Seen in the Wildflower Garden

Our volunteer-maintained wildflower garden is a bit of a secret in plain sight. Just outside our back door (beside the overflow parking), it contains a wide variety of local flowers. Here's a bit of what I saw when I was out with the camera a couple of Fridays ago:

Blue-eyed Grass

Blue Flax, one of my favourites

A Blue on the Western Canada Violets

Canada Anemone

One of the many varieties of Columbine

Yellow Ladyslipper Orchids

What you find flowering changes with the seasons, so it's always worth a quick stroll to see what's up in the garden. And if you have a green thumb and would like to help our gardeners out, give Marg a call at 403-346-2010 ext. 113.

We're hiring

We're looking for two to three people to work part-time Visitor Services at Kerry Wood Nature Centre. Check our facebook post for details and contact information.

Help build the gardens

In the past we've told you about the Busby Legacy Gardens at the Allen Bungalow. The project is well underway, and with spring (finally... apparently...) here we'll soon be gearing up for planting season. We had a very successful fundraiser with leaf sales at Sobeys on the North Hill -- leaves are still available to purchase for $1 at Parkland Garden Centre and here at the Nature Centre -- and now we're looking for plant sponsors.

Over the next few weeks I'll be featuring trees (like this Royalty Flowering Crab Apple), shrubs, and other perennials that we need for the gardens on our Twitter account (@NatureCentre). If you're interested in sponsoring a plant, all you need to do is contact Darlene at 403-346-2010 ext. 120 or e-mail her at Darlene.Kranenborg@waskasoopark.ca. Tax receipts are available for all donations.

If you'd like to be involved with the gardens but would rather put in time than money, you can volunteer to help with planting and maintenance. Call Marg, our Volunteer Coordinator, at 403-346-2010 ext. 113 to let her know you'd like to lend a hand.



Things are shaping up really well for the gardens, and I'm looking forward to seeing things grow. Now if only the weather would cooperate we'd be all set.

Community Help

Right now there is a group of 13 Junior Forest Wardens out exploring the Gaetz Lakes Sanctuary. They aren't there just for fun and for learning about the local environment, they're also helping to maintain the trails and structures, and pass along knowledge.

Junior Forest Wardens are young people who, through this amazing program, learn about nature, the environment, environmental science, forest ecology, and conservation through some fantastic outdoor learning opportunities. The local Red Deer group - the Red Deer Woodchucks - is extremely active. If you're looking for an outdoor activity for your kids, they're a great place to investigate.

In August, 2013 the leader of the oldest age group of Wardens contacted us and asked about a partnership. They wanted to "adopt" the Sanctuary. They offered to take some of the responsibility for things like trail maintenance, garbage removal, and invasive species control. They also wanted to do some public awareness work. In return we'd teach them about the local environment, educate them on the history and importance of the Sanctuary, and provide mentorship to the kids. The oldest kids would then bring in the younger age groups, pass on their knowledge, and lead them in stewardship activities.

Tonight marks the 8th visit by these intrepid youngsters. To a person they've been enthusiastic, personable, and incredibly hard-working. They've scraped tons of ice and snow off the viewing decks, emptied garbage cans, picked garbage from the trails, and started sharing their knowledge with the younger kids.

In the coming months, we'll be expanding their responsibilities to include some public education and awareness work. We'll be heading up into the Clearview Ridge subdivision, just above the Sanctuary, to interact with the residents and educate them about the Sanctuary, where to access the park, and how to minimise the impact of the neighbourhood on the Sanctuary. The Wardens will be taking a role in the development of the educational materials, distributing the information door-to-door, and co-hosting a community barbecue in the Spring.

This has been a wonderful relationship for everybody involved. The Wardens fulfilled their mandate, we had a group take us on for some important work, and everybody - and the Sanctuary - has benefited. We look forward to a bright future with the Junior Forest Wardens and thank them for all their hard work.

Kids Bird House Program

Bird house building for Kids

The Friends of the Kerry Wood nature Centre will be hosting a bird house building program for kids on February 15 at 2:00pm at the Kerry Wood Centre. Kids will learn about the birds of spring and then build a bird home to take home. The program lasts about 1.5 hours and is appropriate for kids 6-12 years of age. An adult needs to accompany the children. Cost; $8.00 per child for KWNC  non members and $7.00 for members. Please register by phone or via our website ; waskasoopark.ca.
For more info call 403 346 2010 and ask for  BOB

Seen in the Sanctuary

Just a few quick photos from yesterday's stroll:

Black-capped Chickadee

Red-breasted Nuthatch

Red Squirrel. This one had just lost a territorial spat.

The warmer weather has meant more activity in the Sanctuary, but with the deep snow snowshoes are still the best way to get about. Call us at 403-346-2010 for details about rentals.

Happy New Year

The Waskasoo Environmental Education Society would like to take this opportunity to wish our friends, fans, followers, and visitors a fantastic New Year.

On a personal note, I'd like to add that I think we have enough snow now, thanks.

The Nature Centre will be open from 1 - 5 pm on New Year's Day. Regular business hours resume on the 2nd. As always, the Gaetz Lakes Sanctuary is open 24 hours a day for quiet nature contemplation.

Allen Bungalow Busby Legacy Gardens

Some time ago I posted about the work that was being done to renew the Allen Bungalow gardens. You can find that original post here. Since then, new beds have been created, some plants were installed in the fall, and a gazebo was started. The Busby Legacy Gardens are well underway.

The Busby Legacy Gardens -- named after the Busby family, who operated the River Glen Dairy and made the Allen Bungalow their home -- will be a fantastic addition to the Bungalow. They'll create a wonderful setting for weddings, give an outdoor break space to people holding meetings in the McCullough Room, and bring back some of the heritage of the original home. The Gardens need your help, though. If you're as excited by this project as we are, you can support it by buying plants, donating funds towards maintenance, or donating your time towards the gardens themselves.

As usual, click on either thumbnail for a closer look at the garden plans and suggested donation levels.

I apologise for the quality of these images; because of the nature of the Blogger platform I had to turn the original files into jpegs to post them. We'll have a clearer PDF version on the main website soon. In the meantime you can drop by the Nature Centre for a hard copy of the brochure, or contact Darlene Kranenborg (403-346-2010 ext 120; email darlene.kranenborg@waskasoopark.ca) for more details.

For more information on the history of the Allen Bungalow itself, check out the Bungalow page on our website here.

Snow

I'm beginning to think that I could title pretty much every post "Snow" for the next few months...

I took a  quick walk yesterday to get out of the office for a bit, and let me tell you the obvious: the snow is deep out there. If you're interested in doing the Sanctuary trails (which are ungroomed) I really would recommend renting a pair of snowshoes because the footing isn't very easy otherwise. Our staff can give you a quick tutorial on snowshoe use, and the new, modern snowshoes we have are apparently very easy to walk with. I say apparently because I haven't been on them yet. I don't exactly have great balance. Having said that, though, I've agreed to give it a go this winter as long as it stays above the minus horrible temperatures we've been having lately. We'll take pictures when it happens.

Anyway, here's a little of what I saw in between trudging through snowbanks:

 The heavy snow is really starting to weigh down the bushes. I'd imagine that some of them will be permanently bent after this.

My size 7 boot track compared to a fairly fresh moose track. I don't have terribly big feet, but that was still a good-sized moose.

The Red Squirrels have been leaving their share of tracks as well.

The viewing deck on the West Gaetz Lake is fairly heavily drifted in. It takes a little slogging to get to the deck itself. And then more slogging once you're there.

The lake itself is usually an animal highway filled with tracks this time of year, but even there the snow is too deep for most animals to bother trying. Sorry for the colour of this photo, but I had to darken it a lot just to make those few tracks visible.

The trails are still worth a look even with all the snow, and the snow helps us see what the animals are up to. Just remember that if you're not on snowshoes you'll want to plan more time than usual to get places. Either that or plan a shorter walk, of course!

Nature Cards

Friends of the Kerry Wood Nature Centre invites suppliers of Alberta-based Nature Cards to supply its bookstore racks on a commission basis. For more info contact Bob at 403 346 2010; email
bookstore@waskasoopark.ca

Quick Garden Update

 The beds have been mulched, some ornamental rocks have been put in place, and the first of the perennials added in. A good start. And below, a closer look at the gazebo. For those who would like more information on the Allen Bungalow, here's a page from our website.

 

Gazebo update

Here's a look at the gazebo that the Rotary Club of Red Deer East spent the weekend putting up at the Allen Bungalow. It's still waiting for its roofing, and landscaping and painting will be done in the spring. Still, a pretty nice sign of things to come.

Allen Bungalow garden

One of the more exciting but hidden projects at the Nature Centre these days is the renewal of the Allen Bungalow gardens.

For those unfamiliar with the Allen Bungalow, it's the Edwardian house across the parking lot from the Nature Centre. While it's currently used as a private residence and a meeting space, back in its farmhouse days it was locally famous for its gardens.

 Those gardens are long gone now and can't be fully recreated, but we're hoping to bring back as much of the feeling of the gardens as we can. The first steps are underway, and over the next year or two the garden should start bringing a lot more colour back to the bungalow.

Today work was started on a new addition to the Allen Bungalow garden: a gazebo. This should provide a wonderful backdrop for the weddings that are staged there, as well as a nice break space for meeting groups using the McCullough Room.

We'll keep you posted as things progress. For more information on the Allen Bungalow, the garden, or the McCullough Room meeting space, please call us at 403-346-2010.

Christmas light exchange

It's that time of year again, everyone. In a bid to keep electricity usage down over the holidays, the City of Red Deer and the Kerry Wood Nature Centre are running the annual Christmas light exchange.

For every two strings of old-fashioned incandescent Christmas lights you bring in, you can take home one box of energy-efficient LEDs for free. The old light strings are sent to a recycler who removes the copper wire. A great way to keep a useful item out of the landfill!

Anyone needing more new strings can find them at London Drugs, which supplies the lights for the exchange.

The old lights are already starting to pile up on our loading dock, so you may not want to wait too long to bring down your strings.

Along with the exchange, we currently have a 50/50 fundraising draw at the Nature Centre. The tickets are one for $2 or three for $5, and the draw date is December 6th, 2013. All proceeds from the 50/50 go to the Nature Centre and Fort Normandeau.

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Don't forget -- if you're coming down to exchange lights (or even if you aren't), this weekend we have our swap meet in conjunction with Kick it to the Curb. Bring down your unwanted but usable household items, and take home something that might be useful to you. The swap meet runs through to Sunday. No large items, please.

Wishart Trail stairs fixed

An update to this post:

The City crews have fixed the stairs on the Wishart Trail. It's now completely passable for the full loop.

Enjoy your walk!

A preview of Maskepetoon

Yesterday morning I took a couple of hours and explored Maskepetoon for a while. This natural area has been part of the Waskasoo Park system since it was created in the mid-1980s, but has only recently been developed with walking paths, bridges, and boardwalks. It's a fantastic place to look at spruce forest and wetlands, and I really enjoyed my time.

The Maskepetoon grand opening is coming up on September 22nd. Keep an eye on the City of Red Deer website or their official twitter account for details. We'll be there, and we hope to see you there too. Here are a few highlights of my walk:

Wishart Trail Stairs

Just a note to our walkers:

The Wishart Trail stairs are closed until they can be repaired. People walking this trail (the 4 km) will only be able to get halfway around and then have to turn back. We'll let you know as soon as they are fixed.

Thanks for your patience.

Another baby picture

I have no idea how many there are yet. They're good at hiding, and at the moment we don't really want to disturb mom to go searching for them. We'll check later.

New Delivery

I honestly never thought that I'd be posting baby pictures on this blog, but here's the new arrival. We'd been suspecting that our Plains Garter Snake was pregnant when she was brought in to to us, but then recently she'd started looking more like she'd just had a big meal. It was a bit of a surprise, then, when an end-of-the-workday check showed not one but two snakes in the habitat. So far we've only noticed the one baby (there may easily be more hiding), but as garter snakes can sometimes have upwards of forty young we're keeping an eye on her.

Above you can see a close-up of the little garter snake, and below you can see the baby on the ornamental rock and mom down on the real rock. As always, click on the pictures for larger versions.

About this time every year...

We're into the part of August where the grasshoppers leap out at you as you walk the Dr George Trail, the Purple Asters and Goldenrods are showing off their colours... and people phone us concerned that there's something wrong with the trees because they're turning yellow.

Sorry, everyone, but it's that time of year again.

Here in Alberta we have a number of trees and shrubs that start turning colour fairly early, but probably the most noticeable is the Balsam Poplar. It can start turning in mid-July, and since it's one of the main tree species in the park it's hard not to see the yellow leaves peeking out everywhere.

Hard to believe, but it happens this early every year. It's not a signal of illness or pesticide use; it's just the tree's natural cycle. It's hard for a lot of us (including me) to process the fact that a tree could be getting ready for fall when there's usually still a fair amount of summer, and I think that's why people become concerned when they see the yellow leaves. It is normal, though, even if it's a tiny bit depressing.

On a happier note, here are a few of the things I saw on my walk around the 1 km today:

Grasshopper on the path

Goldenrod peeking through the shrubs. And my shadow...

The Red Squirrels have been leaving lots of piles of peeled cones.

A Mosaic Darner

Mystery feathers all over the bird blind. I wonder if something got eaten.

Bottom's up!