Friday I had to visit one of our locations in

central Alberta so we decided that the entire family

minus the cat would drive up Friday ( mostly Helen )

stay in a hotel overnight and wander home Saturday

visiting a couple of birding spots on the way. This

would give us an idea of how the dogs travel. This trip

 is about 4.5 hours the trip to the cabin about 8 hours.

The dogs were not happy about hours in their new

kennel and Shaun was paranoid about a night

in the hotel, he gets that from me but they did fine.

However it is still winter here so birding consisted

of magpies, crows and skeins of returning geese.

Out first stop was Beaverhill Lake. We never found the

actual observatory but we did find the lake.

"This natural area is internationally recognized for its wetlands

& diverse bird populations - more than 270 bird species have

been reported, with 145 known to breed locally. Beaverhill Lake

was designated a RAMSAR site (wetland of international significance)

 in 1987. The two-day Beaverhill Lake Snow Goose Festival attracts

6000 people to the site annually."

Government of Alberta

http://www.albertaparks.ca/siteinformation.aspx?id=436

Beaverhill Lake has dried over the years and is now more

wetland than  lake. As such these photos are pretty

typically of a prairie wetland in the winter.

Next we decided to stop at the

Miquelon Lake Provincial Park

"Miquelon Lake is at the south end

of the Cooking Lake Moraine. The park is

dominated by trembling aspen, balsam poplar

& white spruce forests."

Government of Alberta

http://www.albertaparks.ca/siteinformation.aspx?id=81

Despite numerous maps and mapbooks

we did not find that either. We did find a

nice spot to stop (dogs) along a gravel

road. There was still a fair bit of snow once

you got off the highway into the trees and no
visible birds. It is still winter here. Then

"Home again, home again, jiggety-jog;"

Mother Goose

"Meanwhile the wild geese, high in the clean blue air,

are heading home again.

Whoever you are, no matter how lonely,

the world offers itself to your imagination,

calls to you like the wild geese, harsh and exciting 

over and over announcing your place

in the family of things."

Wild Geese

Mary Oliver