It's New Year's Eve.  I'm snuggled under a blanket on the couch listening to the wood crackle in the wood stove.  Oh how I love hearing the pine sap sizzle and pop in the fire.  There's a mountain lodge scented candle in my 'northern lights' holder.  I'm looking back at 2013 through my photographs and wondering if I had a memorable outdoor experience in each month of the year.

I tried to ensure that at least one of the two days off each week was an outdoor day; whether it was in the yard or in the woods.  As I browse through my photos, month by month, I can say that there were many first time experiences this year.

January

January was spent snowshoeing on the trails at Elk Island National Park.  The Amisk Wuche and the Beaver Pond trails were the trails of choice most often.

When I wasn't in the forest taking in the sounds of silence, I was birdwatching in my backyard.  January was the month that the grosbeaks arrived; bringing a burst of color to the snow-covered yard.  Chickadees, nuthatches, blue jays and a variety of woodpeckers joined them.  There was non-stop action at the feeders.

February

In February, I went on a snowshoe trek with one of my sons.  All told, we walked approximately 16kms.  I remember the day vividly; clear blue sky, sunshine and lots of fluffy snow.  I also remember that my legs felt like rubber by the time we got back.

A trip to Jasper also happened.  My sister and I hiked in Maligne Canyon before boarding the train for a scenic ride to Dunster, BC.  We also hiked in the Beaver Boardwalk area in Hinton.

March

I kept up with my snowshoe visits to Elk Island Park in March.  It was during one of those visits that I saw an elk for the first time on route to the trail head.  I remember how excited I was because my usual animal sightings included bison, coyotes and squirrels. 

April

April was the month for moose.  I saw them along the roadsides on my way to or from work.  I saw them at the Strathcona Wilderness Centre and I finally saw them at Elk Island Park on more than one occasion.  They are one of my favorite animals to watch.  It is so amazing that something so large and clumsy looking can jump a 6 foot fence with grace.

May

The ice took awhile to melt on the beaver ponds but when it finally did, the pond at Astotin Lake was the place to be for beaver sightings.  Many an evening was spent watching them gnaw down trees to take back to their lodges.  

I had a close encounter with one of them.  It came out of the water less than three feet away from me!  Chalk up another first!

June had more than one first time experience.  It was a month that I will not soon forget.  I decided to take a spontaneous day trip to the Nordegg area.  I picked the perfect day. 

One of my sons came along for the ride.  The day was a bit overcast and there were rain showers now and again but the scenery was beautiful.  The rain made the colors more brilliant.  The

June

ditches were lined with a yellow carpet of dandelions.  It was the perfect buffet for the bears. 

On the way, we both wondered if we would see a bear.  Well, we saw six of them.  I couldn't believe my eyes.  It was fantastic.  They were feeding on the dandelion blossoms.  The bears that were close to the edge of highway would look at us as we stopped.  Dandelions were hanging out of their mouths.  

Seeing that many bears during one outing was a first but it was not the only first that we experienced.  As we neared Rocky Mountain House, my son saw another dark animal in the distance.  He mentioned that it looked as if we were going to see one last bear before leaving David Thompson Country.

We got close enough to see that it was not a bear.  I had never seen a wolf in the wild but there it was, standing at the edge of the forest, looking at us as we drove by. We turned around and

headed back to the spot where we saw it, hoping to have another look but it had retreated into the trees.  That was a day to remember!

I went camping for a weekend at Fish Lake during the month of June.  I hadn't been tenting there for a number of years but it is a favorite spot and it did not disappoint me. It was peaceful, scenic and rejuvenating.  

I spent many evenings hiking at the Strathcona Wilderness Centre during the month of July.  It is the place that I see the most wildlife.  On one outing, I met up with a cow moose and her

July

twins.  They were the first animal babies that I had seen this year.

 

I got another weekend camping trip in during the month of July.  Nordegg was the destination of choice again.  This time I took my fishing rod but did not even get a nibble.  That was okay because the day was beautiful and it was just great to be outside.

August found me trying to finish my landscaping.  When I started in the spring, my goal was to nature scape the yard.  I couldn't believe that the little changes that I made would make such a big difference in the amount of wildlife that would visit.

As I walked to the front yard in early August, I encountered the largest garter snake that I have

August

ever seen let alone seeing it in my yard.  It measured more than two feet long and was more than an inch in diameter.  It stayed on the south side of the house where the sun's rays heated the ground.  There was a crack in the clay soil that became the overnight home for the snake.

It turned out that there were more of them in varying sizes.  The smallest one that I saw was the size of a piece of fettuccine.  It would climb out from under a wood stump and sun itself on one of my garden 'pot heads'.  The snakes stayed around for a month.  They left when the nights became cooler.  I'm hoping that they will return in the spring.

I continued with my frequent walks at the Wilderness Centre during the month of September.  The colors are always amazing along the trails when the trees start preparing for winter.

I was preparing for winter as well by watering in all the new shrubs and grasses that were planted.  On one of my trips to the water tap, I noticed a tiger salamander trying to bury itself

September

under the gravel in a window well.  Its skin was beginning to dry up.  I put a bit of water in a pail and transferred the little guy into it.  It stretched it's legs and floated.  I knew that there were other salamanders living under a large brush pile at the back of my yard so I took this one to that general area with the hope that it would survive and find a buddy.  I checked on it later in the afternoon and it had made it's way out of the pail.

Autumn is my second favorite season of the year.  The colors and the smells of fall are relaxing.  When I walk the trails, I feel a sense of calm knowing that everything is getting ready for a winter nap.  

During one of my many trips to the Elk Island trails, I came across a young coyote hunting along the roadside.  It didn't pay any attention to me as a drove slowly alongside it.  What a beauty.  It

October

would cock it's head, listening for mice.  When it heard one, it pounced into the tall grass and came out with its prize.  It was quite the hunter.  In the span of 10 minutes, it caught 6 mice and I got some great photographs.

I love winter!  I wait impatiently for the first snowflakes to fall each year.  They started falling in November and I have to say there are a lot of them.  It has made for some excellent x-country skiing and snowshoeing.

My first x-country outing was to the Cooking Lake - Blackfoot Recreation area.  The small Neon Lake loop is perfect for a first time outing of the season.

 

The second outing was a night ski at the Strathcona Wilderness Centre with one of my sons.

November

  What fun.  You get an entirely different perspective of the trail when you are skiing by headlamp.

November was also the month that I saw the northern lights at the brightest that I have ever seen them.  They were so bright that the light shone through my bedroom window and woke me up at 1:30am.  I watched them for an hour as they danced across the sky.  The moving colors were amazing.  I was so grateful to live in a dark sky preserve.  I would never have had that experience if I lived in an urban area.

 

On November 21, I noticed some white tail deer in my yard.  One doe and one fawn were feeding on the sunflower seeds in my bird feeders.  At that time, I thought it would be a one time occurrence.  I was wrong.  Since then, there have only been about 5 days that they have not visited.

There are now 2 does and 3 fawns that are coming together.  They have visited during daylight hours and during the evening.  What an experience it has been!  I've learned so many things about them from watching through my window.  

When I had the old poplar trees taken down in my backyard, I asked the arborists to leave a couple of stumps for the woodpeckers.  The bark is beginning to loosen and peel off making it easy for the pileated woodpeckers to search for bugs.

In early December, I walked by my kitchen window and glanced outside.  There was not one but two pileated woodpeckers in the yard.  They took turns at the old stump.  At one point in time, both rested on a couple of fence

December

posts close to the back of the yard.  What a sight.

Looking back, I have to say that 2013 was a fantastic year for outdoor experiences.  I love where I live.  All my favorite activities are within a 10 minute drive from my back door.  Due to the naturescaping that I have started, I don't even have to leave my yard to view an abundance of wildlife.  

I'm looking forward to many more outdoor opportunities in 2014.  It is my means of relaxation.  It is where I can escape.  It's where I go to hear silence.  

Happy New Year.  All the best in 2014.  I'm hoping that you too will have a year full of natural experiences.