City Nature Challenge for Regina 2021
Participating in the City Nature Challenge for Regina was a good time! I visited three sites: Condie Nature Refuge, McKell Wascana Observation Park and Grassick Park. I slowed down and looked around me differently but sometimes I needed a reminder!
By Grassick Park, I was focused on framing a potential photo of a plant when I saw movement from the corner of my eye and a turtle plopped into the creek. I missed an opportunity to observe it and to photograph it for the record! Having learned my lesson and now knowing there were turtles in the area, I kept watch and looked for spots where they might be sunning. I was rewarded! As a result of this search I made many observations by, on and in the creek. Many of these latter observations looked liked life forms but need a magnifying glass or a microscope more likely, to identify. Looking down for turtles, again I almost missed what was in front of me on the other side of the creek! I chanced upon a goose on her nest surrounded by half a dozen goslings with the gander standing guard.
When I was leaving the Grassick Park, I happened upon a pair of red-breasted nuthatches, one was preening and the other busily making and enlarging a tree cavity for their nest. I enjoyed the antics of both, the awkward angle at which the nest builder clung to the tree bark to position itself for drilling the emerging hole, and the yoga positions or perhaps classical ballet positions of the nuthatch engaged in a thorough preening. I also photographed a Myrtle Warbler in full song. Those songbirds are hard to find sitting still; it is with luck that you get a clear view free of branches. Thanks for the opportunity to be outside with a focus on nature. Nature offers so many and such diverse gifts; we must protect the ecosystems that support that diversity of life.
