A taste of spring before the snow returns

Yesterday, 30 April 2014, was a sunny day and so I thought I'd better get out on a morning birding walk in South Glenmore Park. Always enjoyable to walk along the edge of the Glenmore Reservoir - still has some ice on it, but plenty of open water. Several Loons were spotted, one within camera reach - just! Also a very distant Double-crested Cormorant, and a good variety of duck species, most of which I don't see, as I don't use binoculars. A fascinating thing we saw on the return walk was a tiny Boreal Chorus Frog blowing a huge "bubble" : ) We could hear these frogs from a distance - amazing how such tiny creatures can make so much "noise"! While we were standing there, trying to see if we could find one of the submerged frogs, someone spotted a single frog that wasn't completely submerged and that kept puffing out its neck into a large "bubble".

www.carcnet.ca/english/amphibians/species_accounts/anuran...

I had to drive straight to a volunteer shift after this three-hour walk and, when that was over, I decided to face the rush-hour traffic and drive to Sandy Beach to see if there were any Prairie Crocuses in bloom. The weather forecast is for light snow and mixed precipitation for the next five days, so I knew this might be the last chance I'd get to photograph these beautiful flowers of spring. They were growing on a steep hillside which is always a bit nerve-racking, as my balance isn't the greatest, ha.

plantwatch.naturealberta.ca/?page_id=297