the hills become steeper and longer and human settlement encroaches further and deeper into wildlands. I am happy to live fairly close to parks where I can go to get some wilderness time but trails are long to escape the sounds of vehicular traffic. Even when I hike back to a human vacuum, it seems that a commercial airliner rumbles overhead, marring cloudless skies with long white contrails. I continue to try my best to find a good sit-spot.

Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep in Jasper National Park

      What makes a good sit-spot a great sit-spot is when I find great sit-company. This company can be as small as a lively chipmunk, a carnivorous warbler or as large and bold as any bear. This weekend I found a couple of great sit-spots.

     The first was on top of a knoll overlooking Talbot Lake and the Athabasca River. A steady, sometimes gusty breeze blew the rumbling sounds of busy traffic away like the dust that swirled off to eventually fill the distant lake. Snuggled down just over the rise of the bald hill lie a herd of Rocky Mountain Bighorn Sheep. This herd of sheep contained several rams, a few ewes, and a few yearling kids. Some grazed and some lie contentedly chewing cuds. I was spotted, of course, when I opened the door of my pickup about a half mile away. They monitored my plodding progress as I followed a well-beaten path uphill through juniper and willow covered sand dunes. They knew where I would appear on the knoll below them and watched carefully as I made my way to a bare rock where I could sit comfortably and relax.

Sheep are relaxed and grazing

     The herd relaxed as I sat down. All approaches to their group were watched as each sheep laid facing all points of their compass. The relied upon their spectacular eyesight and intimate knowledge of this hill to give each other ample warning in case of trouble.

Ram Checking a Ewe

     The annual late autumn rut is over for these sheep but one ram is hopeful that a ewe may not have caught. He got up suddenly to wander over to check her arousal state. After a thorough and lengthy sniff, he raised his head and curled his upper lips and inhaled deeply. This “flehmen response” carries pheromones to an organ in the roof of his mouth. This will tell the ram any information about the ewe’s state of arousal or willingness to mate. Disappointedly, he wanders away, nipping at dried hillside forage before lying back down to chew his cud.

Ram Flehmen

     I have found many times in the past that wildlife carries on around me if I sit down and relax. After a few minutes, birds appear flitting through tree branches and foliage nearby. Just about anywhere, once wildlife has spotted you, they are on high alert, wondering at your intentions. Humans are predators and not always best friends to wild animals. We walk too quickly, we’re noisy, we’re intrusive, different and unnatural in the wild world. Wildlife notices when we pause, sit down and look non-predatory. They relax as we relax. Our body language can be read and interpreted depending on our actions.

Bighorn Ram Chewing his Cud

     Of course, it helps when we are in a park where humans are a more common intrusion into wildlife homes. The sheep I’m watching have been visited many times before but their natural instinct is to make sure I’m not going to get inside their personal safety zone. I’m not carrying any food or enticement for them so they are not going to crowd me either.

     I have also got a comfort zone that I don’t want wildlife inside of. I don’t get too close to rutting animals or mothers with vulnerable young. Bison, moose, and elk can and will hurt you if you don’t mind your manners. Of course, I’m extra careful when dealing with predators. If there is any chance of large cats or bears being in the area, I know how to use bear spray and carry it where it is handy and ready for instant use if I feel threatened.

Bull Elk (Wapiti) Grazing

     Another strategy to approach and watch wildlife is in your vehicle. Wildlife often grazes near roads because of the cultivated grass that grows in the right-of-way. Grass growth is generally lusher in ditches because of exposure to more sunlight and water. This makes it easier grazing for ungulates that use fewer fuel reserves to gather their meal than grazing in the forest. Moose also find more shoot growth on trees which border open areas such as roadsides as their sunny side branches reach out for sunlight.

Elk Cud Chewing

     Wildlife becomes accustomed to vehicles roaring past them on the roads but is alerted by vehicles that slow down or stop. It helps sometimes to stop a fair distance away from them until they become aware of your intentions. Sometimes you can then slowly and gradually approach until you are within range of your camera. I try not to disrupt their activities. I also try to stay inside or right up against my vehicle. To wildlife your vehicle is one entity so if we get out and wander around, we become another entity that is more threatening than what they are accustomed to. Wildlife outside of parks is often less tolerant of vehicles and people.

     The day after my time with the sheep, I came upon three elk bulls grazing near the highway. Several vehicles had stopped on the road shoulder watching for a few minutes before driving off. Someone got out of their vehicle and crossed the highway to get a photo with their phone. One of the bulls was on instant alert and watched until this person left. The elk soon calmed and went back to grazing. A few minutes later they felt comfortable enough to lie down and begin to chew their cuds. To me this is the ultimate reward; wildlife relaxed enough with our presence that they carry on with life, even putting themselves in the more vulnerable position of lying down.

     It does not have to be the large glamorous or dangerous wildlife that can provide great company. Often, it is smaller creatures who are most entertaining. Squirrels, chipmunks, and birds are often very curious, very active and humorous to observe. They are certainly more numerous and easier to find than the big ones.

Very Active Red Squirrel

    There are many factors that cause wildlife to accept our close presence. If all these various factors align, then we can have a very gratifying experience that we will remember for years. For me, there is nothing as memorable as when a curious wild critter feels comfortable enough to approach for a closer examination. I’ve had it happen many times with birds, bears, moose and even one of the Rams last week. I’ve often been rewarded by wildlife that goes about their daily life challenges despite my close proximity with great memories and photographs. Relax folks. Find a great sit-spot and if everything aligns, hopefully, you too will experience great sit-company.