In the Bow Valley, nearby nature is fairly quiet in January and February. Only a few species of winter-hardy birds are around. There’s a chance of spotting a coyote, showshoe hare or bobcat. There’s a very good chance of spotting elk and deer in Canmore and a reasonable chance of spotting deer in our west Calgary neighbourhood.

But unless it’s a year when I feel like trying to start some seeds indoors, everything’s quiet on the gardening front. Depending on snow cover and temperatures, some years we spot primroses poking through early, or aspen tree catkins ready to pop.

One of the most reliable opportunities for engaging with nearby nature this time of year in our part of the world is watching ice formations along the creeks and rivers.

What’s your favourite way to engage with nearby nature in your part of the world? Does it change depending on the time of year?

News Feed

A recent study confirmed that a walk in Nature is good for your brain, specifically your executive function (i.e. higher level mental skills including working memory, flexible thinking and self-control).

The Emotional and Social Life of Animals

In this thought-provoking essay, emotion researcher and writer Michael Jawer argues that animals experience richly emotional lives, too. The more we learn about how animals perceive and respond to the world, the easier it is to see that the differences between species are a matter of degree, not kind. He references several books and studies in the article, for those interested in further reading. And he concludes by challenging humanity to engage our compassion to preserve and protect nature’s other emotional and spiritual beings.

Skeptical animals have emotional lives? This article detailing research findings re: sperm whale family/social groups, language variants and cooperative behaviors may change your mind.

Biodiversity Monitoring via Satellites?

Despite growing citizen science databases, wildlife cameras and other sources of data for monitoring biodiversity, there is inconsistent breadth and depth of monitoring data around the world. This makes it impossible to monitor how well nations are doing at honoring their pledges to halt and reverse biodiversity loss by 2030. Now a group of scientists is proposing a satellite-based biodiversity monitoring system to fill the data gaps.

Cultivating My Nature Connection

Thanks to Living Lakes Canada, I recently attended a virtual screening of Losing Blue. The idea for this 16-minute film came from limnologists Janet Fischer and Mark Olson, who have studied Canada’s Rocky Mountain glacier-fed lakes for almost two decades. But they credit award-winning Canmore filmmaker Leanne Allison with bringing that idea to screens. Allison marries stunning cinematography and JB MacKinnon’s eloquent science writing to prompt viewers to ask what it might mean to lose the distinctive turquoise blue that draws so many visitors to our Rocky Mountain National Parks each year.

You may not know that the distinctive colour of Lake Louise, Emerald Lake, Peyto Lake and other must-see alpine lakes comes from rock flour, ground by glaciers. 70 percent of Western Canada’s glaciers are predicted to disappear by 2100. Imagine visiting Lake Louise in 50 years and seeing just the typical dark blue colour of most lakes.

This film will be available to watch on the National Film Board website later this year. Meanwhile, it’s making the rounds of film festivals.

My Nearby Nature Projects

Great Backyard Bird Count

As reported in the Coming Up section of the last installment of Nearby Nature Project, the 2024 edition of the Great Backyard Bird Count took place over Family Day weekend (Presidents’ Day weekend in the US). My limited observations were taken in our west Calgary yard and included one crow, several magpies, a Northern flicker, a small flock of feral Rock pigeons, and a pair of Gray partridges. The last was the most interesting to me, because we only see them a handful of times each year.

I didn’t get great photos. This one is when they were in the deep shade in our yard…

…and here they are in the neighbour’s yard, with the distinctive dark breast patch of feathers visible.

Urban Wildlife

Also over the past few weeks, Mr GeoK spotted a bobcat casually strolling down our driveway (not picture). We’ve skirted around part of the Canmore elk herd on several of our walks. And we spotted a lovely blue jay near the Bow River in Canmore.

Coming Up

I reviewed Wingspan almost a year ago. Recently, I backed Wingspan designer Elizabeth Hargrave’s UnderGrove project on Kickstarter. Here’s the game description from the publisher:

“For over 300 million years, trees have traded nutrients with fungi in a vast underground network. Scientists continue to make new discoveries about this hidden world.

“In Undergrove, you are a towering evergreen with an ancient symbiotic connection to the fungi in your forest. As new mushrooms appear, your options expand for converting nutrients and helping your seedlings. Using cube conversion, tile placement, area control, and a tiny bit of engine building, you’ll need to claim the most advantageous locations and optimize your actions to leave the best legacy in the forest. The player with the greatest number of successful seedlings, wins!”

If I remember correctly, the game will ship in late 2024/early 2025, so I’ll be working on my game review about a year from now.

Two other nature-related board games on my radar? Cascadia, an Alderac Entertainment Group / Flatout Games CoLab. And Ark Nova, a zoo-keeping game from Capstone Games (this one a recommendation from our oldest and partner).

Finally, it’s World Wildlife Day on March 3 – a day for connecting people with the natural world and inspiring continued learning and action for animals and plants beyond the day.