Nature Journal Entry #4: Bebo Grove to Votier's Flats
Where: Fish Creek Provincial Park from Bebo Grove to Votier's Flats
When: August 30th 2024 (Late Morning to Mid-Afternoon)
Highlight: The garter snake and it ain't even a contest!
Fish Creek Provincial Park needs no introduction to Calgarians. It was established as a provincial park in 1975 (nearly half a century ago) and it remains Canada's second-largest urban park. If you were to look at satellite imagery, you can see verdant belt weave around many of the city's southern suburban neighbourhoods, including Midnapore, Canyon Meadows, and Woodbine. The park itself is centered around Fish Creek and the surrounding valley, which was formed by a retreating glacier from long ago. Regardless, the nearby residents certainly make this a lively park with joggers, cyclists, and naturalists making good use of the green space on any given day of the week. Alexis, Krystal, and I decided to walk from Bebo Grove to Votier's Flats, which is a very small section of the park's much larger pathway network. The pathway system we took was scattered with the usual suspects one might anticipate in this region, like goldenrod, black-capped chickadees, two-striped grasshoppers, creeping thistle, aster wildflowers, and red-osier dogwood (among many others). Often, these species were among arboreal giants like trembling aspen or balsam poplar, which according to Alberta Parks and Friends of Fish Creek, are the most common trees at the west side of the park.
But let's highlight the novel encounters, of which, there were certainly a few. For instance, along some gravel near the creek's shore, there were Chickpea milkvetches and a few Tufted vetches. As is often my tendency, I usually believe these plants to be native (call it wishful thinking), but alas, both species are considered introduced to the continent. But fret not there were some interesting red/orange native wildflowers near a stormwater pond. They appeared similar to the Red Dome Blanketflower we seen at Nose Hill, however, this one is called an Indian Blanket. Another name is a Firewheel, because it looks like a wheel of fire - go figure. But the most novel part of the walk was when we approached the restrooms at Votier's Flats. Alexis was abruptly (and rightfully) startled by a garter snake that was slithering along the pavement. We stopped to observe the non-venomous serpent as it bobbed its head around. Krystal was a real legend and got a fantastic photograph after getting down to the snake's level. After using the remarkably clean restrooms at the Votier's Flats parking lot, we started walk back along the trail. We were fairly silent, so we managed to hear a couple of Cooper hawks calling to each other, the gruff cawing of a raven, and eventually the scramble of a oddly relaxed white-tailed deer having a mid-afternoon meal on some low-lying shrubs. Possibly inspired by the deer's reluctance to stop feasting, we took ourselves to a local bakery for a bite to eat afterwards.
