2013 July

The Swainson’s Hawk is fairly common in Southern Alberta.  What is interesting about them is that “twice a year, Swainson’s Hawks undertake the longest migration of any Alberta raptor, wintering as far south as the southern tip of South America.”  Their favourite food is voles, mice and ground squirrels.  On this particular occasion, this Hawk was being aggressively pursued by a crow.  The crow eventually won out and the Hawk was sent on his way.

The day after Canada Day, I headed down to Baker Park (on the south side of the river from Bowness Park) for a walk with Niecey.  We walked to the west end of the park up to the north side of the Stoney Trail footbridge.  In my previous blog regarding the Flood of 2013, I was at the south end of this very same bridge.  At that time, the area was completely under water.  It was hard to tell what, if any, damage there would be.  I was completely shocked to see that the paved path, fences, bench, everything including the berm leading up to the bridge were completely washed away.  There were small pieces of the path still intact but everything else was GONE.  The power of the raging river is incredible.  Fence posts cemented into the ground a good 2 feet were ripped from the ground.  The chain-link fence was torn off the posts that were bent over almost to the ground.  A large amount of the fence was simply missing.  No wonder we are still in a State of Emergency.  Again, the photos do not do justice to what has occurred here in Calgary and Southern Alberta.