Canada 2009 - 19th July

The talk the previous night at the lovo, was a picnic, and Sylvan Lake (see Saturday 11th July), was mentioned as was Sikome Lake. Naushad had not been too Sikome Lake before. Others didn’t want to drive the distance to Sylvan Lake, so at 9:15am we set off for Sikome Lake. On the southern outskirts of the city Naushad exited off Deerfoot Trail onto a secondary road and then I saw the sign for Fish Creek Park, a regional park that stretches east west for about 14km across the southern boundary of the city. Near the eastern end is Sikome Lake, a man made pond, about half a kilometre long and seven feet deep at its deepest. It is drained in winter time, and has a filtration plant, so is basically a swimming pool with sandy beaches all around the lake. But, it was completely fenced and would not open till 10:00am, and when it did Albaerta Parks staff checked all bags for alcohol or glass bottles. Over the next couple of hours this place filled up with thousands of people – it was going to the beach Calgary style. There were life guards on duty with the obligatory surfboard, and periodically the public address system would burst into life about some car illegally parked in the carpark, or that all children under the age of 12 had to be within arms distance at all times, whether in or out of the water. People applied sun tan lotion, lay on the sand on towels, used inflatable boats, threw Frisbees and generally acted like New Zealanders at the beach.

I decided to explore some of the many walks around here, so Naushad and I headed out of the fenced area and off up the hill. This part of Fish Creek Park is in the Bow River Valley that runs north south, while the remainder follows Fish Creek, a minor tributary of the Bow. Walking up the hill I spotted five American White Pelicans, soaring on the thermals. Also higher still were some gulls and a couple of hawks. After walking about two km I saw a hawk sitting on the top of a high power transmission pole, so moved closer to see if I could get a better picture. Suddenly the hawk started screeching, obviously aimed at me, and then it took off from its perch and came straight for my head. I ducked, and it flew around and came back towards me. After three passes, it realised I was not a threat and started soaring higher and higher. We headed back to the picnic area, and had to queue to get back into the fenced area.

One of the other guys in our group had brought into the picnic area a full size gas bar-b-que, so while the meat was cooking I headed out again to check on a pond area below the hill. Here I spotted a Great Blue Heron, and a family of Wood Duck, the first time I had seen this species. I also tried shooting some of the large dragonflies that were flying around. After about an hour I headed back into the lake area (had to have my camera bag searched, despite this my third entry into the secure area), to have lunch. While eating another photo opportunity eluded me as a hawk flew across the valley at low level with a gopher in its talons. It was headed to the wooded area closer to the Bow River.

A big build up of CB cloud to the north was threatening, but came to nothing. Some of our group played volleyball, while others watched and relaxed. About 4pm there was a change of wind direction (from warm southerly to cooler northerly) and the clouds started moving over us, so we packed up all the stuff and prepared to leave. This change of wind also meant that planes coming into Calgary (main north south runway) were now coming right over Sikome Lake, and first plane seen was a Air Canada B777, followed by a KLM A330 and a Air Canada A330. About 4:30pm we headed the 30km back to Falconridge.