Sa'aiki'somm 10 |||)|

I visited Whitemud Ravine with Wayne Oakes and three others for three hours this morning, 9:30-12:30 - the first walk of the season. The creek was incredibly high and clogged with "icebergs." We had an opportunity to watch a bald eagle soaring over the mouth of the ravine, and the great horned owl mama in her nesting cavity high up in an old poplar.

I always learn something new from Wayne - today I learned that coyotes often leave a toe drag line in the snow, which is another way to distinguish their tracks from those of domestic dogs, who walk with more of a high step. Coyotes act to conserve energy. We also had the opportunity to hear the very similar sounding calls of a pileated woodpecker, northern flicker, and white-breasted nuthatch, and as a result I think I will be able to distinguish them a little better when I am out and about. The northern flicker call is similarly pitched and timbred to that of the pileated woodpecker, but I noticed that it has a slightly slower tempo, and sounds slightly more clipped, whereas the pileated woodpecker calls bleed into each other just a bit more. I'm not sure if I can put words to how the white-breasted nuthatch sounded different - maybe it's just a bit rounder than the pileated woodpecker, and goes on a little more consistently. We also heard both a downy and a hairy woodpecker call. The hairy's call sounds a bit more rapid and even than that of the downy, which trails off at the end.